New
New
Year 8

Exploring the experience of child workers in the Victorian era

I can read summarise different attitudes towards child labour in the Victorian era.

New
New
Year 8

Exploring the experience of child workers in the Victorian era

I can read summarise different attitudes towards child labour in the Victorian era.

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Attitudes towards child labour were less strict in the Victorian era.
  2. There are more laws today than in Victorian Britain to protect children from unsafe working conditions.
  3. Young boys from lower social classes were expected to do dangerous jobs in the Victorian era.
  4. Comparative conjunctions are useful for connecting sentences to previous ideas.
  5. Comparisons are useful when comparing differences between authors’ attitudes or ideas.

Common misconception

Comparisons are either clear similarities or clear differences.

Use examples from slides to demonstrate how comparisons are often more complex than ideas being completely similar or completely different.

Keywords

  • Labour - work, particularly physical work, can be referred to as labour.

  • Compel - if you force or oblige someone to do something, you compel them to do it.

  • Chimney sweep - a chimney sweep was someone who would clean the channel above a fireplace, which takes smoke out of buildings.

  • Callous - callous people have a cruel disregard for others.

  • Mercenary - a mercenary is primarily concerned with making money at the expense of ethics.

When reading the texts, try to 'control the game.' Select students at random to read, jumping from pupil to pupil after a couple of sentences.
Teacher tip

Equipment

You will need access to a copy of ‘Child Workers, their rights and wrongs’ by Jon Robins which is available in the additional materials.

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

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6 Questions

Q1.
The Victorian era was named after which monarch?
Correct Answer: Queen Victoria, Victoria
Q2.
A social class is a group in society with similar wealth and opportunities. Which of the following social classes would be more likely to be wealthy and hold power in society?
The working class
Correct answer: The ruling class
The lower class
Q3.
What does a chimney sweep do?
Chimney sweeps clean up any mess made when chimneys are built.
Correct answer: Chimney sweeps clean inside the chimneys, removing soot and debris from fires.
Chimney sweeps worked in stately homes, keeping the grand fireplaces tidy.
Q4.
When did the Victorian era begin?
1558
Correct answer: 1837
1952
Q5.
Which of the following is the definition of callous? Here it is used in a sentence: the callous man refused to help the girl.
Correct answer: Cruel
Generous
Hard
Q6.
What does the verb 'to compel' mean? Here it is used in a sentence: the teacher compelled the pupils to comply with the rules.
'To follow'
Correct answer: 'To force'
'To fight'

6 Questions

Q1.
Which of the following skills should you use before reading a complex text?
Questioning
Correct answer: Predicting
Clarifying
Summarising
Q2.
Which word, beginning with l, is a more formal way of saying 'child workers'?
Correct Answer: Labour, labour, child labour, Child labour
Q3.
How would you describe Victorian attitudes to protecting child workers in comparison to attitudes today?
More strict
Correct answer: Less strict
About the same
Q4.
Which of the following is not a comparative conjunction which indicates a similarity between ideas.
Equally
Likewise
Correct answer: Nonetheless
In the same way
Q5.
Which two comparative sentence stems are most useful for indicating a very clear difference in ideas?
Despite X, Y.
Correct answer: Whilst X, Y.
Correct answer: Whereas X, Y.
Q6.
Which of the following most accurately paraphrases the sentence: 'boys were inveigled out of the poorhouses'?
Correct answer: Boys were persuaded, through deception, out of the workhouses.
Boys were stolen from poorhouses.
Boys were stolen from workhouses.
Boys were persuaded to leave the poorhouses.

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