Lesson Topic This lesson will discuss the impact of big business on United States Economy

SC Standards and

Indicators

Standard 5-3: The student will demonstrate an understanding of major

domestic and foreign developments that contributed to the United States

becoming a world power

Indicator 5-3.4 Summarize the impact of industrialization, urbanization,

and the rise of big business, including the development of monopolies;

long hours, low wages, and unsafe working conditions on men, women,

and children laborers; and resulting reform movements.

Common Core

Strategy(ies)

addressed

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats,

including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.

Academic

Vocabulary

Industrialization

Big Business

Urbanization

Monopolies

Trust Buster

Reform

Lesson Materials

Needed (attached at

end of lesson)

Package of Pens for Hook Section of Lesson

The Lion Tamer Political Cartoon

Political Cartoon #1

Political Cartoon #2

Analyzing Political Cartoons Handout

Political Cartoon Rubric

Content Narrative (What is the background

information that needs to

be taught to understand

the context of the lesson?

Be sure to include

necessary citations)

The growth of Big Business was both a cause and an effect of increased

immigration. Big Business encouraged the United States government to

continue an open immigration policy so that the workforce would be

plentiful and cheap. Immigrants were attracted to jobs created by Big

Business and enabled the businesses to grow bigger because they worked

for low wages and therefore the businesses made greater profits. Big

Business was also caused by the availability of natural resources (land),

new inventions and technologies, capitol for investments, and the role of

entrepreneurs. Men like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller

developed business practices that allowed them to create monopolies.

Carnegie controlled the steel industry and Rockefeller controlled the oil

industry. These monopolies kept wages low and kept labor unions from

Lesson Title Analyzing Political

Cartoons: Big Business

vs. Trustbusters

Teacher Washburn

Grade Level 5 Duration of Lesson 45 minutes

being effective. As industries grew, the United States shifted from an

agrarian economy based on agriculture to an industrial economy based on

manufacturing. Farmers were able to produce more crops because of

mechanization. As a result, the prices they got for their crops fell (supply

and demand). Unable to pay mortgages on land and equipment because of

low profits, many farmers lost their farms to foreclosure and moved to the

cities in search of jobs in industry. In the late 1800s, many African

American sharecroppers and tenant farmers left the South for cities in the

Midwest and the Northeast in search of jobs in factories and to escape Jim

Crow laws. By 1920, the majority of people in the United States lived in

cities. As cities grew due to the increase in immigration and movement

from the farm, middle class Americans were concerned about the living

conditions and the corruption of city governments. Crowded conditions

led to problems providing sanitation. Issues related to water and housing

contributed to opportunities for corruption among city officials who were

often supported by their ethnic constituents. Middle class Americans lived

in the cities too and paid taxes for city government. Progressive reformers

advocated the establishment of city parks, beautification projects, safer

housing, and sanitation. They also promoted teaching immigrants to adapt

to their new country by establishing settlement houses where immigrants

were taught social skills. Progressives were also very concerned about

unsafe conditions in factories and about the long hours that workers,

particularly women and children, were expected to work. They did not

support labor unions’ actions such as collective bargaining and strikes to

address these issues. Instead they advocated the passage of laws.

Conditions in the factories were publicized by the increasingly popular

newspapers and magazines, illustrated with photographs showing the

unsafe working conditions. Writers of exposes about corporate power and

unsafe working conditions were called muckrakers, a term first used by

President Teddy Roosevelt, because they exposed the corruption of the

system. Reformers advocated restricting child labor and passing laws

requiring that children attend school. This was in direct opposition to the

wishes of many working class families who needed the income provided

by their working children. Workers sometimes resented the interference

of reformers in their lives. Some compulsory school attendance laws were

passed at the state level, but a federal child labor law was declared

unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The federal government did not

successfully enforce child labor laws or minimum wage and maximum

hours laws for workers until the New Deal reforms following the Great

Depression. Progressives were more successful at the federal level in

addressing the problems associated with Big Business. Progressives feared

that Big Business not only had too much control over the economy but

also that trusts had too much influence over the American government.

During the late nineteenth century, Congress passed a law declaring

monopolies, or trusts in restraint of trade, to be unlawful [Sherman Anti-

Trust Act, 1890]. However, this law did not end monopolies because the

Supreme Court limited its effectiveness. When Theodore Roosevelt

became president in 1901, there was an assertive progressive in the White

House. The president was encouraged by muckraking writers such as Ida

Tarbell, who exposed the oil trust, and Upton Sinclair, who exposed the

meat-packing trust. Roosevelt began to use the old law to successfully

break up trusts and earned the name “trust-buster.” Roosevelt also

protected the rights of the consumer by pushing for the passage of the

Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act and he promoted the

regulation of railroads. Presidents William Howard Taft and Woodrow

Wilson continued this work and are known, along with Roosevelt, as the

progressive presidents. Progressives were also concerned about improving

society by controlling the moral behavior of all Americans and particularly

of the immigrants. The movement to limit the consumption of alcohol [the

temperance movement] had been going on since the time of the American

Revolution and got a popular boost as a result of the influx of immigrants

in the late nineteenth century. Some states passed prohibition laws and

others passed blue laws to limit the sale of alcohol. When World War I

started, propaganda against the Germans, who were known for their beer

drinking and the voluntary rationing of grain, helped progressives push

through Congress a national prohibition amendment that was then ratified

by the states. The eighteenth amendment outlawed the manufacture and

sale of alcoholic beverages. However, it could not stop people from

drinking thus promoting illegal activities such as bootlegging and

speakeasies until repealed by the twenty-first amendment in the 1930s.

