Teacher's Guide for COBBLESTONE ^® The Mill Girls: From Farm to Factory

• Knowledge
• Comprehension
• Analysis
• Synthesis

• March 2001 issue of COBBLESTONE ^®: The Mill Girls: From Farm to Factory
• note taking sheet
• writing paper

1. Ask students to consider what young people need in order to establish their independence. Discuss and list essential ingredients established by class consensus.
2. Tell students that as they read the articles in this issue, they were introduced to many advantages and disadvantages of Mill work for young women. It could be assumed that when recruited, young women heard mostly, if not only, the advantages.
3. Tell students that today they'll be rereading and skimming this COBBLESTONE ^® issue for details to support a stand on one of two sides - work in the Lowell Massachusetts Mills as an opportunity for or as an exploitation of young women.

1. The teacher will ask, "Are work opportunities equally available to all?" Briefly discuss the issue with relationship to the past and present as well as gender, racial, and religious barriers.
2. Ask if the working conditions that existed in the Lowell Mills could exist today? Where? Why? Briefly explain the purpose of labor laws and the role of labor unions.
3. Draw students' attention to the primary document (a recruitment letter) in the article "I Want to go to Lowell" and to the answer Grandmother gave Emma when she asked, "How did they even know about Lowell?" Read these two sections aloud and point out the purpose of worker recruitment in written and verbal forms. Explain that there was some opposition to young girls leaving their responsibilities on the farm and in communities. Ask students to hypothesize reasons for such opposition.
4. Divide the class into recruiters and those who oppose hiring young women for Mill jobs. Explain that recruiters will be gathering facts that can be used in a recruitment speech and the opposition will be collecting evidence on the working and living conditions in Lowell in order to build their case. Those who oppose will write a newspaper editorial or create an editorial cartoon. Briefly review the key components of each format of writing. (It is assumed that students have been exposed to examples of written expression.)
5. Suggest that students may integrate information from So Far From Home: The Diary of Mary Driscoll, an Irish Mill Girl by Barry Denenberg (a Scholastic publication in the Dear America series).
6. Introduce the note taking sheet that students will use. Explain the areas and the information that will be recorded in each. Model how to record and what to write in a specific area.

1. Students will reread the articles and take notes on their note taking sheet.
2. The teacher will circulate and give individual support as needed. (A small group may be gathered to provided more intensive support for struggling readers while other students work independently.)
3. The teacher will facilitate an open discussion with each group - recruiters and those who stand in opposition - providing students with an opportunity to share facts, interpretations, and conclusions. Students will use notes on their organizers when discussing the topic and, as needed, the teacher will extend and clarify the information presented.
4. Students will draft a recruitment speech or editorial. The teacher will circulate and assist individual writers as needed.

1. Students will share their drafts in progress. The class will offer comments and suggestions for revision.
2. The teacher will give directions for editing and preparation of final copies. A date will be set for orally "performing" recruitment speeches and editorials. Editorial cartoons will be presented by the cartoonist and published in the class newsletter.

• students' ability to reread selectively and skim for specific information,
• students' ability to gather "evidence" to support their stand on an issue,
• students' ability to listen carefully during the class discussion and expand on personal ideas,
• students' ability to engage in a focused discussion, clearly expressing relevant information and elaborating on what is stated by others,
• students' ability to compose a persuasive essay (recruitment speech or editorial) or editorial cartoon that addresses the issue with creativity, clarity, appropriate format, and a high level of technical (grammar and spelling) accuracy.

• Recruitment Speech
• Newspaper Editorial

Home

Back

Print

Updated: 8/30/08 12:12 am
Log In