The Roaring '20's

The KIDS Report is a biweekly publication produced by K-12 students as a resource to other K-12 students. It is an ongoing, cooperative effort of 15 classrooms from around the world. Teachers assist and provide support; however, students select, evaluate and annotate all resources included in every issue of the KIDS Report.

The KIDS Report is published with a generous grant from John and Tashia Morgridge and with the support of the General Library System of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

This issue of KIDS, dated June 30, 2000 was written and produced by Joan Whartnaby's class at Overbrook School for the Blind in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The students at Overbrook use computers that are equipped with assistive technology for the visually impaired user. The student who reads large print may access ZoomText, a magnification program, which enlarges the print on the screen. The totally blind reader is equipped with a speech program called JAWS for windows, which reads whatever is available in the computer's active window.

In This Issue

Poets of the Harlem Renaissance and After
http://www.poets.org/lit/exh/EX006.htm

This sight has a lot of links to different writers. Life during this time seemed very interesting. You can learn about each writer and poet by using the links that have their names. Once you have clicked on a link, you will be taken to a short bio about that person. The clips are listed alphabetically by author's last name. If you have an audio listening program, you can listen to real clips of the writers reading their own works.  People like Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks can be heard reading their own poetry. The audio quality is clear. This is a good site because you can learn how each poet sounds. The sight works well with JAWS. The National Poetry Academy developed this site, so as you can imagine it has high credibility. The language is easy to understand. I would say that the reading level is for 5 graders or higher. If you love poetry and would love to hear the poets from that time read their work, this is a great site for you.
Reviewed by Aaron B.

The 1920's
http://www.louisville.edu/~kprayb01/1920s.html

The 1920's were a remarkable decade, great things and great people were discovered. This site will tell you about most of those people and about the great things that came about in the 20's. I hope you have time to read some of this site, and if you do please pass on your knowledge to others. A lot of people say the 20's weren't as great as they claimed to be, and this web site shows you that point of view. I think that's good because many of us younger people are led to believe that it was just 10 years of dance, music and fun. This site has very few pictures, but the ones it does have are awesome. A lot of the pictures on this site look as though they are paintings or drawings. I hope you like it. Kevin Rayburn the writer of this site had the disabled in mind. He used software called Bobby. Bobby is designed to help modify your site for the reading disabled. The site has large bold black print on a white background and it's easy to find links. It also is JAWS friendly. This site is recommended by the respected Scout Report of the Internet Scout Project, and was reviewed in its February 6, 1998 edition. If this site doesn't get your attention, then nothing on the net will.
Reviewed by Jason L.

The 1920's Experience
http://www.angelfire.com/co/pscst/

If you are looking for a variety of information about the 1920s, "The 1920's Experience" is the right place to look. This page is well organized. It contains a list of categories such as people, events, inventions, art, literature, music, entertainment, facts and fashion. If you click on a category, you will find links relating to that subject. For example: if you click on the topic, invention,  you will find links relating to that category such as the automobile, radio and airplane. I recommend this page for grades 6 and up. The site was produced by the PSCST consisting of Henru Wang, Chris Gotterba, and Jeff Wu. I consider this site to be the most helpful reference when seeking information on the 1920's.
Reviewed by Asiya T.

Decades of Prosperity the Twenties
http://www.chs.chico.k12.ca.us/Staff/kohen/decades/twenty.htm

This page is a great web site. Some of the topics you will find on this web site are movies, sports idles, flappers, key events, music, social issues, the prohibition, and famous people during the 1920's. If you need to know about the stock market crashing you would like the two articles included at this site. One of these articles is called The Crash and it tells how it was for the people living through it. There is also a good article on African American issues. The site loads within a reasonable amount of time, however many links on this site do not work. The kids of Chico High School in California, developed this web page. This page works well with Jaws. I would recommend this site to people who are 12 years old and older. Even though some links do not work there is enough information for people to learn about the Twenties.
Reviewed by Becky

Temperance and Prohibition
http://www.cohums.ohio-state.edu/history/projects/prohibition/Contents.htm

This is an excellent site because it contains many interesting links. There are many things that you can learn about alcohol, prohibition, and the women's temperance movement. The growth of the brewing Industry and the woman's crusade are addressed in great detail. The page has good graphics and music from the theme Cheers. The page links are very active and takes you to where it's supposed to go.  The site reading level is third grade and higher. Author credibility is the Ohio State University, Department of History. This is a site that I really recommend if you are interested in the Prohibition Era.
Reviewed by Victor C.

Flapper Culture and Style Louise Brooks and the Jazz Age
http://www.pandorasbox.com/flapper.html

The web site that I'm reporting on is really a link from the Louise Brooks home page. Louise Brooks was a famous film star during the 1920's. This site is really good if you're looking for information about Flappers. When you enter this web site you will find a complete description about the young women that called themselves Flappers. It has some links to fashions during the 20's, and some more links to information about their styles. On one link, called Fashions of the 20's, you will find lots of pictures on how a Flapper looks and dresses. In this site you will also find the poem,  "The Flapper" by Dorothy Parker. This site works very well with ZoomText. I would recommend this site for anyone that is interested in the changes in fashions, or anyone that is doing a report on the fashions of the women in the 1920's.
Reviewed by Gladys C.

The 1920's
http://www2.idsonline.com/jeff/

If you want to learn about what happened during the 1920's, then this site is for you. The home page has three major links. The first one tells a basic summary of what happened during this period of time. The second link is a timeline of the 1920's. In this link everything is separated by month and year. Some topics included are sports, politics, births, deaths, statistics, entertainment news, inventions, historic events, and other fascinating things. The third link has additional links to choose from about events that happened during the 1920's. The home page also has links that let you e-mail the creators of the site. This web page was given the Study Web Academic Excellence Award. I think this Internet page would be good for teachers to use to teach their students about the 1920's. I recommend this web site for people 12 years and older. After reviewing the web page, I would absolutely recommend this site.
Reviewed by Jordan C.

The Jazz Age Page
http://www.btinternet.com/~dreklind/Jazzhome.htm

This site is filled with information about the Jazz Age. I found lots of biographies including one on Greta Garbo. I also found links for the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, Crash of 1929, and Coolidge welcomes Lindbergh. This site  includes a sound room, where you can listen to different sound clips. These are sound clips of the real artist, not MIDI. I found that very interesting. This web site tells about the importance of this era of music, and changes in the Twenties. The site also goes into other aspects of the Twenties, and how it relates to the Jazz Age. The links section brings you to several Jazz Age artists and a few entertainers of  that time. All the links seemed to work.  It works excellent with JAWS for Windows Version 3.5. I recommend this site for anyone in 9 or 10 grade. This site has gotten a few Awards saying that it was one of the best Jazz Age pages on the net. The author who is credited for developing this page has collected from many different sources, including books and articles. This page was recently updated in March, 2000. The Jazz Age Page is a very interesting page for people who are into Jazz music.
Reviewed by John H.

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Dancing figures. From an enamel cigarette case, c. 1931, as reproduced in Klein, Dan, Art Deco (London: Octopus Books, 1974).

These Internet resources were evaluated on the basis of Site Selection Guidelines that the students developed. Questions and comments can be sent to the facilitating teacher at Overbrook School for the Blind, Joan Whartnaby at Joan2@obs.org.


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