Equipment & Supplies
- LCD projector or overhead projector Transparencies Art paper Colored pencils, crayons, markers Scissors
Procedures
Steps:
1. Display PATP Toll Plaza Modern Days. Ask the students to write 1-2 sentences describing the image and what it means to them. Discuss the image with the students. (E.g. What is it? Have you seen it before? What is it used for?) Explain to students that this picture shows the modern Pennsylvania Turnpike, but that it didn't always look this way.
2. Now show Pennsylvania Turnpike Early Toll Booth. Pass out Student Handout 1-Then and Now so that students can visually compare images.
3. Tell the students that the Pennsylvania Turnpike was built in 1939. Ask the students if they can guess how planners decided where to build the road. Show Andrew Carnegie Visits Rays Hill and Grated Roadbed. Students should deduce that the turnpike was built on a used railroad bed.
4. Disseminate Student Handout 2-Following the Railroad. Explain that the South Penn Railroad was originally designed to compete with the strong, powerful Pennsylvania roads. The railroad line project, however, was never completed and the considerable work that went into creating it seemed like it would go to waste. Share this quote from the Student Handout 2:
"Nearly 100 years later, when the South Penn's name was almost forgotten…much of the old right of way with its grading and uncompleted tunnels, would fit into a scheme for a superhighway between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, so at last events went through full cycle…now highway vehicles supply the competition for which the South Penn Railroad was designed." (Courtesy of www.pahighways.com)
5. Next convey to your students the excitement that surrounded the ambitious building of this highway. Share with them Student Handout 3-The Excitement of the New Road. This primary source provides a story from Turnpike Commissioner Walter A. Jones as he recalls it from the day they began construction. He tells of a mother of five children asking to memorialize the historic day of ground-breaking by receiving a signature of all the commissioners.
6. Now ask students why they think people were so excited about this highway. What could it be used for? Pair students with a partner and ask them to brainstorm about possible reasons for building a turnpike. Provide each pair Student Worksheet 1-Uses of the Turnpike. Ask students to look at these images and to write down the associated uses of the turnpike. You can refer to possible responses in Teacher Guide to Student Worksheet 1-Uses of the Turnpike. Basic categories of turnpike use in the images include: military, trucking, and tourism.
7. Pass out Student Worksheet 2-The Pennsylvania Turnpike to each student or each pair of students. Read the passage out loud, and then read the directions with the students, as needed.
Ask the students to fill out the "Who, What, When, Where, Why, How of the Pennsylvania Turnpike" section of the handout.
Go over answers with students, checking for accuracy. Allow the students to ask any questions they may have about what they read. Collect for assessment (see Teacher Guide to Student Worksheet 2-The Pennsylvania Turnpike).
8. Tomorrow students will be creating an advertisement on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Make sure the information they went over today will be available for this activity.
1. Ask your students how many have been on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Ask them to share information about what it was like, what they saw, what makes it different from other roads, where they were going etc. Include questions that compare their experience to what it might have been like to travel the turnpike when it was first built. (Responses may include types vehicles, where they could go, gas prices, speed limit, etc.)
2. Show PA TP Logo and ask the students what they think it is. Explain, after responses, that it is an advertisement to encourage people to drive on the turnpike. Ask students what they think the slogan means. (Answers will vary.) Ask them if they think this ad would make them want to travel on the turnpike.
3. Pass out: Student Handout 4-Pick a Season Who Needs a Reason and Student Worksheet 3-Advertisement Analysis.
4. Student Handout 4-Pick a Season Who Needs a Reason shows the original ad as well as a more recent milepost that commemorates the western ending point of the turnpike when it opened. The milepost includes the entire poem from which the slogan was drawn. Read the entire poem:
"Pick a season, who needs a reason,
to ramble our state, with scenery so great,
and happily trod, o'er field made by God."
~Anthony S. Mammarella
Ask the students what they think this poem means and what it has to do with the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Do they students think this poem still describes the turnpike?
5. Student Worksheet 3-Advertisement Analysis provides questions to analyze the elements and effectiveness of the advertisement. Model for your class image analysis by completing together Student Worksheet 3. You can refer to Teacher Guide to Student Worksheet 3-Advertisement Analysis.
