Child Labor

We chose to do this unit based on the theme of the social justice issue of child labor. We thought that it is important for children to know when other children have been discriminated against and what these children have done about it in order to more fully understand their rights as children. By teaching this unit, the students will learn about their rights, dispelling any ignorance about rights and therefore putting power into the hands of the students. We believe that social studies should take events from the past (that may still be issues today) and show their relevance today so that our society is learning from past mistakes or events and making a better world because of this education. By teaching this unit on child labor, we feel that by looking at the issue of child labor in the past and present, we will be showing what students can to make a difference in the world today or their personal lives to make the world better.

In this unit, we will be doing various activities to teach some of the National Standards for Social Studies. The students will identify and use various sources for reconstructing the past, such as documents, letters, diaries, maps, textbooks, photos, and others (NCSS II d) by looking at journals and photos of child laborers and writing letters and poems to more fully understand the life of a child laborer. They will show how groups and institutions work to meet individual needs and promote the common good, and identify examples of where they fail to do so (NCSS V g) by looking at the unions that worked to dispel child labor in the past and today (such as UNICEF.) They will also describe how we depend upon workers with specialized jobs and the ways in which they contribute to the production and exchange of goods and services (NCSS VII e) by looking at what child laborers did, how that affects our economy and why anyone would want to employ child laborers (pros and cons.)

This unit also teaches the state standards for fifth grade. The students will analyze events and leaders in the United States through the 19^th century (Utah Core Standard 6) by looking at the event of the Industrial Revolution and how that contributed to the start of child labor. They will also analyze the significant social and political movements of the United States from the Civil War to 1900 (Utah Core Standard 6.3) by looking at the issue of child labor in the past and what was done about it. Finally, they will analyze the significant events and actions of the 20^th century (Utah Core Standard 7.1) by looking at child labor today, and what they can do about it now.

This unit is appropriate for fifth grade, because fifth graders can understand the more sensitive issue of child labor and are mature enough to deal with the emotional involvement of looking at child labor. This is a good age to show children how they can be involved and make a difference in the world, to get students started on a path leading to more civic action in the future. The students will be learning about an issue that they can relate to, being children, so that they can start with an issue that they will feel a deep connection with in becoming socially active. This unit will help students begin to understand different social issues and help them find ways to make a positive difference in the world today.

Teacher Background Information

The focus on this unit is child labor and what jobs the children performed. The teacher will need to know about the industrial revolution and how that affected child labor and helped the beginnings of the labor force. The background on the industrial revolution is not too extensive, just enough to know why it happened and how it came about. The main knowledge is on child labor itself, how it came about, what it involved, the different jobs, and the way that the kids stood up for themselves. The teacher will also need to know about child labor now and how it affects children and the factories, what are the advantages to employing children, and the risks.

The knowledge about the industrial revolution should include how an assemble line works and the advantages and disadvantages to that method, as well as a knowledge of some inventions and inventors. May also want to know what a revolution is and why it is called an industrial revolution. An assembly line is a method of manufacturing wherein one person does one specific job to build something, not building the whole product just one part. The advantage is that it made work much faster and more efficient. The worker only needed to be trained to do one thing and over time he or she would become much faster and able to assemble more of that part at a higher rate which helped to decrease the cost. Also what types of inventions came about this time, and how did they affect everyday people? Before the revolution most things were done by hand, during and after many inventions were made which made life easier for the people. A revolution is a major change, and the industrial revolution changed the way that industries were ran.

The knowledge about child labor during the late 1800’s and the early 1900’s should include what child labor is, the types of jobs performed and the working conditions, why child labor was used and the different views on children in the work force, and how the children learned to take a stand for their rights. Child labor is the employment of children who are too young to legally work. Many of the states had laws about how old children had to be to enter the workforce, which was fourteen in most states, but these laws were often broken. The children worked in the coal mines, the textile mills, and other factories. Their jobs were often dangerous because of the use of big machines, heavy loads the children were required to carry, unhealthy work environments, long hours with few breaks, and sitting or standing doing the same thing every day for long amounts of time. Child labor was used because it is cheap to pay someone young to do a jog. At this time in history it seems that most kids in more rural towns, those of lower classes, and immigrants were often employed to help the family make ends meet. Many children felt that it was their duty to earn money to help feed and clothe themselves. This made it easy to break the laws because both parents and employers were willing to lie about the age of the children so that they could work. Some people felt that children who did not work would end up lazy and were not getting the proper training to make something of themselves. But there were also many others who believed that the work environment was not a proper one in which for children to work, so this was and continues to be a controversial topic.

