Progressive Era-6th Grade
Wendy Soles
STANDARDS: 6th grade Social Studies, standard 4 Describe changing social conditions during the Progressive Period.
THEME: Should the government be in charge of how privately-owned businesses are run?
LESSON TOPIC: Legislative acts that affected the food industry in the Progressive Era.
OBJECTIVES:
Language:
Lep1- The students will be able to label pictures as pre and post the Meat Inspection Act
AND
Lep2 – The students will be able to explain why the Meat Inspection Act was necessary and what it did to reform
working conditions in the meat business. The students will be able to describe the events that led to the passing of
the Meat Inspection Act/Pure Food and Drug Act.
LEARNING STRATEGIES: role play, think/pair/share, compare/contrast, timeline
KEY VOCABULARY: Meat Inspection Act, Pure Food and Drug Act, muckraker, working conditions, inspection
MATERIALS: pictures of meat packing facilities from the early 1900s to present
MOTIVATION:
(Building Background)
Skit that illustrates the role of the muckrakers in reforming health and safety standards in meat packing plants in the
early 1900s. Players: Teddy Roosevelt, Meat Packing Business Owner, Employee, Muckraker
PRESENTATION:
(Language and content objectives, comprehensible input, strategies, interaction, feedback)
Read aloud excerpt from The Jungle. Mini-lecture on events that led to the passing of the Meat Inspection Act.
Students will use a Health Inspection Form and pictures to discuss conditions in meat packing facilities and the
implications of unsanitary and unsafe conditions on workers and consumers.
PRACTICE AND APPLICATION
(Meaningful activities, interaction, strategies, practice and application, feedback)
Students will put events in order using sentence strips in groups of 2-3. Students will use the conversations, health
inspection forms to place pictures on a timeline and describe the conditions in each and how they changed over time.
REVIEW AND ASSESSMENT:
(Review objectives and vocabulary, assess learning)
Sort pictures into before/after Meat Inspection Act, students will use sentence frames to give reasons for the passing
of the MIA. Exit slip: Should the government tell business owners how to run their companies?
Progressive Era-6th Grade SKIT (ad-libbed)
Highlighted are the parts we will play. Under that are the lines you will say. You do not have to say things exactly as they
are written. Make everyone believe you are this person.
Health inspector-Soles how do you drain all this blood? It must be a foot deep. Why is that employee eating his lunch in this room? What types of safety
harnesses do you have for those men walking above the vats? That meat over there is rotten, are you using it also?
President Roosevelt- You are the President of the US. You are upset and want the owners to change their businesses to protect the citizens of your country.
You are shocked.
I can’t believe this! When I first read the articles by the muckrakers, I thought they must be exaggerating! After seeing these conditions the government must
step in to protect workers & the public.
We need to push laws through Congress that will end these horrible conditions.
Worker-you work in this meat packing plant. You are poor and the work you do is nasty, unsafe and unhealthy. You are putting yourself in danger because
you are afraid there will not be anywhere else to work. You are sad and frustrated.
I work here, my wife works as a seamstress, my 9 year old works at the textile mill making fabric for clothes, & my 14 year old works at the steel plant. We barely
bring in enough money in per week to pay rent & get food. We thought America was a land of plenty & prosperity, we were wrong.
Business owner- you are a very rich man. Your grandfather started this company years ago and now you own it. You do not want the government telling you
what to do because it will cost you money.You are angry.
you cannot tell me how to run my business this is capitalism I am here to make money, not worry about these workers. These immigrants need these jobs & I am
paying them. The conditions are not terrible. If they don't like the work go find another place to work.
Journalist- you write for a newspaper and you have been trying to get politicians to help reform the way these companies do business. You are glad that
people are believing you and you really want to reform business and help people. To the president you say- I’ve been telling you all along about what is going
on here! It’s an outrage! You didn’t want to believe me! To the employee: You don’t deserve to be treated this way! It’s not right that he pays you so little and
you are getting injured every week!
ORDERING EVENTS- cut apart and order
President Teddy Roosevelt was suspicious of journalists that wrote about the awful working conditions in meat packing plants. He didn’t trust muckrakers and
didn’t think it could be that bad.
-Muckraker journalists (writers that wrote articles telling the people about things such as crime, fraud, health and safety, and illegal activity) begin writing about
the conditions in the meat industry and how it affected the workers.
- On the same day in 1906 the Meat Inspection Act and the pure Food and Drug Act were passed. These laws gave the government some control over health and
safety in the food business.
-Roosevelt sent government employees to Chicago to do surprise visits to plants in the meat industry. He did not expect (think) they would find anything out of
the ordinary. He was wrong.
-President Roosevelt became a supporter of reforming the food industry and wanted to regulate these industries (businesses).
-Upton Sinclair publishes The Jungle, a novel that exposed (told the people) the harsh (hard) conditions in the meat industry in Chicago in early 1900s.
-Someone betrayed the president and warned the business owners in Chicago about the planned inspections. They worked 3 shifts (24 hours a day) a day for 3
weeks to get things cleaned up and ready. The inspectors were STILL DISGUSTED by what they saw and reported to the president.