TAH Lesson Plan
Teacher
Joan Vieira-Lazaroff
Grade
2nd, 3rd grade
Title
Child Labor During the Industrial Revolution
Subject
Area(s)
Overview
Social Studies, Language Arts
Prior to these lessons, the students will have background knowledge of the
Industrial Revolution. They will learn about how long children worked and the
conditions under which they worked. In these lessons, students will be comparing
and contrasting, using images and primary documents, the daily life of a child
working during the Industrial Revolution and the daily life of child today.
Students will understand the difference between children doing chores and
Essential
Understanding children working long hours under dangerous conditions.
Why would a family make their child work in a factory?
Essential
What is the difference between child labor and a modern child's (their own)
Questions
responsibilities?
What are the consequences of child labor?
What is the difference between child labor and children's chores?
CT Standards 2.1 Gather information with teacher support using reference materials and
electronic media.
2.2-1 Interpret information from pictures, graphs and charts.
2.3-3 Write to describe historical events, people and/or places
2.4-4 Present basic information about past or present events, people and/or
places.
3.2-2 Predict how another person might feel in a historical and/or contemporary
situation
Objectives
3.2-3 Analyze how a situation affects the way a person will feel.
Day 1: The student will be able to compare & contrast pictures of a child
laborer and a modern child during a typical day, interpret information from the
photographs and respond through the use of an image comparison worksheet.
Day 2: The student will be able to construct a timeline of a child laborer,
compare it to a previously constructed modern child's timeline, and note
similarities and differences through a Venn diagram.
Day 3: The student will be able to create a poster, using primary document
photographs, to inform people of the injustices of child labor.
Materials
Charts summaries (from previous studies)
Pencil
Paper
Chart Paper
Marker
Computer Pencil
Image and Analysis Worksheet for day 1
Based on worksheet from:
www.archives.gov/didital_classroom/lessons/analysis_
worksheets/photo.html
Books:
Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor by Russell
Freedman, Clarion Books, New York, NY
Child Labor in America: Perspectives on History Series, Edited by Juliet H.
Mofford, Discovery Enterprises, Ltd., Carlisle, MA
Children at Work, Edited by JoAnne Weisman Deitch, History Compass, MA
Cowan, Mary Mortin. "Seeing Is Believing." Cobblestone April 2011. Carus
Publishing Company, Peterborough, NH
Websites (Teacher Resources):
www.oc.gov/rr/print/coll/207_hine.html
http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/mmh/childlabor/cottondress.cfm
www.victorianweb.org/history/his8.html
www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/lessons/child-labor
www.socialstudies.pppst.com/childlabor.html
http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/mmh/childlabor/mrcoal.cfm
www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/hine-hughestown.htm
www.ourownbackyard.org/index.shtml
Day 1
(60 Minutes)
Details of the Activity
The teacher introduces the concept of children working by reviewing what they
learned about children's activities during the colonial times. The teacher asks
students "what kind of chores do you do and how much time do you spend doing
chores?" The teacher tells them that they are going to be investigating child labor
during the Industrial Revolution. Today they will begin by observing and
responding to a photograph of a child at work during the Industrial Revolution, and
a photograph of a modern child during a typical day.
Activity: Working with a partner, the students will compare & contrast pictures of a
child laborer and a modern child during a typical day, using an image comparison
worksheet which has students list people, objects, activities, and asks for 2 things
they might infer from the image and one question they have.
The class will share their comparisons, and the teacher will record observation
made on a t-chart comparing the two types of images.
The teacher reads an excerpt from Children at Work. The students will then
compare what they hear to what they recorded on the t-chart to discover which
ideas were supported by the reading.
The teacher tells students that, in the next lesson, they will be comparing a typical
day of a child laborer to his or her own typical day.
Homework
Create a timeline of your school day. Begin with when you wake up and end
when you go to bed. Name each activity and how long each activity takes.
