Overview

Lesson Procedure

65-70 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction20 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice15 minutes
5. Closure10 minutes

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "In 1842 the English novelist Charles Dickens spent a day in the cotton mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, and wrote these words about the young women who worked there: 'But I solemnly declare, that from all the crowd I saw in the different factories that day, I cannot recall or separate one young face that gave me a painful impression [...].' Rewrite his words in 15 words or fewer. Then write one question you would want answered before you trusted it."

   Take two or three rewrites. Most keep the core, "I cannot recall or separate one young face that gave me a painful impression," and drop "from all the crowd I saw." Then collect the questions: Who showed him around? Was he there on an ordinary day? What had he seen in English mills? Tell students that both moves, shrinking a sentence to its core and questioning where a source comes from, are part of reading history well. RH.9-10.10 asks that by the end of grade 10 they do this independently and proficiently with texts in the grades 9-10 text complexity band, the range of difficulty the Common Core sets for those grades. Today they practice on four sources about the young women, most from New England farms, who ran the Lowell cotton mills in the 1830s and 1840s: first with the teacher, then with a partner, then alone.

2. Direct Instruction20 minutes

   Part 1: The four questions. Show Diagram 1 and hand out the four-question card. Origin: who wrote this, when, for whom, and how long after the events? Core: what is the main clause of a long sentence? Terms: what did this word mean then, in this text? Claim: what is the writer saying, and from what angle, insider or visitor, at the time or years later? Explain that grades 9-10 history texts are hard for all four reasons at once, and that a strong reader notices which question a sentence needs.

   Part 2: The modeled passage. Read the context note aloud: In the 1820s Boston investors built cotton mills at Lowell, on the Merrimack River, and hired young women from New England farms to run the machines. Most lived in boarding-houses owned by the mill companies. Harriet Hanson started work in a Lowell mill as a child in 1835; as Harriet H. Robinson she later wrote for newspapers and worked for woman suffrage, and in 1898 she published a book about her years in the mills. Glossary: "operatives" (factory workers), "corporations" (the companies that owned the mills), "board" (meals and lodging), "en masse" (French, all together), "vehemently" (with strong feeling), "bravado" (a show of boldness), "functionary" (an official). Then think aloud through the passage, one question at a time.

   1One of the first strikes of cotton-factory operatives that ever took place in this country was that in Lowell, in October, 1836. When it was announced that the wages were to be cut down, great indignation was felt, and it was decided to strike, en masse. This was done. The mills were shut down, and the girls went in procession from their several corporations to the “grove” on Chapel Hill, and listened to “incendiary” speeches from early labor reformers.

   2One of the girls stood on a pump, and gave vent to the feelings of her companions in a neat speech, declaring that it was their duty to resist all attempts at cutting down the wages. This was the first time a woman had spoken in public in Lowell, and the event caused surprise and consternation among her audience.

   3Cutting down the wages was not their only grievance, nor the only cause of this strike. Hitherto the corporations had paid twenty-five cents a week towards the board of each operative, and now it was their purpose to have the girls pay the sum; and this, in addition to the cut in the wages, would make a difference of at least one dollar a week. It was estimated that as many as twelve or fifteen hundred girls turned out, and walked in procession through the streets. They had neither flags nor music, but sang songs, a favorite (but rather inappropriate) one being a parody on “I won’t be a nun.”

   [...]

   4My own recollection of this first strike (or “turn out” as it was called) is very vivid. I worked in a lower room, where I had heard the proposed strike fully, if not vehemently, discussed; I had been an ardent listener to what was said against this attempt at “oppression” on the part of the corporation, and naturally I took sides with the strikers. When the day came on which the girls were to turn out, those in the upper rooms started first, and so many of them left that our mill was at once shut down. Then, when the girls in my room stood irresolute, uncertain what to do, asking each other, “Would you?” or “Shall we turn out?” and not one of them having the courage to lead off, I, who began to think they would not go out, after all their talk, became impatient, and started on ahead, saying, with childish bravado, “I don’t care what you do, I am going to turn out, whether any one else does or not;” and I marched out, and was followed by the others.

