I would start out the class by giving each group of 4 students a picture of an invention from 19th century. I would include pictures of a reaper, canal, interchangeable parts, cotton gin, steam engine, light bulb, and barbed wire. You could switch those out and use others or even have the students do two per group. The students would have a list of questions with their image and a big piece of paper. They will be tasked with creating a poster with the answers and the image. The questions would be: what do you notice about the item? What do you think the item is? What might this item be used for? How would this item change peoples lives?

Students will also have a sheet for their own notes. As students analyze their inventions I will walk around and make sure they are on the right track/may be able to provide other insights. They will put the information on their poster, add the image, and then post them around the room for all the students to see all the posters. Students will go around jotting down the notes on their sheet. Then I will read through each with them. I will make sure to make connections to past events and historical innovations and themes so they can start to create a picture of how these innovations shaped American life.

Once we have discussed all of the inventions I will ask them to turn to the page where they must write their own historical analysis of the inventions of the 19th century. Questions will include: Do these items connect with other items in this gallery walk? What item do you think changed America (n) (lives) the most? Why? How do these items connect to other themes in American history? What do you think these items will influence the most, economic, political, social life?

I think the best way to grab the students attention and get them to think critically would be to show them the progression of the dishwasher and ask them how a dishwasher helps people. Accessing their prior knowledge of women's roles in society and how war changed them will come next in a discussion format. This will allow students to make connections between women/the workforce/and ultimately the war. Once we have a good baseline of information I can give them a series of images (from this module) and ask students to create a hypothesis using context and close reading of how these images relate to the image of the dishwasher and the effect it had on the economy, society, and politics.

I currently do a poster project with my students about the 7 causes of the Civil War. I put the students in 7 groups: Sectional Tensions, Northern Abolitionists vs. Southern Defenders of Slavery, Dred Scott v. Sanford, Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Ineffective Leadership of the 1850s, Series of Failed Compromises, and the Election of 1860.

Students will create a poster of the name, background, 3 images, and 3 impacts on the Civil War. Each 1 cause can have 3 impacts that it will have on the Civil War. This will allow for critical thinking to flourish because I create the background that if I ask you to write an essay about your one cause, these 3 impacts would be your body paragraphs. Students create the posters and then we share the 7 causes.

After going through this module I want to add in for pre and supplemental activities. For the pre activity I want to do a gallery walk of the images that are in this module. It will allow students to start questioning the items and how they could have broader implications on history/the Civil War.

For the supplemental activity I am going to bring in my college history thesis information about how the Compromise of 1850 made it easier for slave catchers to operate forcing free blacks into slavery. We can discuss different slave catchers and different victims. This will all relate back to the boundary/compromise issues.