An Instructional Unit
The Industrial Revolution
A Turning Point in History
Procedure
The actions of students and teachers and the interactions among and between students and teachers:

The unit stresses several pedagogical strategies including cooperative learning, whole class discussion, "rotating stations," partner work, and the use of technology. In the "rotating stations" approach, some students would obtain information by working at a computer using a CD-ROM while their peers would examine, analyze, and interpret printed documents. Thus, the teacher becomes the "guide on the side" rather than the "sage on the stage".

The six lessons and culminating activity which comprise this unit on the Industrial Revolution are as follows:


• Lesson 1:
AIM: How did England give rise to the Industrial Revolution during the 1700’s?

Procedure for Learning Stations:

  • Students will be rotating through four stations with approximately eight-ten minutes spent at each station. The last five-ten minutes of the period is reserved for summary and closure discussion.

  • The teacher acts as a facilitator and time keeper, moving around the room to answer questions and to keep the groups focused.

  • Students must assign appropriate roles within their groups to insure individual as well as group accountability.

  • Prior to the day of the lesson, the teacher should introduce the concept of a stations lesson to the class, give procedural instructions, and assign groups. The day of the lesson, the classroom should be set up into four clearly labeled stations with appropriate materials laid out. Instructions and group assignments should be placed on the board as well as given to each group.

  • For those students who are absent, an accessible file containing all of the clearly labeled material for each station should be left.

Learning Stations for Lesson 1:

Station 1: We provide information on the conditions for development existing in Britain and ask students to answer the question - Why did the Industrial Revolution begin in Britain?

Station 2: We provide information on the Agricultural Revolution - visual, and in the form of charts and readings - which would help students to answer the question, What is the relationship between the Agricultural and the Industrial Revolutions?

Station 3: We provide information on some of the major new inventions and inventors of the Industrial Revolution in the textile, transportation, and communication industries, covering the period 1725 -1900.

Directions to Students: Select three inventors that you think had the most significant effect on their industry and society. For each inventor, write a recommendation for the Inventor’s Hall of Fame, in which you include the following:

  1. Describe each nominee’s invention.
  2. Describe the effect that the invention had on the industry at the time.
  3. Describe how the invention had a long term effect that may possibly even have affected your life.

Station 4: Our Station 4 provides one of many opportunities in this unit to work with computers. We have students demonstrate their ability to use a Microsoft Encarta 96 CD-ROM to access information on the Industrial Revolution.

Directions to Students: Use the information you have accessed to answer the following questions:

1. How did the first Industrial Revolution profoundly alter Britain’s society and economy? (Offer at least four examples)

2. Explain how the most important changes occurred in the organization of work.

Summary:

Using a reading describing a pre-industrial society, pivotal questions, and the experiences of the students at the learning stations, discuss, How did England give rise to the Industrial Revolution during the 1700’s?

Homework/Application:

Write a journal entry discussing your excitement over the new profession that you are going to choose now that the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions are here. Discuss how you hope your life will change as a result of these revolutions.


• Lesson 2:
AIM: How did the Industrial Revolution change the economic structure in industrialized countries?

Procedure:

Working in pairs, students examine pictures comparing the domestic system of production to the factory system of production. Each pair is to make a list that describes each of these systems. Students are to compare their two lists and write three generalizations comparing the two systems. The generalizations are used to encourage discussion on the transition from the domestic system to the factory system.

Students, again in pairs, write a newspaper editorial giving their opinion on the change to the factory system. They use the information they already have as well as additional primary source information. We give the students an interview with a factory owner. Students read their editorials aloud and use them in the discussion that follows.

Summary:

Make three predictions as to how you think the switch to a factory system of production will affect the social, political, and economic aspects of society.

Application/Homework: Imagine that you are living in a European country other than England in the late 1800’s. Write a letter to your cousin who emigrated to the United States in which you describe the rapid industrialization throughout Europe. Discuss the effects of industrialization that you are noticing in the areas of science and technology, transportation, methods of production, business ventures.


• Lesson 3
AIM: How did industrialization affect the daily lives of workers?

Students Instructions for Learning Stations - Lesson 3:

Students are given the following instruction sheet.

Global History 2R Name: _______________

THE UGLY SIDE OF INDUSTRIALIZATION

Industrialization had some very negative effects on the lives of its workers. The following group activity is designed to expose you to these effects. You will be rotating with your group through four stations throughout the course of the period. Located at each station you will find brief readings from various primary sources that describe the lives of workers in an industrial society. Read the passages with your group and answer the questions in this packet that correspond to the station reading. Your time at each station is limited to eight minutes, so work quickly and keep a close watch on your time.

