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Unit Objectives
Content Understandings
4.6 WESTWARD MOVEMENT AND INDUSTRIALIZATION: New York State
played an important role in the growth of the United States. During the
1800s, people traveled west looking for opportunities. Economic activities in
New York State are varied and have changed over time, with improvements
in transportation and technology.
4.6e Entrepreneurs and inventors associated with New York State have
made important contributions to business and technology.
Students will research several people who made important
contributions to business, technology, and New York State
communities some people to consider include Thomas Jennings,
Thomas Edison, Henry Steinway, John Jacob Bausch, Henry Lomb,
Cornelius Vanderbilt, Lewis H. Latimer, Jacob Schoellkopf, Nikola
Tesla, George Westinghouse, George Eastman, Amory Houghton,
Willis Carrier, John D. Rockefeller, Edward H. Harriman, J.P
Morgan, Hetty Green, Emily Roebling, and Elisha Otis, and others
as locally appropriate.
4.7 IMMIGRATION AND MIGRATION FROM THE EARLY 1800S TO THE
PRESENT: Many people have immigrated and migrated to New York State
contributing to its cultural growth and development.
4.7a Immigrants came to New York State for a variety of reasons.
Manhy immigrants arriving in New York City were greeted by the sight of the
Stateue of Liberty and were processed through Ellis Island.
Students will trace the arrival of various immigrant groups to
New York State in the mid-1800s, 1890s, 1920s, mid 1900s,
1990s, and today; examing why they came and where they
settled, noting the role of the Irish potato famine.
Students will explore the experiences of immigratns being
processed at Ellis Island what challenges immigrants faced.
Students will investigate factory conditions experienced by
immigrants by examining sweatshops, the Triangle Shirtwaist
Fire, the use of child labor, and the formation of labor unions.
Essential Questions for the Whole Unit
1. Why was this time period considered gilded?
2. What were the positives and negatives of traveling to the United States
and Ellis Island? Why did immigrants want to come to America?
3. Were the industrialists of The Gilded Age robber barons or captains of
industry? Or were they both?

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4. How did various people attempt to reverse the corruption that existed
in the country during this time? Who were they and how did they do
this?
5. How are the changes and innovations of The Gilded Age still seen in
our society today?
Overall Unit Assessment
For the final summative assessment, the students must take all of the
knowledge that they have learned about The Gilded Age and apply it to a
visual and written project. This will be done over the span of a few days.
The first step of the project is for the students to pick one word that they
think describes everything that they have learned about The Gilded Age.
The choice of this word is completely up to them, as long as they have an
explanation to back up their choice.
After they have chosen this word, they will pick three events that they
learned about during this unit that fit the word that they chose. Before they
start the final version of the project, they will write notes about this event to
jog their memory of how it relates to the word that they used to describe this
time period. When they have sufficient notes and explanations for the word,
they will be given 3 sheets of paper, one for each event. For each event,
they will include a picture that represent the event or change in society that
occurred. Under the picture, they will have to describe 1) what the event
was, 2) why it was important and 3) how you can see its impact in our
society today. This will incorporate their own interpretation of The Gilded
Age along with three concrete things that they learned about during the unit.
This will be graded based on a rubric score of 1-4. The rubric is attached on
the next page.

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Unit Plan for the Gilded Age

Lesson Plan #1: The Ellis Island Experience
Lesson Title: The Ellis Island Experience
Grade Level: 4th grade
Essential Question: Why is Ellis Island still an important part of American
history?
Social Studies Content Standards:
CCSS.4.7a : Immigrants came to New York State for a variety of reasons.
Many immigrants arriving in New York City were greeted by the sight of the
Statue of Liberty and were processed through Ellis Island.
Students will explore the experiences of immigrants being processed at
Ellis Island and what challenges immigrants faced.
ELA Common Core Standards
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.1 : Refer to details and examples in a text when
explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from
the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.1 : Write opinion pieces on topics or texts,
supporting a point of view with reasons and information.
4.1.B : Provide reasons that are supported by facts and details.
Learning Objectives/Academic Language
1. Students will be able to identify why people from many cultures came
to America.
2. Students will be able to compare and contrast immigration during the
Gilded Age and immigration today.
3. Students will be able to evaluate why Ellis Island is still an important
part of American history to this day.
Vocabulary: Ellis Island, culture, change, immigration, migration

