Let's Go Shopping 1948! Secondary Webquest
Supplementary Activities
The original mail-order catalogues linked to this site are rich graphic
and
text resources that can support many activities related to this Webquest
and
its specific curriculum links, as well as other aspects of Social Studies,
History,
Geography, English Language Arts, Core French, English as a Second
Language,
Art, and Drama. By doing these extension activities, your students will
gain
valuable experience and skills in performing primary source research and
internet-based
research, as well as in analyzing and synthesizing information.
Most of the activities that follow require the web-based catalogue
pages only,
while some require a Sears and other contemporary catalogues that your
students
bring in.
We hope that you will perform some of these activities with your
students
and then think of other ways to make use of these valuable resources.
1. Furnish a Mail-order House
Subjects
Social Studies, Art
Themes
Change, Technological Change
Resources
- Mail-order Houses, by Les
Henry
- Catalogues (links below)
- House plans (links below)
- Current Sears catalogue (optional) to be brought in
Description
- Assign a different catalogue to each group of students.
Suggested catalogues are the:
- Using the floor
plan of a 1929 Eaton's house or of a student's own house for the
group
that uses the current Sears catalogue, each group must build a model of a
house
and then furnish it with items from one catalogue. Rooms to include as a
minimum
are kitchen, bathroom, living room or parlour, and one bedroom. Other
rooms can
be added if groups wish.
- Ask students to furnish the house with the items they think a
middle-class
family would have.
- Have the students calculate the cost of all items.
- The houses can be two-dimensional or three-dimensional, as students
wish
and as time and resources permit.
- Furnishings can be printed from catalogue pages and glued onto stiff
paper,
or else drawn using the illustration as reference.
- To make items stand up, students can glue small stands behind them.
- When groups are finished, students present their houses to the class
and
discuss which furnishings they selected and why.
- As a class, students compare the changes in technologies, décor
and
costs. Using the income tables from the Webquest,
students
can compare costs as a percentage of income in 1936, 1939, 1945, 1950, and
1956.
2. Canada and the World in the Catalogues
Subjects
Social Studies, Geography, Art
Themes
Global connections and globalization
Resources
Description
- Ask the students to try to determine the places of origin of the items
they
have ordered. How many different places around the world do the items come
from?
- Mark the locations on a map of the world with sticky labels or pins.
- Ask the students to browse the catalogue to find other items with
place of
origin indicated, and have them mark the locations on the map of the
world.
- Ask students to look at a contemporary catalogue. Where do items come
from
now?
- Cut out items that come from various places in the world.
- Finally, ask students to make two collages. On one collage, paste
printed
or drawn items from the 1948 catalogue around a map of the world near
their places
of origin; connect with lines or thumbtacks and string to their places of
origin.
On the second collage, cut out items from the contemporary catalogue and
paste
them around the map of the world near their places of origin; connect with
lines
to their place of origin. What is similar and different about the two
collages?
- Discuss the trend toward globalization with its benefits and
problems.
3. Catalogues and Consumerism Yesterday and
Today
Subjects
Social Studies, Language Arts, Art
Themes
Consumerism, needs and wants, change
Resources
Description
- Ask each student to bring in one or more mail-order catalogues from
home.
- Break the class into small groups and ask students to compare a
current Sears
catalogue and one or more other contemporary catalogues to the 1948
catalogue
they used in the Webquest.
- After a reasonable amount of time (about 30 minutes), lead a class
discussion
about the changes in catalogue design and content, and in goods available.
- Conclude with a discussion of the causes and implications of the
growth of
consumerism and materialism since 1948.
- Extend this to an art activity by printing out or sketching similar
items
from old and new catalogues and making a collage that compares the old and
the
new.
Here are some areas to compare:
- Cover: Image, design, text, message
- Main sections of current Sears catalogue:
- How have these changed?
- How many pages are dedicated to each section in 1948 compared to
today?
- What sections have disappeared?
- What new sections are there?
- Contents of specialty catalogues:
- Vocabulary:
- What words are no longer used?
- What new words are used?
- Make a list of outdated words and their meanings.
- Items for sale, especially fashion, appliances, audio-visual
equipment:
- What is the same?
- What has changed?
- What has disappeared?
- For items that have disappeared, has anything replaced them?
- Some items to look at in both old and new catalogues are: gloves,
umbrellas,
handkerchiefs, hats, electric irons, hot plates, radios, phonographs,
bikes,
stoves, barn equipment, cream separators, harnesses, and washing
machines.
4. Women in the Catalogues
Subjects
Social Studies, History
Themes
Changing roles and images of women
Resources
Description
- Ask students to read the papers by Shirley Lavertu and Lorraine
O'Donnell
in which they discuss how women are portrayed in historical catalogues.
- Ask students to look in various historic catalogues for examples of
how women
are portrayed.
- Print out, sketch or make note of specific examples of women in each
catalogue,
showing different roles such as homemaker, career woman, or athlete.