STATION #1:
READING A -- "SUCH SLAVERY, SUCH CRUELTY" (Viewpoints in World History):
1. Briefly react to the working conditions of the spinning factory. Why were these workers forced to work under these conditions?

 

READING B -- " THE MOTHER SETS OUT FIRST" (Viewpoints in World History):
2. Briefly describe the women’s work in the mines.

 

3. Why are the workers in both of these readings willing to work under the conditions described?

 

STATION #2:
READING C -- "DREADFUL MUTILATIONS" (Viewpoints in World History):
1. Describe the reason for the high number of accidents that occur in factories. Predict some possible accidents that you think might have occurred.

 

READING D -- " ELIZABETH BENTLEY’S TESTIMONY BEFORE THE SADLER COMMITTEE" (Viewpoints in World History):
1.Briefly react to the description of Elizabeth Bentley’s life as a factory worker.

 

2. Why do you think none of her fellow workers stood up to their employer when they witnessed or experienced cruel treatment?

 

STATION #3:
READING E -- EXCERPT FROM CHARLES DICKENS’ HARD TIMES:
1. Describe the effect the textile factory had on the air and water in Coketown.

 

2. How does Dickens describe the textile-making machinery? Why do you suppose he comes up with this description?

 

STATION #4:
READING E -- EXCERPT FROM CHARLES DICKENS’ OLIVER TWIST:
1. The narrator describes the area that Oliver visits as "dirty and miserable," but it is also "densely inhabited." Explain why so many people would be living in such an unpleasant neighborhood.

 

2. Explain whom you think the man is referring to when he says, "They starved her." Describe how Dickens’ readers might have reacted to this statement.

 

Summary:

If you had lived during the Industrial Revolution, would you have viewed it as a positive change? Explain. Discuss student responses and ask students to make predictions about how these conditions will influence the social and political aspects of society and the times.

Application/Homework:

Imagine you are a factory worker living in Manchester in the early 1800’s. You are not happy with the conditions you see developing around you regarding the conditions of the city and the treatment of workers, the new social class of industrial workers, or the new responsibilities of women. Pretend you are literate enough to write a letter to the editor of The Manchester Times. In a one-two page letter to the editor, describe your concerns about the developments described above. Be sure to include your own ideas about what should be done to solve these problems.


• Lesson 4
AIM: Why was one reaction to the Industrial Revolution a call for unions?

Procedure:

In this lesson students are broken into groups of five in order to prepare and act out a worker organization simulation. Allow eight-ten minutes to brainstorm ideas.

Have one group act out their rendition of the situation and use other groups' ideas to facilitate a discussion on the issue of organizing unions in England’s industrial society. Point out additional reasons why people resisted union organization.

Global History 2RName: _______________

ROLES FOR THE SIMULATION:

1. You are a factory owner. You have just called your workers together to speak to them. You have recently been worried about how their unhappiness might lessen your profits. What would you say to them?

 

2. You are a factory worker. You are concerned by the conditions at the factory and you are determined to change them. What will you say to the other workers to persuade them to join your cause?

 

3. You are a foreman in the factory in which you work. You know that speaking against your owner will result in the loss of your job. Your workers have come to you to ask for support. What will you tell them?

 

4. You are a factory worker. You realize that you are lucky to have a job, but you also know that if the horrible conditions persist, you may not live long enough to continue supporting your family. How will you react to the other workers when they ask you to join the union?

 

5. You are a factory worker. You are very glad to be employed and won’t do anything to compromise your paycheck. How will you react to the other workers when they ask you to join the union?

Summary: Refer back to the aim of the lesson, Why was a call for unions a reaction to the Industrial Revolution?

Homework/Application: Reading the assignment from the text as well as the excerpt from Friedrich Engels’ The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844, and the summary of the Reforms of the Industrial Revolution which details reform legislation in Britain from the Factory Act of 1833 to the development of the Labour Party and social services legislation passed from 1906-1914. Write an editorial for The Times of London entitled,

Unions are the Savior/ the Enemy of the People

Choose a side and defend your position in the editorial.

 

• Lesson 5
AIM: How did the Industrial Revolution create new political, economic, and social philosophies? CASE STUDY - Adam Smith versus Karl Marx

Procedure:

In addition to Marx and Engels, and Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, John Stuart Mill and the Utopian Socialist Robert Owens are included in the overview of philosophical and economic responses to the Industrial Revolution which introduces this lesson. Students are then given two readings: Adam Smith and Laissez-Faire and Marxism. Students work with partners to analyze the two readings and chart different positions in order to make comparisons. Class discussion follows.

