Primary Type: Lesson Plan
Status: Published
This is a resource from CPALMS (www.cpalms.org) where all educators go for bright ideas!
Resource ID#: 40106
Comparing and Contrasting Robber Barons with Modern
Entrepreneurs
This lesson will compare robber barons from the Gilded Age/Industrialization Period with prominent business people of the last few decades. Students
will identify characteristics of robber barons and determine if current business people would be considered robber barons. The students will complete
this by organizing information into the Robber Baron t-chart and responding to guiding questions.
Subject(s): Social Studies, English Language Arts
Grade Level(s): 11, 12
Intended Audience: Educators
Suggested Technology: Document Camera,
Computer for Presenter, Computers for Students, LCD
Projector, Overhead Projector, Microsoft Office
Instructional Time: 45 Minute(s)
Resource supports reading in content area: Yes
Freely Available: Yes
Keywords: robber barons, industrialization, industrialists, gilded age, social gospel, gospel of wealth, monopoly, tchart, compare/contrast, entrepreneur
Instructional Design Framework(s): Direct Instruction, Confirmation Inquiry (Level 1)
Resource Collection: CPALMS Lesson Plan Development Initiative
ATTACHMENTS
RBtchart.docx
Robber Baron Quick Quiz.docx
RBRUBRIC FOR PARAGRAPHS.docx
Biography Links.docx
Industrial Revo.ppt
LESSON CONTENT
Lesson Plan Template: General Lesson Plan
Learning Objectives: What should students know and be able to do as a result of this lesson?
Students will be able to list the factors that led historians to call entrepreneurs "robber barons" during the Gilded Age.
Students will be able to explain how government policies during the late 1800's allowed big businesses to flourish.
Students will be able to argue the role of entrepreneurs in history—whether they helped or hurt the growth of America.
Prior Knowledge: What prior knowledge should students have for this lesson?
Students should already have knowledge on terms such as: Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Gospel of Wealth, Social Gospel, horizontal/vertical integration.
Prior to this assignment, the teacher should provide notes so students have an understanding of the time period before the implementation of this activity. Before this
lesson, students should know that large corporations would form in the United States during this time due to various social, political, and economic factors. The
government at this time was following the laissez-faire policy thus encouraging the growth of businesses while doing very little to regulate their growth into
monopolies. Due to the population growth as a result of immigration, there was a large number of workers looking for jobs which linked with low wages, unsanitary
living conditions, and the growth of urban areas. Students should know that there were many strikes by workers at this time and the conflict between labor unions and
employers was strained and at times violent. These factors led to the growth of robber barons who reaped the profits at the expense of workers. Businessmen such
page 1 of 4 as Andrew Carnegie believed in the idea of the Social Gospel (philanthropy) while many of the wealthy class believed in the idea of Social Darwinism (rationalizing the
existence of the lower/working class).
Guiding Questions: What are the guiding questions for this lesson?
What factors/characteristics define a person as being a robber baron?
What were the social/economic and political factors during this time period that encouraged the growth of robber barons in society?
In what ways did robber barons negatively affect society? In what ways did they positively impact society?
Teaching Phase: How will the teacher present the concept or skill to students?
Students will be introduced to the Industrialization time period in previous class periods through direct instruction using the PowerPoint attached. The teacher will
lecture and students are expected to add additional notes to the PowerPoint.
The teacher can deliver the content to the students through a PowerPoint lecture, primary source readings, a summary of the time period that students will read or
through short video clips provided by www.history.com. On this site, the teacher should search: Industrial Revolution.
The teacher can provide this summary to students if needed from the McGraw Hill website.
Guided Practice: What activities or exercises will the students complete with teacher guidance?
Before Class Preparation
1. Copy the handout RB t-chart so that each student has their own copy.
2. Label the top right corner of each robber baron autobiography A, B, C, D, and the modern entrepreneur should have 1, 2, 3, 4 on the top right corner.
3. Make 10 copies of each autobiography. If possible, use two different colored paper (one color for robber barons, one color for modern day entrepreneurs). You will
have approximately 80 copies.
4. Make 8 piles of papers in order of A, B, C, D, 1, 2, 3, 4.
In Class
5. At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher should review social/political/economic problems that Americans are facing during the Gilded Age/Age of Industrialization
period. The teacher may want to organize these 3 category headings on the board and students can add to these categories with facts that they supply the teacher
from the notes presented in the teaching phase. Teacher should write the answers on the board.
6. The student will verbally give answers to the review the teacher is providing at the beginning of class. The teacher will start off with an answer in each of the
categories from the review (social, economic, political attributes of the time period).
7. Hand out the RB t-chart to the students.
8. Have students come to the piles of paper and select ONE paper from the lettered section and ONE paper from the numbered section. Students should have a
combination of biographies from a robber baron and a modern day entrepreneur. (Teacher can have students pick randomly from different piles or teacher can assign
pairs of entrepreneurs together and give the paired biographies to the students).
9. Students should now have different combinations (for instance: Zuckerberg/Carnegie, Winfrey/Vanderbilt, Zuckerberg/Rockefeller, Winfrey/Carnegie, etc.
10. Before students begin reading the biographies, the students will write a hypothesis on whether they feel their entrepreneur would be considered a robber baron.
Students should only be filling out the hypothesis lines on the worksheet at this time.
11. Students will read, highlight, and underline information from the biographies that match the categories from the RB chart.
12. Before students begin to fill in their t-chart, complete a model/sample answer on the board with the students.
13. Sketch the t-chart on the board and fill in one row of answers (for instance, identifying how entrepreneurs started their business).
14. After reading the biographies completely and marking the text, students should copy the underlined information into the correct boxes on the worksheet.
