Teaching the Industrial Revolution through Rhyme

This blog post is part of a series of posts written by my middle level/secondary social studies education students at Wichita State University. This post was written by Brian Isbel (@isbels20 on Twitter).

The Industrial Revolution is an interesting subject, and there are many facets of this period that teachers can focus on to try to engage their students. This is the first time that I am teaching it, and I have come across a wealth of resources to help me make this unit more interesting and memorable to my students, from videos on YouTube, to various ideas about how to set up an assembly line (which I will be doing as well), to using rap and rhyme.

I used this YouTube video, as an introduction to the unit, and I am planning a lesson that will allow the students the opportunity to see firsthand how an assembly line works. But the lesson that follows is an example of how to incorporate rap and rhyme into the Social Studies. I just taught this lesson, and I can definitely see the potential for this approach, not just for the Industrial Revolution, but for just about any topic in Social Studies (and other content areas).

Lesson Plan:

Before starting the lesson itself, I asked the class this question, “By a show of hands, how many of you have trouble remembering what you’ve read when you prepare for a test?” In each class, most of the students raised their hands. Then I asked the following questions: “How many of you can remember the lyrics to your favorite song?” Almost every hand went up. “How many of you remember five song’s lyrics?” Most hands stayed up. “Ten?” A few hands dropped. “Twenty?” Half the class still had their hands up. I asked them why they could remember lyrics and not other facts. Some of the answers I got were: it’s more interesting, the beat, and the rhymes. Then I told them that we were going to use rap and rhyme to remember about life during the Industrial Revolution.

I began the lesson with a short review of some of the conditions that were present in the early factories during the Industrial Revolution. Some of the ideas I focused on were: the longs hours for low wages and no breaks, the dangerous working conditions, and the use of child labor.

Next I played the Industrial Revolution Flocabulary Rap (link here). Flocabulary is a site that has raps for just about any topic in Social Studies and any other content area. I did not tell the students that they would have a quiz immediately following the video. Almost all the students were engaged and some even moved to the beat.

I passed out a sheet of the lyrics to the rap with some of the words missing and gave five minutes to fill in the blanks. After the time was up, I went over the answers with the class. Out of the twelve missing words, most of the students got well over half of the words correct; even though this was the first time they had heard the rap, a fact that I made sure they picked up on. The words themselves were not as important as the fact that the students were remembering details they just heard once.

Before playing the rap again, I had the students get a sheet of paper out to write down any fact or idea that they felt was important from the rap. Then I played the rap one more time. After the song was over, I gave the students about five minutes to finish writing down any important facts from the video.

While they were writing, I passed out the rhyming worksheet from the Flocabulary site (link here), and modeled how to design a rap couplet, using the sheet. The rhyming couplet that I came up with and used was: 

Hydraulics used the power of a stream/ James Watt said, Hey, it’s faster using steam.

Next I broke up class into groups of 2-4 by table. Using the facts they wrote, I had the students complete the worksheet and come up with two couplets. I gave them about 10 minutes to complete. At this point I had to circulate from group to group to motivate and help them get started, since a lot of them really didn’t know what facts they could use. Once they were shown how to start, most of them took off and worked hard. The students really were excited about this activity, creating a strong emotional connection that was evident in their subsequent work in class and on quizzes.

After they had their time to work, I called the class back to order, and started letting the groups share their rhymes. I didn’t require that they rap it, but they could if they wanted. I started with volunteers and then move on to calling on each group. There was a wide variety of responses. Some groups were only able to come up with one couplet, but most at least came up with two. In fact, a few groups went above and beyond, and wrote whole verses of 8-12 lines.

Finally, I connected this activity to other content areas—explaining how they could use this idea to study for any class.

There are a few things that I will try for future classes, like possibly making this a two-day lesson to allow the students to take it home and be even more creative. Several students asked if they could use their own music as a background. Another aspect I might try in the future is to combine some of the students’ raps into a full-length song, with the students performing on video. Also, by just selecting the groups by table, I paired two girls with strong musical backgrounds together. In the future, I would like to separate such students so that more groups could benefit from their talents.