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Syntax: The students will compare and contrast during the turn and talk
with their partners. They will also use syntax to support their opinions in
their writing piece.
Prior Knowledge
Of students: Students will need to have an understanding of different
cultures and communities, since they will be learning about the various
ethnicities that entered the country through Ellis Island. This will help them
to understand how different their initial experiences in America were as
compared to their homeland.
Of teacher: The teacher will need to know which students are struggling
readers and writers in the class and accommodate accordingly during the
lesson. For the writing activity, the teacher can take the struggling writers to
the back of the room and work in a smaller setting with them. In terms of
content knowledge, the teacher will also need to have an understanding of
the immigration experience.
Context for learning
This school, as well as the district, has many curriculum requirements.
All material is strictly based on the Common Core State Standards,
especially the curriculum that is used for ELA and Math. The teachers are
required to display the standards that they are going to be using that week.
In this classroom of 23 students, there are many students who leave
for leveled small group instruction. There are 2 students in the STAR
program that have been identified as at-risk. The other main program is
AIS, which a student can be placed in for Math, ELA, or for both subjects.
About 7 or 8 students (about 35% of the class) from the class leave for AIS
instruction each day. There are no students in this class with an IEP. 1
student in the class is an ELL learner and she leaves the classroom for ESL
instruction every day.
For literacy instruction, there are 3 groups based on ability. The lowest
and middle groups work directly with the teacher. They are given some sort
of diagram or graphic organizer to complete, while the higher group is given
questions that they must respond to. Both the questions and the diagram
contain the same content.
Anticipated Difficulties/Common Misconceptions
The English Language Learner will be supported through the use of
visual aids, through both the book and the visual discovery pictures.
Teaching them vocabulary words in advance and providing the words in both
English and Spanish will help her to understand them before the book is even
read. The gifted and talented students can be challenged to incorporate a
creative element into their project, perhaps drawing a picture of what they
think the immigration would look like based on the visual aids they saw
during the lesson. For the struggling readers, they will be supported by the
teacher directly when they are working on their writing activity. By reading

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the book out loud to the whole class, everyone can be supported by reading
individually and following along with the teacher as well.
Materials:
SmartBoard
Pictures of immigration
Book- Journey to Ellis Island: How my father came to America
Notebook
Motivation
(Obj. #CCSS.4.7a) (7 mins)
Planned Questions to elicit student interest:
1) If something is only thinly covered with gold, then is it really gold?
2) Can you make any guesses why this period in history might be called
The Gilded Age?
Focus: Today, we are going to start our unit on The Gilded Age. The
teacher will write the word gilded on the board. Have any of you heard
the word gilded before? Something that is gilded is covered thinly with
gold
After planned questions: This period in history is considered gilded
because our country seemed to be doing very well in all aspects of life.
However, there were a lot of bad things happening at the time that many
people did not know about. We will look at both the positives and negatives
during this unit. Now we are going to read a story about immigration.
Although there are many positives about coming to America, the people also
faced many difficulties.
Instructional Activity
(Obj: CCSS.4.7a) (25 mins)
First, the teacher will read the book Journey to Ellis Island: How my
father came to America to the class. The teacher will focus on the
illustrations in the book and ask the students what they see in the
pictures. They will be asked, Do you think immigration was an easy or
a hard process based on this book?
Next, the students will return to their seats and the teacher will put a
picture up on the board of the medical inspections that happened on
Ellis Island. They will be asked, What do you see in this picture? How
do you think the people feel? How do these pictures compare to what
we read in the story? They will also be shown a picture of people in
Ellis Island with the tags on their clothing. They will be asked the same
questions for this picture as well.
Students will then be prompted to turn and talk with their partner.
They will discuss the question: What do you think the differences are
between immigration today and immigration in The Gilded Age?

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When the whole class comes together again, any students who have
immigrated to this country themselves will be encouraged to share
their stories of immigration.
Assessment and Criteria
(Obj #CCSS.4.7a, CCSS.RL.4.1, CCSS.W.4.1) (15 mins)
Finally, the students will engage in a writing activity. They will be
asked to respond to 2 questions in their piece. The first will be, What
were the difficulties that people faced when entering America? The
second question will be, Why do you think Ellis Island is an important
part of American history? For the second question, the students will
be told that they must write this in the form of an opinion piece, using
the words that they have learned that signal an opinion such as, I
believe, I think My opinion is that This is the part of the
activity that will be assessed.
They will be informally assessed during this lesson in many ways. The
teacher will note the students responses at the beginning of the
lesson when they discuss the meaning of the word gilded. If the
students seem confused with this concept, then the teacher will
reinforce it in the upcoming lessons in the unit. When the students
turn and talk, this will also give the teacher an opportunity to walk
around and assess their discussions to see if they are thoughtful and
relevant to the topic of immigration.
They will be more formally assessed when they hand in the writing
activity at the end of the lesson. The assignment will be graded using
a rubric that includes expectations for their understanding of the topic
of immigration and their ability to write clear and concise opinionbased pieces. This rubric will be graded on a scale of 1-4.
Differentiation
-The visual discovery part of the lesson is important for differentiation
because the students will be able to see the experiences of the immigrants.
Through these pictures, the ELL student and any other struggling readers will
be able to interpret the difficulties that the immigrants faced through a visual
medium.
-The students also have an opportunity to turn and talk with a partner before
they begin their writing activity, which will help them to formulate their own
thoughts about immigration before having to articulate them through a
writing piece.
-After the teacher has identified any struggling students in the class, she can
provide sentence frames for these students when they are writing their
opinion piece. By providing sentence frames such as, I think , I
believe, My opinion is that, the students will have a better chance of
succeeding and getting their point across in a clear way. This will also get

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them into the routine of writing this way so that eventually the sentence
frames will not be needed.

