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Original Workshop Description for YAL 2011
Finding Voice, Making History: The Uprising of the Twenty Thousand and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
Susan Garr and Christine Johnson, Presenters
With the Shirtwaist Strike of 1909 thousands of young female immigrant workers in New York City’s garment factories found the courage to stand up for higher wages and shorter hours. In a climate where business owners played rough and made the rules, these young girls inspired resistance in each other that led to a general strike, shutting down the entire shirtwaist industry. Capturing the attention of the public, the strike lasted more than 12 weeks. A year later, New York City was confronted once again with the reality of factory work: the terrible Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire took the life of 146 factory workers, mostly women. Making sense of history requires reading and interpreting textual and visual information, asking questions, determining point of view, listening carefully to others, knowing where to find information, as well as presenting new understandings in a variety of ways. Using the historical fiction text, Uprising, partnered with the non-fiction text, Flesh and Blood So Cheap, this workshop demonstrates hands on fiction and non-fiction reading strategies, as well as a variety of writing activities created to deepen students’ thinking about the topic. Both texts will be used to explore the events of the strike and fire from differing points of view. Participants will practice doing “mini –inquiry” using a variety of resources to refine their thinking, connect ideas, collaborate and draw conclusions regarding the strike and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. |
