Key Question: How do the use of pictures help you to understand the lives of people who lived long ago?

Learning objective #1: View a photo or a drawing and interpret and analyze what is happening.
Learning objective #6: Share the information they acquire after reading or observing primary sources.

Lesson Plan: Model analyzing a photograph. Cranberry pickers

• Project picture from the Internet or make a transparency of the Cranberry Pickers.
• Have individual students write down what they see in the picture. (Students will probably list only the obvious.)
• Have students share.
• Record responses.
• Cover the photograph so that only the left half of the picture is showing.
• Have students record what they see.
• Do the same with the right half.
• Ask students if they added anything.
• Begin asking probing questions to elicit more in-depth observations. You might consider the following questions as well as questions of your own:
  • Why are these girls picking cranberries?
  • Are they having fun? How do you know?
  • Why aren't they interacting?
  • What kind of a day is this?
  • What kind of clothing are they wearing? Why?
  • What's in the background?
• Did only looking at a portion of the picture help?
• If we gave you another picture to look at, what would you do differently?

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Key Question: How do the use of pictures help you to understand the lives of people who lived long ago?

Learning objective #1: View a photo or a drawing and interpret and analyze what is happening.
Learning objective #2: Work constructively in small groups.
Learning objective #6: Share the information they acquire after reading or observing primary sources.

Lesson Plan: Analyzing photographs.

• Put students into small groups (3 or 4 students in a group).
• If you able to have groups work at computers, have them view these photographs on the Internet. (If not provide them with copies.
• Give each group a different photograph to analyze.
  • Photograph One
  • Photograph Two
  • Photograph Three
  • Photograph Four
  • Photograph Five
  • Photograph Six
• Have students write down what they see in the picture. (Students will use the techniques discussed in activity one.)
• Have students record any questions that arise from looking at their photograph.
• Project pictures one by one so all students can see the photograph.
• Have each group of students share what they learned or questions to which they would like to find answers.
• Record responses on chart paper or white board.
• Have other groups offer feedback (questions and/or comments).

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Activity Three

Key Question: What was life like for women living on a farm at this time?

Guiding Questions:

• What opportunities did they have?
• What difficulties did they face?

Learning objective #5: Understand the difference between a primary and secondary source.
Learning objective #6: Share the information they acquire after reading or observing primary sources.

Lesson Plan: Using Primary and Secondary Sources

Part One: Primary Sources (This part can be skipped if the information is not available to you.)

It is advisable to use primary documents whenever possible. Through the use of primary source material, children are introduced to characters and events through the eyes of people who lived during that time.

Primary Source Material that can be used for this activity may be obtained from the following sources:

Letter from Malenda Edwards to Sabrina dated Aug. 18, 1845 describing farm life. (Dublin page 86-88)

This letter and others are currently in the collection of the Vermont Historical Society. They can also be found in transcription in Farm to Factory: Women's Letters, 1830-1860, Thomas Dublin, ed. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993).

• If possible, distribute copies of the Malenda letter to students.
• Read excerpts from the letter.
• Have students list 3 things they learned about life on an early New England farm.
• Record on chart paper or white board.
• Address the key questions, "What is a primary source?" and "How can it be used to help us interpret history?"

Part Two: Secondary Sources (Task 2 - student web-guided exploration)

There is a wealth of secondary source material available both on the web and through the use of fiction and nonfiction books. Children should be made aware of the difference between primary and secondary sources. We suggest the book, Ox-Cart Man by Donald Hall and the following websites from Old Sturbridge Village:

All Work and a Little Play: Children in Rural New England

• If computers are available, students should work in small groups to access both sites.
• You may access the Question Sheet for All Work and a Little Play: Children in Rural New England or create your own question sheet.

You Must Work Quite Too Hard

• Divide the class into 6 groups. Assign each group a paragraph from the article, You Must Work Quite Too Hard which describes one of the following tasks:
  1. Morning Buttery Chores (paragraph 4)
  2. Baking Day (paragraph 5)
  3. Tending the Oven (paragraph 7)
  4. Working in the garden (paragraph 8)
  5. Dairying (paragraph 9)
  6. Afternoon Milking (paragraph 10)
• Have each group make a list of what that task involved.
• Have each group share with the class what they learned about their task.
• Record on chart paper or white board.

