Teacher's Guide for APPLESEEDS Growing Up in the Industrial Revolution

Fountas, I. & Pinnell, G. (2001). Guiding readers and writers, grades
3-6. Portsmith, NH: Heinemann

Irwin, J. (1991). Teaching reading comprehension processes, (2nd ed.).
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

• focus on three types of connections (text-to-text, text-to-world, and text-to-self) to deepen their understanding of articles and their response to information and ideas contained in them.
• develop an understanding of the term Industrial Revolution in relationship to the sudden, complete, and noticeable changes it brought in lifestyles and society along with changes in the ways things were made.
• sequence Samuel Slater's part in bringing the Industrial Revolution to America.
• consider how the labor issues were viewed differently by mill owners, workers, and the National Child Labor Committee.
• infer character traits for Samuel Slater and give evidence for their ideas.
• examine multiple causes and effects for the changes in workers' lives during the Industrial Revolution.
• become sensitive to the fact that similar child labor abuses still occur in the world today.
• construct personal written responses to issues of child labor, considering different points of view and ways to support the elimination of it.

• January 2004 issue of APPLESEEDS
• chart paper or transparency
• journals
• graphic organizer sheet
• other resources used during the unit

1. Direct children's attention to a website on child labor. This is Child Labor in America 1908-1912 featuring photographs of Lewis W. Hine. It is found at www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor. Point out that this site displays more of the photos Lewis Hine took when he was hired by the National Child Labor Committee to document the abuses of child labor in America. The Committee used Hine's photographs to build public awareness and support for laws that would end these practices.
2. Project the website to a screen, if possible, or have printouts of the pages for partners or small groups to share. Editor's note: many of Hine's photographs are also available in Cobblestone Publishing's Child Labor in America Teaching with Primary Sources binder - COB38923, $28.95
3. Ask students to carefully view the photographs and respond to the visuals and captions with reference to: information in this issue, other materials used throughout the unit, knowledge from other sources, or personal reactions they have.
4. Record on chart paper (or on a transparency) responses that students share.
   
   Expected responses may be similar to:

   "It was so unfair. I can't imagine having to do what they did every day. My life seems so much easier." (text-to-self)
   
   "These pictures and captions show the abuses we've been learning about and other problems, too." (text-to-text)
   
   "Some of these pictures are like those in the issue, but there's many more that prove how bad it was. The National Child Labor Committee must have been glad they hired Lewis Hine." (text-to-text)
   
   "These show that pictures can 'speak a thousand words.' They convinced the public faster than words alone did. Today we can do it with TV and the internet." (text-to-world)
   
   "I think I've heard about children having to work in other countries where products we use everyday are made. It's still going on there." (text-to-world)

1. Explain to students that, when we listen, view a picture or movie, or read a text (book, magazine, newspaper, etc.), the connections we make help us to understand the information presented.
2. Describe three kinds of connections. Explain to students that there isn't an order to the list, nor is one more important than the others. They occur simultaneously as readers think while they read. One is text-to text connections. In these connections, readers are linking new information with information from other sources such as other books, videos, movies, conversations, or pictures. Another kind is text-to-self connections. In this type, readers link new information to their own life situations or personal experiences. The third kind of connection is text-to-world. These connections go beyond the specific information read to link to related "world" knowledge that you have learned both in and out of school.
3. Refer students to the list of responses just listed (during the Anticipatory Set or Motivation). Select one and read it aloud. Think out loud, modeling how you are considering what type of connection it is and why you think so.

1. Have students work with a partner to identify type of connection for the remaining responses.
2. Partners share in whole class discussion, citing reasons for their decisions. Encourage questioning and differences of opinion. Students give "evidence" (reasons) for their opinions.

1. Have students consider (think about) why making these kinds of connections is important for learning. Have students partner up (pair) to share their ideas.
2. Partners share responses in whole group.

