Lesson Plan: Day 4

  

Grade: _11_

Unit: The Rise and Fall of a Textile Empire:  Lowell, Ma 1820-1861

 

 

Goal (enduring understanding):

 

Massachusetts has a rich history.  Among one of the many events of historical significance is Lowell’s rise as a textile manufacturing empire, leading to the birth of the American Industrial Revolution.

 

Besides the natural resources that provided waterpower, Lowell’s close proximity to the Northern New England farmlands enabled the mill owners to recruit labor.

 

 

Essential Question(s):

 

Were the mill girls treated fairly in terms of pay, living quarters, etc.?

 

Development and selection of activities and resources:

 

  • The class will be handed out primary source documents and discuss the documents by answering the essential question.
  • Brief lecture on the life of a mill girl
  • Finish group project on recruitment poster

 

Content:

 

  • The work, social, and recreational life of a mill girl.
  • The Lowell Offering
  • Lucy Larcom
  • Sarah Bagley

 

Curriculum Standard:

 

Economic Growth in the North and South, 1800-1860

 

USI.26 Explain the importance of the Transportation Revolution of the 19th century (the building of canals, roads, bridges, turnpikes, steamboats, and railroads), including the stimulus it provided to the growth of a market economy. (H, E)

 

USI.27 Explain the emergence and impact of the textile industry in New England and industrial growth generally throughout antebellum America. (H, E)

a. The technological improvements and inventions that contributed to industrial growth

b. The causes and impact of the wave of immigration from Northern Europe to America in the1840s and 1850s

 

c. The rise of a business class of merchants and manufacturers

 

d. The roles of women in New England textile factories

 

History and Geography

 

5. Explain how a cause and effect relationship is different from a sequence or correlation of events. (H, C, E)

 

6. Distinguish between long-term and short-term cause and effect relationships. (H, G, C, E)

 

7. Show connections, causal and otherwise, between particular historical events and ideas and larger social, economic, and political trends and developments. (H, G, C, E)

 

Assignment:

 

In your class journal answer the following question we discussed in class:  Were the mill girls treated fairly in terms of pay, living quarters, etc.?  Has your opinion changed as a result of the class discussion/lecture?  Use information provided in the class discussion   handouts (Time table, Company Regulations, Boarding House Regulations, and Power Loom picture.) 

 

In addition to your journal entry read Lyddie pages 62-93 

 

 

How will the essential question be assessed?

 

  • The essential question will be formally assessed thru class discussion and private journal entry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Primary Source Documents