Crosscurricular Approach to the Child Labor Practices of the 1800s and 1900s Industrial Revolution

This lessons uses primary and secondary resources to explore the parallels between the 1800s and 1900s  U.S. Industrial Revolution and how its impact has changed the practice of child labor throughout the world for the past 200 years.

Unifying Essential Question

How has the United States protected and abused the rights of child labor from the 1800s to current times to build the world's economy?

Learning Objectives

  • Students will be able to differentiate primary and secondary eyewitness accounts of the 1911 factory fire.
  • Students will understand the working conditions of factories in the 1800s and how the factory fire of 1911 led to legal reform for child and women labor into the 20th century.
  • Students will be able to use mathematics to represent victimology as well as explain how the loss of life at the 1911 factory fire could not have been prevented using only resources available at the time.
  • Students will be able to create a comparative Historical Response between the child labor practices of Francis Lowell and Samuel Slater of the 1800s and Max Blanck and Isaac Harris of 1911.


Standards Addressed

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.9

Analyze the relationship between a primary and secondary source on the same topic.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.2

Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.1

Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.4

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.8.1

Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.8.4

Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with relevant evidence, sound valid reasoning, and well-chosen details; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.3

Analyze how a text makes connections among and distinctions between individuals, ideas, or events (e.g., through comparisons, analogies, or categories).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.7

Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using different mediums (e.g., print or digital text, video, multimedia) to present a particular topic or idea.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.8.F.A.1

Understand that a function is a rule that assigns to each input exactly one output. The graph of a function is the set of ordered pairs consisting of an input and the corresponding output.1

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.8.SP.A.1
Construct and interpret scatter plots for bivariate measurement data to investigate patterns of association between two quantities. Describe patterns such as clustering, outliers, positive or negative association, linear association, and nonlinear association

Close Reading Text Set


Anchor Texts

U.N. Declaration of Human Rights, Article 25

“All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.”

U.N. Declaration of the Rights of the Child, Principle 9-

“ The child shall not be admitted to employment before an appropriate minimum age; he shall in no case be caused or permitted to engage in any occupation or employment which would prejudice his health or education, or interfere with his physical, mental, or moral development.”

Learning Objectives

  1. Extinguishing the Fire -  Students will justify mathematically why the fire pail was unsuccessful in extinguishing the fire through exploration with rate of change.
  2. Fire Ladder Rescue -  Students apply knowledge right triangles and Pythagorean Theorem to explore the failed fire ladder rescue.
  3. Letter to Michael and Hugh from Pauline Newman and Triangle Fire: A Half-Hour of Horror -  Students will read primary eyewitness accounts of the factory fire and respond to questions using textual evidence.
  4. Triangle Shirtwaist Video Lesson -  Students watch a video segment chronicling the tragic fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Using a story elements graphic organizer, students determine the various elements of the story and arrange them in the correct order on the organizer.
  5. Media Expression - Students will understand the power of the media,  its use of detailed illustration and suggestive dialog to influence their reading audience.
  6. Conflicting View -  Students  will be able to differentiate between facts and opinions by reading primary eyewitness accounts of the fire. 

Supporting Texts


 Title of Supporting Text  URL
1.  Remembering The Triangle Factory Fire Text Documents  http://trianglefire.ilr.cornell.edu/
2.     Child Labor Public Education Project https://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/laborctr/child_labor/about/causes.html
3.   Canada Factory Fire 2014  http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/foam-factory-fire-raises-sprinkler-questions-1.2588471
 4. Bangladesh Factory Fire 2012  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/world/asia/bangladesh-factory-fire-caused-by-gross-negligence.html?_r=0
 5. India Child Labor 2012  http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/06/12/factory-raids-reveal-child-labor-persists-in-india-1587419091/
 6. Undercover Report of Child Labor in Bangladesh  http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-goes-undercover-in-a-bangladesh-clothing-factory/
 7.  Child Labor during the Industrial Revolution  http://www2.needham.k12.ma.us/nhs/cur/Baker_00/2002_p7/ak_p7/childlabor.html
 8. CNN Freedom Project-
Ending Modern Day Slavery
 http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/
9. Child Labor Laws in the U.S. by the Department of Labor  http://www.youthrules.dol.gov/



Student Activities and Tasks

Assembly Line Activity

Assembly Line- Students will learn about factory conditions of the 1800s by participating in a simulation. Teacher will have the students work in small groups to create a product while reinforcing the time constraints and pressures of the daily life of a worker. Students will each be given a role with statistics about their family structure as they work during the simulation. 

Culminating Assessment 

History Responsive Written Assessment of the Factory System and Child Labor

Download: Factory Test.pdf

Pictorial summary of child labor. (Individual or group)

Comparative Historical Response between the the child labor practices of Francis Lowell & Samuel Slater of the 1800s and Max Blanck and Isaac Harris of 1911.

Fish Bowl Debate Activity- Role playing-Factory owners, Parents, Child workers speaking from various points of view on how the fire could have been prevented and what each person's responsibilities were in the factory.

Socratic Seminar- Argumentative approach

Expository Response using the English Department or School Rubric

Pre/Post –Student oral and or written critic of the intradisciplinary unit.


Background Knowledge and Prerequisite Skills

  • Students will be first introduced to Francis C. Lowell and Samuel Slater Power factory/mill systems of the 1800s.
  • Looking at primary sources using the school laptops as a research medium students will have gather background knowledge of 1800s to 2000 factory conditions involving child labor. They will directed to look at the Department of Labor-Child Labor site.
  • Students need to understand how to plot points and familiarity with the Pythagorean theorem.
  • Students must also need to be able to record information on a input/output table.


Organization of Instructional Activities

The following variety of activities are in no particular order; teachers can choose to complete them in English, History or in Math classes. We completed these lessons as a team of three teachers-English, History, and Math and simultaneously taught the lessons over a two week period.


This handout gives a historical summary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. Students can read this handout followed by a teacher lead discussion.

Download: Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Facts.pdf

This primary documents shares the multiple views of who was to be blamed from the 1911 Factory fire. This can be used to have students differentiate between facts and opinions within primary sources.

Download: Conflicting views.pdf

This is also a primary handout showing the illustrated way the media covered the factory fire of 1911. It should first be introduced as a whole class activity to review media use of illustration and suggestive dialog to influence their reading audience.

Download: Media expression.pdf

This power point is an introduction to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911. It also includes questions at the end of most slides that can be used as a whole class discussion to small group discussions.

Download: Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.pptx

This power point discusses child labor practices and changes in the laws of the 1900s and the 1800s factory conditions of Mr. Slater and Lowell.

Download: Lowell and Slater 2015.pdf

 Students will justify mathematically why the fire pail was unsuccessful in extinguishing the fire through exploration with rate of change.

Download: Extinguishing the Fire.pptx

Students apply knowledge right triangles and Pythagorean Theorem to explore the failed fire ladder rescue.

Download: Fire Ladder Rescue.pptx

Students watch a video segment chronicling the tragic fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Using a story elements graphic organizer, students determine the various elements of the story and arrange them in the correct order on the organizer.

Download: Triangle-shirtwaist-video-lesson.pdf

Letter to Michael and Hugh from Pauline Newman and Triangle Fire: A Half-Hour of Horror

Students will read primary eyewitness accounts of the factory fire and answer questions using textual evidence.

Download: Triangle Fire-half-hour-horror.pdf

Victim Function , Victim List, and Victim Domain and Range are a two-three day lesson. 

Download: VictimFunctions.pdf


Download: List of Victims.pdf


Download: VictimDomainandRange.pdf

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Video

1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Introduction


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