Lesson Plan #2: The Horrors of Tenement Life

Grade Level: 4th grade
Essential Question: How is tenement housing different than the housing
that you see in your own neighborhood?
Standards:
Social Studies
CCSS.4.7a : Immigrants came to New York State for a variety of reasons.
Many immigrants arriving in New York City were greeted by the sight of the
Statue of Liberty and were processed through Ellis Island.
Students will trace the arrival of various immigrant groups to new York
State in the mid-1800s, 1890s, 1920s, mid-1900s, and today;
examining why they came and where they settled, noting the role of
the Irish Potato famine.

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ELA Common Core
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.2 : Write informative/explanatory texts to
examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
CCSS.ELA.LITERACY.W.4.2B : Develop the topic with facts,
definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples
related to the topic.
Learning Objectives/Academic Language:
1. Students will be able to identify what a tenement looks like and how it
is different from an apartment today.
2. Students will be able to contrast tenement housing and their own
home.
3. Students will be able to evaluate the hardships that immigrants faced
in tenement housing.
Vocabulary: tenement, hardship, immigrant, human systems, environment
and society.
Syntax: Students will have to make a claim after they finish their T-chart
based on the information that they have compiled. They will have to use the
transition word because followed by supporting details that create
evidence for the claim.
Prior Knowledge:
Of students: Students will need a basis on immigration, which they will
receive during the first lesson in this unit on The Gilded Age. They will need
to understand the difficulties that immigrants faced when coming to America
so they can connect those hardships to the ones that the immigrants
experienced in the tenements as well.
Of teacher: The teacher will need to know which students are struggling with
this unit based on the assessments from the last lesson. This will help her to
determine which students might need extra help when working on the Tchart. She can keep an eye out for them when informally walking around the
room during this activity, and if she sees a small group that is still struggling,
she can bring them to the back table for extra help. The teacher will also
need knowledge on tenements herself, such as how many stories a tenement
typically was, how many people lived in each apartment in a tenement, so
that she can be prepared if students ask any questions along these lines.
Context for Learning
This school, as well as the district, has many curriculum requirements.
All material is strictly based on the Common Core State Standards,
especially the curriculum that is used for ELA and Math. The teachers are
required to display the standards that they are going to be using that week.

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In this classroom of 23 students, there are many students who leave
for leveled small group instruction. There are 2 students in the STAR
program that have been identified as at-risk. The other main program is
AIS, which a student can be placed in for Math, ELA, or for both subjects.
About 7 or 8 students (about 35% of the class) from the class leave for AIS
instruction each day. There are no students in this class with an IEP. 1
student in the class is an ELL learner and she leaves the classroom for ESL
instruction every day.
For literacy instruction, there are 3 groups based on ability. The lowest
and middle groups work directly with the teacher. They are given some sort
of diagram or graphic organizer to complete, while the higher group is given
questions that they must respond to. Both the questions and the diagram
contain the same content.
Anticipated Difficulties/Common Misconceptions
The English Language Learner will be supported through the use of
visual aids, which include the real-life pictures of the tenement housing.
Even if they do not understand the word tenement and its formal
definition, they can form their own meaning of the word based on the
pictures that they see. They will also be supplied with the word tenement in
Spanish to make the transition between the two languages. The gifted and
talented student will be challenged to create a story behind one of the
pictures that they saw of tenement life. They will describe how the people
are feeling and the type of environment that they are in. The struggling
readers will be supported by the teacher during the writing activity through
the informal observation that the teacher is doing. If a need arises, she will
take these students to the back of the room to brainstorm ideas together and
then let them create their claim individually.
Materials
Pictures of tenements
Masking tape
SmartBoard
Worksheet with T-chart
Motivation
(Obj. # ) (10 mins)
Planned questions to elicit student interest:
-Does the tenement in these pictures look clean?
-Is there a lot of space?
-How is it different from where you live?
The lesson will start with pictures of a tenement, including the people that
live inside it (see attached pictures). In our previous lesson we learned
about immigration. We learned about how people came to this country for