- Engage in a class discussion about how the portrayals changed and
stayed
the same and how these portrayals reflect changes in women's
roles.
Extend this activity to the present day by comparing the portrayals of
women
in the historical catalogues with those in contemporary catalogues.
5. Getting the Goods Out
Subjects
Social Studies, Drama, Business Studies
Themes
Labour history, transportation
Resources
Processing Orders in the Mail-order
Industry,
by John Willis
Description
- Ask students to read the paper by John Willis in which he describes
the
steps involved in filling out a mail order in the 1920s.
- Divide the class into groups of four or five students.
- Using the process described in the Willis article, ask groups to
choose one
object from their Webquest and dramatize the entire process of placing an
order,
sending in the order, filling the order, and delivering it.
- Ask each group to present their dramatization to the class.
6. Catalogue Lingo Past and Present
Subject
Social Studies, Language Arts, Art
Themes
Change, writing for a specific audience
Resources
Description
- Ask each student to bring in one or more mail-order catalogues from
home.
- Ask each student to choose two similar items from the Eaton's
Fall
and Winter 1948-49 catalogue and a recent catalogue, such as a
dress, pair
of pants, bike, or stove.
- Print out the 1948 image and text and cut out the contemporary image
and
text. Analyse how both texts are written.
- Ask the students to write a description of the old item using modern
language
and the modern item using old language.
To extend this activity into an art activity, ask your students to
design
a catalogue page for the old catalogue using a modern-day item of their
choice.
7. Make a Quiz
Subjects
Social Studies, English Language Arts
Theme
Any!
Resources
Description
Students create a quiz using catalogue images and text.
- Individually or as a group, pick out five objects from the
Eaton's
Fall and Winter 1948-49 catalogue.
- Print out the five pages.
- Cut out the objects and their descriptions and separate them into two
different
piles.
- Challenge a classmate to match the correct description to the correct
object
or do this as a class. See who can match the objects and descriptions the
quickest.
You can do this activity with other catalogues from this site. Some of
the
earliest catalogues have the most unusual objects.
Look at the:
8. Create a Math Problem
Subjects
Math
Resources
Eaton's
Fall and Winter 1948-49 catalogue
Description
Students create math problems for classmates to do. Provide students with
one
or two examples. Challenge your students to convert the imperial measures
to
metric. Examples:
- You need to buy shoes for three children and have $22.50 to spend,
including
tax and shipping.
- You have ten dollars to spend on Christmas gifts. Your family needs to
purchase
items for mother, father, 5 year-old son, and 10 year-old daughter.
- You want to replace the shingles on your roof (page
560). Your roof is 15 yd x 4 yd on each of two sides.
- How many shingles do you need?
- What will it cost?
- How much will the most expensive shingles cost?
- The least expensive?
- What if you just need to patch a small area of
2 yd x 2 yd?
Similar challenges could focus on fabric (page
322), carpet (page
416), and linoleum flooring (page
414 and 415).
9. Prices Yesterday and Today
Subjects
Math, Technology and Information Studies, History
Theme
Change
Resources
Price Conversion
Table
Use this table to compare catalogue prices to 2003 dollars. To compare
prices
to current dollars, use the full table provided at http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/inflation_calc.htm.
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In 2003 you would need …
|
$12.04
|
...to match the purchasing power of $1 in 1918.
|
|
In 2003 you would need...
|
$11.16
|
...to match the purchasing power of $1 in 1926.
|
|
In 2003 you would need...
|
$11.27
|
...to match the purchasing power of $1 in 1929.
|
|
In 2003 you would need...
|
$13.95
|
...to match the purchasing power of $1 in 1936.
|
|
In 2003 you would need...
|
$13.49
|
...to match the purchasing power of $1 in 1939.
|
|
In 2003 you would need...
|
$9.03
|
...to match the purchasing power of $1 in 1948.
|
|
In 2003 you would need...
|
$8.41
|
...to match the purchasing power of $1 in 1950.
|
|
In 2003 you would need...
|
$7.31
|
...to match the purchasing power of $1 in 1956.
|
|
In 2003 you would need...
|
$6.57
|
...to match the purchasing power of $1 in 1962.
|
|
In 2003 you would need...
|
$5.79
|
...to match the purchasing power of $1 in 1967.
|
|
In 2003 you would need...
|
$3.69
|
...to match the purchasing power of $1 in 1975.
|
Source: Bank of Canada Inflation Calculator
Description
- Ask each group of students to convert the 1948 order into a
contemporary
order. They must find an equivalent item in the Sears catalogue for each
item
on their original order.
- Calculate the cost of the entire order. Using the price conversion
table,
ask each group to determine the cost of the 1948 order in current dollars.
How
does the overall cost compare? Calculate the percentage increase or
decrease.
- Repeat this activity for each item on the list, comparing the price of
each
item in current dollars. Which items increased the most? The least? Repeat
this
activity with items in other catalogues available on this site.
- Ask each group to present its findings.
- Lead a class discussion about why prices change and what historical
events
account for the differences in the rate of change in various years.
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