Industrial Growth and Immigration

Student Resources:

• Industrial Growth and Immigration Essay
• Highlighters or colored writing utensils in three different colors

Anticipate

• To pre-teach vocabulary used in this lesson, give students a worksheet or set of cards where they match each vocabulary word to its simple, student-friendly definition (see suggested list below).
• After matching, ask students to sort the words into categories such as:
  • Industry & Innovation
  • Government & Policy
  • Agriculture & Society
  • People & Movement
• Optional Activity: “Speed Explain” Game- In pairs or small groups, one student pulls a word and gives a quick (15-second) explanation in their own words and/or uses it in a sentence related to U.S. history.

Student-Friendly Definitions

• Industrialization – The growth of machines and factories to make goods faster.
• Textile – A cloth or fabric made by weaving or knitting.
• Metalwork – The process of shaping metal to make tools, parts, or goods.
• Internal Improvements – Building roads, canals, and railroads to help transportation.
• Federalism – A system where power is shared between state and national governments.
• Plantations – Large farms, especially in the South, that grew crops like cotton using enslaved labor.
• Tariffs – Taxes on goods coming into the country from other places.
• Famine – A time when there is not enough food and many people go hungry.
• Immigrants – People who move to a new country to live.
• Northerner – A person from the northern part of the United States.
• Instantaneously – Happening right away, without delay.
• Patent – A legal right to be the only one who can make or sell an invention.
• Immigrate – To come into a country to live there permanently.
• Purchaser – A person who buys something.

Engage

• Identify one side of the room as state and one side as federal. Read the following scenarios and have students move to the side that they believe should be responsible for funding the scenario.
  • It’s the ‘olden days’ and mail is delivered by horseback, but a new technology called the telegraph can make communication faster. Who should be responsible for building telegraph lines? The state or federal government?
  • Transportation is speeding up thanks to the invention of the steam engine, now ships and trains can transport goods faster than ever, who should help expand by building canals and railroads? State or federal?
• Ask any student that moved sides why they switched.
• Ask any students on the federal side why they think the federal government should be responsible.
• Ask any student on the state side why they think the states should be responsible.
• Ask students why a division of people who think states or federal government should be responsible for funding projects like these would be an issue for the country?

Explore

• Glossary terms: Terms used in this lesson for pre-teach opportunities or vocabulary support:
  • economy, society, culture, inference
• Have students return to their seats and distribute the essays and colored writing utensils
• Instruct students to read the essay independently.

Scaffolding note: Teacher read-aloud and modeling, or partner reading are other options for methods of reading in this activity. See the Modes of Reading Teacher Support Resource descriptions of each.

• While students read, highlight or underline in one color a claim about the economy, and in a second color, a claim about society, and in the third color, a claim about culture.
• Then, they support the highlighted claim with a quote or paraphrase from the reading. They can circle this quote with the same color used to highlight or underline.
• Finally, they make an inference: what does this suggest about the era or its consequences? They can write this in the margins of the essay or on a separate piece of paper.

Assess & Reflect

• Thesis Statement
  • Provide students with the following prompt:
    • In your opinion, based on the essay, is the economy, society or culture likely to experience the most transformation due to Industrialization? Write a thesis to answer the question.

Scaffolding note: Consult our deconstructed DBQ resources for more support in teaching, supporting, and evaluating the skill of writing a thesis.

AND/OR

• Federalism Writing Task:
  • Introduce or reinforce the concept of federalism:
    • The national and state governments have a balance of separate and shared powers. The people delegate certain powers to the national government through the Constitution, while the states retain other powers; and the people retain all powers not delegated to the governing bodies.
  • Draw student thinking back to the engage activity and ask students how understanding this might change their answers.
    • Ask students a Question: Why might it be helpful-or challenging-for both state and federal governments to share power in a system like federalism during a time of big change like industrialization?
    • Student Task: Write 3-5 sentences explaining your answer. Then, in pairs or as a class, discuss whether federalism helped or hurt the country’s ability to adapt to change.

Extend (Optional)

• If you live in a region where immigration was significant in the 1800s, have students explore the origins, experiences, and impact of immigrant groups that arrived in your area during this period.