Instructions To Students: Read each man’s description of the ideal economic structure for society. Then write a brief outline of the main points for each of the theories. Next, complete the chart comparing the two beliefs, adding your own analysis. Finally, write a brief statement in which you explain which man had the better economic theory.

Summary:

Which man has the better solution to the problems created by the Industrial Revolution? How would each answer the three fundamental economic questions? Where do we see the foundations of the capitalist system?

Homework/Application:

Read the assigned pages in the text and write a one page debate between a supporter of laissez-faire capitalism and either a socialist reformer or a Marxist reformer in which they argue about which system will provide people with a better way of life.

 

• Lesson 6
AIM: How were the results of the Agricultural and Industrial Revolution reflected in the paintings of the period?

Procedure:

This lesson is introduced by showing the students Courbet’s The Stone Breakers, done in 1849. The class is asked,

  • What would you title this painting?
  • How does the painting reflect the time period in which it was painted?

Four learning stations are set up using CD-ROMS. The students will examine in turn four time related artistic movements, Romanticism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and Cubism. They are to look at how the Industrial Revolution and the effects of it have been captured by the artists of each time period.

Instructions To Students: At each station you will read a brief synopsis of the aims of the particular artistic period. Take notes. Then answer the questions asked about each period and piece of art.

Station 1: The New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia CD-ROM
Romanticism:

Liberty Leading the People, Delacroix, 1831

  • How would you describe/define the artistic period of Romanticism?

  • Who was Delacroix?

  • How has Delacroix represented the ideals of Romanticism in his work?

  • How has Delacroix reflected the time period and the Industrial Revolution in his work?

Station 2: Microsoft Encarta 96 Encyclopedia
Impressionism

Le Moulin de la Gallette, Auguste Pierre Renoir, 1876

  • Which artistic style does this work represent? Describe the characteristics which may be seen in this artistic period.

  • Describe the images you see in this piece of work.

  • How does this painting reflect the people and their activities as a result of the Industrial Revolution?

Station 3: The New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia CD-ROM
Post- Impressionism

The Bathers, Georges Seurat, 1883-84

  • How does Seurat’s style compare to that of Renoir?

  • Describe the scene in the painting.

  • How does Seurat’s " the Bathers" show how life has changed due to the Industrial Revolution?

Station 4: Microsoft Encarta 96 Encyclopedia
Cubism

Clarinet and Bottle of Rum on a Mantelpiece, Georges Braque, 1913

  • Describe Cubism and the Cubist period.

  • How does this piece of work differ from the others viewed?

  • How might the Cubist movement be a result of the Industrial Revolution?

Summary:

Once students have completed their tour of the museum, begin a discussion of how the lifestyles and the history of the era of the Industrial Revolution have been reflected in the art viewed.

Homework/Application:

Based on your reading and viewing experiences here today, you are being asked to become an art critic. Please use your literary talents and your understanding of the arts and the historic period to write a critique entitled, The Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions Come Alive.

• Culminating Activity
AIM: Research a revolutionary figure and create a visual representation for inclusion in the class Revolutionary Museum

Procedure:

Ideas and beliefs that people hold have frequently been the guiding forces for change in the world. The time period of the Industrial Revolution led to a change in the way the world was seen and civilization was structured. You will research a field related revolutionary figure and create a visual representation based on your research. Your project will be part of a tenth grade revolutionary museum.

 

REVOLUTIONARY MUSEUM ASSIGNMENT

  1. You will be assigned a revolutionary figure from the fields of science, technology, industry, business, economics, music, art, government. Choose one of the following artistic creations for the visual representation of your revolutionary figure: quilt square, mobile, diorama, sculpture, painting/drawing, or sketch. In your visual representation you must display evidence of research as well as the importance of the individual.

  2. TYPE a one-two PAGE FACT SHEET which will provide evidence of your research. Briefly describe the accomplishments as well as the effect of the individual’s accomplishments on the historical development of the world.

  3. USE AT LEAST TWO SOURCES, neither of which may be your textbook, and only one of which may be an encyclopedia.

  4. A TYPED BIBLIOGRAPHY using the proper format must be attached to your fact sheet.

  5. The fact sheet must be TYPED SINGLE SPACED USING A 12 POINT FONT.

  6. Upon completion of your assignment compile a database in order to create a catalog for the Revolutionary Museum. After all of the information is entered, use the search and sort commands to organize the catalog according to the last