Lesson Title Analyzing Political Teacher Washburn Cartoons: Big Business vs. Trustbusters Grade Level 5 Duration of Lesson 45 minutes Lesson Topic This lesson will discuss the impact of big business on United States Economy SC Standards and Indicators Standard 5-3: The student will demonstrate an understanding of major domestic and foreign developments that contributed to the United States becoming a world power Indicator 5-3.4 Summarize the impact of industrialization, urbanization, and the rise of big business, including the development of monopolies; long hours, low wages, and unsafe working conditions on men, women, and children laborers; and resulting reform movements. Common Core Strategy(ies) addressed Integration of Knowledge and Ideas 7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words. Academic Vocabulary Lesson Materials Needed (attached at end of lesson) Content Narrative (What is the background information that needs to be taught to understand the context of the lesson? Be sure to include necessary citations) Industrialization Big Business Urbanization Monopolies Trust Buster Reform Package of Pens for Hook Section of Lesson The Lion Tamer Political Cartoon Political Cartoon #1 Political Cartoon #2 Analyzing Political Cartoons Handout Political Cartoon Rubric The growth of Big Business was both a cause and an effect of increased immigration. Big Business encouraged the United States government to continue an open immigration policy so that the workforce would be plentiful and cheap. Immigrants were attracted to jobs created by Big Business and enabled the businesses to grow bigger because they worked for low wages and therefore the businesses made greater profits. Big Business was also caused by the availability of natural resources (land), new inventions and technologies, capitol for investments, and the role of entrepreneurs. Men like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller developed business practices that allowed them to create monopolies. Carnegie controlled the steel industry and Rockefeller controlled the oil industry. These monopolies kept wages low and kept labor unions from
being effective. As industries grew, the United States shifted from an agrarian economy based on agriculture to an industrial economy based on manufacturing. Farmers were able to produce more crops because of mechanization. As a result, the prices they got for their crops fell (supply and demand). Unable to pay mortgages on land and equipment because of low profits, many farmers lost their farms to foreclosure and moved to the cities in search of jobs in industry. In the late 1800s, many African American sharecroppers and tenant farmers left the South for cities in the Midwest and the Northeast in search of jobs in factories and to escape Jim Crow laws. By 1920, the majority of people in the United States lived in cities. As cities grew due to the increase in immigration and movement from the farm, middle class Americans were concerned about the living conditions and the corruption of city governments. Crowded conditions led to problems providing sanitation. Issues related to water and housing contributed to opportunities for corruption among city officials who were often supported by their ethnic constituents. Middle class Americans lived in the cities too and paid taxes for city government. Progressive reformers advocated the establishment of city parks, beautification projects, safer housing, and sanitation. They also promoted teaching immigrants to adapt to their new country by establishing settlement houses where immigrants were taught social skills. Progressives were also very concerned about unsafe conditions in factories and about the long hours that workers, particularly women and children, were expected to work. They did not support labor unions actions such as collective bargaining and strikes to address these issues. Instead they advocated the passage of laws. Conditions in the factories were publicized by the increasingly popular newspapers and magazines, illustrated with photographs showing the unsafe working conditions. Writers of exposes about corporate power and unsafe working conditions were called muckrakers, a term first used by President Teddy Roosevelt, because they exposed the corruption of the system. Reformers advocated restricting child labor and passing laws requiring that children attend school. This was in direct opposition to the wishes of many working class families who needed the income provided by their working children. Workers sometimes resented the interference of reformers in their lives. Some compulsory school attendance laws were passed at the state level, but a federal child labor law was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The federal government did not successfully enforce child labor laws or minimum wage and maximum hours laws for workers until the New Deal reforms following the Great Depression. Progressives were more successful at the federal level in addressing the problems associated with Big Business. Progressives feared that Big Business not only had too much control over the economy but also that trusts had too much influence over the American government. During the late nineteenth century, Congress passed a law declaring monopolies, or trusts in restraint of trade, to be unlawful [Sherman Anti- Trust Act, 1890]. However, this law did not end monopolies because the Supreme Court limited its effectiveness. When Theodore Roosevelt became president in 1901, there was an assertive progressive in the White House. The president was encouraged by muckraking writers such as Ida Tarbell, who exposed the oil trust, and Upton Sinclair, who exposed the meat-packing trust. Roosevelt began to use the old law to successfully