   5As I looked back at the long line that followed me, I was more proud than I have ever been since at any success I may have achieved, and more proud than I shall ever be again until my own beloved State gives to its women citizens the right of suffrage.

   6The agent of the corporation where I then worked took some small revenges on the supposed ringleaders; on the principle of sending the weaker to the wall, my mother was turned away from her boarding-house, that functionary saying, “Mrs. Hanson, you could not prevent the older girls from turning out, but your daughter is a child, and her you could control.”

   • Origin: before reading closely

     What do the source line and the passage tell a reader about where this account comes from?

     Result: It is a memoir, a primary source by a participant, but written 62 years after the October 1836 strike (1898 - 1836 = 62), when Robinson was an adult who had worked for woman suffrage. Two phrases show the gap: "My own recollection of this first strike" and "more proud than I shall ever be again until my own beloved State gives to its women citizens the right of suffrage." Expect vivid memory, some pride, and a purpose that belongs to 1898 as much as to 1836.

   • Core: the longest sentence

     "Then, when the girls in my room stood irresolute, [...] I, who began to think they would not go out, after all their talk, became impatient, and started on ahead, saying, with childish bravado, [...] and I marched out, and was followed by the others." Who did what?

     Result: The subject is "I"; the verbs are "became impatient," "started on ahead" and "marched out." Everything before "I" is a "when" part that sets the scene, and "who began to think they would not go out" explains why. Plain version: while the older girls in her room hesitated, the child lost patience, walked out first, and the others followed her.

   • Terms: words the passage explains itself

     What do "turn out" and "operative" mean here, and how can a reader tell without a dictionary?

     Result: Robinson defines the first in a parenthesis: "this first strike (or 'turn out' as it was called)," so to turn out is to walk off the job in protest. "Operative" is the period word for a factory worker: paragraph 1 speaks of "cotton-factory operatives," and paragraph 3 of "the board of each operative," which the glossary explains. Reading "operative" as a modern "agent" would make no sense in either sentence.

   • Claim and angle: the point of the passage

     State the claim in one sentence and the angle in one phrase.

     Result: Claim: in 1836 the young women of Lowell struck together against a wage cut and a new charge for their board, and the protest was bold enough that one girl's public speech caused "surprise and consternation" and a mill agent took revenge afterward. Angle: a participant, remembering proudly as an adult, who ties the protest to women's rights. A claim such as "The girls sang a parody of a song" is too narrow: it is one detail, not the point.

   • Background and numbers: why the board charge mattered

     Paragraph 3 says the new charge, "in addition to the cut in the wages, would make a difference of at least one dollar a week." What does the reader need to know, and what does the arithmetic show?

     Result: The companies had paid twenty-five cents a week toward each worker's board and now wanted the workers to pay it. If the total loss was at least one dollar a week, then the wage cut itself was at least 75 cents a week, since 1.00 - 0.25 = 0.75, three times the board charge. Knowing that workers paid for company housing out of their wages explains why a charge of a quarter could help start a strike.

   Teacher tip. Model one wrong turn on purpose. Read "incendiary" as "set on fire," then go back and notice that Robinson puts the word in quotation marks: she is repeating what critics called the speeches, not calling them that herself. Quotation marks around a single word are a small clue that the writer is keeping her distance from it, and students will meet them again in all four sources.

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Give pairs this context note and the card with prompts, but no glossary: Charles Dickens, already a famous English novelist, toured the United States in 1842 and spent a winter day at Lowell. His travel book American Notes came out later that year, for readers in Britain. Just before this passage he describes the mill girls' clean clothes, the workrooms, the boarding-houses and the company hospital. Pairs answer each prompt in writing before they ask for help. Circulate and hear from every pair at least once.

   1I am now going to state three facts, which will startle a large class of readers on this side of the Atlantic, very much.