Ox-Cart Man by Donald Hall

• Read the story Ox-Cart Man
• Brainstorm with the class what this story tells us about life on the farm.

Assessment Activity

• Have students answer the key question: What was life like for women living on a farm at this time?
• They should respond either as a letter to a friend or as a diary entry.
• Rubric for this activity.

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Activity Four

Task 3 (student web-guided exploration)

Key Question: Why go to Lowell?

Guiding Questions:

• How would their life change?
• How would their social, economic and educational opportunities be affected?

Learning objective #2: Work constructively in small groups.
Learning objective #3: Understand how the role of women changed during this time period.
Learning objective #4: Verbalize the conditions that existed in the factories in Lowell.
Learning objective #6: Share the information they acquire after reading or observing primary sources.

Lesson Plan: To provide background information to students about life in the Lowell Mills. We have tried to include some primary source material, as well as secondary sources. The reading level for the primary sources can be difficult; however, we believe it is important to introduce young students to these documents when interpreting history.

• Have students work in 6 small groups at computers. (If this is not possible, print out the information for groups of students.) (Two groups studying each of the three topics below).
• The text from many of these documents is difficult. We suggest that with younger students, an adult work with each group of students to help with their understanding.
• Approaches that could be used in placing students into groups:
  • Jigsaw approach: students are placed in heterogeneous groups, each person in the group is assigned a topic to explore. Students begin to research in expert groups (includes members from each original group researching the same topic.)
  • Differentiated instruction: Students are placed in groups according to the difficulty of the text and topic. High achieving students could be given documents of greater difficulty and asked questions requiring higher order thinking.
  • Place students into heterogeneous groups to research various topics.

• Note: We have included questions sheets for each of these topics in the student web-guided exploration. They are designed to guide younger students. Older students should develop their own questions.
• Topics, levels of difficulty (easy, moderate, difficult), and resources that could be used are indicated below.
  • Two small groups should work on each of the following 3 topics:
• Life in the Mills
  • Typical Mill Girl - (Read to begin to understand key question, "Why go to Lowell?") (level of difficulty: easy)
  • The Mill Girls - (level of difficulty: moderate)
  • The Story of My Cotton Dress -(level of difficulty: moderate)
  • An Account of a Visitor to Lowell 1836- (level of difficulty: difficult)
  • Harriet Robinson - (level of difficulty: easy)
  • Leisure Time - (level of difficulty: easy)
  • "Testimony of Child Workers", Child Labor in America, Teaching With Primary Sources Series, Volume 3, Cobblestone Publishing, 1996.(level of difficulty: moderate)
• Life in the Boarding House
  • Typical Mill Girl - (Read to begin to understand key question, "Why go to Lowell?") (level of difficulty: easy)
  • The Mill Girls - (level of difficulty: moderate)
  • Meals - (level of difficulty: easy)
  • Room and Board - (level of difficulty: easy)
  • Lowell National Historic Park - (level of difficulty: moderate)
  • Lowell National Historic Park - Boarding Houses - (Read paragraphs under headings entitled, "The Boardinghouses" and "Boardinghouse Life" (level of difficulty: difficult)
  • Lowell National Historic Park - Mill Girls - (Read paragraphs under heading entitled, "Life in a Boardinghouse" (level of difficulty: moderate)
  • Boarding House Rules from the Handbook to Lowell, 1848 - (Scroll to this section of the document.) (level of difficulty: moderate)
  • Mary Paul Letters - April 12, 1846 - (Scroll down to find this letter.) (level of difficulty: difficult)
• Working Conditions in the Factory
  • Typical Mill Girl - (Read to begin to understand key question, "Why go to Lowell?") (level of difficulty: easy)
  • The Mill Girls - (level of difficulty: moderate)
  • Factory Rules from the Handbook to Lowell, 1848 - (level of difficulty: moderate)
  • Mary Paul Letters - Dec. 21, 1845 - (Scroll down to find this letter.) (level of difficulty: difficult)
  • Time Table and Questions to Ponder- (Have students look at the timetable primary source and answer the questions developed by Professor Catherine Lavender).
  • Work Day - (level of difficulty: easy)
  • Lowell National Historic Park - Mill Girls - (Read paragraphs under heading entitled, "A New Way to Live and Work" (level of difficulty: moderate)
• After researching these topics each group must present their information in a creative way. They should use the following rubric as a guide to assessment.
• Some suggestions for group presentations are:
  • a skit
  • an illustrated short story
  • a diary
  • a series of letters
  • a multimedia presentation
  • a newspaper
  • a propaganda pamphlet

