Exploring the experience of child workers in the Victorian era
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can read summarise different attitudes towards child labour in the Victorian era.
Key learning points
- Attitudes towards child labour were less strict in the Victorian era.
- There are more laws today than in Victorian Britain to protect children from unsafe working conditions.
- Young boys from lower social classes were expected to do dangerous jobs in the Victorian era.
- Comparative conjunctions are useful for connecting sentences to previous ideas.
- Comparisons are useful when comparing differences between authors’ attitudes or ideas.
Keywords
Labour - work, particularly physical work, can be referred to as labour.
Compel - if you force or oblige someone to do something, you compel them to do it.
Chimney sweep - a chimney sweep was someone who would clean the channel above a fireplace, which takes smoke out of buildings.
Callous - callous people have a cruel disregard for others.
Mercenary - a mercenary is primarily concerned with making money at the expense of ethics.
Common misconception
Comparisons are either clear similarities or clear differences.
Use examples from slides to demonstrate how comparisons are often more complex than ideas being completely similar or completely different.
Teacher tip
When reading the texts, try to 'control the game.' Select students at random to read, jumping from pupil to pupil after a couple of sentences.
Equipment
You will need access to a copy of ‘Child Workers, their rights and wrongs’ by Jon Robins which is available in the additional materials.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.The Victorian era was named after which monarch?
Q2.A social class is a group in society with similar wealth and opportunities. Which of the following social classes would be more likely to be wealthy and hold power in society?
Q3.What does a chimney sweep do?
Q4.When did the Victorian era begin?
Q5.Which of the following is the definition of callous? Here it is used in a sentence: the callous man refused to help the girl.
Q6.What does the verb 'to compel' mean? Here it is used in a sentence: the teacher compelled the pupils to comply with the rules.
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Which of the following skills should you use before reading a complex text?
Q2.Which word, beginning with l, is a more formal way of saying 'child workers'?
Q3.How would you describe Victorian attitudes to protecting child workers in comparison to attitudes today?
Q4.Which of the following is not a comparative conjunction which indicates a similarity between ideas.
Q5.Which two comparative sentence stems are most useful for indicating a very clear difference in ideas?
Q6.Which of the following most accurately paraphrases the sentence: 'boys were inveigled out of the poorhouses'?
To help you plan your 8 English lesson on: Exploring the experience of child workers in the Victorian era, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 8 English lesson on: Exploring the experience of child workers in the Victorian era, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 3 English lessons from the Victorian childhood: non-fiction reading and writing unit, dive into the full secondary English curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.