Day 2
(60 Minutes)
Details of the Activity
The teacher reads excerpts from Children at Work, describing events in a typical
child laborer's life during the Industrial Revolution. Also primary document
sources of children's own accounts of their experiences as child laborers during
the Industrial Revolution will be read to the class.
Using a timeline template, which will be on both the chart paper and on student
worksheets, the students and teacher together will construct a timeline of a child
laborer, which the students will record on their worksheets. Students will take out
their homework of their own timeline and they will work with a partner to compare
and contrast the two using a Venn Diagram.
The teacher asks the following questions:
Which typical day would they want to have?
Do you think children going to work in factories is good for them or bad for
them?
Why would a family make their child work in a factory?
What do you think could be done to change this?
Why do you spend so much time at school?
The teacher will have each question listed on separate pieces of chart paper
placed around the classroom. The class will be divided into 5 groups, one group
for each question. They will answer the question and write their responses on the
chart paper. After each group is finished they will rotate to the next chart paper
question, read any previous responses, and record any additional ideas.
The teacher reads the responses aloud and elicits questions and comments
based on the responses.
Homework
Write a journal entry from the perspective of a child laborer during the Industrial
Revolution. Be sure to include details of what your day is like, as well as your
thoughts and feelings.
Day 3
(60 Minutes)
Details of the Activity
The teacher shows the students Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade
Against Child Labor, and reads excerpts about Lewis Hine's life and shows Lewis
Hine's photographs of children working in fields, factories, and canneries. The
teacher informs the students that Lewis Hine took these pictures because
Americans were not aware of how these companies ignored the laws. Students
also will discover that Lewis Hine was a teacher before becoming a photographer,
and he recorded these important images in order to create change.
The teacher asks, "what are the consequences of child labor?" Using an
interactive whiteboard, the teacher will access the following website,
http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/mmh/childlabor/cottondress.cfm,
entitled The Story of My Cotton Dress, to reinforce the idea of the dangers
inherent in, and the consequences of, child labor practices.
The teacher will create small groups of students who will discuss possible
consequences of child labor, and the teacher will gather students together to
record the group responses on the interactive white board.
The teacher will distribute photographs by Lewis Hine. Using these photographs,
the students will work in groups to create a persuasive poster to inform people of
these terrible practices.
Homework
Pretend you are living during the Industrial Revolution. Write a persuasive letter
to the President in which you try to convince him to enforce the laws and stop
companies from using child labor.
Suggested
Assessment/
Evaluation
Rubric
Possible
Extensions/
Resources
Working in groups of three, each group will write and perform a short skit
dramatizing a poor family, living during the Industrial Revolution, whose children
are all required to work as child laborers. Each child will have a role of a member
of the family.
Does Not Meet
Meets Expectation
Exceeds Expectation
Expectation (Score 1)
(Score 2)
(Score 3)
Gives a brief
Gives presentation
Gives presentation
presentation of role in citing two examples of citing why family
family with only one
either consequences
would make child
example of either
of child labor, why a
work, consequences
consequences of child family would make a
of child labor, and
labor, why a family
child work, or
give examples of a
would make a child
examples of a typical
typical day.
work, or examples of
day.
a typical day.
Explore, with the students, the following idea:
Child labor still occurs today. The class will explore child laborers in
developing countries, and child laborers among migrant workers in the
United States.
Image Comparison Worksheet
Step 1: Observation
A. Study the two photographs for 2 minutes. Think about what is in each picture: what the
children are doing, what they might be thinking.
B. Use the table below to list people, objects, and activities in each photograph.
Photo
Activities
(What are they doing?
People
(Who is in the picture?)
Objects
(What else do you see in the
picture?)
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
Breaker ____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
Boys
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
Child at
school
or
playing
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
Step 2: Inference
After you have observed the two pictures, list three things you might infer from each photograph.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
Step 3: Questions
What questions do these photographs raise in your
mind?_____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
Adapted from http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets/photo_analysis_worksheet.pdf (The PDF above was
designed by the Education Staff, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC 20408)