Review with students how life in the 19th century was different from
life today (no cars, computers, etc.). Ask something like this: "An
important part of how people live is what their job is. What are common
jobs today?" Write them on the board. Explain that in this lessons,
students will be looking at a list of jobs from the year 1860.
"What jobs from the list have you never heard of before? Look some
of these up in a dictionary." (Alternatively: have students do this
in pairs).
Give each pair a different job to look up, if possible.
Have groups write their definitions on the board
Discussion Questions:
What reasons can you think of to explain why the types of jobs
people do have changed?
Which categories of jobs (professional and merchants, farmers
and planters, clerks and proprietors, artisans, unskilled, or female
occupations) have changed the most? the least?
Are there any jobs today that may not exist one hundred years
from now? Explain.
Center
for Technology and Teacher Education,
University of Virginia,
This module created by Alice
Carter of the University of Virginia..