Teaching Activities (Free)

Exploring Women’s Rights: The 1908 Textile Strike in a 1st-grade Class

Teaching Activity. By Dale Weiss. Rethinking Schools. 3 pages.
A teacher’s reflections about a curriculum unit on women’s rights contextualizes the history of the feminist movement within the broader struggle of people working for greater equality in the United States.

Time Periods: 20th Century, 1900
Themes: Labor, Organizing, Women's History
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Exploring Women's Rights: The 1908 Textile Strike in a 1st-grade Class (Teaching Activity) | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

Women of the Industrial Workers of the World march in New York City in support of the Patterson Silk Strike of 1913. Many women garment and textile workers of the 1910s were active in the movements for equal rights and fair treatment in the workplace. Source: Bettman/CORBIS

While teaching 1st graders in a small working-class town north of Seattle, I always emphasized issues of fairness — both helping students recognize when something is unfair, and teaching that one can always do something to make a situation more fair.

Through many discussions on gender-related stereotypes and giving girls and boys the same opportunities, my students had a fairly basic understanding of gender equity. However, it was also important to me that they understand sexism within the context of the history of the feminist movement and this country’s long tradition of people working for greater equality.

Lesson originally published by Rethinking Schools | Zinn Education ProjectThus I used the opportunity of International Women’s Day to develop a curriculum unit that brought these issues to the fore. The unit took several days, and culminated in a book created by the students.

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Related Resources
Suffragist and labor leader Agnes Nestor | Zinn Education Project
Teaching Activities (Free)

Birth of a Rank-and-File Organizer

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow and Norm Diamond. 7 pages.
Writing activity for students to complete the narrative of women workers striking at a glove-making factory, exploring possible outcomes.

Teaching Activities (Free)

Daughter of Earth: Reading, Writing, and Social Class

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. 7 pages.
Students read a poignant excerpt from Agnes Smedley’s novel, Daughter of Earth, and use it to think and write about how schooling—their own included—teaches lessons about social class.

Mural by Blake Chamberlain on an interior wall of the Women's Rights National Historical Park Visitor Center depicting influential people of the women's suffrage movement.
Teaching Activities (Free)

Seneca Falls, 1848: Women Organize for Equality

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. 17 pages.
A role play allows students to examine issues of race and class when exploring both the accomplishments and limitations of the Seneca Falls Convention.

Union Maids (Teaching Activity) | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History
Teaching Activities (Free)

Union Maids

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow and Norm Diamond. 4 pages.
Activity for students to write from the point of view of one of the women featured in the film Union Maids.

Unsung Heroes (Lesson) | Zinn Education Project
Teaching Activities (Free)

Unsung Heroes: Encouraging Students to Appreciate Those Who Fought for Social Justice

Teaching Activity. Essay by Howard Zinn and lesson by Bill Bigelow. Rethinking Schools. 17 pages.
Students research and share stories about unsung heroes in U.S. history.

Teaching Guides

Rethinking Elementary Education

Teaching Guide. Edited by Linda Christensen, Mark Hansen, and Bob Peterson. Rethinking Schools. 2012. 360 pages.
The best collection of writing from Rethinking Schools magazine about how to teach for social justice at the elementary level. Published by Rethinking Schools.