Unit Overview
This unit is centered on the Industrial Revolution in Britain and America during the 19 th century. Historically, the Industrial Revolution is especially unique as a benchmark because it acted as a major transitional force that resulted in the advent of cities, factories, urbanization, and new structuring around labor, class and power. Furthermore, inequities surrounding class and gender were magnified as a result of the dramatic expansion of commerce, industry and the demand for profit. My unit will utilize artwork and primary sources reflecting the issues surrounding the industrial revolution as a means to help students better understand the experience of the industrial worker through the lens of gender and class. Students will examine artwork by a variety of artists along with journals, diaries, letters and other primary sources written by workers who have documented their unique experience as firsthand witnesses to and participants in the industrial revolution. For clarification purposes, my aim is not to teach art, but rather, to use art as a tool to teacher a historical event.
This unit will be taught in my 10 th grade World History class but will utilize reading strategies, writing models that are being taught concurrently in my 10 th grade English class. The length of the unit will be three weeks. On a block schedule, I see my students approximately 4 hours per week over a three-day period. With that being said, students will be engaged with this unit for a total of 12 hours over a nine day period.
From a content standpoint, this unit aims to help students gain a deeper understanding of how the Industrial Revolution impacted the lives of the common citizen- notably, women, children and working-class laborers. Secondly, students will recognize how the demand for profit on a commercial level completely transformed the way labor was characterized on an industrial level in that workers were subject to exploitation, demoralization and degradation. Thirdly, Students will learn how the social consequences stemming from the industrial revolution significantly lowered the standard of living for working class men and women. Lastly, students will be able to identify trends and patterns between the general experiences of marginalized groups and how these experiences fit into the larger historical context surrounding the rise of industry in America and Great Britain in the 19 th century.
From an academic standpoint, students will develop a rigorous approach to interpreting visual artwork in conjunction with text that has application in Social Science classes. Students will also learn how to consider and make meaning of the context surrounding a piece of artwork itself, namely the significance of the artist's background, biases and intentions, and why understanding these contextual components are important to gaining perspective on an historical topic. Students will learn how to examine evidence, gather facts, identify assumptions and form conclusions from artwork and primary sources. Furthermore, students will learn to corroborate and draw meaningful connections between various art and primary sources and determine their broad historical significance. Lastly, I hope students will gain an appreciation for art as a vehicle for communicating, criticizing and reflecting history as well as contemporary life.
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