Teaching Strategies
The following teaching strategies are listed and described below to ensure students correctly understand the unit’s concepts. This is not an exhaustive list for this curriculum unit.
Analyzing Film and Text
Students will rely on notes from lectures and document studies to learn about the intricacies of the Labor Movement. Students will primarily rely on modified primary sources and notes from lectures. These sources are more accessible for students to comprehend than the difficult (and often lengthy) literature written on the Industrial Revolution, Gilded Age, and Labor Movement. Nonetheless, these sources will be paired with excerpts from more challenging readings from various authors to enhance student understanding. For example, students will read primary source documents from laborers in Philadelphia while watching episodes from The History Channel’s “Men Who Built America” TV series. Documents such as these are crucial for students to understand how working conditions impacted the lives of individual workers. Students will analyze the argument that each source is making, as many of these sources glorify or villainize the role of industrial magnates.
Class Discussions and Debates
To demonstrate their understanding, students will engage in class discussions and debates. After they understand the events that led to the Labor Movement, students can assign blame or responsibility for each party: industrial magnates, the federal government, individual laborers, immigrants, labor unions, and others. Students will read sources that assign blame differently. Students will then engage in a class debate or discussion to explain whom they believe most contributed to the economic growth of the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. After this, students can grade the government’s role in regulating the economy throughout the Industrial Revolution. Students will be able to choose more than just one responsible party to demonstrate how they understand the complexity of the Labor Movement altogether.
Multimillionaire Manifesto
Lastly, students will compose a manifesto. As part of the activity, students must read an excerpt from Andrew Carnegie’s Gospel of Wealth. Students will then consider the examples of the present-day “Barons of Industry” by comparing Carnegie’s philosophy to the choices and practices of modern-day figures like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Tim Cook, or Sundar Pichai. Afterward, students will reflect on the unit by writing their own manifesto to manage their future millions. Students must answer the following questions in their two-paragraph response: How would/should you treat your workers? What responsibility (if any) do you have to your community? Country? Planet? Student responses may include but are not limited to the following topics: minimum wage, workers’ benefits, labor unions, workers’ compensation, OSHA, health/safety for workers, philanthropy, technology and innovation, vertical and horizontal integration, environmental issues, and others.
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