Lesson Set break up trusts and earned the name trust-buster. Roosevelt also protected the rights of the consumer by pushing for the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act and he promoted the regulation of railroads. Presidents William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson continued this work and are known, along with Roosevelt, as the progressive presidents. Progressives were also concerned about improving society by controlling the moral behavior of all Americans and particularly of the immigrants. The movement to limit the consumption of alcohol [the temperance movement] had been going on since the time of the American Revolution and got a popular boost as a result of the influx of immigrants in the late nineteenth century. Some states passed prohibition laws and others passed blue laws to limit the sale of alcohol. When World War I started, propaganda against the Germans, who were known for their beer drinking and the voluntary rationing of grain, helped progressives push through Congress a national prohibition amendment that was then ratified by the states. The eighteenth amendment outlawed the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages. However, it could not stop people from drinking thus promoting illegal activities such as bootlegging and speakeasies until repealed by the twenty-first amendment in the 1930s. Content Objective(s) Students will summarize the effects of big business on the United States economy. Literacy Objective(s) Students will be able to use the new information from this lesson to write a diary entry taking the perspective of an immigrant from a primary source photograph. Students will have to write the entry by analyzing the photograph to make inferences and draw conclusions. They will need to apply their knowledge of why they left that country, reasons they decided to travel to America, what conditions were like onboard the ship and how they feel when they see the Statue of Liberty for the first time. Lesson Importance This lesson is important because it aids in student understanding of how the Industrial Revolution, urbanization, and access to resources contributed to Connections to prior and future learning the United States becoming a world power in the early twentieth century. This is the first time that students will explicitly study immigration and urbanization, in third grade students summarized the social and economic impact of developments in agriculture, industry, and technology, including the creation of Jim Crow laws, the rise and fall of textile markets, and the expansion of the railroad (3-5.1). In eighth grade, students will compare industrial development in South Carolina to industrialization in the rest of the United States, including the expansion of railroads, the development of the phosphate and the textile industries, and immigration (8-5.5). In United States History and the Constitution, students will analyze the factors that influenced the economic growth of the United States and its emergence as an industrial power, including the abundance of natural resources; government support and protection in the form of railroad subsidies, tariffs, and labor policies; and the expansion of international markets (USHC-4.2). Students will also evaluate the role of capitalism and its impact on democracy, including the ascent of new industries, the
Anticipatory Set/ Hook (Engage) increasing availability of consumer goods and the rising standard of living, the role of entrepreneurs, the rise of business through monopoly and the influence of business ideologies (USHC-4.3). In addition, students will explain the impact of industrial growth and business cycles on farmers, workers, immigrants, labor unions, and the Populist movement and the ways that these groups and the government responded to the economic problems caused by industry and business (USHC-4.4). At the beginning of the lesson, I will remind students of the contributions thus far that the United States has had in becoming a world power. To help students understand the concept of monopolies, I will tell students that they are no longer allowed to write with pencil in class, that we will be changing to pen only. I will pull out a package of brand new pens and ask students to brainstorm a list of how much they think I should charge per student for each pen. Students will give realistic responses and I will then explain to them that I can charge anything I want to charge since I am the only one who makes these certain types of writing utensils. I will then tell students that each pen will cost five dollars each. Students will share their thoughts and emotions associated with the cost. I will explain to students that because I create this product and set the price for it, I will become very powerful and wealthy and the consumer will have to pay the price since it is something that they need. I will explain to students that they just learned the concept of a monopoly also known as trusts. I will write the definition on the board and have students copy it down in their notebooks with a quick sketch on what comes to their minds. Skill Development Initial explain portion of the lesson. Introduce vocabulary, explain/demonstrate/model the skill required for the literacy objective, introduce content components. The content portion is only a brief introduction; the bulk of the student learning will take place during the guided practice activity. Introduce content components I do Skill from objective introduce/explain/model I will explain to students that monopolies or trusts had to be stopped. Often this type of control was corrupt and had poor conditions for their workers, not to mention was not fair to the consumer who was purchasing the goods. I will ask students what the job of a ghost buster was in the movie Ghostbusters. Students will of course comment that they had to get rid of the ghosts. I will ask students what they think a trust buster is. After students have had the opportunity to share their definitions I will give students the definition of a trust buster which is one who breaks up the trusts. I will show the political cartoon Lion Tamer, which shows Theodore Roosevelt as a lion tamer on Wall Street taming different trusts of the time period. As I analyze the political cartoon, I will talk aloud to myself sharing what I notice in the cartoon as I fill out my Analyzing Political Cartoons handout. During my think aloud I will be sure to point out the following: The lion tamer is Theodore Roosevelt, each lion represents a different trust of the time period, Roosevelt is attempting to tame the lions (trusts), he is wearing a medal that says Battle of San Juan and the lions are coming from Wall Street. Each of these topics I will discuss in more elaboration as I am analyzing the cartoon.