The teachers need to know that child labor goes on today even in the U.S. They should also be familiar with resources about child labor today (as listed in the appendices) there are also many resources on the internet. UNICEF is one of the organizations against child labor today and they may be able to provide you with up to date information. Since the students will be doing their own research the teacher should be familiar that it exists today such as working on the street, low pay and long hours, immigrants farming… It is not just a problem that other countries have, although it may be a bigger problem there.

Unit Planning Chart

Social Studies	Teacher Resources	Student Reading/Literature	Math	Science
Industrial Revolution Social issues of the time Socioeconomic status of child laborers Social action for kids	Internet Books about child labor Movies about child labor and strikes Textbook (for information on Industrial Revolution)	Read about labor Read accounts of children who were child laborers	Calculate yearly/ monthly/ daily wages of child laborers and compare with the cost of living at the time Make a timeline showing the number of child laborers each year Calculate money saved by companies by employing child laborers	Talk about the chemicals in the air in coal mines Inventions during the Industrial Revolution Design an invention
Art	Physical Education/ Movement/ Health	Music	Technology	Oral Language
Draw and interpret political cartoons on child labor Draw machines Look at pictures of child laborers and factories	Talk about health problems associated with child labor Role play working conditions in a factory Talk about mental health of child laborers	Listen to and analyze music from the time period Listen to “labor rights” songs, such as songs from Newsies Create a rap about child labor	Look up information about child labor online Make a power point presentation of what was learned about child labor Inventions of Industrial Revolution—make and design inventions	Debate child labor issues Discussion in small groups Presentations on child labor
Written Language	Field Trips/ Guests	Culminating Activity/ Unit Projects	Read Alouds	Social Skills
Letters/ mock letters to president or companies about child labor Journal writing and reactions about the discussion Write as if you were a child laborer Mind maps Poetry	Bring in people in the community who were child laborers or are descendants of child laborers Bring in people in the community who are workers rights activists to talk about what kids can do to make a difference Visit a factory	Write a letter to a company that still uses child labor stating reasons why they should stop Write a report Class presentation Research a type of job done by children	“The Story of My Cotton Dress” “Mr. Coal’s story”	Group work Partner work Debate
Accommodations for Learners	Assessment
Less writing Scaffold writing Alternative assessments (draw a picture; speak on a tape, etc.)	Observe students’ attitudes about child labor Listen to comments on child labor Reports/ presentations/ letters

Organization and Subject Matter

Overview with Goals and Objectives

Our unit addresses the social issue of child labor and what can be done about child labor today. As this unit is carried through, the objectives will be realized through the daily activities. The social issue of child labor, which began near the industrial revolution, still exists today. We believe this issue is relevant to the students in our class because it is an issue today that involves children.

Therefore, by teaching our lessons of how child labor started, progressed, and continues, we will be helping students be informed about social issues today that they can connect to, and giving them opportunities to make a difference in the world. We will carry this through by having them identify and use various sources for reconstructing the past, such as documents, letters, diaries, maps, textbooks, photos, and others (NCSS II d); show how groups and institutions work to meet individual needs and promote the common good, and identify examples of where they fail to do so (NCSS V g); describe how we depend upon workers with specialized jobs and the ways in which they contribute to the production and exchange of goods and services (NCSS VII e).

The Utah Core Objectives in the chart below support these overall NCSS unit goals. These objectives will be carried out by giving the children multiple opportunities to research and discuss child labor in the past and present. The students will also be given many opportunities (centers, simulations, and poetry) to experience a little what it would be like to be a child laborer or the feelings they may have felt, to make the issue of child labor personal. Also, students will learn what laborers did, and what you can do about child labor today (debates, videos/research on strikes, and writing letters to companies.)

