Examining Labor & Working Conditions in the Gilded Age: A Gallery Walk Exercise

Engage your students in developing historical empathy regarding the experience of a worker living through the Gilded Age and Progressive Era with the use of historical photographs. Using a gallery walk format, students will examine the impact of industrial growth and the experience of American workers. Lesson includes a pre-walk political cartoon analysis exercise to foster brainstorming, 15 photo placards, a teacher lesson plan with questions to promote critical thinking for each photo, and an exit ticket activity, which involves students using what they learned to imagine that they are a muckraker writing an editorial for change to working conditions. To help structure the gallery walk, students utilize a provided scaffold to guide their thinking in answering the provided essential question. The exit ticket includes a rubric for easy grading. This is a great lesson to engage your students in thinking about the Gilded Age/Progressive Era and to promote visual literacy!

Looking to focus more on urbanization during this period? Check out Urbanization During the Gilded Age-Good or Bad? Analyzing Photographs. Also, be sure to check out "A 'Progressive' Reformer Dinner Party: A Speed Dating Exercise."