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Grade 7: Module 2A:
Overview
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GRADE 7: MODULE 2A: OVERVIEW
Working with Evidence:
Working Conditions Then and Now
In this module, students explore the issue of working conditions, both historical and
modern day. As they read and discuss both literary and informational text, students
analyze how people, settings, and events interact in a text and how an author
develops a central claim. Students strengthen their ability to discuss specific
passages from a text with a partner, write extended text-based argument and
informational pieces, and conduct a short research project. At the end of the module,
students will have a better understanding of how working conditions affect workers
and the role that workers, the government, consumers, and businesses play in
improving working conditions. The first unit focuses on Lyddie , a novel that tells
the story of a young girl who goes to work in the Lowell mills, and explores the issue
of working conditions in industrializing America. This unit builds students’
background knowledge about working conditions and how they affect workers, and
centers on the standard RL.7.3, which is about how plot, character, and setting
interact in literature. As an end of unit assessment, students write an argument
essay about Lyddie’s choices regarding her participation in the protest over working
conditions. The second unit moves to more recent history and considers the role
that workers, the government, and consumers all play in improving working
conditions. The central text in Unit 2 is a speech by César Chávez, in which he
explains how the United Farm Workers empowered farmworkers. Unit 2 focuses on
reading informational text, and students practice identifying central ideas in a text,
analyzing how an author develops his claims, and identifying how the sections of the
text combine to build those ideas. This unit intentionally builds on Odell
Education’s work, and if teachers have already used the Chávez speech and lessons,
an alternate text is suggested with which to teach the same informational text
standards. In the End of Unit 2 Assessment, students apply their understanding of
text structure to a new speech. Unit 3 focuses on the research standards (W.7.7 and
W.7.8): through an investigation of working conditions in the modern day garment
industry, students explore how businesses can affect working conditions, both
positively and negatively. As a final performance task, students create a consumer’s
guide to working conditions in the garment industry. This teenage consumer’s guide
provides an overview of working conditions and offers advice to consumers who are
interested in working conditions in the garment industry. This task focuses on
NYSP12 ELA Standards W.7.2a, b, d, f, W.7.4, W.7.6, W.7.7, W.7.8, L.7.3,
and L.7.6
Guiding Questions And Big Ideas
• What are working conditions, and why do they matter?