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Activity Five

Key Question: What is a secondary source? (historical fiction)

Guiding Question:

• How accurately does it represent history?

Learning objective #5: Understand the difference between a primary and secondary source.

Lesson Plan: Using secondary sources (fiction)

• For students in grades 3-4, read The Bobbin Girl by Emily Arnold McCully
  • Have students write 3 things from the story that were accurate in their depiction of history. (If your school is following the John Collins approach to writing, this would be a Type 2 activity.)
  • Have students compare the picture from The Bobbin Girl on pages 3-4 depicting girls working at the loom with the this photograph.
• Another book for young children would be Hannah's Fancy Notions by Pat Ross. This is a short chapter book.
• Older students may read Lyddie by Katherine Paterson. Activities could be planned centering around this story.

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Activity Six

Task 4 (student web-guided exploration)

Key Question: How does an author, illustrator or photographer help to show how a character feels (point of view)?

Learning objective #6: Share the information they acquire after reading or observing primary sources.
Learning objective #7: Begin to interpret bias or point of view as reflected in the primary source readings and photographs.

Lesson Plan: Interpreting bias and point of view. This activity is for students in grades 6-7 or high achieving students in earlier grades.

• Have students read all four documents listed below.
• Have students consider the following questions while reading these documents. Students should be encouraged to take notes when answering these questions.
  • Who is the author?
  • What is the purpose for writing this document?
  • How does the author present his/her case?
  • What does this author make you feel?
  • What is your response to this author's argument?
  • Does he/she present a convincing case? Why or why not?
• Share answers with the class.

"I Have But One Life to Live": Sally Rice to Her Parents

THE SPIRIT OF DISCONTENT - [fiction from from the Lowell Offering ca1840]

Letters from Susan, Letter Second [fiction] - [from Lowell Offering, 1844]

A NEW ENGLAND GIRLHOOD:OUTLINED FROM MEMORY - By Lucy Larcom (1824-1893)

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Activity Seven

Task 5 (student web-guided exploration)

Essential Question: Why this choice at this time?

Guiding Questions:

• What was life like for women living on a farm at this time?
  • What opportunities did they have?
  • What difficulties did they face?
• Why go to Lowell?
  • How would their life change?
  • How would their social, economic and educational opportunities be affected?
• How did women change during this time?

Learning objective #3: Understand how the role of women changed during this time period.
Learning objective #4: Verbalize the conditions that existed in the factories in Lowell.
Learning objective #6: Share the information they acquire after reading or observing primary sources.

Lesson Plan: To process and analyze information to arrive at a conclusion. We have included the following links which may provide further background:

An Independent Mill Girl

Letters From Mill Girls

• Using all of the information have gathered so far, students should:
  • Have Abigail write a letter to a friend working in the Lowell Mills explaining her decision regarding whether or not to become a mill worker.
  • The letter should address the guiding questions (listed above for this activity) as well as any relevant information gained from their reading.
  • Students may use this rubric as a guide.

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Culminating Activity

Bringing History Home - This outstanding website was designed by the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Wellspring Foundation. Students go back in history as a character of the times. They are asked to make choices based on the information presented. Students can look at primary source documents and artifacts, tour a mill and hear the sounds of the looms, read persuasive letters, and consult a glossary of terms to help them make decisions.

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