   2Firstly, there is a joint-stock piano in a great many of the boarding-houses. Secondly, nearly all these young ladies subscribe to circulating libraries. Thirdly, they have got up among themselves a periodical called THE LOWELL OFFERING, ‘A repository of original articles, written exclusively by females actively employed in the mills,’—which is duly printed, published, and sold; and whereof I brought away from Lowell four hundred good solid pages, which I have read from beginning to end.

   3The large class of readers, startled by these facts, will exclaim, with one voice, ‘How very preposterous!’ On my deferentially inquiring why, they will answer, ‘These things are above their station.’ In reply to that objection, I would beg to ask what their station is.

   4It is their station to work. And they do work. They labour in these mills, upon an average, twelve hours a day, which is unquestionably work, and pretty tight work too. Perhaps it is above their station to indulge in such amusements, on any terms. Are we quite sure that we in England have not formed our ideas of the ‘station’ of working people, from accustoming ourselves to the contemplation of that class as they are, and not as they might be? I think that if we examine our own feelings, we shall find that the pianos, and the circulating libraries, and even the Lowell Offering, startle us by their novelty, and not by their bearing upon any abstract question of right or wrong.

   5For myself, I know no station in which, the occupation of to-day cheerfully done and the occupation of to-morrow cheerfully looked to, any one of these pursuits is not most humanising and laudable. I know no station which is rendered more endurable to the person in it, or more safe to the person out of it, by having ignorance for its associate. I know no station which has a right to monopolise the means of mutual instruction, improvement, and rational entertainment; or which has ever continued to be a station very long, after seeking to do so.

   1. Origin. Prompt: find two phrases that show who Dickens expects to read this. Teacher note: "a large class of readers on this side of the Atlantic" (paragraph 1) and "we in England" (paragraph 4). He writes as a visitor, for English readers, in the year of his visit.
   2. Core. Prompt: shrink the question in paragraph 4 that begins "Are we quite sure." Teacher note: the core is "Are we quite sure that we in England have not formed our ideas of the 'station' of working people"; the rest, "from accustoming ourselves to the contemplation of that class as they are, and not as they might be," says how those ideas were formed. Plain version: maybe the English think workers belong low only because that is where they are used to seeing them.
   3. Terms. Prompt: work out "station," "joint-stock piano" and "circulating libraries." Teacher note: "station" is a person's rank or place in society, the meaning the whole argument turns on; a joint-stock piano is owned in shares by the boarders, the way a joint-stock company is owned by its shareholders; circulating libraries lend books to members who pay a fee.
   4. Claim. Prompt: state Dickens's claim and the angle in two sentences. Teacher note: claim, the English are startled by the mill girls' pianos, libraries and magazine only because these things are new to them, and no class of people has a right to keep learning to itself; angle, an English visitor who uses Lowell to criticize English attitudes toward working people.

   Close by asking pairs which question took longest. Many choose Core, because of paragraph 5's long "I know no station" sentences, or Terms, because "station" shifts from a word the readers use to a word Dickens questions. Tell students that for Source 3 they will get a one-sentence context note and the card with question names only.

4. Independent Practice15 minutes

   Each student reads alone, with the card that shows only the four question names. Context note: Michel Chevalier, a French engineer sent by his government to study American railroads and canals, wrote this letter from Boston in June 1834 for readers in France, and it was printed in English in 1839. Students mark each place they got stuck, write the question they used there, and finish with a two-sentence claim and angle. Collect the claims before the quiz, which uses this passage.

