Lesson Plan
Title: The Cost of Saving
Creator: Beth Shaw McGuire, Senior Museum Educator, Ackland Art Museum
Subject: Personal responsibility in labor and economics
Course: Civics and Economics
Grade Level: 10
Unit Plan: Labor in the U.S.
Standards:
COMPETENCY GOAL 10: The learner will develop, defend, and evaluate positions on issues regarding the personal responsibilities of citizens in the American constitutional democracy.
Objectives:
10.03 Evaluate the importance of supporting, nurturing, and educating oneself in the United States society.
10.05 Describe examples of recurring public problems and issues.
10.06 Discuss the consequences and/or benefits of the freedom of economic, legal, and political choices.
Lesson Goals:
•
Students will compare the accounts
provided by the two newspaper articles with the visual account provided by Sue
Coe.
•
Students will articulate how those
accounts are alike and different.
•
Students will identify the primary
themes in Coe’s work.
•
Students will consider economic
choices that made the Hamlet fire possible.
•
Students will consider legal and/or
political choices that made the Hamlet fire possible.
•
Students will research other labor
incidents in the past 200 years, including the Shirtwaist Company Fire in New
York City, the West Virginia Coal Mine Wars in West Virginia, and the Mt. Olive
Pickle Company Boycott in North Carolina.
Differentiation:
• Low-level readers may want to share with a partner before writing their ideas down on a post-it note or index card.
•
Determine
reading level of different excerpts, and hand out to students accordingly, or
sort groups so that students working on
the same reading level work together.
Duration: 1 ½ 90-minute periods
Teacher Materials:
•
Excerpt from The Appalachians
dealing with coal-mining strikes of 1904
•
Readings about the Shirtwaist
Factory Fire http://womenshistory.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=womenshistory&zu=http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/bibliography.html
•
Readings about the strikes in West
Virginia in 1904
•
Information about the artist Sue Coe
•
For Musical selections related to
labor, consult:
1.
More than a Paycheck,
words and music by Ysaye Maria Barnwell, (c)1981 Barnwell's Notes Publishing,
on Selections,
a 2-CD set, Rounder, 1997.
2.
Menhaden Chanteymen , worksong
singers, Won’t You Help Me to Raise ‘Em.
Global Village Music CC 220, 1990.
• Reproductions of the following image:
|
|
Sue Coe © Sue Coe: all reproduction rights
reserved. |
Student Materials:
•
Copies of Poultry Packing Fire
and text within it
•
Copies of News and Observer
newspaper articles on the Hamlet fire from 9-04-91, 12-8-91, and 2-15-00
(requires registration).
Preparation:
Students were introduced to the concept of personal responsibility in the classroom, and how it relates to legal, economic, and political structures in the United States and North Carolina more specifically.
Procedures:
DAY 1:
1. Tell students that today they will be looking at a work of art by an American artist (born in England) who wanted to call attention to an event that took place in North Carolina. Prior to making this work of art, the artist created two series of works called Dead Meat and Porkopolis, both of which dealt with the meat packing industry and its impact on humans and animals. A series is a group of works that relate to each other by theme, idea, or subject matter. The book Dead Meat contains a reproduction of the work in the Ackland’s collection.
2. Give each student a set of index cards or sticky notes. Ask students to look at Sue Coe’s drawing. On one card, ask students to list what they see; on a second card, ask students to identify the “big idea” or most important theme of the work of art.
3. With the whole group, ask students to share an item from their lists of what they see. Collect the big idea cards, and paste them on a white board or flip chart, or ask students to group like ideas with each other as each student places his/her card on the white board or flip chart. Identify and acknowledge the different groupings to the group, and ask students to identify questions that they still have about the work.
4. Divide students into groups of four to five. Give each group a newspaper article, and ask students to take notes for each of the categories listed below. Not all of the articles will include information in all of the categories, depending upon the date. Students will use this work tomorrow, so remind them to keep this list for the next day’s lesson.
• decisions made by individuals
• decisions made by a group of people
• public problems and issues related to this event
• economic, legal and political choices that affected this event, and what choices were made and actions taken to address the damage of the event
5. Ask students to compare the image with the information in their group’s article, using a Venn diagram. What details are recalled in Sue Coe’s drawing of the event? What details are missing?
