Summary
In this lesson about the Industrial Revolution, students will begin by observing photographs of factory workers and analyzing primary sources to make inferences about working conditions during the Industrial Revolution. Based on the information they gather, students will write a letter protesting working conditions they feel are unjust. As an extension, students will view a video interview with Oklahoma State AFL-CIO President Jimmy Curry and explain how labor organizations have historically advocated for workers' rights and continue to do so. This lesson includes optional modifications for distance learning. Resources for use in Google Classroom are included.
Essential Question(s)
How did the early industrialization of the American economy impact workers in the 19th and 20th centuries? Should governments regulate businesses to protect the rights of workers?
Snapshot
Engage
Students observe real photographs of factory workers and make inferences about working conditions during the Industrial Revolution.
Explore
Students analyze a real report describing working conditions in the Lowell Mills from 1845.
Explain
Based on the information they gathered, students use the RAFT strategy to write letters protesting working conditions they feel are unjust. Next, as a class, students make a list of the major issues that workers protested in their letters.
Extend
Students view a video interview with Oklahoma State AFL-CIO President Jimmy Curry, learning about how labor organizations and unions have protected workers throughout history. Based on the interview, students identify how the concerns they learned about in the previous section have been addressed.
Evaluate
The Paint a Picture activity responses and RAFT strategy serve as assessments for this lesson.
Materials
Lesson Slides (attached)
Workers’ Protested Issues (attached; one per student)
Paint a Picture Chart (attached; one per student)
Paint a Picture Photo Set (attached; one per group of 3–4 students)
Massachusetts Lawmakers Investigate Working Conditions in Lowell (attached; one per student)
Highlighters (one per student)
Paper (optional)
Device (optional)
Engage
40 Minute(s)
Use the attached Lesson Slides to guide the lesson. Begin by displaying slide 3, showing the lesson's essential questions. Explain to students that as part of their study of the Industrial Revolution, they will explore these questions:
How did the industrialization of the American economy in the 19th and 20th century impact workers?
Should governments regulate businesses to protect the rights of workers?
Display slide 4 to share the learning objectives with the students.
To begin this exploration, display slide 5 and invite students to participate in a Painting a Picture strategy. This activity will use a series of photographs to paint a figurative picture in the students' minds of working conditions during the Industrial Revolution. Place students in small groups of 3–4, then distribute a copy of the attached Paint a Picture Photo Set to each group and the Paint a Picture Chart to each student. Ask students to work with their groups to first write down in the "observations" column of their charts what they see. Start the 5-minute timer on the slide.
Next, display slide 6 and ask students to continue working together to write down in the "inferences" column of their charts what they can infer or conclude about how industrialization impacted workers based on their observations.
As students finish their photo analyses, show the photos on slides 7–11 and ask student groups to share their observations and inferences for each photograph with the whole class.
Explore
Display slide 12. Invite students to continue painting a picture of working conditions during the Industrial Revolution by exploring a primary source document—an excerpt from a report published by Massachusetts lawmakers after investigating the working conditions at the Lowell Mills, a 19th century textile mill in the city of Lowell, Massachusetts. Distribute a copy of the attached Massachusetts Lawmakers Investigate Working Conditions in Lowell to each student and ask them to read the text.
After reading, display slide 13 and ask students to return to their original groups and use the Categorical Highlighting strategy to highlight any information that shows what the working conditions in the Lowell Mills were like. This strategy encourages students to read for and select information from a certain category or categories within a text. In this case, the category is "working conditions." Pass out a highlighter to each student.
After students have finished highlighting, invite student groups to share out some of the information they selected. This discussion should summarize major points that students have observed from the text about working conditions and experiences in the Lowell Mills.
Next, display slide 14. Using the back of their Paint a Picture chart or a new sheet of paper, have students work with their groups to use the information from their charts and the text to create a 2–3 sentence response to the following question:
How did industrialization of the American economy impact workers?
Students should use evidence from the photos and/or text to support their claims.
Once student groups have finished, call on each group to share their responses. After students share, summarize major points about how workers of the Industrial Revolution were often oppressed by their working conditions.
Explain
40 Minute(s)
Display slide 15. Explain to students that workers began organizing to protest working conditions they felt were unjust. Students can work individually or as a group to use the RAFT strategy. Introduce the instructional strategy and explain that in this RAFT, the "role" is a factory worker, the "audience" is a business owner or Congress, the "format" is a letter, and the "topic" is working conditions. Inform students that they are writing a letter and answering the following question:
If you were a factory worker during the 1800s, what issues regarding your working conditions would you protest or fight to change?
Display slide 16 and explain that students should compose a letter of complaint in the voice of a worker and should include at least three specific issues they are protesting, with explanations of how to improve their working conditions. Students can write this letter on notebook paper, in a composition book, or on a Google Doc.
Once students have finished their letters, display slide 17. Pass out a copy of the Workers’ Protested Issues to each student. Ask students to share out the issues they discussed in their letters. As students share, make a class list. Consider typing students' issues into the chart on the slide or on the board. Have students write these issues down on their charts in the "Issues" column.
Use slide 18 to show examples that students may mention. Before moving on to the next section of the lesson, make sure students have filled in the "Issues" column on their charts.
Extend
50 Minute(s)
Continue to slide 19. Show students the ICAP - Impacts of Industrialization on Workers with Oklahoma State AFL-CIO president Jimmy Curry. AFL–CIO stands for the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. In the video, Mr. Curry explains the influence of labor organizations, how labor organizations have worked throughout history, and how they continue protecting workers. As students watch the interview, ask them to take notes in the right-hand column of their chart titled "Resolutions" about how labor organizations have addressed the issues recorded on the left side.
After the video, display slide 20. Ask for volunteers to share their notes on how labor organizations helped to fight each issue. Sample responses can be seen on slide 21.
Evaluate
Display slide 22. Review the I Think, We Think instructional strategy. Ask students to take out a piece of paper and divide it into two columns one titled “I Think” and the other titled “We Think.”
Pose the question: Should governments regulate businesses to protect the rights of workers?
Start the 3-minute timer and instruct students to individually respond to the prompt in the “I Think” column. Remind students that there is not a right answer, but they need to support their answers with evidence and reasoning.
Once time is up, move to slide 23. Pair students up and have them discuss their initial responses with each other. After discussing, instruct students to complete the “We Think” column with their partner. Start the 3-minute timer and allow students to discuss and record their thoughts.
After the timer ends, facilitate a whole class discussion having students share their responses.
Conclude the discussion by noting that many of the protections we take for granted on entering the workforce exist only because those who came before us fought for those rights to be secured through the creation of new laws.
Resources
AFL-CIO. (n.d.). About Us. AFL-CIO. https://aflcio.org/about-us
K20 Center. (n.d.). Categorical highlighting. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/192
K20 Center. (n.d.). Google classroom. Tech Tools. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/tech-tool/628
K20 Center. (n.d.). RAFT. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/158
K20 Center. (n.d.). Painting a picture. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/1331
K20 Center. (2020, March 3). ICAP-Impacts of industrialization on workers [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/XPpiKKsClTY
Oklahoma State AFL-CIO (2016, August 23). Oklahoma State AFL-CIO. Oklahoma State AFL-CIO. https://unionhall.aflcio.org/oklahoma-state-afl-cio