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new opportunities, but they also faced many difficulties when entering
America. These difficulties did not end at Ellis Island. Many of these families
were poor because they came to this country with nothing. The word
tenement will be written on the board and the students will copy it into
their social studies notebook. The teacher will say, A tenement is a type of
apartment building, but they are very different from the apartments that we
see today. Does the tenement in these pictures look clean? Is there a lot of
space? How is it different from where you live?
Instructional Activity
(Obj. # ELA.W.4.2, ELA.W.4.2b) (20 mins)
After the class looks at the pictures together and discusses them, they
will move to the carpet. The floor will be marked with masking tape
according to the dimensions of a tenement at that time. The teacher
will ask 7 or 8 students, which would form a typical family at the time,
to participate in the activity. The teacher will instruct them to go into
the section marked by the masking tape. The teacher will remind the
students that this room would also not have a toilet, shower, or bath.
There was also no water or electricity available in the building. The
rest of the class will be asked questions about the space that the
students are occupying.
Planned questions to check for student understanding (yielding
informal assessment):
-How would this be dangerous for a family to live in?
-How would you feel as an immigrant in a tenement?

After the students have been immersed in the experience of an

immigrant in a tenement, they will return to their seats to complete a
writing activity that will solidify this information. They will be given a Tchart that will have Tenements on one side and Your
House/Apartment on the other. The students will be directed to write
down the characteristics that are associated with each type of living
situation. By doing this, they can clearly see the differences between
the two situations, and the hardships that immigrants faced even in
America. At the bottom of their sheet, they will be asked to write
which place they would rather live in. They will be required to support
their claim with at least one piece of evidence from the activity or
photographs that they interacted with throughout the lesson.

Assessment and Criteria

(Obj. # ELA.W.4.2, ELA.W.4.2b) (10 mins)
Finally, the whole class will discuss their answers to the t-chart graphic
organizer. This will be an informal assessment based on the students
answers. The teacher will be able to see which students were able to

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grasp the hardships of tenement life in the characteristics that they put
on their chart, as well as in their explanation of the reasons why they
would not want to live in a tenement. The teacher will also hand out
an exit slip, which will ask the students to write one thing that they
have learned about tenements and one question that they still have
about society during The Gilded Age. The teacher will collect this and
it will be another way to informally assess them after the lesson is
over. It is not as important to have a formal assessment for this lesson
because the students were given a rubric for the last lesson.
The students will also be informally assessed throughout the lesson.
During the two activities at the beginning of the lesson, they will be
assessed on the quality of their answers that they are able to give.
Participation during the visual discovery and interactive tenement part
of the lesson is crucial, so this will be especially noted when assessing
the students.
During the writing activity, the teacher will walk around and observe
the characteristics that the students are including in their charts. The
teacher will be able to assess the quality of their understanding
because the students are working individually on this assignment.
Based on the assessment, the teacher can alter her instruction to
accommodate these students by placing them in a small group to work
together.

Differentiation
This lesson is differentiated in many ways. It accommodates ELL
learners and students with special needs because there are many rich visual
experiences that are incorporated into the lesson. The vocabulary word
tenement is expressed in a multimodal way, both through literacy and
visual aids. This way the students that may not understand the English
definition can gain the knowledge through physically interacting with what a
tenement is.
The t-chart will help struggling readers because it is an easy way to
organize information that will help the students to understand the learning
objectives and essential question of this lesson. It can organize their
thoughts about what they have just learned about tenements in a clear and
concise way. Then, they can move on to making a claim based on the
evidence that they have compiled in the chart. This will differentiate the
process of accessing this information so that the students follow a natural
progression of ideas.

Tenements

Your
House/Apartment

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Primary Sources (photographs) of Tenement Life for Lesson #2

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Lesson Plan #3 (Mini Lesson Plan)

Lesson Title: Inventions and Innovations in The Gilded Age
Grade Level: 4th grade
Key or Essential Question: How did inventions help society to become
more efficient during The Gilded Age?
Social Studies Standards
CCSS.4.6e : Entrepeneurs and inventors associated with New York state
have made important contributions to business and technology.
Students will research several people who made contributions to
business, technology, and New York State communities. Some people
to consider include Thomas Jennings, Thomas Edison, Henry Steinway,
John Jacob Bausch, Henry Lomb, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Lewis H. Latimer,
Jacob Schoellkopf, Nikola Tesla, George Westinghouse, George
Eastman, Amory Houghton, Willis Carrier, John D. Rockefeller, Edward
H. Harriman, J.P Morgan, Hetty Green, Emily Roebling, and Elisha Otis,
and others, as locally appropriate.
ELA Common Core Standards
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.3: Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts
in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why,
based on specific information in the text.
Learning Objectives:
1. Students will be able to describe some of the prominent inventions
from The Gilded Age.
2. Students will be able to explain how these inventions made many daily
tasks and activities more efficient.
3. Students will be able to evaluate why these inventions were and still
are important to our society.
Academic Language:
Language Function:
Academic Language: efficient, inventions, automobile, airplane,
telephone, light bulb, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Alexander Graham
Bell, The Wright Brothers.
Activity:
-The whole class will watch videos on four of the prominent inventions during
the Gilded Age. These inventions will include the automobile, airplane,