   1The introduction of the manufacturing system into a new country, under the empire of very different circumstances, is an event worthy of the closest attention. No sooner was I recovered from the sort of giddiness with which I was seized at the sight of this extemporaneous town, hardly had I taken time to touch it, to make sure that it was not a pasteboard town, like those which Potemkin erected for Catherine along the road to Byzantium, when I set myself to inquire, how far the creation of manufactures in this country, had given rise to the same dangers in regard to the welfare and morals of the working class, and in regard to the security of the rich and of public order, as in Europe; and through the polite attention of the agents of the two principal companies (the Merrimack and the Lawrence), I was able to satisfy my curiosity. The cotton manufacture alone employs six thousand persons in Lowell; of this number nearly five thousand are young women from 17 to 24 years of age, the daughters of farmers from the different New England States, and particularly from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont; they are here remote from their families, and under their own control. On seeing them pass through the streets in the morning and evening and at their meal-hours, neatly dressed; on finding their scarfs, and shawls, and green silk hoods which they wear as a shelter from the sun and dust (for Lowell is not yet paved), hanging up in the factories amidst the flowers and shrubs, which they cultivate, I said to myself, this, then, is not like Manchester; and when I was informed of the rate of their wages, I understood that it was not at all like Manchester. The following are the average weekly wages paid by the Merrimack corporation last May.

   [...]

   2These numbers are averages; the wages of the more skilful hands amounting to five, and sometimes nearly six dollars. Note that last March, in consequence of the crisis occasioned by the President's quarrel with the Bank, there was a general reduction of from 30 to 40 cents a week. You know how much smaller are the wages of women than of men; there are few women in Europe, out of a few great cities, who can earn more than 20 cents a day or one dollar a week. It must also be remembered, that, in the United States the necessaries of life are not only much cheaper than in England, but even than in France, so that a great many of these girls can save a dollar or a dollar and a half a week. After spending four years in the factories, they may have a little fortune of 250 or 300 dollars, when they often quit work and marry.

5. Closure10 minutes

   Exit ticket (sticky note): (1) Copy the sentence in Source 3 that took you longest and write its core. (2) Rate your reading of Source 3 as "needed help," "used the card" or "read it on my own," with one reason.

   Teacher note on the sources: The passages are quoted exactly as printed in 1839, 1845, 1898 and 1913, with the writers' spellings and punctuation. None contains a slur. Period words such as "females" and "operatives" were ordinary then. In Source 4, Ellen says she will not "be a white slave." Keep the phrase and name it for students. In the 1830s and 1840s, Northern mill workers and labor reformers often compared long hours, factory bells and wage cuts to slavery, with phrases such as "white slave" and "wage slavery"; the verse cut from Source 1, the strikers' song of 1836, has the line "I cannot be a slave." The workers used the comparison to protest their loss of independence. It was disputed at the time: many abolitionists objected that it played down the evil of slavery, and defenders of slavery turned it around to claim that enslaved people in the South were better off than Northern workers. Help students test the comparison against chattel slavery in the same years, which held about two and a half million people in the United States (1840 census) as property for life: enslaved people could be bought and sold, separated from their families and held by violence, received no wages, and passed their status to their children. The mill women were paid, and, like Ellen, could give notice and leave. The phrase shows how the workers understood their own freedom; it does not describe what slavery was.

   For homework: students read the passage below on their own, with no card and no context note beyond its source line.

   1"I will not stay in Lowell any longer; I am determined to give my notice this very day," said Ellen Collins, as the earliest bell was tolling to remind us of the hour for labor.

   2"Why, what is the matter, Ellen? It seems to me you have dreamed out a new idea! Where do you think of going? and what for?"

   3"I am going home, where I shall not be obliged to rise so early in the morning, nor be dragged about by the ringing of a bell, nor confined in a close noisy room from morning till night. I will not stay here; I am determined to go home in a fortnight."

   [...]

   4"And so, Ellen," said I, "you think it unpleasant to rise so early in the morning, and be confined in the noisy mill so many hours during the day. And I think so, too. All this, and much more, is very annoying, no doubt. But we must not forget that there are advantages, as well as disadvantages, in this employment, as in every other. If we expect to find all sunshine and flowers in any station in life, we shall most surely be disappointed. We are very busily engaged during the day; but then we have the evening to ourselves, with no one to dictate to or control us. I have frequently heard you say, that you would not be confined to household duties, and that you dislike the millinery business altogether, because you could not have your evenings for leisure. You know that in Lowell we have schools, lectures, and meetings of every description, for moral and intellectual improvement."

