Prohibition Lesson Plan

Lilia Kerski

State Standard/s Addressed:

State Standard 11.5(3). Examine the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment to the
Constitution and the Volstead Act (Prohibition).

Learning Target:
In this lesson, students will study the passage and ramifications of the 18th amendment
via the Volstead Act. Students will engage with current pieces of legislation that affect or may
affect their personal behavior and decisions, and extend these real-life experiences to the context
of the Roaring 20s as they use historical documentaries and constitutional texts to understand
why prohibition was enacted. Students will connect with multiple perspectives on the legislation,
while analyzing key arguments in favor of the law. Students will also learn some important
consequences of the 18th amendment and will discuss how social regulation can have unintended
consequences.

Instructional Procedures
1. Anticipatory Set:
The class will begin with small group discussion about legislation that affects the daily
lives and decisions of the students. The class will break up into small groups or partnerships and
the students will be asked to list three laws that affect their lives. They will also share their
opinions on those laws. Next, the teacher will pass out a document of proposed laws that would
also potentially affect their lives. The students will be given about 10 minutes to discuss the
handout, and will consider the advantages and disadvantages of such legislation. The students
will also share their opinions about the laws. The teacher will wrap up the small group
conversations by connecting the contemporary legislation to the prohibition movement in terms
of regulating personal behavior and individual decisions for a perceived social goal.

2. Perceived Objective and Rationale

Today you will discuss prohibition in the 1920s. By the end of the lesson, you will
understand which amendments instituted and repealed prohibition, list two reasons as to why
people argued in favor of prohibition, and analyze one negative consequence of the legislation.

3. Input:
1. The teacher will begin by placing the students in groups. The students will be instructed
to perform the following task:
a. Write down three laws that affect your daily choices.
i. Why might these laws have been enacted?
 b. The teacher will ask each group to share one example of legislation that affects
them.
2. The teacher will then pass out a list of laws that state legislatures have considered over
the past five years. The groups will be asked to discuss each proposed law, and consider
reasons why people would favor such legislation. The students should also discuss their
own feelings about the laws, providing justification for their views. The teacher should be
circulating during this time to hear the discussions being had by the students, and
challenging students to consider multiple perspectives on the potential pieces of
legislation.
3. The teacher will bring the class together and discuss how these conversations are related
to prohibition. The teacher will remark that although outlawing all alcohol may seem like
an outrageous and implausible idea, alcohol was seen as the root cause of a number of
social problems in the U.S. at the time. The idea that outlawing alcohol would remedy
those issues was a powerful stance and persuaded many people to join in the movement.
The teacher will then have the class watch “A Nation of Drunkards” video from PBS,
which is 6 minutes long. The teacher will ask the class to share comments from the video
to their small groups. The teacher will project the following questions for the students:
a. How had alcohol consumption evolved over U.S. history?
b. What were some of the problems that were associated with alcohol at this time?
4. The teacher will ask for a few groups to share their thoughts, and then will provide some
key historical details about the passage of the 18th amendment, which allowed for
prohibition to take place.
a. Project the text of the 18th amendment (excerpt) and read to the students.
b. 18th amendment was passed under Wilson’s Congress
i. Wilson vetoed the Volstead Act, which instituted the 18th amendment, but
Congress overrode the veto with a supermajority
1. This should show something about how important this issue was to
the American public
ii. It was passed because of its association with social problems like domestic
violence, child neglect, poor houses, joblessness, etc.
1. Another motive historians debate over is the potential disincentive
to prevent immigrants from South and Eastern Europe from
coming to the U.S.
5. The teacher will then transition by stating that prohibition would prove to be extremely
difficult to enforce, and will show a 2 minute video clip from PBS called “Satan’s Seat.”
a. The teacher will ask students to share comments from the video, or will prompt
with some guiding questions:
i. Why was prohibition so hard to enforce?
ii. What obstacles were in the way of enforcing prohibition?
6. The teacher will provide additional details about the difficulties of enforcing prohibition.
a. Speakeasies arose
i. Black market for alcohol
b. Gangs flourished
 i. Increase in violence and criminal activity
ii. Notable gangsters like Al Capone
iii. Birth of drag racing
c. 18th amendment repealed with the 21st amendment in 1933.

4. Modeling:
The teacher will model an analysis of the arguments in favor of the 18th amendment.
While discussing the social problems associated with alcohol the teacher will make the following
statement: “At the end of class, you will be required to take a stance about this issue in terms of
how convincing you find this argument. For example, I see that alcoholism was connected to
domestic violence. I find this a persuasive point because I think if people drank less, there would
be fewer cases of domestic violence against wives and children.” The teacher will be challenging
students to understand, consider, and empathize with perspectives that may be quite different
than their own.

5. Check for Understanding:

The teacher will be circulating during the introductory small group activity regarding
current legislation that affects the students, and during small group review of proposed laws. The
teacher will prompt students in each group to explain rationales for their opinions which will
ensure that students are understanding multiple perspectives on differing laws. This very process
of current connections deepens the abilities of students in connecting to history and analyzing
events. By connecting themes of current regulatory policies that affect students, the students will
have a more in-depth understanding of prohibition by the end of the lesson. Furthermore, the
teacher will check for understanding during the more content-heavy portion of the lesson by
reviewing the students’ exit slips after class. The exit slips will demonstrate students’ retention
of important points of content regarding the passage of the 18th amendment and its consequences,
while exhibiting students’ abilities to analyze history.

6. Guided Practice:
After the first PBS video documentary, the students will discuss in small groups. The
teacher will provide guiding questions on the board to ensure that students are gathering the most
vital pieces of information relevant to the content of the lesson. The provision of guided
questions exemplifies guided practice because the small group discussions will not be entirely
open-ended and student directed. The questions provided by the teacher will aid the students in
learning how to focus on key information presented in historical documentaries.

7. Independent Practice:
After the second PBS video documentary, the students will be participating in a full-
class discussion about the information they discovered in the video. The students will be offering
their ideas and analysis independently without guiding questions from the teacher. The students
will be responding to each other’s comments, and will be challenged to seek the most crucial
details themselves, without the direct input of the teacher. The teacher’s final historical
comments will ensure that the students gained the information they needed to, certainly, but this
open-ended discussion will empower students to strive for the analysis of historical facts
independently and as a class.

Closure:
The students will be asked to complete an exit slip to respond to the learning target. The
students will be asked to write down two things they learned about why the 18th amendment was
passed and one piece of information regarding the consequences of prohibition. Then, students
will argue whether or not they found the arguments in favor of the 18th amendment persuasive.
The students should provide ample justification for their answers. The exit slip will be useful for
students in summarizing their learning from the lesson, as well as producing the next step of
historical analysis as it relates to their interests and opinions.

Differentiated Instruction:
The teacher is differentiating this lesson in several ways. Firstly, s/he will provide a
transcript of each PBS documentary clip to the students who require written supports. Secondly,
the teacher is incorporating a balance of whole class discussion as well as small group
participation. This strategy will empower students to refine their ideas in groups and then have
confidence in sharing information with the entire class. Thirdly, the teacher is using strategic
groupings to maximize the success of each student in engaging with the content and with their
peers. These groups will have mixed ability grouping to add support for ELs and students with
IEPs/504s.