Lesson Set

Content Objective(s) Students will summarize the effects of big business on the United States

economy.

Literacy Objective(s)

Students will be able to use the new information from this lesson to write a

diary entry taking the perspective of an immigrant from a primary source

photograph. Students will have to write the entry by analyzing the

photograph to make inferences and draw conclusions. They will need to

apply their knowledge of why they left that country, reasons they decided to

travel to America, what conditions were like onboard the ship and how they

feel when they see the Statue of Liberty for the first time.

Lesson Importance This lesson is important because it aids in student understanding of how the

Industrial Revolution, urbanization, and access to resources contributed to

the United States becoming a world power in the early twentieth century.

Connections to prior

and future learning

This is the first time that students will explicitly study immigration and

urbanization, in third grade students summarized the social and economic

impact of developments in agriculture, industry, and technology, including

the creation of Jim Crow laws, the rise and fall of textile markets, and the

expansion of the railroad (3-5.1).

In eighth grade, students will compare industrial development in South

Carolina to industrialization in the rest of the United States, including the

expansion of railroads, the development of the phosphate and the textile

industries, and immigration (8-5.5).

In United States History and the Constitution, students will analyze the

factors that influenced the economic growth of the United States and its

emergence as an industrial power, including the abundance of natural

resources; government support and protection in the form of railroad

subsidies, tariffs, and labor policies; and the expansion of international

markets (USHC-4.2). Students will also evaluate the role of capitalism and

its impact on democracy, including the ascent of new industries, the

increasing availability of consumer goods and the rising standard of living,

the role of entrepreneurs, the rise of business through monopoly and the

influence of business ideologies (USHC-4.3). In addition, students will

explain the impact of industrial growth and business cycles on farmers,

workers, immigrants, labor unions, and the Populist movement and the

ways that these groups and the government responded to the economic

problems caused by industry and business (USHC-4.4).

Anticipatory Set/

Hook (Engage)

At the beginning of the lesson, I will remind students of the contributions thus

far that the United States has had in becoming a world power. To help

students understand the concept of monopolies, I will tell students that

they are no longer allowed to write with pencil in class, that we will be

changing to pen only. I will pull out a package of brand new pens and ask

students to brainstorm a list of how much they think I should charge per

student for each pen. Students will give realistic responses and I will then

explain to them that I can charge anything I want to charge since I am the

only one who makes these certain types of writing utensils. I will then tell

students that each pen will cost five dollars each. Students will share their

thoughts and emotions associated with the cost. I will explain to students

that because I create this product and set the price for it, I will become

very powerful and wealthy and the consumer will have to pay the price

since it is something that they need. I will explain to students that they

just learned the concept of a monopoly also known as trusts. I will write

the definition on the board and have students copy it down in their

notebooks with a quick sketch on what comes to their minds.

Skill Development Initial “explain” portion of the lesson. Introduce vocabulary, explain/demonstrate/model the skill required for the

literacy objective, introduce content components.

The content portion is only a brief introduction; the bulk of the student learning will take place during the guided

practice activity.

Introduce content

components

I will explain to students that monopolies or trusts had to be stopped. Often

this type of control was corrupt and had poor conditions for their workers,

not to mention was not fair to the consumer who was purchasing the goods. I

will ask students what the job of a ghost buster was in the movie

Ghostbusters. Students will of course comment that they had to get rid of the

ghosts. I will ask students what they think a trust buster is. After students

have had the opportunity to share their definitions I will give students the

definition of a trust buster which is one who breaks up the trusts.

“I do”

Skill from objective introduce/explain/model

I will show the political cartoon Lion Tamer, which shows Theodore Roosevelt

as a lion tamer on Wall Street taming different trusts of the time period. As I

analyze the political cartoon, I will talk aloud to myself sharing what I notice in

the cartoon as I fill out my Analyzing Political Cartoons handout. During my

think aloud I will be sure to point out the following: The lion tamer is

Theodore Roosevelt, each lion represents a different trust of the time period,

Roosevelt is attempting to tame the lions (trusts), he is wearing a medal that

says Battle of San Juan and the lions are coming from Wall Street. Each of

these topics I will discuss in more elaboration as I am analyzing the cartoon.

Guided Practice This is the inquiry portion of the lesson, student-centered & often cooperative learning strategies used, teacher acting

as facilitator, also known as Explore.

“We do”

Activity Description Include student “explore”

components and

opportunities for them to

explain their learning.

