Dover Sherborn Middle School Curriculum Road Maps

 

 

Course Title:                 U.S. History                             Grade:              8         

 

Unit:                 Technology and Innovation                  

Month Presented:         Feb/March                            Unit Length (in weeks):    3         

 

Essential Question (s):

 

·          What is work?  

  • How did work and workers change during the Industrial Revolution

 

Learning Objectives:

 

1.                    Understand the forces and physical environment that influenced the unique development of the Industrial Revolution in America. 

 

2.                   Identify the changes and advances in transportation, technology, communication, as well as the organization of daily life brought about by the Industrial Revolution.

 

3.                   Analyze the costs and benefits of industrialization upon American society. 

 

4.         Identify the early reform groups and initiatives that emerged to address the problems of an industrializing American society. 

 

Skills:               Primary Document analysis, Mapmaking and analysis, Presentation and speaking                        skills, Cooperative Group work, Organizing, framing written responses

 

Instructional Strategies & Activities

 

·          Simulation:   “Beat the Clock” Factory work activity

·          “Time and Your Schedule”  Comparison Activity

·          Lowell Mills study

·          Infomercial Research (research an American 19th century invention, present in class)

·          Factory vs. Plantation – comparative analysis of rules and regulations

·          Debate:       Plantation vs. Factory—which is “better?”

·          Transportation map of United States- building of roads, canals, railroads

·          Reform Group Investigations:              early labor organizations, abolitionism, mental illness, prison reform

·          Census Data Analysis Activity:           Growth of cities, immigration

·        Nativism—“reform” 

·        Primary Source Readings:       Factory Rules, Plantation Management

·          Video/Multimedia:     “Not for Ourselves Alone.”

 

Materials Utilized:         Primary Sources, Political cartoons, Graphic organizers, Rubrics, CD-                                     Roms, Video, Overhead Projector, Art, maps, textbooks

 

Assessment Strategies:  tests, quizzes, essays, daily preparation, oral presentations,

                                                mapmaking