   5"All that is very true," replied Ellen, "but if we were to attend every public institution, and every evening school which offers itself for our improvement, we might spend every farthing of our earnings, and even more. Then if sickness should overtake us, what are the probable consequences? Here we are, far from kindred and home; and if we have an empty purse, we shall be destitute of friends also."

   6"I do not think so, Ellen. I believe there is no place where there are so many advantages within the reach of the laboring class of people, as exist here; where there is so much equality, so few aristocratic distinctions, and such good fellowship, as may be found in this community. A person has only to be honest, industrious, and moral, to secure the respect of the virtuous and good, though he may not be worth a dollar; while on the other hand, an immoral person, though he should possess wealth, is not respected."

   7"As to the morality of the place," returned Ellen, "I have no fault to find. I object to the constant hurry of everything. We cannot have time to eat, drink, or sleep; we have only thirty minutes, or at most three-quarters of an hour, allowed us, to go from our work, partake of our food, and return to the noisy chatter of machinery. Up before day, at the clang of the bell--and out of the mill by the clang of the bell--into the mill, and at work, in obedience to that ding-dong of a bell--just as though we were so many living machines. I will give my notice to-morrow: go, I will--I won't stay here and be a white slave."

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Source 3 is a letter dated June 22, 1834, read here in an English translation printed in 1839. What does that origin mean for a careful reader?

   AIt describes Lowell as it was in 1839, the year the English edition was printed BA French visitor could not have understood the wages and prices he reports CA letter is always less reliable than a history written many years later DThe English is a translator's, and it records a visitor's view in 1834

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which words from Source 3 show most directly that Chevalier is writing for readers in Europe?

   A"The cotton manufacture alone employs six thousand persons in Lowell" B"You know how much smaller are the wages of women than of men" C"The following are the average weekly wages paid by the Merrimack corporation" D"they are here remote from their families, and under their own control"

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Reduce this sentence from Source 3 to its core: "No sooner was I recovered from the sort of giddiness with which I was seized at the sight of this extemporaneous town, [...] when I set myself to inquire, how far the creation of manufactures in this country, had given rise to the same dangers [...] as in Europe." What is the main statement?

   AI had recovered from the sort of giddiness that seized me at the sight of this town BThe creation of manufactures in this country had given rise to the same dangers CI set myself to inquire whether factories here had brought Europe's dangers DThe sight of this extemporaneous town seized me with a sort of giddiness

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Chevalier calls Lowell "this extemporaneous town." Using context, what does "extemporaneous" mean here?

   ABuilt so fast it seems improvised, as if it sprang up on the spot BFake, like a stage set made of pasteboard for a visiting ruler to admire CVery old, with buildings left over from an earlier age of settlement DFar away from other towns and hard for a visitor to reach from Boston

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Chevalier says he wanted "to make sure that it was not a pasteboard town, like those which Potemkin erected for Catherine along the road to Byzantium." What does this comparison suggest?

   AThat Lowell had been built by the Russian government as a copy of some older European town BThat Lowell looked so new and neat he half suspected it was a show put up for visitors CThat the mill buildings of Lowell were made of cardboard and would not last long DThat Chevalier had traveled through Russia before he came to Lowell to see the mills

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Why does Chevalier keep comparing Lowell with Manchester?

   ABecause Manchester was the French city where Chevalier had grown up and trained as an engineer BBecause the Merrimack and the Lawrence companies also owned the largest mills in Manchester CBecause Manchester, the great English mill town, stood for the dangers he feared DBecause Manchester paid its women workers more than Lowell did, and he wished to show why

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   According to paragraph 1, about what share of the six thousand people in Lowell's cotton mills were young women?

