Medea E. Lamberti-Sanchez
Part I: Movie Predictions and Discussions with Questions and Answers
In the first part, the students will learn about child labor through watching specific excerpts of the movie Newsies where the students explore how the newsboys opposed child labor, and chart their responses using a web that will be categorized into specific headings having to do with why children work. They will also work with vocabulary words that are specific to the topic as well as generate a written response to the following questions: Is it wrong for younger children to work, if so, then why? And at what age should children be allowed to work? What kinds of work should children do? One question per day can be used in order to generate a focused response. I would ask students to think about children working as babysitters in the present while in the past, children worked in coal mines.
This will form the persuasive writing assignment later on in the unit. Keep in mind that the first part of the unit will include non-fiction materials as well as other documents weaved in throughout to build knowledge and provide background information to the students. The lessons in the first part could be done over three to four days; it is not recommended that they are done in one day.
A historical fiction novel,
Joshua's Song,
will be used as the core-reading text, and the teacher will read excerpts a book like
Child Labor in America; Perspectives on History Series by Juliet H. Mofford
to help the students understand what child labor is through a short article entitled
Children work the Streets
and
Strike of the Newsies,
an editorial from the New York Times written by a rival newspaper about the newsboy strike.
Classroom Activities: Lesson 1: Introduction to the Movie and Prologue
In small groups, the children will watch the video clip of the Newspaper boys preparing to strike without any conversations about the video from the teacher and the students will figure out the problem of the story by paying close attention to dialogue, facial expressions, and actions of the newspaper boys. The teacher will generate conversation after the video clip to prompt the students to think about what they saw and thought about the characters, settings, and dialogue between characters. The teacher will chart responses from the students on chart paper. The main heading will be child labor and the surrounding circles could be subtitles labeled: Why did the newsboys work? What ages do you think the newsboys were? Is it wrong for the children to be allowed to work? What is the setting? What are the newsboys wearing? All of these categories could be used, or just some, depending on the teacher's discretion. After responses are generated, the students will then write a quick response about working children.
Next, the students will be given a written paper with the prologue from the movie on it, and students will circle the words that they do not think they know the meaning of. For some students, it might be the word "pape" or "peddling" and we will create meaning for the words, say the words, and write them underneath our web so that we can add information to our child labor web of both ideas that the students had about children at work as well as vocabulary associated with child labor in general and the newspaper boy strike. Students can use the words in sentences and then illustrate a picture, if extra support is needed.
Lastly, the students will read two informational articles,
Strike of the Newsies
and
Children Work the City Streets
and will read aloud the title and article for fluency and vocabulary, add to web, if needed any vocabulary, and lastly summarize the article by identifying and organizing the topic and its details. Is there any information that can be added to the child labor web? If so, then the teacher will generate discussions and prompt the students to respond. The summary of the two articles will be used as an exit slip for the closure of the lesson. The students will be asked to keep the web with the new information in their notebook, and the teacher will retain his or her chart paper posted on the wall in the room.
Part II: Research of a Specific Person, or Organization Associated with Child Labor
Students will research a person associated with child labor in the technology center, library, or the classroom to become an expert on. This is the person that they will become on the talk show for the culminating project. Each student will choose the person from a list of names that the teacher compiled. The raffle jar will hold the names of the people, and once the student picks the person, then they will begin to work on finding answers to specific questions that the teacher will have previously generated and distribute to the students at this time.
Classroom Activities: Lesson 2: Photographs and Technology
At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher will begin with one picture of one of the following: a group of newsboys, a single newsboy, Randolph Hearst, Joseph Pulitzer, or Theodore Roosevelt. The teacher will not disclose the person's name, but the teacher will open up the conversation about what the children see in the picture, very careful not to give away what the picture is about. Responses will form and this will lead us into a conversation about the nature of the picture. It is at this point that the teacher will tell who the picture depicts. The picture can show on an LCD projector, a photocopied picture distributed to each student, or a slide of a picture. Teachers can use the internet browsers like Google or Yahoo to locate a photo to use, or it can be taken from a book, whichever is easier to locate. Students can also write about what the picture looks like, if a written response is needed for closure of the lesson, or the exit slip. Photographs provide the students with a visual depiction of what life was like and also may give clues to the dress of the time period.