The content of this child labor unit is organized chronologically. This chronological organization seemed to make the most sense, because the unit deals with the people of the time period, how child labor started, its progression through history, and the social issues that continue with child labor today.

The classroom will have 5 tables (formed by 6 desks each) to facilitate easy grouping and center activities, because many of our activities use discussion in groups. The mind maps will be displayed for easy access, so that students can add to them or change them as they learn more about child labor. Resources will also be available. See the diagram below. The time allotment for each lesson is about an hour.

	WEEK 1	WEEK 2	WEEK 3	WEEK 4
TOPIC	INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION	HISTORY OF CHILD LABOR	HISTORY OF CHILD LABOR	CHILD LABOR NOW
NCSS STANDARD	· Identify and use various sources for reconstructing the past, such as documents, letters, diaries, maps, textbooks, photos, and others (II d); · Show how groups and institutions work to meet individual needs and promote the common good, and identify examples of where they fail to do so (V g); · Describe how we depend upon workers with specialized jobs and the ways in which they contribute to the production and exchange of goods and services (VII e).
UTAH CORE OBJECTIVE	6 Students analyze events and leaders in the United States through the 19^th century	6.3 Analyze the significant social and political movements of the United States from the Civil War to 1900.	6.3 Analyze the significant social and political movements of the United States from the Civil War to 1900.	7.1 Analyze the significant events and actions of the 20^th century.
LEARNING ACTIVITIES	What led up to the Industrial Revolution	Overview of child labor	Poetry writing from point of view of child laborer	Overview of child labor today
	Culture of time period of the Industrial Revolution	Jobs of child laborers	Role play sweatshop atmosphere	What can you do about child labor today?
	Inventors and their inventions	Centers with pictures of child laborers, stories of child laborers, writing letters to the president, look at and analyze political cartoons, music of the time period	Talk about sweatshop experience—what could have been done to improve conditions?	Write letters to companies telling them why they shouldn’t use child laborers
	Inventors and their inventions	Journal writing/ reactions about yesterday’s activity	Kids on strike	Mock debate of child labor now—should it be done?
	Increase of factories and laborers in the Industrial Revolution	Research child labor on the internet	How can kids today make a difference?	Add to/ change mind map of child labor

Classroom Plan

Learning Activities Bank

Title: The Industrial Revolution

Teachers: Emily Nelson and Jennifer Pearson

Grade: 5^th

Unit Theme: Child Labor

Standards Met: See below

Goal: The students will be able to show how groups and institutions work to meet individual needs and promote the common good, and identify examples of where they fail to do so (NCSS V g); describe how we depend upon workers with specialized jobs and the ways in which they contribute to the production and exchange of goods and services (NCSS VII e).

Objectives: Given information on the industrial revolution the students will be able to have their own factory where paper airplanes are produced in order to recognize a primary event in the U.S. through the 19^th century.

Materials Needed: Lots of scratch paper (preferably 8.5 x 11)

Timer

Personal Journals and pencils

White board and markers

Method to folding paper airplanes

Motivation: The teacher will ask questions to generate a class discussion on technology and inventions.

Procedures:

Ask the following questions to generate a discussion:

How many of you used some form of technology today?
What inventions are your favorite?
How do you think we became such an industrial nation?
Ask the students what revolution means.

Explain to the students that the industrial revolution was a time in our society that we as a people began to rely more heavily upon technology. May also want to compare some ways that people used to do things such as indoor plumbing, electricity and others.
Do the assembly line activity.