15. Allow about 20 minutes for the students to read and mark up the biographies.
16. At the end of 20 minutes, the teacher will list on the board some of the answers that the students have provided.
17. Then, allow students about 15-20 minutes to answer the guiding questions on the back of the chart. Students should use the information from the t-chart or notes
from class to back up their answers. Students should also use lecture notes or other information the teacher previously provided to the students.
Independent Practice: What activities or exercises will students complete to reinforce the concepts and skills developed in the
lesson?
Students will need to read the autobiographies on their own and make connections from historical information/people to modern events/people.
Students also need to complete the t-chart on their own in class, but teacher help is available if the students need it.
Students need to read the biographies, mark the biographies and highlight information individually.
Students need to answer the guiding questions individually. The guiding questions will measure the student's understanding of the objectives of the lesson.
Closure: How will the teacher assist students in organizing the knowledge gained in the lesson?
In the last ten minutes of the class period, the teacher will close the lesson by asking students to free write in the bottom portion of the guided questions worksheet
validating/refuting their hypothesis based on the evidence they have gathered from the biographies/t-chart. The teacher will select some students to share their
answers in class.
Summative Assessment
Students should be able to demonstrate whether or not they know the characteristics of robber barons based on their answers from the t-chart worksheet. Students
need to defend their answers using historical facts either from the biographies provided or from a reliable source (textbook, primary source document, online resource).
Students will be graded on whether or not their answers were well defended and historically accurate. The opinion portions of the questions should also be backed up
with correct information from a reliable source.
The short responses will be graded based on the rubric attached. Answers that score a 4 can equate to 100 or an A depending on teacher preference. An alternative
method is to grade each response using the 1-4 scale and then converting the total score to a single grade. The students should receive this rubric in advance. You
can make copies for each student or have it shown on the overhead while students are answering the questions.
page 2 of 4 Formative Assessment
Between the teaching phase and guided practice sections, the teacher should start the class period with a quick five question quiz on the robber barons/Industrial Age.
Students should have studied for this quiz overnight using notes from the previous day (see RB Quick Quiz). The teacher can have students grade each other's papers in
class at the beginning. The teacher should tally how many students miss each of the five questions and use this data to do a quick re-teaching session before beginning
the guided practice activity.
The teacher will also determine if students understand the topic at the end of the activity when the short answers are collected. The teacher may want to grade the tchart before students complete the back of the worksheet in order to gauge if students are on the right track.
Feedback to Students
The students will receive feedback initially when the teacher asks for an example to complete the t-chart. The teacher needs to help students 1-1 to make sure they are
selecting the correct information to go on the t-charts. The teacher will provide verbal feedback as students complete the t-charts and will correct any wrong answers
during the portion where students are providing answers to prompts from the teacher when showing examples on the board. Students will use this feedback to adjust
their answers when filling out the t-chart.
ACCOMMODATIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS
Accommodations: The T-chart acts as a planning tool for students to organize their information in order to answer the questions on the back/defend the
hypothesis.
Special needs students will have extra time to complete their work and will meet with the teacher to receive extra 1-1 feedback.
Students who need extra time can read/highlight/underline the biographies at home.
Extensions: The teacher may want the students to write a comparison/contrast response using the ideas from the t-chart. Students would compare/contrast what
factors they think would label someone a robber baron and determine if these factors change over time from the late 1800's to modern time.
Suggested Technology: Document Camera, Computer for Presenter, Computers for Students, LCD Projector, Overhead Projector, Microsoft Office
Special Materials Needed:
1. Biographies: 4 for robber barons, 4 for modern day entrepreneur.
2. T-chart worksheet.
3. Print out summaries from optional links mentioned above.
4. Dry erase markers or board activities can be done on the computer with projector.
SOURCE AND ACCESS INFORMATION
Contributed by: Alina Mar
Name of Author/Source: Alina Mar
District/Organization of Contributor(s): St. Johns
Is this Resource freely Available? Yes
Access Privileges: Public
License: CPALMS License - no distribution - non commercial
Related Standards
Name
SS.912.A.3.2:
SS.912.A.3.5:
Description
Examine the social, political, and economic causes, course, and consequences of the second Industrial Revolution that
began in the late 19th century.
Identify significant inventors of the Industrial Revolution including African Americans and women.
Remarks/Examples:
Examples may include, but are not limited to, Lewis Howard Latimer, Jan E. Matzeliger, Sarah E. Goode, Granville
T. Woods, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, George Pullman, Henry Ford, Orville and Wilbur Wright, Elijah
McCoy, Garrett Morgan, Madame C.J. Walker, George Westinghouse.
Analyze changes that occurred as the United States shifted from agrarian to an industrial society.
SS.912.A.3.6:
SS.912.A.3.8:
SS.912.A.3.9:
Remarks/Examples:
Examples may include, but are not limited to, Social Darwinism, laissez-faire, government regulations of food and
drugs, migration to cities, urbanization, changes to the family structure, Ellis Island, angel Island, push-pull factors.
Examine the importance of social change and reform in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (class system, migration
from farms to cities, Social Gospel movement, role of settlement houses and churches in providing services to the
poor).
Examine causes, course, and consequences of the labor movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Remarks/Examples:
Examples may include, but are not limited to, unions, Knights of Labor, american Federation of Labor, socialist
Party, labor laws.
page 3 of 4 Review different economic and philosophic ideologies.
SS.912.A.3.10:
LAFS.1112.RH.1.1:
LAFS.1112.WHST.3.9:
Remarks/Examples:
Economic examples may include, but are not limited to, market economy, mixed economy, planned economy and
philosophic examples are capitalism, socialism, communism, anarchy.
Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from
specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.
Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
page 4 of 4