6. Once students understand the analysis process, display Harrisburg Newspaper Ad and ask them to complete Student Worksheet 3 for this new ad on their own. Use Teacher Guide to Student Worksheet 3-Advertisement Analysis to go over the assignment.
7. Show Turnpike Ad. Discuss how this ad is different from the two previous ads.
Discuss how the turnpike has changed over the years, including:
· E-Z pass- saves time at toll booths, decreases number of toll booth workers needed (loss of jobs)
· Emergency call boxes/Emergency cellular sites- increases safety (passengers can quickly contact emergency personnel)
· Advanced Traveler Information System- supplies travelers with weather/travel condition via radio (increases knowledge and safety), allows turnpike service vehicles to respond quickly to hazardous road conditions (snow, ice, accidents, other safety issues), cameras installed at interchanges to monitor traffic better, internet site for turnpike information (accessibility of information)
· Increased travel convenience- ability to call ahead and book hotel reservations at rest stops
The website The Pennsylvania Turnpike at www.paturnpike.com is a helpful resource for this discussion on turnpike changes.
8. Tell the students that, using what they have learned about the Pennsylvania Turnpike from both yesterday and today, they will now have a chance to design their own advertisement. Provide Student Worksheet 4-Advertisement Planning Sheet to brainstorm ideas before beginning ad design. Include:
· What qualities of the Turnpike will they promote?
· Who will be their target audience?
· What image/s will they use to illustrate those qualities?
· What text will they include? How will it promote the message they want to get across?
In addition to original artwork, encourage students to consult any images and historical information from their handouts or images from the 1950s PA Turnpike Postcard Slide Show. Pennsylvania Turnpike Collection at http://www.gribblenation.com/breezewood/postindex.html.
9. Allow students time to work on their advertisements. If students have not completed the advertisement, assign it as homework. Ask students to share their advertisements when completed, encouraging them to explain why they chose to create them as they did. Choose to share with partners, or as a class, as time allows. Collect for assessment (see Pennsylvania Turnpike Advertisement assessment rubric).
Day One
1. Display PATP Toll Plaza Modern Days. Ask the students to write 1-2 sentences describing the image and what it means to them. Discuss the image with the students. (E.g. What is it? Have you seen it before? What is it used for?) Explain to students that this picture shows the modern Pennsylvania Turnpike, but that it didn't always look this way.
2. Now show Pennsylvania Turnpike Early Toll Booth. Pass out Student Handout 1-Then and Now so that students can visually compare images.
3. Tell the students that the Pennsylvania Turnpike was built in 1939. Ask the students if they can guess how planners decided where to build the road. Show Andrew Carnegie Visits Rays Hill and Grated Roadbed. Students should deduce that the turnpike was built on a used railroad bed.
4. Disseminate Student Handout 2-Following the Railroad. Explain that the South Penn Railroad was originally designed to compete with the strong, powerful Pennsylvania roads. The railroad line project, however, was never completed and the considerable work that went into creating it seemed like it would go to waste. Share this quote from the Student Handout 2:
"Nearly 100 years later, when the South Penn's name was almost forgotten…much of the old right of way with its grading and uncompleted tunnels, would fit into a scheme for a superhighway between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, so at last events went through full cycle…now highway vehicles supply the competition for which the South Penn Railroad was designed." (Courtesy of www.pahighways.com)
5. Next convey to your students the excitement that surrounded the ambitious building of this highway. Share with them Student Handout 3-The Excitement of the New Road. This primary source provides a story from Turnpike Commissioner Walter A. Jones as he recalls it from the day they began construction. He tells of a mother of five children asking to memorialize the historic day of ground-breaking by receiving a signature of all the commissioners.
6. Now ask students why they think people were so excited about this highway. What could it be used for? Pair students with a partner and ask them to brainstorm about possible reasons for building a turnpike. Provide each pair Student Worksheet 1-Uses of the Turnpike. Ask students to look at these images and to write down the associated uses of the turnpike. You can refer to possible responses in Teacher Guide to Student Worksheet 1-Uses of the Turnpike. Basic categories of turnpike use in the images include: military, trucking, and tourism.