   AAbout five out of six, or roughly 83 percent BAbout one out of six, or roughly 17 percent CAbout half of them, or roughly 50 percent DAbout six out of five, or 120 percent of them

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Chevalier writes that "last March, in consequence of the crisis occasioned by the President's quarrel with the Bank, there was a general reduction." What happened, according to the passage?

   AThe bank in Lowell closed, and the mill girls lost their savings of a dollar a week BThe mill companies raised wages to keep their workers during the President's quarrel CThe President ordered the companies to pay women less than men in the cotton mills DA money crisis tied to the President's fight with the Bank led to wage cuts

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Chevalier says that many of the girls "can save a dollar or a dollar and a half a week" and that after four years "they may have a little fortune of 250 or 300 dollars." Do his numbers fit together?

   AYes: four years is about 208 weeks, and 208 weeks of such savings comes to about 208 to 312 dollars BNo: saving a dollar or a dollar and a half a week for four years comes to only about 4 to 6 dollars in all CNo: at that rate the savings would reach about 1,460 to 2,190 dollars in four years DNo: at that rate the savings would reach only about 52 to 78 dollars in four years

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which sentence best states the claim of Source 3?

    ALowell's mills were as dangerous and as poorly paid as the worst mills of Manchester BYoung women in Lowell spent all their wages on scarfs, shawls and silk hoods CLowell's mill women were neat, well paid by European standards and able to save DThe Merrimack and Lawrence companies refused to let Chevalier see their mills

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Chevalier asks whether factories had brought Europe's dangers "in regard to the security of the rich and of public order." What danger does this phrase point to?

    AThat poor, crowded factory workers might riot or rise up against property owners BThat thieves might rob the banks where the rich kept the mill companies' profits CThat the tall mill buildings might catch fire and burn down the homes of the rich DThat the rich would lose their money if cotton prices fell in the markets of Europe

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which detail in Source 3 should make a careful reader ask whether Chevalier saw the whole picture of mill life?

    A"under the empire of very different circumstances" B"through the polite attention of the agents of the two principal companies" C"for Lowell is not yet paved" D"the daughters of farmers from the different New England States, and particularly from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont"

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Source 1 describes a strike over a wage cut in October 1836, and Source 3 mentions a wage reduction in March 1834. What should a careful reader conclude?

    AThe two writers disagree about the date of the same wage cut, so one of them must be wrong BChevalier's letter describes the strike of 1836 that Robinson joined as a child CThey describe two different cuts: one in 1834 and the 1836 cut behind Robinson's strike DRobinson copied her account of the strike from Chevalier's letter, printed in 1839

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Near the end of grade 10, a student reads Source 3 well with the four-question card but loses the thread without it. According to RH.9-10.10, what is the best next step?

    ALet the student keep using the card on every history text through grade 12 BMove the student to easier texts from below the grades 9-10 band for the rest of the year CStop assigning primary sources and give the student textbook summaries instead DRead more grades 9-10 history texts with fewer supports, until reading them alone

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    Reduce this sentence from Source 3 to its core and restate it as a cause and an effect: "It must also be remembered, that, in the United States the necessaries of life are not only much cheaper than in England, but even than in France, so that a great many of these girls can save a dollar or a dollar and a half a week."

    Show model answer

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    Use context to explain what "manufactures" means in "how far the creation of manufactures in this country" and what "the more skilful hands" means in paragraph 2. Name the clue you used for each.

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17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    Paragraph 2 is full of numbers. Explain how Chevalier uses them to argue that Lowell is "not at all like Manchester," and name one thing a historian would still want to know before accepting his conclusion.

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18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Sources 2 and 3 were both written by European visitors. Name one thing the two writers do alike and one way their angles differ. Quote each source once.

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19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    Compare Source 1 (Robinson) with Source 3 (Chevalier). What does the insider see that the visitor does not? Support your answer with a quotation from each.

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20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Reading record: which of the four questions did you need most for Source 3? Copy the words where you used it, explain what you did, and say what you understood afterward.

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These standards connect to RH.9-10.10: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.

Standard text: Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy. © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.