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GRADE LEVEL: High School |
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THE
ACTIVITIES
THE
NOT SO GILDED AGE
Description: An analysis of the Industrial Revolution and its contribution to issues of urban growth and development since that era.
GO DIRECTLY TO:
- Goals and Objectives
- Procedure and Teaching Suggestions
- Student Activity
- Additional Internet Resources
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Students will learn the following:
- Language Arts — demonstrate competence in the general skills and strategies of the reading process, particularly literature. Analyze the effects on the text of the attitudes and values of the time period in which a text was written. Make abstract connections between one's own life and the character, events, motives and causes of conflicts in texts. Demonstrate a familiarity with selected literary works of enduring quality. Demonstrate an understanding of why certain literary works may be considered classics or works of enduring quality and substance.
- History — understand how the Industrial Revolution impacted America's approach to growth, development and use of natural resources. Understand the impact of the Industrial Revolution during the early and later 19th century (e.g., the impact of industrialization on the environment, the growth and spread of the factory system in America). To understand the causes, dynamics, and consequences of industrialization.
Background Information
In the century after the adoption of the federal Constitution, the United
States developed from an overwhelming agrarian society into the world'
s leading industrial power. The Industrial Revolution had an enormous
and permanent economic, technological, political, environmental, and cultural
impact that transformed both the nation's social order and the daily lives
of ordinary Americans.
Many of the contemporary models for urban planning, industrial development and transportation systems were designed and developed at the turn of the 19th Century. This understanding of the impact of the Industrial Revolution during the early and mid 19th century will bring historical perspective to the problems and issues surrounding sprawl, pollution and depletion of natural resources in the 21st century.
PROCEDURE AND TEACHING SUGGESTIONS
Inform students that successful television shows and dramas are based on creating scenes where people of differing opinions, behaviors and motives interact and often engage in some conflict and resolution with each other. These people would never meet under one roof in real life, but how colorful and different people interact with each other fascinates audiences. Explain that the students are going to create their own original television show or drama by holding a panel discussion of prominent people who have remarked on or demonstrated their ideas about industrialism's impact on America. Select books and other resources to familiarize students with the era and events. Conduct Web searches under "Industrial Revolution" (See Resources section below.)
Go
over the basics of panel discussions.
- The panel is made up of experts (often five or six) on a preselected topic (for example, the place of materialism in the panelists' lives) and they are often chosen because they have some experiences in common and some that are different
- The discussion consists mostly of remarks by the members of the panel to questions and comments from a moderator and other members of the panel
- The questions can ask for facts or opinions
Ask students what they think are the moderator's responsibilities. Explain the responsibilities as follows if necessary:
- Setting up the classroom or auditorium to make discussion easy and to help the audience hear questions and responses
- Explaining why the panel has been brought together
- Introducing each member of the panel (there should be a name tent for each panelist to sit behind)
- Clearly stating each question, directing it to the panel at large or to one individual, then giving other members of the panel a chance to respond
- Calling on panelists who indicate they have questions for one another
- Pointing out to the audience the points on which panelists seem to agree and those on which they seem to disagree
- Watching the time and eliminating some planned questions if necessary
- After the moderator and panelists have asked their questions, opening the floor to questions from the audience
 Well I believe businesses are only as healthy as the cities they operate in. And if you have constant out migration of people from the center, the center collapses or rots, and then you have a lot of poverty and crime, you eventually destroy the city. I don't have pick out any city to tell you about that, but we all know where they are and what's happened. And so, it's enlightened self-interest for the bank and its shareholders to want to have healthy cities. —Hugh
L. McColl |
Go on to describe the responsibilities of each member of this panel as follows:
- Becoming very familiar with the details of the person's life by doing research in primary and secondary sources
- Determining what the person might have thought about particular issues
- Preparing to respond to the overarching topic of the panel — Industrialism and how it changed the landscape of America's cities and social order
- Contributing to the discussion by listening actively and indicating that he or she has questions or comments about what another member has said
- Giving co-panelists time to respond; that is, not monopolizing the discussion
Having shared your expectations for the panelists and moderator, now ask for volunteers or select students to assume the roles of moderator. Finish casting by assigning students to play the following persons or other persons suggested by students for this panel discussion:
- Rachael Carlson
- Cornelius Vanderbilt
- Henry Ford
- Andrew Carnegie
- John Muir
- President Abraham Lincoln or presidents Buchanan, Pierce, Fillmore, Taylor
- Aldo Leopold
- John James Audubon
Give all panelists an opportunity to conduct research about their characters. The moderator should also familiarize him/herself with all the characters. Each student working as a panelist should concentrate on learning about the person he/ she represents but should learn a little about the other historical people as well so that all panelists can engage in meaningful conversation among themselves.
To help ensure that the panel discussion is lively, direct the panelists and moderator to meet in advance of their appearance before the audience. At that meeting, the participants should discuss what questions the panelists can anticipate from the moderator so that they can reflect on how they will answer the questions and, if necessary, review additional documents and other materials
STUDENT ACTIVITY
Proceed
with the panel discussion. Use challenging issues and problems in developing
questions. The "gray" aspect of industrialization in America
over the past two centuries has made it an important topic (often heated)
for educational discussion. The following are sample panelist questions:
- Discuss one economic, political or environmental issue your character was passionate about and how it related to positive or negative aspects of the Industrial Revolution
- Discuss the social changes in American society and culture brought on by the Industrial Revolution, and how those changes made a permanent difference on how people lived and worked in cities
- Consider how sprawl may have had its origins beginning in the 1840s and 1850s in terms of pollution, population congestion, overuse of natural resources, etc. Identify those events or changes that may have led to some of the sprawl problems America has today
ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES
- http://americanhistory.about.com/cs/industrialrev/
- http://members.aol.com/TeacherNet/Industrial.html
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