After analyzing the political cartoon aloud, students will receive the same

handout that they will use in their small collaborative groups to analyze

political cartoons that represent trust busting of monopolies. Students will

rotate through two different stations at ten minutes per table, analyzing the

political cartoon and answering the questions on their handout with their

group members.

Checking for

Understanding-

“Informal”

Assessment

While the students are working in their collaborative groups, I will circulate

the room and listen in on the discussions amongst them. I will use the

Socratic method when students ask me questions to get them to further their

thinking and draw conclusions based on their own understanding.

Closure Teacher will re-visit content and answer students’ questions developed during the Guided Practice component.

Summarize the lesson, clarify content, and revisit content and literacy objectives.

Content Solidified

After about twenty minutes of group work, the teacher will call the class to

the carpet. During this time, the teacher will one by one display the political

cartoon on the board and call on students to share what their group

discovered. I will summarize the main point of the lesson by showing a brief

video clip to show how big business got out of control and needed to be

“tamed.” Students will be given directions for the independent practice

component of the lesson so that they understand their expectations once

back to their seats.

Independent Practice

“You Do”

Students will create their own political cartoons using the Political Cartoon

Rubric. Their cartoon should be colorful and portray an opinion associated

with the topic of big business, monopolies and/or trusts. Students will use

symbolism, exaggeration and other methods discussed in previous units to

create their cartoon. Key people or objects of the time will be used to state

their message. When finished, students will write a paragraph description of

their cartoon .

Summative/ “Formal” Assessment

Assessment

The formal assessment in this lesson will be the political cartoon and write up

created during the independent practice. This will be assessed using a rubric.

Differentiation

During Lesson During the lesson, the teacher can group students who are struggling with a

student who has a good understanding of the concepts being discussed. That

student can act as a tutor to the struggling student and guide them in

completing their portion of the assignment.

Assessment For students who have difficulty with writing, the teacher can allow them to

first create a list or graphic organizer describing the picture before putting the

information into complete sentences.

Reflection

Lesson Reflection (What went well in the

lesson? What might you

do differently the next

time you teach it?

Evaluate the success of

the lesson)

The students did a great job with the lesson and I really enjoyed hearing their

discussions as they analyzed the political cartoons. There were lots of

inferences being made and it was neat to hear them make connections with

topics we have discussed this year. Students were actively engaged and really

connected to the anticipatory set. Using the pen scenario to introduce

monopolies really hooked them and made them eager to find out more

throughout the lesson. The students created some very impressive political

cartoons. I wasn’t sure if it was going to be too challenging for them to create

whatever they wanted within the given topics. Some students did struggle

with zooming in on a point of view so in the future I would probably pair

students up to share their ideas prior to drawing their pictures. The

reflections were thoughtful and really showed me what they learned not only

from the lesson but also throughout our unit.

Materials Needed for Lesson

Lesson Materials and

Handouts

Three political cartoons

Standard Oil Octopus cartoon – public domain

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Standard_oil_octopus_loc_color.jpg

Standard Oil Monopoly cartoon

http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights-managed/S5382/standard-oil-monopoly-

political-cartoon-by-cj

The Lion Tamer – Teddy Roosevelt political cartoon

http://elections.harpweek.com/1904/cartoon-1904-Medium.asp?UniqueID=47&Year=1904

Student Name ___________________________ Date:

Task: Your job is to create your own political cartoon representing the topics discussed in class: Big business,

Monopolies, and/or Trustbusters. Be sure to express your opinion of the topic through pictures and words.

Your goal is to persuade your audience to feel the same way you do after looking at your political cartoon. The

cartoon also needs to be bright and colorful. When finished, you need to write a one paragraph analysis

describing what the message is of your cartoon and why you chose the objects and or people you did. Spelling

and grammar will count.

Political Cartoon Rubric

3 – Excellent 2 – Average 1 – Not Met

Student creates a

political cartoon that has

a view point.

Students used objects

and/or people to

symbolize views

associated with the time

period.

The political cartoon is

colorful, neat and effort

is shown.

The student wrote a one

paragraph analysis of

their cartoon that

describes its message.

Score:

Comments:

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Name: Date:

POLITICAL CARTOON ANALYSIS

Station #

1. What is the title of your cartoon?

2. List the objects or people you see in the cartoon.

3. What do you think these objects of people symbolize?

4. Are there any important dates being shown in the cartoon?

5. What words or phrases does the cartoonist use?

6. What historical event is the cartoon referring to?

7. What conclusions can you draw about the cartoonist’s opinion?

8. How does this cartoon make you feel?

POLITICAL CARTOON #1

public domain

POLITICAL CARTOON #2

Standard Oil Monopoly Political Cartoon with J.D.Rockefeller as king of the world

POLITICAL CARTOON- THE LION TAMER

Works Cited

South Carolina Department of Education (2011). 5-1.1. South Carolina standards support documents

(pp. 4-6). Columbia: South Carolina Department of Education.

Next! (1904). The Library of Congress. Retrieved March 18, 2013 from http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/97501086/

Standard Oil Monopoly. http://ndla.no/en/node/97829

The Lion Tamer. http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/harperframes1904.html