Personal Thoughts and Information

This unit was based on the enduring idea of Protest and Activism. Working with the Middle Schools language arts teacher, this unit was designed to incorporate themes from the book Lyddie by Katherine Paterson, which the students were learning, and today's current issues of child labor laws.  Inspired by the main character's time working in a textile mill and the use of child labor, it made sense to weave together protest, activism, and create weavings.

I started the unit off with the Weaving Together a Protest PowerPoint and asked the students the following. How did this change come to pass? Who stood up? What do these laws look like today? Informing the students of current legislation that is being pushed to both lower the age limit and lift the bans on certain jobs being off limits for children. Playing very much the devil's advocate, I bated them with, "As a business owner myself, I think it is an excellent business practice to be able to have minors who can't vote work for me. They will work for a fraction of the wage and be happy because they got paid, even if it isn't a fair wage." This got the discussion going quite nicely. The students then received their packets in which they wrote their thoughts on child labor and were encouraged to share for discussion at the end of class. 

Within the unit, students also learned the importance of jargon. How we can be saying the same thing but using different words, and if that happens on a production line, there can be serious issues. Some of the important jargon in weaving was; to Warp a loom the thread goes up and down (Hint: the capital A is an arrow pointing up), and the Weft goes left and right. In this project, they used fabric for their weft instead of another type of fiber. (Fabric that I used child labor, my son and daughter, to tare into thin strips). When the students were using the fabric, comments about the quality of the strips were brought up with much complaining, giving the opportunity to showcase child labor in action.

To tie it all up. We discussed how important it can be to stand together for a cause. "A stick by itself is easily broken, but a bundle of sticks is not," Aesop's Fable. Taking the comments they had made at the beginning of the unit, they then created a protest statement using five (5) words maximum on a strip of yellow or white fabric. This last piece was then woven over the top of their weavings, making the statements pop out at the viewer. This project was a big hit, mostly in part to it being constantly tied to the relevancy of the enduring idea of protest and activism in the students' lives.

Behind the Scenes