1. Explain that today we are focusing on the overall term - revolution. Explain to students that the United States won its freedom from rule by England after fighting the American Revolution. The government we formed after winning our freedom was much different from the government that ruled the colonies. In this issue (and unit), we've been talking about an Industrial Revolution that took place in America from 1790-1850.
2. Tell students that a revolution can be defined as a sudden, complete, or noticeable change. Industry here refers to how things were being made or manufactured. Let's think back to the articles and what was said about how industry was changing in sudden, complete, or noticeable ways at this time. The term Industrial Revolution then means that there was a sudden, complete, or noticeable change in how things were made.
3. Direct students to reread "Samuel Slater's Big Secret." Samuel's life experienced a revolution in his process of becoming the wealthy mill owner who brought the Industrial Revolution to America. As you review the article look for the ways his life changed.

1. Use a sequence chart to record the changes in Samuel's life.
   
   

   -->

   -->

   -->

   
   
2. Students collaborate in identifying the sequence of changes that brought Samuel from a 14-year-old son of a wealthy landowner growing up in the countryside of England to the wealthy American mill owner that he became. The teacher records these in chart boxes which could also be constructed in a vertical pattern.
   
   

   Example:

   Samuel grows up in the countryside of England

   -->

   At 14, Samuel is apprenticed to work for 7 years in Mr. Arkwright's mill. Samuel must keep secret what he knows about how the mill works.

   -->

   At 21, Samuel leaves for America to work as a mechanic in an American mill.

   -->

   Samuel uses his secret knowledge when . . .

   
   

1. Explain to students that character traits describe what a person is like on the inside and are shown through what they do and/or say. A person can be courageous, responsible, mean, selfish, or have other identifiable traits.
2. Ask students to consider Samuel Slater's character traits and evidence they'd give to support their ideas. Share responses. (text-to-self)

At a later time students will write a response to the following in their journals. Agree or disagree. Give reasons to support your ideas.

Many children's lives changed for the worse during the Industrial Revolution. Mill owners like Samuel Slater and those in Lowell, MA, might have claimed that they took care of workers. Workers have been fighting for better wages and conditions since the Industrial Revolution and owners have not always agreed with their complaints. (text-to-text, text-to-world)

1. Explain that most events in the world or even our everyday lives have multiple (more than one) causes (reasons) and multiple effects (results).
2. Give an example such as an unexpected day-out-of-school for weather related reasons (snow day), mechanical reasons (electrical outage), or illness (many students and teachers sick).
   
   

   Situation: unexpected day off from school

   Causes (reasons): ________________________ ________________________ ________________________

   Effects (results): ________________________ ________________________ ________________________

   
   
3. Students will contribute causes and effects along with the teacher. The teacher will scribe these, charting responses as shown.

1. Have students use sources, including this issue (article, "The Mill Girls"), their textbook, other books, and designated internet sites to complete a cause and effect organizer related to child labor in the Lowell, MA, textile mills. Students will work in small groups to complete the cause and effect organizer, "Lives Suddenly and Completely Changed" as the teacher circulates to help.
2. Groups share their organizers, discussing content and differences.

Have students consider (think about) whether similar causes and effects are in play today in places where child labor still exists. Students pair up to briefly share ideas. Partners share ideas with the whole group.

At a later time students will write a response to the following in their journals.

Lewis Hine took photographs to document forever the hard times children had during the period of the Industrial Revolution and child labor in America. The revolution he started and the laws it brought changed children's lives for the better. What can we do to cause a revolution that will suddenly and completely change the lives of children who still work under horrible conditions in many parts of the world?

1. integrate information from the January 2004 issue of APPLESEEDS with other informational sources.
2. identify and make text-to-text, text-to-world, and text-to-self connections with the content of their reading.
3. read with understanding as reflected in their ability to select key concepts for the completion of organizers (sequence and cause and effect).
4. work appropriately with others in discussion, completing organizers, and sharing work with the class.
5. construct written responses characterized by thoughtfulness, clarity of expression, personal voice, and appropriate use of grammar and spelling.

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Updated: 3/12/10 09:53 am
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