Next, the students will be taken to the computer lab where a typed set of questions will be given to the students for them to answer about the person they choose to research. The teacher may use the same photograph to model how to find photos on their people of choice. The teacher will model how to use the internet explorer icon to get to a website browser. The teacher will make suggestions about what to type in order for the students to get to the information that that is needed to complete the assignment. The teacher will model a website and discuss how to read a website correctly, locate the homepage where information is located for the sake of a bibliography, and show the students what pages are great for information and which ones to stay away from. The teacher will circulate around the room to make sure that the students are not copying the website, and are locating appropriate web pages to be on. Students will write down their answers and when finished, type them on Microsoft word. Some of the questions might ask about personal information having to do with the person's siblings, marriages, childhood, while other questions might ask for them to find the person's role in the newsboy strike/child labor issue. If the teacher needs a closure, he or she can ask the students to name one fact that they have learned so far about the person.
Part III- Perspectives
Letter-writing will be the next part of the unit after the students have become an expert on their person through their research. The letter will be written from the perspective of the person and how he or she feels about child labor, in general. The letter could be from a newsboy to Teddy Roosevelt, or the letter could be written to the National Child labor organization from a newsboy, or Teddy Roosevelt. The student has a choice about how he or she wants his or her letter to read. This is a persuasive letter focusing on the questions: Is it wrong for young people to work, and what age should they be able to work for compensation that is fair? Here, they have a chance to synthesize the information that they've learned and have taken notes on and build a case for their writing. The catch is that the students must write from the person's perspective regardless of their viewpoints on the topic. That is why it is important for them to be knowledgeable about the person they have and know what he or she believed in. Students will have to draft their work, edit, revise, rewrite, and share out to their peers at the conclusion of the lessons. Students may be asked to present their letter, if they feel inclined and willing to do so.
Classroom Activities: Lesson 3: A Walk in Their Shoes for One Day
In this classroom writing lesson, the teacher will teach the students the acronym RAFT. Raft stands for role, audience, format, and topic. The role is the person that the student has researched and it is the perspective that the letter is written from. The audience refers to who the letter is written for (i.e. newsboys, president), the format is the letter, and the topic will be the person's views on child labor. Each student will receive a graphic organizer template displaying these four categories. This template will help the students organize their thoughts, find the audience, and the main idea. This will help make sure all the important elements are placed into the template organizer in order to prepare them to decide who they are writing the letter to, who will be their audience, and what will the subject of the letter be about. The teacher will show the students a RAFT template, and explain what each letter stands for, making sure to place the words on the chart paper with their meanings, then model how to write key responses in the template using a piece of text, like the news article read previously,
Strike of the Newsies
, written by a rival newspaper. The students can respond together during whole group, or the teacher can choose another article for the students to respond in their RAFT template to. It may be easier to model it whole group, then try independently with their information about their person.
Part IV: The Talk Show
The final piece to this unit is the ultimate talk show, where the students will be role-playing their characters that they chose to research and be interviewed by the host of the talk show, the teacher. The students will spend a few days deciding and compiling their costumes, their props, their scenery made out of construction paper and paint, and their choices in how they would like to portray their character. They will have a chance to design pictures for a pretend photo album to display of their friends or family, or design their own prop to bring with them on the pretend stage for the talk show.
Classroom Activity 4: Lesson 4: Talk, Talk, Talk
The day of the talk show, the teacher will set up the room with chairs in a semi-circle, for the contestants and a set of chairs in front of the semi-circle for the audience. There will be six to eight students that will appear on the stage for about ten to twelve minutes and they will be asked questions and will be expected to answer them from the perspective of their character. The host may ask a panel expert to share their thoughts on the question: Should children be allowed to work, and if so, at what age? It will be at this point that the guest experts can share the letter that they wrote. The audience will have a chance to ask questions to the experts as well. Role-play is the main vehicle that will tie together everything that this unit offers on their knowledge of child labor and the players of the newsboy strike of 1899.