Bobbin Girl Lesson Plan (Book)

Lesson Plan Component	Descriptors
Context	This activity will be during the industrial revolution unit.
Title and Grade	Grade 4 Post it Notes for Understanding
Length	5 Minutes before independent reading time
Relevant Standards	SS:EC:4:3.2: Describe how changes in the business cycle can impact people’s lives. (Themes: C: People, Places and Environment)  CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.1 Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
Learner Outcomes	Students will learn that post it notes can be used to improve comprehension while reading
Assessment	Students will be seen writing and sharing their post it notes
Resources	Oodles of post it notes in three colors Bobbin Girl by Emily Arnold McCully Poster or white board with three columns and the questions 'Who worked in the factory?', 'why did the work in the factory?', and 'What was working in the factory like?'
Anticipatory Set	The teacher will introduce the book: Bobbin Girl by Emily Arnold McCully. This book is about a young girl who works in the mills to support her family.
Procedures	Pre-reading Questions: Who worked in the factory? Why did they work in the factory? What was working in the factory like? Teacher will display the three column with questions where they are visible to the students. Teacher will read the question aloud and ask students to think about those questions while reading. Teacher will hand out three different colored post it notes to the students and instruct them to write their answers to the questions on them as they discover them while reading. The teacher will color coordinate the post it notes to a color boarder around the question. Example: I know who worked in the factory (yellow boarder), I'll write that on the yellow post it note. I know why they worked in the factory, ill write that on the blue post it note. Teacher will read the book aloud. Modification: If the class needs more scaffolding, the teacher will read the first two pages of the book and model finding an answer to the question and writing it on the post it note. At the end of the book, the teacher will ask the students to come place their post it notes on the poster/whiteboard under the question they answer. The teacher will praise the students and read selected answers. Example post it notes: girl can't reach the counter ruled by bells: 4:30-5:30 wake up to work hot, humid, loud dangerous, her friend gets sick and injured then fired Assessment - Teacher observes who is posting their post it notes. When reading a selection of post it notes teacher says things like 'I like how you remembered that they had to get to work at 5:30' Teacher will ask students a cause and effect: Do students remember why the mill girls were going to organize a strike or walk out. Answer: drop in price for cotton good/less play. Teacher will ask students why they believe those are related. Answer: if the factories make less money, then they will pay the girls less. Teacher will ask How were the people of the town/mill workers impacted? Answer: Lost jobs, less money to pay the boarding houses, new people moving in, fired workers moving away
Closure	The teacher will conclude with a statement on having a better understanding of working in the mills.
Modifications and/or Accommodations	All modifications/accommodations identified on Individualized Education Plans or 504 Plans are addressed. Students may sit closer to the book if they have vision or hearing problems.

Teacher Resources

Worksheet: 

Worksheet for students

Essential Questions:

What was the industrial revolution?
What was working in the factories like?
What were the mills used for, what are they used for today?

Standards:

SS:HI:4:3.2: Explore how art, music and literature often reflect and/or influence major ideas, values and conflicts of particular time periods, e.g., colonial life or industrialization in New Hampshire. (Themes: J: Human Expression and Communication)

music unit, working songs/ union songs

SS:EC:4:3.1: Illustrate cycles of economic growth and decline, e.g., New Hampshire manufacturing or agriculture. (Themes: D: Material Wants and Needs, F: Global Transformation, G: Science, Technology, and Society)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mog8NbJJN3A changing a bobin


book unit?

SS:EC:4:3.2: Describe how changes in the business cycle can impact people’s lives. (Themes: C: People, Places and Environment)

SS:GE:4:4.1: Recognize the distribution of a population and its underlying causes, e.g., rural, suburban or urban. (Themes: C: People, Places and Environment, I: Patterns of Social and Political Interaction)

talk about people moving to the mills, where they lived


SS:GE:4:4.3: Evaluate the effects of migration on the characteristics of places, e.g., cultural awareness or food choices. (Themes: E: Cultu

SS:GE:4:5.1: Illustrate how people modify the physical environment, e.g., irrigation projects or clearing land for human use. (Themes: C: People, Places and Environment, D: Material Wants and Needs)

building a mill

SS:GE:4:5.2: Examine the ways in which the physical environment provides opportunities or limitations, e.g., natural resources that first attracted settlers or natural hazards that threaten life. (Themes: C: People, Places and Environment, D: Material Wants and Needs)

using water to power the mill

SS:GE:4:5.3: Examine the effects of the use of renewable and nonrenewable resources on human systems, e.g., climate change or fluctuating oil prices. (Themes: C: People, Places and Environment, D: Material Wants and Needs)

Extra! Extra!

Click this link to learn about the movement for a 10 hour work day. Try and imagine working in a noisy and dangerous place for  only 10 hours a day?




Click this link to see a 3D model of the memorial to the 10 hour work day. It is located in Lowell, Massachusetts near the Bootts Mills.




Click this link to view the church that many mill workers would have visited.

Glossary

Bobbin
Loom
Spindle
weaver
Mill

Virtual Field Trip to Lowell!

Welcome to the Boott Cotton Mill Museum! This is very similar to the mills that were found in Manchester New Hampshire during the industrial revolution.

The mills in Lowell and Manchester were built to take raw cotton bales and turn them into the finest cloth in the world. There were many steps in turning raw cotton into cloth.

As we explore the mills, I want you to think about what it would be like to live and work in the Mills producing cotton goods.


Here we are outside of the Museum. Every day, often when the sun was not up, workers would walk to the mills.  Workers at the Lowell mills worked from 5 am until 7 pm every day except Sunday.

Lets head inside

We can see the staircase that the workers would use.  The Amoskeg mills in Manchester once employed 17,000 people! They would all have to use stair cases similar to this one to get to the floor they worked on. How do these stairs compare to staircases in your home and school?

Here we can get a good look at one of the looms.

Follow this LINK to learn more about how industrial looms work. Look at all the quickly moving parts. The looms used in the Manchester Mills had even more exposed parts. Injuries were frequent. What do you think would happen if you were hurt by one of the machines?



When you look around, take a careful look at the ceiling above the machines. Do you see the belts that connect the machines to the drive shafts? Mills were powered by falling water. That power would be transferred using drive shafts, gears, pulleys and belts. Cars use belts, drive shafts and gears to move power similar to how the mills did. However, unlike today belts of the industrial revolution were made of leather! Could you imagine your car using leather to move?

Follow this LINK to learn about how water was used to power mills. Can you think of ways we use water to power our lives today?

Click me to hear the sounds of the machines running!Have a listen and hear what it sounds like when only a few of these machines are running. Imagine how your ears would feel after listening to them for 12 hours a day!

Thread and how to make it

Here is a video showing bobbins being wound. This isn't the machine you can see in the photo-sphere, but it is similar. There is nothing to prevent hair or cloths being caught in the machinery.

In this corner of the mill floor you can see a Leesona model 90 bobbin winding machine. This machine has 20 spindles. The bobbins hold thread that the Looms use. During the industrial revolution, mills would fill most of a floor with these machines.



Watch this neat video (and a back up) to learn how raw cotton is turned into thread!

Inspection Machine

Here is where the cloth would be inspected.Workers would look over the entire roll of cloth and look for mistakes. Mistakes in the weaving could be caused by the weaver or the machine. Why do you think it would be important to check for mistakes in the cloth?

Think about this:

Compare the job of the mill workers to that of your parents. How long do they work everyday? What do you think it would be like to work in a cotton mill during the industrial revolution?



Sources:
Wikipedia: Lowell Mill Girls
Wikipedia: Boott Cotton Mill
National Park Service: Bootts Cotton Mill