Child Labor Written Assignment

1. Child Labor Written Assignment • Newspaper Article • Letter Home • Public service announcement

2. Newspaper Article • Newspaper Article • You are a newspaper reporter for Summit Sun-Times back in the year 1900. • Your boss has sent you on a secret mission. • You are to pretend you have been sent to write a nice article on a local factory, coal mine, or farm. • While you are there, you are actually focusing in on the children that work there. • Your article is meant to expose the hardships and terrible conditions faced by the children that work there. • Describe the environment (What you see, smell, hear, feel, and taste) • Describe the jobs of the children and how dangerous they are. • Describe the attitude or emotion of the child laborers as they work. • Explain your feelings on child labor. What do you think should be done with the place you reported on?

3. Newspaper Article • Newspaper Article Requirements • The newspaper article must be typed, and at least 1 page long. • You must have a title and place your name at the beginning of the article as the reporter ( Just like in a real newspaper article) • Try to make your article look like it really is/was in a newspaper. • Look at an article in a current paper to get ideas. • Add accompanying advertisements relevant to the time period. (Not required) • Draw a picture or Google an image of child labor. Include it in your article. • Article must be free of grammar errors and typed in paragraph format.

4. Letter Home • Letter Home • You are 10 years old • Your place of employment is far from your family home, so you stay for weeks at a time with your Uncle Jasper and Aunt Gertrude who live near by. • Decide if you work on a farm, in a factory, or in a coal mine. • You miss your family dearly and have decided to write them a letter. • Describe to them the conditions of your job • What do you see, smell, hear, feel, and taste at work. • Describe your daily routine at work. • From the start of the work day until the end. • Describe your feelings • Do you like having to work? Do you wish you could stay home?

5. Letter Home • Letter Home Requirements • One page handwritten letter • Computer were not invented yet, and if your family could have afforded a typewriter you wouldn’t be working in a factory! • Date the top right corner using 1900 as the year. • Start the letter with “Dear__________,” • Use paragraph format • Sign the letter with your name and use an appropriate salutation (Sincerely, Missing You, Love, etc.) • If possible, Google “Child Labor” to add researched information to your letter • Be creative and have fun!

6. Public Service Announcement • Public Service Announcement • Create a public service announcement, that would have been read on the radio, to inform the public of the horrors surrounding child labor. • Your organization is against child labor and wants laws to be passed that would regulate what conditions children could work under. • Describe what dangers children face as workers in factories, coal mines, and farms. • Describe why child labor is wrong? Why should the public care? What can people do to stop child labor in their state?

7. Public Service Announcement • Public service announcement requirements • The announcement can be written, typed, recorded, or read live in front of the class. • A hard copy must be turned in for grading purposes. • The hard copy must at least be ¾ of a page. • Listen to commercials/announcements on the radio to get ideas to add into your announcement. • Make a name for your organization and use it in the announcement.