What would the world be like if we had never gone through our Industrial Revolution? Would the world be better or worse? What are the issues that have risen since that time? How can we fix them? The Industrial Revolution caused a spiraling chain of events that led to our modern Capitalist society. In the agricultural world before, farmers were the majority and artisans were the norm, but with the rise of technology we began to see a large divide separating the lower and higher class, we saw child labor and sweatshops, we saw gender roles take a larger part in everyday life, we saw poverty and crime, we saw factories and basically everything change. But at what cost? The mission of this project was to find the issue that really spoke to us, turn that into either a monologue, a machine, a short film, a Socratic seminar, or a full on protest, and spread the word about what we could do to change it. We decided to tie it all together with a Steampunk character to represent your issue and your standpoint, and showed that you could accurately represent this alternate history aesthetic.
Acting Badge
Choice Product
For my project, my partner and I wanted to keep the original idea of presenting a monologue about our issue but with a little more freedom. We chose to have our revised project group either perform their piece as a monologue or a dialogue with another person. We also had the freedom to make working machines that, again, represented our issue. My partner and I are very passionate about ending child labor and continuing the fight against it even though it is not a problem we face everyday. We aimed to create a powerful spoken word that educated our audience on the dangers and realities of child labor. What better way to do that than tell it from the perspective of a child laborer? We wanted to show our audience that even though this isn't as present in the United States, it is still a problem that 168 million children suffer from daily.
I have learned about the Industrial Revolution and feel confident that I understand and can make arguments and claims about what I have gathered within the last few months. Here are a few examples that show that I can do what I say:
Essay- In our thesis essay, we had to take our general knowledge about the Industrial Revolution, and pair it with our hours of research on a specific issue that came from this critical time in human history. I spent countless hours working on this, and came to a very reasonable and detailed solution for the problem of child labor. This was an essay that only had to be three paragraphs long, but when I completed it, it was 3 and a half pages total, and had 2 times the information that was asked of me.
Monologue- After completing our essay, we had to create a final product that embedded all or most of the history and thinking that went into the issue proposal. My partner, Ana, and I decided to make a spoken word monologue. When doing this, we had to take the next step and turn our research into more than just an informative article, we needed to make it flow, add writing tools like rhyme and figurative language, and tell it from the perspective of someone who had experienced child labor firsthand. This took several weeks of work and revisions as well as even more studying to understand what child labor felt like, to allow our audience to empathize.
Timeline - As a bonus, my partner and I led the class for a day and decoded an entire timeline of the Industrial Revolution
Pamphlet- Lastly, we took simplified solution ideas and made concise statements sharing the historical and present day significance of child labor in our pamphlet to pass out at exhibition as mini educators for the average Joe.
My partner and I went above and beyond to understand everything possible about the IR, and we are trying our best to take it and make change.
Steampunk Badge
Soldering Badge
Work and Energy Badge
Circuit Badge
Stitching Badge
Evidence Badge
I have learned how to use evidence better through my thesis essay and monologue. Like I said before, we had to complete this thesis essay and use facts, statistics, primary resources, etc. We learned about the best places to find good evidence as well, from .edu, .gov, or (as stated) primary resources. By using these research techniques, my essay came out incredibly compelling, (you can read for yourself above) and was a handy first step to our monologue. In my monologue, (on choice project page) we had to piece together these bits of information while still incorporating rhythm, rhyme, similes, metaphors, alliteration, oxymorons, etc. To add evidence to this was difficult, but we still ended up convincing people of our thesis at exhibition (We got amazing reactions and even made one woman cry!) I of course can still continue to develop my evidence skills, but I think I am well on my way to winning many of my future arguments.
Cooperation Badge
Ana and I made an amazing team for our monologue. This was a partner project for us, and we NAILED IT. Overlapping sentences, choreographed hand movements, machine building, no fighting, it was a breeze. I am so happy that we got to work with each other because I could really tell that we were both giving our 100% on this project. I have never felt so consistently on task, and I think I really saw myself grow in all of the places that I used to struggle. (For evidence, watch that video of our monologue!)