While there are some things I will alter in the future, I feel confident in saying that I will use this type of lesson for other topics throughout the year.

Resources:

http://www.flocabulary.com/industrial-revolution/

Paranoia in the Classroom: Recreating the First Red Scare with your Students

This blog post is part of a series of posts written by my middle level/secondary social studies education students at Wichita State University. This post was written by Eric Boutz (@EDBoutz on Twitter).

The First Red Scare is one of those dark periods in United States History that sometimes gets overlooked. In high school I only remember it being mentioned in passing, and even in college I felt that the topic was barely covered. When I found out it was something that I would be covering I wanted to make sure that I did the topic justice and show that even Americans have made mistakes in their history. 

  

Following World War I and the Russian Revolution the United States went through a period known as the Red Scare. While there have been two major red scares in our history, it’s the first one that seems forgotten. During this time there was a real fear that an uprising from the working class could bring a communist revolution here in the States. This led to legalized discrimination and persecution to those who “fit the profile” of a revolutionary. A shining example of this would be the Sacco and Vanzetti case from the early 1920’s. Two Italian immigrants were arrested for murder and ultimately put to death. Even to this day, controversy still surrounds the case and its sham of a trial. After learning in depth about these events, it’s not surprising why people would want to sweep this under the table.

When I began researching this topic I wanted to find something that would really engage students and push them to think what it would be like to live during that time. I eventually came across an article called Why I Lied to my Students; the title alone was enough to pull me in. In the article the teacher, Greg Schreur, talks about a simulation he set up to create paranoia in his classroom that played on the real emotions of students and also helped them think historically. The simulation had students broken up into two groups who took on different challenges. Before beginning Schreur told his students that each group had an internal traitor who would be known as the “red”, and their job would to be sabotage the challenges. Once the class finished the challenges he allowed everyone an opportunity to determine who the “reds” were. As tempers begin to rise, Schreur revealed that there were no traitors and that they had built up their frustration and paranoia based on what someone else had told them. After reading of this lesson I knew I had to do something similar with my classes. It was exactly what I was looking for.

For me to actually use this lesson in my classes I knew I was going to have to adapt it. While I kept the original intent, I made some broad changes. My first big change was to turn this simulation into a weeklong event. While giving my PowerPoint lecture I started giving little hints that “change is coming” and “not everyone in the class is who they say they are.” I wanted to get students thinking about what was going on. This led me to asking them that very question. Once I got them talking, I told them what was up. A revolutionary has been identified in the classroom and it is their job to figure out who it is.

The first person to figure out the mystery would receive extra credit, but if we reached the end of the simulation and the revolutionary was still unknown then the class would face consequences. I told them that the revolutionary would receive extra credit if made it through the simulation anonymously. Just like with Mr. Schreur’s simulation, there was no revolutionary in the classroom. To guess the revolutionary students had to write the person’s name who they thought it was and give me a reason as to why they chose that person.  

For the next week I gave the students clues in my lectures, so those who paid close attention should have been able to pick up on what I was doing. Sometimes I would throw in a curve ball just to increase paranoia. Most of the clues ended up being fairly open to interpretation; for example the first clue I gave them was, “This person was seen acting strangely in class”. At the end of Revolution Day, which is what I had dubbed as the last day of the simulation, I gave the students one last chance to determine the identity of the mystery person. Once I had dashed all of their hopes of saving themselves from the consequence, I asked for the revolutionary to please stand. The class looked around to find that no one stood up. They then directed their frustration towards me, which was exactly what I wanted.  If the students ended this simulation frustrated I felt that it would help validate what I had done. Their frustration shows that they had become invested in the simulation and could identify with historical events not only logically, but emotionally. They were likely a little upset to find out that there was no threat all along made them, but that’s what happened during the Red Scare. I felt that the simulation served its purpose.

