To start this unit, students were asked to analyze a Lewis Hine photograph of children working in factories using the Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS). This led to a discussion of child labor. Each student was assigned to read and present an historical fiction novel about child labor at the turn of the century. In their presentations students had to describe the working conditions, earnings, and the general attitude to child labor. Many of the novels had activists (change agents) who were trying to change conditions for children and adults alike. In the following classes students learned about the other causes and effects of the Industrial Revolution. Each student had to research an invention that fueled the revolution and create a poster identifying how this invention affected society for the better and/or worse. To learn about industrialists, like Carnegie and Rockefeller,  who took advantage of workers, students read and responded to six articles from Cobblestone Magazine. In the process they learned how the country’s shift from a primarily agrarian to industrial society took place. In the coming weeks we will be learning how immigration provided the work force for this revolution and later how workers united to better their working conditions.