People at Work: Teaching Suggestions and Materials Needed

People at Work

Teaching Suggestions

Student Notebooks

Students need to keep a notebook for People at Work. One way to organize the notebook is to use dividers for the following: Present-Day Interview, American Dream, Workplace Theme, Pre-Industrial Era, Industrial Era, Research Skills, Legislation, and Glossary.

Classroom Visitors

Over the course of this module, consider inviting to the classroom several visitors representing local businesses, professional or trade organizations, colleges or universities, and the community. For ideas about locating potential speakers, refer to the Ford PAS Web site. Be sure to contact business or university representatives to schedule a visit at least one month before beginning the module.

Video (optional)

In Activity 5, an optional viewing of a 15-minute-long segment of the video Eyes on the Prize—Episode 4: No Easy Walk (1962-1966) is recommended. This episode from the critically acclaimed documentary series on the American Civil Rights Movement includes the Children's March, Kennedy's announcement of a civil rights bill, and the March on Washington. Broadcast nationally in 1987, it is no longer distributed by PBS or any other company due to copyright renewal issues. Due to its popularity, however, many libraries and schools have VHS copies of the 6 episodes, making it relatively easy to locate a copy and show this historic video to your students.It may be available at your local library or a used copy may be found at reseller Web sites such as Amazon or ebay.

Ongoing Assignments

In People at Work, students have two ongoing assignments: conducting a present-day interview and writing a narrative based on that interview, and working in teams to develop a Web exhibit about workplace themes.

Present-Day Interview and Narrative

In Activity 1, students are assigned to write a narrative about what the workplace of today is like. They interview someone who is employed and write a narrative based on the information they gather from the interview. All interviews are to be completed by Activity 4, and the present-day narratives are due by the beginning of Activity 6. Students use the interviews and narratives as sources of information for the development of the class Web exhibit.

Web Exhibit

Throughout People at Work, students work in teams to develop the content for a Web exhibit on a specific workplace theme that they will post to a class Web site. The web exhibit content includes information from an Industrial Era research project that spans Activities 3 and 4. In Activity 6, students create their Web exhibits.
Depending on students’ skill levels and the availability of software, they can build the Web exhibits on their own or use the People at Work Web Site Template which you may download. Read the People at Work Web Site Template Instructions to learn how to use the template. If it is not possible for students to create Web exhibits, they may instead create Microsoft® PowerPoint® presentations that include the same information.

Alternative

If you find that students need more time to complete their research projects than the Module 3 Calendar recommends, consider skipping Activity 5, “Labor and Legislation.” This activity focuses on important legislation that has had an impact on the workplace. Students can complete their research and web exhibits, however, without completing this activity.

Reading Primary Source Documents

People at Work includes a number of historical documents that use vocabulary students are not likely to be familiar with. Because of the quantity of unfamiliar vocabulary in these documents, such terms are not included in the activity-by-activity listing of vocabulary words. You may need to help students understand and interpret some of these documents, but emphasize that they do not need to comprehend every word in order to get the gist of the reading. Here are links to sites that provide guidance in assisting students to read primary source documents:

Materials Needed for Module 3

Activity 1: What is the American Dream? (4 Sessions)

SESSIONS 1 AND 2

Optional: Copies of RM 1.1 Today’s Workplace (one copy for each student)
Individual quotations from RM 1.2 American Dream Quotations to post around the classroom
Copies of RM 1.3 American Dream Assessment (one copy for each student)
Copies of RM 1.4 Interview Questions to Revise (one copy for each pair of students)
Copies of RM 1.5 Sample Interview (two copies, one for each volunteer)

SESSION 3

Copies of RM 1.6 Interviewer Assessment (one copy for each student)
Copies of RM 1.7 Present-Day Narrative Assessment (one copy for each student)

SESSION 4

Copies of RM 1.8 Web Exhibit Assessment (one copy for each student)

Activity 2: Work During the Pre-Industrial Era (Sessions 5–9)

SESSION 5 Labeled pieces of chart paper

Copies of RM 2.1 Pre-Industrial Era Mind Map Assessment (one copy for each student)
Optional: Copies of the Pre-Industrial Research Packets (pages 20–56 in the Student Guide), if you want students to highlight information directly on the pages (one copy of the appropriate packet for each team member)

SESSION 6

Copies of RM 2.2 Sample Pre-Industrial Research Packet (one copy for each student)
Highlighters or pads of sticky notes for students to highlight information (one for each student)
Computer with Internet access and LCD projector to display the “Introduction to Colonial African American Life” section on the first page of RM 2.2 Sample Pre-Industrial Research Packet

SESSION 9

Copies of Quiz 1 (one copy for each student)
Copies of RM 2.3 Slatersville Advertisement (one copy for each student)

Activity 3: Finding Out About the Industrial Era (Sessions 10–14)

SESSION 10

Copies of RM 3.1 A Brief Biography of Andrew Carnegie (one copy for each student)

SESSION 11

Copies of RM 3.2 Industrial Era Narrative Assessment (one copy for each student)

SESSION 13

Copies of RM 3.3 Evaluate a Source (one copy for each student)

Activity 4: Applying Your Research (Sessions 15–20)

SESSION 16

Copies of RM 4.1 Writing References (one copy for each student)
Computer with Internet access and LCD projector to display RM 4.1 Writing References (or have students refer to their own copies)

SESSION 18

Labeled pieces of chart paper

SESSION 20

Copies of Quiz 2 (one copy for each student)

Activity 5: Legislation and the Workplace (Sessions 21–25)

SESSION 21

Copies of RM 5.1 , RM 5.2 , RM 5.3 , RM 5.4 , and RM 5.5 House Roles 1–5 (enough copies of the appropriate House Role for each student)
Optional: Video segment from Eyes on the Prize—Episode 4: No Easy Walk (1962–66) (approximately 15 minutes), monitor, and VCR

SESSION 23

Copies of the newspaper article you chose (one copy for each student)
Copies of RM 5.6 Peer Debate Assessment (one copy for each student)

SESSION 24

Copies of RM 5.7 What Really Happened (one copy for each student)
Computers with Internet access (one computer for each Legislation team)
Chart paper and markers for Legislation teams to describe work-related laws

SESSION 25

Computers with Internet access (at least one computer for each Web team)

Activity 6: Weaving a Web of the Workplace (Sessions 26–30)

SESSION 26

Copies of students’ Present-Day Narrative Assessment (RM 1.7)

SESSIONS 27–29

Computers with Internet access (at least one computer for each Web team)

SESSION 30

Copies of the Module 3 Test (one copy for each student)