As a wrap up activity, I asked my students what they had learned from this experience and how this related back to the Red Scare. This led to a good discussion with the students about not believing everything you hear and they also recognized that sometimes fears can be unfounded. I also tried to get them to realize that just because someone “fits a profile” it does not mean they are guilty. In the end this ended up being a really fun simulation to do with the students, and though I duped them, I feel like they enjoyed being a part of it. 

What would George Washington think of our current government?

This blog post is part of a series of posts written by my middle level/secondary social studies education students at Wichita State University. This post was written by Ross Bruggeman (@RossBruggeman1 on Twitter).

    

In our current Social Studies classes George Washington is revered as a legendary figure who, as the father of our country, is unequaled in United States history. In the current textbook used in my U.S. History I classrooms (Holt’s American Anthem) the heading above Washington’s presidency reads, “A Born LEADER” in a bold, blue font. Undoubtedly, Washington played a key role in the founding of our country and had tremendous values that guided him through his public life. However, his aforementioned role as a legend often leads us to remember him only for his past instead of relating his ideas to the present. Our textbook mentions how Washington set up his cabinet, worked with Alexander Hamilton on a financial model, squashed the Whiskey Rebellion, and gave up office with a famous farewell address. Specifically, Washington’s Farewell Address has a short excerpt that warns against political parties. Following a short lecture from textbook information, and in order for my students to gain perspective on the address, I began my lesson with the question: How would Washington view the state of the U.S. government today? Many of my students thought Washington would be satisfied with the added rights of citizens and the power the U.S. now wields in the world.

Next, in order for my students to gain a better understanding of what exactly Washington’s address was about I have my students view a short video clip about the Farewell Address (video here). This video gives a quick overview of the accomplishments of Washington’s Farewell Address, including the advice Washington offered to posterity. To reiterate this information and promote a discussion I also provided more excerpts of the address and talk with my class about them.

Washington’s Farewell Address Extolls the benefits of the federal government. "The unity of government...is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence...of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize." Warns against the party system. "It serves to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the Public Administration....agitates the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one....against another....it opens the door to foreign influence and corruption...thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another." Stresses the importance of religion and morality. "Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice?" On stable public credit. "...cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible...avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt....it is essential that you...bear in mind, that towards the payments of debts there must be Revenue, that to have Revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised, which are not...inconvenient and unpleasant..." Warns against permanent foreign alliances. "It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world..." On an over-powerful military establishment. "...avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments, which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to Republican Liberty."

We discussed all of these excerpts and my students delved deeper into the topics by asking great questions. When talking about Washington’s advice to avoid permanent, entangling alliances many students scoffed at our current international relationships. When talking about the need to avoid a party system as addressed by Washington, my students were quick to condemn the current state of our legislature where things rarely get done. But the students were really in an uproar when we discussed public credit in Washington’s view. I showed the students a website with the national debt clock included (http://www.usdebtclock.org/) and explained exactly how much each citizen in the United States owes to the government.

   
During this lesson, we discussed briefly how our world differs from the world that George Washington lived in. We discussed how our current alliances help to deter some military actions and provide better security for ourselves and our trading partners. However, given more time, I would discuss this aspect of Washington’s Farewell Address in more depth. For example, we would be able to delve deeper into why some economists believe that keeping a national debt is necessary or why many citizens do join political parties when Washington felt so strongly that these would lead to less discussion between citizens.

But, the best discussion came after a particular student asked a great question, “What can we do?” It was a simple and to the point but it was the type of questions that I hope will be asked often in my classroom. We discussed more about national debt and what our politicians are doing to fix current problems. Although this is hard to do without showing personal biases, I was able to stay above the current political fray and explain the different sides’ viewpoints.

   
After discussing this all with my students, I asked the students to write a quick one paragraph summary of what we learned during this lesson. I ended the class feeling good about how my lesson reached the students and forced them to ask the deep questions. However, to my surprise, the students came back the following day still asking questions about our current budget and how much we add to the deficit each year. It was exciting to see the students really take an interest in such an issue.

My lesson was simple in design but I felt it accomplished a main goal of my lessons: that students ask deep questions about how they can influence their country.