Guided Practice This is the inquiry portion of the lesson, student-centered & often cooperative learning strategies used, teacher acting as facilitator, also known as Explore. We do Activity Description Include student explore components and opportunities for them to explain their learning. After analyzing the political cartoon aloud, students will receive the same handout that they will use in their small collaborative groups to analyze political cartoons that represent trust busting of monopolies. Students will rotate through two different stations at ten minutes per table, analyzing the political cartoon and answering the questions on their handout with their group members. Checking for Understanding- Informal Assessment While the students are working in their collaborative groups, I will circulate the room and listen in on the discussions amongst them. I will use the Socratic method when students ask me questions to get them to further their thinking and draw conclusions based on their own understanding. Closure Teacher will re-visit content and answer students questions developed during the Guided Practice component. Summarize the lesson, clarify content, and revisit content and literacy objectives. Content Solidified After about twenty minutes of group work, the teacher will call the class to the carpet. During this time, the teacher will one by one display the political cartoon on the board and call on students to share what their group discovered. I will summarize the main point of the lesson by showing a brief video clip to show how big business got out of control and needed to be tamed. Students will be given directions for the independent practice component of the lesson so that they understand their expectations once back to their seats. Independent Practice You Do Students will create their own political cartoons using the Political Cartoon Rubric. Their cartoon should be colorful and portray an opinion associated with the topic of big business, monopolies and/or trusts. Students will use symbolism, exaggeration and other methods discussed in previous units to create their cartoon. Key people or objects of the time will be used to state their message. When finished, students will write a paragraph description of their cartoon. Summative/ Formal Assessment Assessment The formal assessment in this lesson will be the political cartoon and write up created during the independent practice. This will be assessed using a rubric.
Differentiation During Lesson Assessment Reflection Lesson Reflection (What went well in the lesson? What might you do differently the next time you teach it? Evaluate the success of the lesson) During the lesson, the teacher can group students who are struggling with a student who has a good understanding of the concepts being discussed. That student can act as a tutor to the struggling student and guide them in completing their portion of the assignment. For students who have difficulty with writing, the teacher can allow them to first create a list or graphic organizer describing the picture before putting the information into complete sentences. The students did a great job with the lesson and I really enjoyed hearing their discussions as they analyzed the political cartoons. There were lots of inferences being made and it was neat to hear them make connections with topics we have discussed this year. Students were actively engaged and really connected to the anticipatory set. Using the pen scenario to introduce monopolies really hooked them and made them eager to find out more throughout the lesson. The students created some very impressive political cartoons. I wasn t sure if it was going to be too challenging for them to create whatever they wanted within the given topics. Some students did struggle with zooming in on a point of view so in the future I would probably pair students up to share their ideas prior to drawing their pictures. The reflections were thoughtful and really showed me what they learned not only from the lesson but also throughout our unit. Materials Needed for Lesson Lesson Materials and Handouts Three political cartoons Standard Oil Octopus cartoon public domain http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/standard_oil_octopus_loc_color.jpg Standard Oil Monopoly cartoon http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights-managed/s5382/standard-oil-monopolypolitical-cartoon-by-cj The Lion Tamer Teddy Roosevelt political cartoon http://elections.harpweek.com/1904/cartoon-1904-medium.asp?uniqueid=47&year=1904
Student Name Date: Task: Your job is to create your own political cartoon representing the topics discussed in class: Big business, Monopolies, and/or Trustbusters. Be sure to express your opinion of the topic through pictures and words. Your goal is to persuade your audience to feel the same way you do after looking at your political cartoon. The cartoon also needs to be bright and colorful. When finished, you need to write a one paragraph analysis describing what the message is of your cartoon and why you chose the objects and or people you did. Spelling and grammar will count. Student creates a political cartoon that has a view point. Students used objects and/or people to symbolize views associated with the time period. The political cartoon is colorful, neat and effort is shown. The student wrote a one paragraph analysis of their cartoon that describes its message. Political Cartoon Rubric 3 Excellent 2 Average 1 Not Met Score: Comments:
Name: Date: POLITICAL CARTOON ANALYSIS Station # 1. What is the title of your cartoon? 2. List the objects or people you see in the cartoon. 3. What do you think these objects of people symbolize? 4. Are there any important dates being shown in the cartoon? 5. What words or phrases does the cartoonist use? 6. What historical event is the cartoon referring to? 7. What conclusions can you draw about the cartoonist s opinion? 8. How does this cartoon make you feel?
POLITICAL CARTOON #1 public domain
POLITICAL CARTOON #2 Standard Oil Monopoly Political Cartoon with J.D.Rockefeller as king of the world
POLITICAL CARTOON- THE LION TAMER
Works Cited South Carolina Department of Education (2011). 5-1.1. South Carolina standards support documents (pp. 4-6). Columbia: South Carolina Department of Education. Next! (1904). The Library of Congress. Retrieved March 18, 2013 from http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/97501086/ Standard Oil Monopoly. http://ndla.no/en/node/97829 The Lion Tamer. http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/harperframes1904.html