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telephone and light bulb, so that they can see the range of innovations
during this time. The word efficient will be emphasized in this part of the
lesson. The students will be asked how each invention made the process or
experience involved more efficient. For example, How did the light bulb
make life easier and more efficient? This will help them to learn both the
definition of efficient and how it helped society to complete tasks or activities
faster and in a more effective way.
-After they have finished watching the videos, the students will be split into 5
groups of 4 students. Each student will be given the task of becoming an
expert on one invention. This way the group will be composed of 4 experts
for each invention (expert jigsaw puzzle). Students will be given a fact sheet
and an article about what the invention was, how it was efficient, and how it
impacted society. They will be given a chart with all of the inventions on it
(but they will only fill out their selected invention at this point). There will be
two columns that they will fill out based on the video, fact sheet and article;
what the invention is and how it was efficient and impacted society. This
section will be completed individually.
-Then, they will go back into their groups and each expert will share their
knowledge of the invention and inventor that they studied with the rest of
the students. At this point, they will listen to their peer and take notes on
the important things that they share, since they are the expert on the
subject. They will fill in the rest of the chart by actively listening to the other
students in the group. This creates a cooperative learning environment.
-The students will have a final class discussion on what they have learned
about inventions. They will be encouraged to share their expert knowledge
on the inventions that they learned about. They will be asked a final wrap up
question, which will be, Why were these inventions important in our
society?
Assessment:
-To assess their work in this lesson, the students will be informally assessed
and monitored throughout, especially when they are working in their groups.
They will be assessed on how well they are able to become experts on their
topics based on the information given to them and how well they are able to
share this knowledge with their group members.
-They will also be assessed on their ability to become active listeners while
the other experts in the group are sharing their information. They must be
able to listen to their peers while also taking notes on the important facts for
each invention throughout the activity. This will show how well they are able
to work together in cooperative experiences while also individually
completing their work.
-The final discussion will be assessed as well, since this question
encompasses many things that they have learned throughout the lesson.
They will have a chance to share the knowledge that they have learned
about the inventions, so this gives them a chance to express what they have
learned. The teacher can see how well the students were able to wrap their

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head around the idea of efficiency based on how easily the importance of
inventions and innovations can be identified.

Lesson Plan #4
Lesson Title: The Assembly Line
Essential Question: Why was the assembly line both a positive and
negative effect of the Industrial Revolution?
Standards:
Social Studies
CCSS.4.6f Between 1865 and 1915, rapid industrialization occurred in New
York State. Over time, industries and manufacturing continued to grow.
Students will trace manufacturing and industrial development in New
York State and in their local community in terms of what major
products were produced, who produced them, and for whom they were
produced from the 1800s to today.
ELA
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.4.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative
discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led with diverse partners on
grade 4 topics and texts, building on others ideas and expressing their own
clearly.
Learning Objectives/Academic Language:
1. Students will be able to explain what an assembly line by participating
in one.
2. Students will be able to identify the positives and negatives of the
assembly line.
3. Students will be able to evaluate the importance of the assembly line
during The Gilded Age and today.
Vocabulary: assembly line, Henry Ford, product, efficiency
Syntax: Students will have to use chronology (first, second, third) to fill out
their flow chart about the assembly line that they created. They will need to

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put the steps in the correct order so that the assembly line works in the most
efficient way and therefore ending up with the most products.
Prior Knowledge
Of students: Students will need to take their knowledge from the previous
lesson on inventions and innovations in order to be successful in this lesson.
The word efficiency is key to their understanding of the assembly line, and
this word was explicitly taught to them in the previous lesson. In addition,
the prior knowledge that they should have on Henry Ford and the Model T
car (based on the earlier parts of this unit) will help them to see how a
tangible item, such as a car, was made by an assembly line during this time.
Of teacher: The teacher will need to revisit the assessments that were done
in the previous lesson to see which points may need to be revisited in this
lesson. The teacher will need to accumulate many examples of an assembly
line, so if students have questions, she can relate it to real life examples.
The teacher should also do research on how assembly lines are still used
today so that the students can see the importance of this innovation that still
exists in society today.
Context for Learning
This school, as well as the district, has many curriculum requirements.
All material is strictly based on the Common Core State Standards,
especially the curriculum that is used for ELA and Math. The teachers are
required to display the standards that they are going to be using that week.
In this classroom of 23 students, there are many students who leave
for leveled small group instruction. There are 2 students in the STAR
program that have been identified as at-risk. The other main program is
AIS, which a student can be placed in for Math, ELA, or for both subjects.
About 7 or 8 students (about 35% of the class) from the class leave for AIS
instruction each day. There are no students in this class with an IEP. 1
student in the class is an ELL learner and she leaves the classroom for ESL
instruction every day.
For literacy instruction, there are 3 groups based on ability. The lowest
and middle groups work directly with the teacher. They are given some sort
of diagram or graphic organizer to complete, while the higher group is given
questions that they must respond to. Both the questions and the diagram
contain the same content.
Anticipated Difficulties/Common Misconceptions
The English Language Learner can be supported through visual aids,
such as the primary source pictures of an assembly line that will be shown at
the beginning of the lesson. She can also be aided through constant
reinforcement of English words, vocabulary in context, and acting out the
information for comprehension, which will done by creating an assembly line
within each group and imitating the process. The gifted and talented
students that need a challenge can be supported through creative projects,

