Highsmith, Carol M. The Hi-Way Drive-In movie theater, outside Carsonville, Michigan. Drive-in theaters consist of a large outdoor movie screen, a projection booth, a concession stand and a large parking area for automobiles. 2019. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2020723061/.
Students will use this primary source as a way of exploring cultural trends of post-WWII and Baby Boomer America. What students learn about this cultural icon should serve to contrast modern cultural trends. Students will be expected to use their personal experiences to make connections with the topic and will need to use these connections to reflect on their position as members of a specific era.
Becoming popular largely in the 1950s and 1960s, the drive-in movie theater became an American icon, as it combined America’s love for film with its growing population of car owners. Because of its affordability and ability to cater to both large groups and individuals, drive-ins became a staple of American culture, particularly among the teenage population.
Source: https://www.history.com/articles/drive-in-movie-theaters
- What clues might indicate when this drive-in was originally built?
- What about this location/architecture would restrict its use?
- How might this building/location appeal to different demographics of customers?
ELA Standard
9/10 Range of Writing 1: Develop flexibility in writing by routinely engaging in the production of shorter and longer pieces for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences. This could include, among others, summaries, reflections, descriptions, critiques, letters, and poetry, etc.
Social Studies Standard
6-12.USH1.4.3.2. Describe ways in which citizens participated in early American public life.
Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
- Writer’s Notebook: To help students consider the importance of centers of cultural recreation, students will use the following questions as their writer’s notebook prompt:
- Where do you go to hang out with your friends?
- Where around town is the “cool” place to go?
- When do you have the most fun when you’re with your friends? What do you do together?
- Students should be given time to share their writing, either in front of the whole class or in pairs.
- Anticipatory Set: Put students in small groups and give them a slip of paper. With their paper, have students write quick responses to the following questions:
- What is your favorite movie?
- What is the most recent movie you saw at a cinema?
- When you go to the cinema, what is your favorite snack?
- What do you think is the most popular movie among your age group?
- After this question, the teacher projects the image of the drive-in movie theater.
- Have you ever been to a drive-in theater?
- If you could choose any film, what would you want to see on this big of a screen?
- Mini-Lesson/Context: Using this History.com article, the teacher will give students a brief lesson about drive-in theaters. It is important to touch on the following:
- Camden Automobile Movie Theater
- Car Culture/Effects of the Baby Boom
- COVID Connections
- Modern Scarcity
- Short Essay: Students will now write a short essay in response to this prompt: Drive-in theaters were once a staple of American (and especially teenage) culture, but now we can really only see them in old rural towns. What do you think are the cultural trends/activities that define your generation, and which ones do you think will eventually die out? If they are going to die out, are they worth doing at all?
Highsmith, Carol M. Sign for the old Rte. 146 drive-in-movie theater in North Smithfield, Rhode Island. 2018. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2018700498/.