7. Pass out Student Worksheet 2-The Pennsylvania Turnpike to each student or each pair of students. Read the passage out loud, and then read the directions with the students, as needed.
Ask the students to fill out the "Who, What, When, Where, Why, How of the Pennsylvania Turnpike" section of the handout.
Go over answers with students, checking for accuracy. Allow the students to ask any questions they may have about what they read. Collect for assessment (see Teacher Guide to Student Worksheet 2-The Pennsylvania Turnpike).
8. Tomorrow students will be creating an advertisement on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Make sure the information they went over today will be available for this activity.
Day Two
1. Ask your students how many have been on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Ask them to share information about what it was like, what they saw, what makes it different from other roads, where they were going etc. Include questions that compare their experience to what it might have been like to travel the turnpike when it was first built. (Responses may include types vehicles, where they could go, gas prices, speed limit, etc.)
2. Show PA TP Logo and ask the students what they think it is. Explain, after responses, that it is an advertisement to encourage people to drive on the turnpike. Ask students what they think the slogan means. (Answers will vary.) Ask them if they think this ad would make them want to travel on the turnpike.
3. Pass out: Student Handout 4-Pick a Season Who Needs a Reason and Student Worksheet 3-Advertisement Analysis.
4. Student Handout 4-Pick a Season Who Needs a Reason shows the original ad as well as a more recent milepost that commemorates the western ending point of the turnpike when it opened. The milepost includes the entire poem from which the slogan was drawn. Read the entire poem:
"Pick a season, who needs a reason,
to ramble our state, with scenery so great,
and happily trod, o'er field made by God."
~Anthony S. Mammarella
Ask the students what they think this poem means and what it has to do with the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Do they students think this poem still describes the turnpike?
5. Student Worksheet 3-Advertisement Analysis provides questions to analyze the elements and effectiveness of the advertisement. Model for your class image analysis by completing together Student Worksheet 3. You can refer to Teacher Guide to Student Worksheet 3-Advertisement Analysis.
6. Once students understand the analysis process, display Harrisburg Newspaper Ad and ask them to complete Student Worksheet 3 for this new ad on their own. Use Teacher Guide to Student Worksheet 3-Advertisement Analysis to go over the assignment.
7. Show Turnpike Ad. Discuss how this ad is different from the two previous ads.
Discuss how the turnpike has changed over the years, including:
· E-Z pass- saves time at toll booths, decreases number of toll booth workers needed (loss of jobs)
· Emergency call boxes/Emergency cellular sites- increases safety (passengers can quickly contact emergency personnel)
· Advanced Traveler Information System- supplies travelers with weather/travel condition via radio (increases knowledge and safety), allows turnpike service vehicles to respond quickly to hazardous road conditions (snow, ice, accidents, other safety issues), cameras installed at interchanges to monitor traffic better, internet site for turnpike information (accessibility of information)
· Increased travel convenience- ability to call ahead and book hotel reservations at rest stops
The website The Pennsylvania Turnpike at www.paturnpike.com is a helpful resource for this discussion on turnpike changes.
8. Tell the students that, using what they have learned about the Pennsylvania Turnpike from both yesterday and today, they will now have a chance to design their own advertisement. Provide Student Worksheet 4-Advertisement Planning Sheet to brainstorm ideas before beginning ad design. Include:
· What qualities of the Turnpike will they promote?
· Who will be their target audience?
· What image/s will they use to illustrate those qualities?
· What text will they include? How will it promote the message they want to get across?
In addition to original artwork, encourage students to consult any images and historical information from their handouts or images from the 1950s PA Turnpike Postcard Slide Show. Pennsylvania Turnpike Collection at http://www.gribblenation.com/breezewood/postindex.html.
9. Allow students time to work on their advertisements. If students have not completed the advertisement, assign it as homework. Ask students to share their advertisements when completed, encouraging them to explain why they chose to create them as they did. Choose to share with partners, or as a class, as time allows. Collect for assessment (see Pennsylvania Turnpike Advertisement assessment rubric).