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assignments that involve critical thinking and problem solving, as well as
capitalizing on their interests. For the struggling readers, they can be
supported through reading groups, direct support from the teacher, and
leveled reading in some activities. The easily distracted students in the class
can be given specific and well-defined rules, seat changes, and small groups
to keep them focused.
Materials:
Primary source photo of the assembly line
Blank sheets of paper to draw the cars
Flow chart
Desks that are lined up in a row
Worksheet
Motivation
(Obj #CCSS.4.6f) (5 min)
In our last lesson, we learned about many inventions and innovations that
made the everyday tasks of our society more efficient. Can anyone tell me
what the word efficient means? (Ideal student response: The inventions
made life easier because things could be done faster but the quality was still
high). Today, we are going to learn about another innovation that helped
to build automobiles in a more efficient way during The Gilded Age. This was
called the assembly line. Think of the cafeteria; how does the food get on
your plate? Does one person give you every thing or is it more of a team that
works together? (Ideal student response: It is more like a team). Very
good! Just like in the cafeteria, an assembly line has many different people
working together to make one product. A product is anything that can be
made, like a car. Lets look at some pictures of the first uses of the assembly
line.
Planned questions to elicit student interest while looking at the
primary sources:
What do you see in this picture?
What are the people doing? What are they working on?
How are the people set up? Do you think this will be efficient?
Instructional Activity
(Obj. #CCSS.4.6f, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.4.1) (25 min.)
After the students have finished discussing the primary source
photographs of an assembly line, they will create an assembly line of
their own. First, the teacher will model the activity for the students.
She will draw a picture of a car on the board, stopping at the end of
each step so that the students can distinctly see the process. For
example, she will draw the base of the car first, then put the seats in,
then the steering wheel, then the windshield, and then finally the
wheels. The students will be given 4 sheets of blank paper each. They

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will be told to draw the car on their own, and they must do this four
times. They cannot move on to the next car until they have fully
finished one.
Once the students have made the car individually, they will create an
assembly line environment. The students will be split up into 4 groups
of 5 students each and their desks will be lined up to create the
assembly line. They will each be given one of the jobs in the drawing
(for example, one student will continually draw the base). They will
once again have to complete 4 pictures of the car, but since they are in
an assembly line this time, the first person can begin the next drawing
once the car is passed along to the next spot. The teacher will turn the
lights off and make the room warmer (if possible). The teacher can be
the factory boss, yelling at the students to work faster and concentrate
harder.
After the groups have finished with their assembly line production, they
will be given a flow chart. They must work together in their group to
list each step of the assembly line that they just interacted with in
order to create the final product of the car drawing. This will reinforce
what they just saw in a visual format and it will also give a clear
progression of the assembly line and how these steps result in a
finished product.
The activity will end with a final class discussion about the assembly
line activity that they completed to solidify the information. Planned
questions to check for student understanding (yielding
informal assessment): 1. Was the product (the car) completed faster
when you worked individually or in an assembly line? 2. How did the
assembly line increase production? 3. How did you feel as the
assembly line worker? Were there any negatives in the assembly line
environment?

Assessment:
(Obj. #CCSS.4.6f, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.4.1 ) (7 mins)
-The assembly line activity will be informally assessed as well. The students
will be assessed based on how well they are able to follow the directions of
the activity and work cooperatively in a group. If many of the students
struggle with maintaining positive behavior towards their peers, then the
rules for cooperative learning will need to be stressed in the classroom. If
the assessment of their behavior is negative, then the students will create
class rules for working together and these rules will be posted in the
classroom.
-The flow chart will be informally assessed while the students are working on
it. Since they will be in condensed groups, the teacher will be able to walk
from group to group to monitor their progress. The teacher will be able to
see how they transitioned from the physical assembly line activity to
translating those actions into chronological steps.

