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8th grade · Social Studies · Unit 7 of 15

The Roaring Twenties

Jazz, Harlem and a changing society

What your child practices

Prosperity and new technology, the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Migration, Prohibition, new opportunities for women, and the conflicts of the decade over immigration and change.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 8.4e · economic prosperity and cultural change in the 1920s, the Harlem Renaissance and the conflicts of the decade

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. The 1920s are called the Roaring Twenties because the economy boomed and new music, fashions and ideas spread.
  2. In the Great Migration, millions of Black Southerners moved to cities in the North and West.
  3. The Harlem Renaissance was a burst of Black art, writing and jazz in New York City.

Example: What was the Great Migration? Many people left the rural South. They wanted jobs and to escape Jim Crow laws. They moved to cities in the North and West. Answer: the movement of millions of Black Southerners to northern and western cities

The Roaring Twenties in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 7 of 15 in 8th grade Social Studies, after World War I and before Depression & New Deal.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    New opportunities for women in the 1920s included…

    • the vote, more jobs and more freedom in daily life
    • serving as president
    • a ban on working
    • losing the vote

  2. Question 2

    In 1927, Charles Lindbergh became famous for flying…

    • to the moon
    • from Albany to Buffalo
    • around the world in a balloon
    • alone and nonstop from New York to Paris

  3. Question 3

    The decade after World War I is called the Roaring Twenties because…

    • there were many wars
    • everyone stayed home
    • lions were common in cities
    • the economy boomed and new music, fashions and ideas spread

  4. Question 4

    The moving assembly line made cars…

    • illegal
    • more expensive
    • slower to build
    • cheaper, so many more families could buy them

  5. Question 5

    In the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan grew and targeted…

    • factory machines
    • no one
    • only bankers
    • Black Americans, immigrants, Catholics and Jews

  6. Question 6

    The Sacco and Vanzetti case of the 1920s was controversial because…

    • many believed two Italian immigrants were convicted partly because of prejudice
    • it was a baseball dispute
    • they were found innocent
    • it was about Prohibition

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