Materials

• Teacher-selected reading, worksheet, or other reinforcement activity

Instructional Activities

1. Review content from the previous session.
   
   
2. Ask students to share the work environment of their parents (or their own work experience). Encourage students to suggest ways current workers are protected by laws. If students do not have any ideas, suggest safety laws, minimum wage, family leave act, and workman’s compensation.
   
   
3. Explain that these protections have not always been in place. Provide an explanation of the nature of work in the factory system during the nineteenth century.
   
   
4. Discuss the impact the Industrial Revolution had on slavery.
   
   
5. Discuss the impact the Industrial Revolution had on the organization of labor unions.
   
   
6. Assign a teacher-selected reading, worksheet, or other reinforcement activity using available teacher resources.