Flesh and Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy

   I loved reading chapter 6 in the text about using nonfiction books to launch a research project.  My 7th grade students are responsible for writing a biography research paper, and each year they are overwhelmed and shocked by the amount of work it entails.  Christine Carlson's outline of the research approach used at her school sounds ideal for my 6th grade students.  By gently easing them into learning research skills in 6th grade, the 7th grade research project won't seem so daunting.
     As Carlson mentions, it is necessary to "pique students' interest" (Carlson, pg. 109) on the topic they want to explore.  From past experience, I can't emphasize how important it is to have the students do "pre-research" before the actual project starts.  On more than one occasion, I've had students approach me to tell me they can't find enough information on their topic or that they are suddenly bored by their subject.  Unfortunately, this realization usually occurs too far into the timetable to switch topics.  By reading non-fiction material ahead of time, students can get a feel for the subject and determine if it is material on which they want to spend valuable research time.
     I could see using chapters of Flesh and Blood So Cheap as instructional material for guiding the students through the research process.  Students could jigsaw the book - they could be put in groups and each student could be responsible for taking notes on a particular chapter and become an "expert" on that topic.  Then they could share what they learned with the rest of their group and teach them about the topic.
     I really liked the graphics that are used in the book.  This past year, I focused on using BIG FOX reading comprehension strategy for non-fiction.  By remembering this acronym, students looked for bold, italicized words; referred to graphics; distinguished between facts and opinions; and located the topic sentence to find the main point of each paragraph.  When using this strategy, I discovered that students tended to gloss over the the graphics and not really understand the point behind their inclusion.  In this book, graphics serve to emphasize points being made or to give the reader a better visual representation of the setting/time period.
     The Triangle Fire is a tragedy that might capture the students' interest.  I think I would be able to sell it by telling them this fact alone:  "...for ninety years it held the record as new York's deadliest workplace fire.  Only the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center took more lives," (Marrin, pg. 3).  Because I think they would be taken with the tragedy aspect, I would probably begin with the fifth chapter, which depicts the fire.  The earlier chapters, while informative, are detail heavy in describing early immigration, living conditions in Manhattan, the creation of sweatshops, and corruption in Tammany Hall.
     If I were teaching Lyddie, I would like to include chapter 4 of Flesh and Blood So Cheap, because it explains Uprising of Twenty Thousand strike and the formation of the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL).  This organization wanted to "better the lives of working women by helping them organize trade unions" (Marrin, pg. 89).  WTUL gave advice to strikers such as to wear their best clothes on picket lines and never to use the word "scab" if a worker crossed the line (Marrin, pg. 90).  Even wealthy women, originally part of the "Mink Coat Brigade", supported the WTUL because they felt that women should have equality with men and the right to vote.  One of these women was Anne Morgan.  She was the youngest daughter of J.P. Morgan, and she joined WTUL because she believed that workers should be treated decently.  When the strike ended, workers received a pay raise, a 52 hour work week, and most of the shirtwaist makers joined the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU).   I would love for students to read these books and make text to world connections to  today's society.  They only need to look at today's headlines to see Ralph Lauren's controversial decision to have American Olympic team uniforms made in China instead of the United States.  Hopefully, they would gain a deeper meaning of how people and children across the world are still mistreated and forced to work under cheap and unsafe conditions.