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-The discussion at the end of the lesson will provide an informal assessment
by asking students to explain the process of becoming a member of the
assembly line. They should be able to evaluate the situation to see how
stressful it was for the workers, but also understand how efficient the
production was in the assembly line. Their answers to the final discussion
questions will be assessed for the clarity of the content understandings that
they have gained throughout the lesson.
-The final assessment of this lesson will be an exit slip that the students will
complete. It will have one final question that asks Name one positive of the
assembly line and one negative of the assembly line. This will summarize
most of the information that they have learned throughout the lesson. This
will be formally assessed, because the teacher will provide comments and
hand these slips back to the students so any misconceptions or incorrect
information can be addressed.
Differentiation
This lesson is differentiated in many ways. The lesson is accessible for
ELL learners because it involves many visually rich experiences. This
student can see what an assembly line looks like through a visual
representation and primary source. This will be reinforced through the
assembly line activity. The directions for the activity can be given to the
student in Spanish so that she is able to participate. The assembly line
activity will not only be beneficial for the ELL learner and students with
special needs, but it will also be helpful for students who flourish with
kinesthetic learning. This is a hands on activity that will help the students
understand the concept of the assembly line without having to read or write.
In this way, the assembly line activity will also be helpful for struggling
readers. In terms of group work, the lesson is differentiated because it
creates experiences that incorporate many different learning styles. This
includes activities that involve individual work, whole class discussions, and
cooperative group work. This will accommodate most of the student
preferences for working with peers and/or working alone.

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Lesson Plan #5 (Mini Lesson Plan)
Lesson Title: Captains of Industry or Robber Barons? The Positives and
Negatives of Industrialization
Essential question: How did industrialists help and/or hurt the United
States during industrialization and The Gilded Age?
Standards:
Social Studies
CCSS.4.6e : Entrepreneurs and inventors associated with New York State
have made important contributions to business and technology.
Students will research several people who made important
contributions to business, technology and New York State communities.
Some people to consider include Cornelius Vanderbilt John D.
Rockefeller J.P Morgan.
CCSS.4.6.e: Between 1865 and 1915, rapid industrialization occurred in
New York State. Over time, industries and manufacturing continued to grow.
Students will trace manufacturing and industrial development in New
York State and in their local community in terms of what major
products were produced, who produced them, and for whom they were
produced from the 1800s to today.
ELA
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.7: Interpret information presented visually,
orally, or quantitatively (e.g., in charts, graphs, diagrams, time lines,
animations, or interactive elements on Web pages) and explain how the
information contributes to an understanding of the text in which it appears.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.1: Write opinion pieces on topics or texts,
supporting a point of view with reasons and information.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.1.B : Provide reasons that are supported by
facts and details.
Learning Objectives:
1. Students will be able to classify each industrialist based on what major
product they made.
2. Students will be able to identify specific instances in which the
industrialists were robber barons and/or captains of industry.
3. Students will be able to assess whether the industrialists helped or hurt
the United States during industrialization.
Academic Language
Language Function: Students will use information from an informative text
and they will summarize it in their chart. They will use this research to

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find details that support whether the industrialist was a robber baron or a
captain of industry. They will also create an opinion piece in which they
decide whether the industrialists hurt or helped the United States during the
industrialization era. They will make this claim based on the evidence they
have gathered from the informative piece.
Academic Vocabulary: robber baron, captain of industry, industrialists,
Andrew Carnegie, J.P Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, John D.
Rockefeller
Activity:
-First, the teacher will explicitly introduce the word industrialist by writing the
definition on the board. The students will copy this word and definition into
their social studies notebook. The teacher will then explain that these
industrialists were both positive and negative to the industrialist society. She
will introduce the phrase robber baron and ask the class what they think
this word means. Their potential responses will be written down on the
board and the class will create a definition for the term by using these
responses. The same thing will be done for the phrase captain of industry.
-Then, the students will be placed into 4 groups of 5 students each. Around
the room, there will be four separate stations with one industrialist at each
station. There will be a picture, a fact sheet, and a short article or sheet with
a story about the industrialist. The students will be given a chart that has all
the industrialists on one side and columns on the top to write information
about how the industrialist was a robber baron and/or a captain of industry.
They will rotate to each station so that every group gets to research and
explore each industrialist and their impact on society.
-The class will come back together to discuss what they have discovered
about each industrialist. Each group will have to provide at least 2 facts for
each industrialist during the group discussion, to ensure that all of the
students are actively participating in the lesson.
Assessment:
-The students will be assessed throughout the lesson. First, the teacher will
informally assess their work when they are in their groups. As they rotate
through the stations, the teacher will walk around and observe both their
behavior and the answers that they are giving. If anyone in the group is not
participating, then the teacher will prompt them with questions to get
involved. Ultimately, they will be assessed on the answers and details that
they are able to provide based on the informative texts that they were given.
-The final assessment of the lesson will be the opinion piece that the
students will complete. Based on the information that they have compiled in
their chart, they will have to create their own opinion on whether they think
the industrialists helped or hurt the United States. They will have to
successfully make a claim, I think that the industrialists hurt/helped the
United States because and they will have to back up this claim with at
least two pieces of evidence from the station activity. This writing piece will

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be collected and the teacher will provide comments in response to the
student.

