Goals & Objectives
Students will learn about the assembly line and its affects on the economy during the Industrial Revolution and beyond. They will experience what it was like to work in an assembly line as well as crafting ones good on their own. Through a role-playing exercise, students will show an understanding of how the assembly line affected the economy during the Industrial Revolution.
California State Content & Common Core Standards
10.3 Students analyze the effects of the Industrial Revolution in England, France, Germany, Japan, and the United States. 4. Trace the evolution of work and labor, including the demise of the slave trade and the effects of immigration, mining and manufacturing, division of labor, and the union movement.
Lesson Introduction
The teacher will show a short video of the assembly line which will discuss the the benefits of the assembly line. While the video is going on the teacher will highlight key vocabulary on the board and have students take notes on it as it is a short video and the activity will give them first hand account of what it was like to work in an assembly line
Content Delivery
Teacher will give index cards to each student that have different roles. These roles will tell the student what kind of job they have in the context of the Industrial Revolution time period. The teacher will split the classroom up from those who work in factories and those that don't to produce "books". While the students are working to produce their books the teacher will be walking around as "manager" of the factory to make sure that students are working hard. If they're not they will be "fired" and forfeit their chance at obtaining extra credit.
Student Engagement
In order to get the students to be actively engaged the teacher will award the winning side with extra credit. Additionally, those that are not actively engaged will be "fired" by the manager, the teacher. The students will be instructed through a step by step process on how to build their books.
The factory students will need to work at a break neck pace and for those that are not participating they will be "fired". Those that are working on their own can take whatever pace they so desire. When the lesson is over the students can see the overall quality of the work. They will notice that although the output of the assembly line was far greater than the individual the quality in their work suffered and vice versa.
Pay scale type format. Every 5 of quality will equate to 1 extra credit point. Those within an assembly line will have to divy up their extra credit to simulate the pay that they received and individual ones can reap the benefits of their work.
- They must fold it into a small square with multiple pages
- They must cut the booklet so that it appears to be a pyramid
- Every other page is to be folded
- A star to be drawn on every corner
- One single staple to bind it all together
The factory students will need to work at a break neck pace and for those that are not participating they will be "fired". Those that are working on their own can take whatever pace they so desire. When the lesson is over the students can see the overall quality of the work. They will notice that although the output of the assembly line was far greater than the individual the quality in their work suffered and vice versa.
Pay scale type format. Every 5 of quality will equate to 1 extra credit point. Those within an assembly line will have to divy up their extra credit to simulate the pay that they received and individual ones can reap the benefits of their work.
Lesson Closure
The teacher will count each group and see who won in terms of numbers. The teacher will ask for students to share a few reasons why the assembly line came out on top. They will be instructed to jot down 3-5 things that they've learned through this activity and hand to the teacher on the way out.
Assessment
The notes will show the student level of understanding and be used as a progress monitoring assessment
Accommodations for English Learners, Striving Readers and Students with Special Needs
This lesson is especially fun for striving readers and English learners because they have an opportunity to learn a concept without having to actually read anything. They can experience for themselves what it was like to work in a factory. For the shyer kids they can be the individual workers and for those with high energy will be assigned a factory position job.