DAY 2:
1. After greeting students, ask students to review their article and notes, and prepare to share their findings with the rest of the class.
2. As each group presents, take notes of their findings on the board in each of the four categories. Make check marks as some facts are repeated, and add new details as they are presented. As a whole group, ask students what they would want to remember about this event in each category, and why.
3. Tell students that they are going to create an artistic response to an historical event that asks the viewer or listener to remember and/or respond, depending upon the date of the event. They may select one of three events -- the Shirtwaist Company Fire in New York City, the West Virginia Coal Mine Wars in West Virginia, or the Mt. Olive Pickle Company Boycott in North Carolina, and respond to it visually (drawing or collage), by writing a song, or creating a poem or monologue for performance. Play an example of a song for students (see suggestions above). Ask students NOT to sign their works so that the activity on the following day will be as objective a process as possible.
4. Provide a rubric for the project, and review it with students. Include some spaces in the rubric so that students may develop personal goals for the project. Students creating a work of art must also write a label for their work of art that clearly identifies the historical event they were thinking about when creating the work, in addition to title, medium, and date of work.
6. Tell students to use the links for each of these events to learn more about the event and to record significant details relating to their event. As students research their events, encourage them to consider which medium is best suited for their skills and the event itself.
7. By the end of the period, students will give you which event they’ve selected, and what medium they intend to use for their project.
Culminating Activities:
DAY 3:
1. Review the events for the coming day, and the order in which things will happen; include time in the agenda for students to look at visual works created by other students.
2. Divide viewers into groups, and give each group a section of the “exhibition.” Each group is responsible for looking at works in a section of 4-5 works; for each work in that section, they are to write a post-it note to the artist identifying what they appreciated most about each student’s work, and what in the work was the most effective at helping people remember an issue or call people to action. Remind students to examine each work carefully, and respond thoughtfully. (30 minutes)
3. Give each student two differently colored markers, and ask students to look at all of the works in the space quickly. Ask each student to place one of his/her markers under the work that they think is the most interesting or intriguing to look at (note that this does not say the most beautiful), and to place the other marker under the work that most compels them to action after seeing it.
4. In the last few minutes of class, acknowledge the works that have received the most acclaim, and read the attached post-it notes to suggest why.
Assessment:
• To what extent did students participate effectively in class discussions?
• To what extent did students take relevant notes on their readings?
• To what extent did students accurately compare Sue Coe’s work with information about the fire at the Imperial Foods Company?
• For the project, use the rubric provided, or one that you or students developed.
Supplemental Resources: These can be “hotlinks” or attached documents in Learning Village
Relevant Websites: These will be “hotlinks” in Learning Village
•
http://www.csun.edu/~ghy7463/mw2.html
•
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/triangle/trianglefire.html
•
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/narrative1.html
•
http://www.npr.org/programs/watc/features/2001/010325.triangle.html
•
http://americanhistory.si.edu/sweatshops/history/trifire.htm
•
http://www.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/wvh50-1.html
•
http://www.wvculture.org/history/minewars.html
•
http://www.labornotes.org/archives/2003/05/d.html
•
http://www.mtolivepickles.com/Company/Press013.html
NOTE: There are several sites related to the Mt. Olive Pickle Company boycott and its resolution; the two sites listed here are providing a glimpse of the issues cited before the boycott’s resolution, and the final agreement as articulated by the Mt. Olive Pickle company in its press release.
Key Focusing Questions:
•
What do you understand about the
Imperial Food Products fire from Sue Coe’s work? From the News and Observer
articles? In what ways are they objective? Subjective?
•
To what extent were individuals
responsible for the Imperial Food Products fire? To what extent do you think
legal, political, or economic factors responsible for the fire? Why?
•
How does the Imperial Food Products
fire relate to the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, the West Virginia Coal Mine Wars,
and the Mt. Olive Pickle Company boycott?
•
What current labor situations
deserve more attention from the general public, and why?
File Attachments:
• rubric
This lesson plan and its distribution were made possible by a grant from the Wyeth Foundation, the William Hayes Ackland Trust, and the Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