Lesson #6 (Mini Lesson Plan)

Lesson Title: The Progressive Era
Essential Question: How did the muckrakers try to expose the negative
side of The Gilded Age?
Standards
Social Studies
CCSS.4.5: Different groups of people did not have equal rights and freedom.
People worked to bring about change.
Students will examine the rights denied to women and immigrants
during the 1800s.
CCSS.4.7a: Immigrants came to New York State for a variety of reason.
Many immigrants arriving in New York City were greeted by the sight of the
Statue of Liberty and were processed through Ellis Island.
Students will investigate factory conditions experienced by immigrants
by examining sweatshops, the use of child labor, and the formation of
labor unions.
ELA Common Core
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.7: Conduct short research projects that build
knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic.
Learning Objectives
1. Students will be able to identify the problems with industrialization
based on previous lessons and The Lorax.
2. Students will be able to define the word muckraker and recognize the
names of a few prominent social reformers.
3. Students will be able to evaluate the importance of muckrakers and
how they have impacted our lives today.
Academic Language
Language Function: Students will use research techniques that they have
learned during their computer class. They will work individually to research
the impact of muckrakers, then they will come together to compile an

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informative piece based on the research that they have gathered on their
own.
Academic Language: muckraker, Jane Addams, Teddy Roosevelt, Samuel
Gompers, Jacob Riis.
Activity:
-First, the teacher will have the students come to the carpet so she can read
the story of The Lorax out loud. Throughout the story, she will frequently ask
the students questions about how this story may relate to the industrial
issues that they learned about in the previous lesson. If this concept is too
abstract, then the teacher will lead them on the path to understanding how
the robber barons (to use the term from the last lesson) are hurtin society.
The final question will be, How does the Lorax relate to our last lesson? Is
the Once-ler a robber baron or a captain of industry? The whole class will
have a discussion to answer these questions.
-Then, the students will return to their seats, and the teacher will introduce
The Progressive Era and relate it to the book that they have just read. The
teacher will say, Today we are going to learn about a movement that tried
to change the negative qualities of society like the robber barons that we just
learned about. This movement is called The Progressive Movement. This
movement includes many different areas of society like womens rights,
labor unions and tenement regulation. The reinforcement of the industrial
problems will be a good lead in to the issues that were addressed during the
Progressive Era.
-The teacher will then write the word muckraker on the board with the
accompanying definition. The definition is a person who searches for and
exposes real corruption in society. The students will copy the word and the
definition into their notebooks. They will have a discussion about what they
think these muckrakers could have possibly done to help society, based on
the problems that they have already learned about. The teacher will also
discuss how these muckrakers exposed these problems in different ways,
such as journalism (newspaper and book writers), photographs, and other
forms of social media at the time.
-The students will be separated into groups of 3. They will be given 4 options
of muckrakers to research, including Samuel Gompers, Jane Addams, Teddy
Roosevelt and Jacob Riis. These people will encompass the issues of
womens rights, labor unions and tenement regulations. They will first be
individually researching the muckraker that they are given during their
computer class of the week. They should look for information that answers
these questions: 1. Who is your muckraker? What problem(s) did they write
about? 2. How did they expose the problem? (Did they write a book, a
newspaper article, photographs, etc.?) 3. How did society respond to the
muckraker? 4. What effect did the muckraker have on society, and was the
problem ever solved? For this pat of the lesson, they will only have to take
notes for each question.

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-Finally, during class time, the students will come together in their group to
discuss the information that they have gathered individually. In their
cooperative group, they must decide which information is the most important
to include in their piece. Together, they will construct an informative piece
that answers the research questions that they were originally given.
-After all of the projects are complete, each group will share their informative
piece by reading it out to the class. The information that they included in
their piece should be sufficient enough to inform the rest of the class about
the muckraker that they researched.
Assessment:
-During the research portion of the activity, the teacher will informally assess
their progress by walking around the room and observing whether the
students are able to stay on task and find research about their topic.
-The main assessment will be the formal assessment that occurs when the
students work in their cooperative groups. Although a formal rubric will not
be used, the students will be informed that they will be graded on the
information that they include in their informative piece. The teacher will be
looking to see that the group was able to pick the best information for the
topic based on all of the research they accumulated. They should be able to
present this information in a clear and concise way by simply answering the
questions that they were given.
FINAL SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT: Select one word that you think describes
The Gilded Age. Demonstrate this word by including three events that we
learned about during this unit. You will be given a sheet of paper for each
event. You must include a picture of the event or change in society and
describe 1) What the event was 2) Why it was important 3) How you can see
its impact in our society today.