Tell the students that they are working in a factory and their job is to produce paper airplanes, they all need to be done the same, and they need to produce as many as they can in the time allotted.
Show the students how you want the airplanes folded (there are many ways so do the one that you are most comfortable explaining to the class)
Tell the students that they will be judged on quality and quantity.
Give the students two to three minutes to fold as many as they can.
When time is up have the students count how many they did and record the scores on the white board so that the class average can be calculated.
Now tell the students they are going to do the same thing in an assemble line fashion.
Have them get in groups and decide which student will be doing which fold on the airplane.
Tell them that they will again be grades on quality and quantity
Have them begin, doing the work for the same amount of time as they did individually.
At the end of the time have them calculate how many were fully completed and record the scores so that a new class average can be made.
As a class discuss the difference between the first and second way of making the airplanes

i. Was one way faster or more efficient?

ii. Did one way get boring, or was it easier?

iii. Which way was the most enjoyable?

iv. Compare your class averages.

Explain to the class that during the industrial revolution the assemble line was put into full work in many factories, and that it is still used today.
Have the class think of places where it is used, such as to build cars.

Have the class do a think pair share on the topic of assembly lines, what is good, and then what is not good, when sharing with the class make a chart on the whiteboard.
Have the students record in their journal whether or not they would like to work on an assembly line and why or why not.

Accommodations: For those who are unable to fold planes they may be in charge of watching the time or the quality of the airplanes.

Closure: Have students share in their groups their ideas.

Assessment: The assessment will mainly come to listening to the students as they share with the class their ideas of the assemble line, some journals may also be checked for understanding of the topic.

Extension: They can research the assemble line to find out if humans or robots do most of the work now.

Title: What is child labor?

Teachers: Emily Nelson and Jennifer Pearson

Grade: 5^th

Unit Theme: Child Labor

Standards Met: See below

Objective: Given teacher prompts and instruction the students will be able to create a mind map of what they know and think about child labor in order to analyze the significant social and political movements of the United States from the Civil War to 1900.

Materials: Chart paper for each group

A different colored marker for each student

Books or pictures for the students to look at dealing with child labor

Motivation: A discussion about the jobs that students in your class have.

Procedures:

Ask the class questions to generate a class discussion

Do they have jobs? What they do?
Do they get paid, if so haw much?
Do they know that children used to and still do have jobs instead of going to school, and that these jobs were often dangerous?

Demonstrate how to make a mind map using the topic jobs we have had
Have each group make their own mind map about child labor; they may look at the pictures, books or other materials provided by the teacher.
Have each group share their mind map with the class.

Accommodation: For those students who are unable to write someone in the group may write for them.

Closure: Tell the class that over the next three weeks they will be learning more about child labor and they will have the opportunity to add to their mind maps as they learn more.

Assessment: The teacher will notice who is making comments on the mind map by the different colored marker, and by the questions that are generated.

Extension: The students may begin to find answers to their questions.

Title: Child Labor Centers

Teachers: Emily Nelson and Jennifer Pearson

Grade: 5th

Unit Theme: Child Labor

Standards Met: See below

Goal: The students will be able to identify and use various sources for reconstructing the past, such as documents, letters, diaries, maps, textbooks, photos, and others (NCSS II d); show how groups and institutions work to meet individual needs and promote the common good, and identify examples of where they fail to do so (NCSS V g).

Objectives: During the five centers the students will be able to analyze pictures, political cartoons, and music from the time period as well as read stories about and write journal entries for children during the time period, in order to analyze the political and social movements of the United States from the Civil War to 1900.

Materials Needed: Pictures of child laborers

Political Cartoons from the time period

Scott Joplin’s “The Strenuous Life”

Work sheet for analyzing music

CD or tape player

“Mr. Coal’s Story”

“The Story of my Cotton Dress”

Paper and pencils

Cards explaining what to do at each center

Motivation: Discuss what happened in the previous lesson and what they have learned thus far.

Procedures:

1. The teacher will explain each of the five centers (see cards below).

2. The teacher will distribute the materials on each of the proper tables needed for the centers.

3. Divide the class into five groups.

a. Tell the students at which center they begin and how and when to rotate (about every five minutes).

b. Have the students begin the centers.

4. After the students are done with the centers have some volunteers share their journal entries, or anything they learned with the rest of the class.

Accommodations: For those who have difficulty writing they may draw a day in the life of a child laborer.

Closure: Have volunteers share their thoughts about one of the centers, or share their journal entry.

Assessment: <