CURRICULUM GUIDE: TRIANGLE FIRE Volume 3, Issue 1

[ABCDE] CURRICULUM GUIDE: TRIANGLE FIRE Volume 3, Issue 1

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INSIDE Triangle Fire Cutter’s Craft Tammany Hall and Workplace Safety 2 8 10 Reform

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An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program

Triangle Fire KidsPost Article: “The Triangle Fire: New York Tragedy Changed America” Lesson: The influence of the Triangle 6. What were workplace conditions in For Further Study fire on worker safety laws the early 1900s? ➤ http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/ Level: All 7. What was the impact of the Triangle trianglefire/ Subjects: History, social studies fire on labor and worker safety? The Triangle Factory Fire You might also ask these questions Related Activity: Language arts and The Kheel Center at the Cornell for discussion beyond the article. mathematics University Library, in collaboration with Introduction 1. Why did immigrants such as Rosie UNITE!, provides extensive coverage Washington Post author David Von travel by steamship to America? and resources for use in the classroom. Drehle tells the story of the Triangle 2. Nearly 100 years after Rosie and Lives of the workers and the horror Waist Company fire through the other immigrants left their families and of the fire are presented in this Web perspective of Rosie Freedman, who friends in search of employment, do exhibit through original documents, was 18 years old when she died of immigrants continue to arrive in the oral histories and photographs. asphyxiation and burns on the ninth U.S. seeking work? What other reasons ➤ http://newdeal.feri.org/library/ floor of the Asch Building. Of the do people of the world have for coming d_4m.htm 146 who died in the minutes before to the U.S.? New Deal Photo Gallery: The Triangle the end of the work day most were 3. What current laws and guidelines Fire, March 25, 1911 female, immigrant workers. Workplace govern immigration to the U.S.? A dozen photographs from the archives conditions and safety, the role of of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library. immigrants in the American work force Read Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins and the power of the vote to bring Give students “Interview: David stated that March 25, 1911, was “the about change can be addressed through Von Drehle.” The author shares his day of the New Deal began.” the activities in this lesson. background and answers our questions. The reproducibles that are included in ➤ http://www.law.umkc.edu/ Read this guide are built on quotations from faculty/projects/ftrials/triangle/ Read “The Triangle Fire: New York Von Drehle’s 2003 Triangle: The Fire trianglefire.html Tragedy Changed America.” . That Changed America The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Trial, 1911 Discuss Understand the Work The site includes New York building The following questions are based Give students “The Cutter’s Art.” code and safety laws, newspaper upon the content of the KidsPost You may need to explain more about accounts and trial documents. article. how the pieces are sewn together to ➤ http://www.pbs.org/wnet/newyork/ 1. In what century did Rosie Freedman create the final product. In the Asch laic/episode4/topic5/e4_t5_s5-tt.html travel to America? Building, the Triangle Waist Company Learning Adventures in Citizenship: The 2. What job did the 14-year-old find in had cutting tables and five long tables Triangle Tragedy New York City? of sewing machines on the eighth floor; on the ninth floor, about 250 employees A PBS Kids site that covers the fire and 3. For what items did she have to worked at eight rows of sewing its place in the fight for reform. Good budget in 1911? machines. The fire began on the eighth for younger students. 4. On what day and in what year did floor where it is believed that a cutter ➤ http://www.npr.org/display_pages/ the second worst workplace disaster dropped a match or cigarette ember features/feature_1416870.html in New York history take place? in a pile of fabric scraps. This exercise The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Describe the day. gives students practice in spatial relations. Depending on the size of Hear NPR’s Bob Edwards’ interview 5. How and where did the fire begin? paper you give students, you can have with author David Von Drehle and “The Golden Cradle.” 2 September 9, 2003 © 2003 THE WASHINGTON POST COMPANY Volume 3, Issue 1

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Triangle Fire Continued them do the math to determine how much fabric is saved in each student’s layout. The student who saved the most fabric could receive the Cutter Award. Read, Evaluate, Write Discuss with students the expectations we have today for wages, hours/week, and safety conditions at work. What do students know about the American economy at the turn of the twentieth century? What were the major businesses? Who were the political and business leaders? Give students “The Workplace at the Turn of the Twentieth Century.” Read and discuss Von Drehle’s descriptions. Have students write a summary statement about workplace conditions based on the three excerpts from Triangle. Assign further research. Students are then to write their evaluation of American workplace safety based on UNITE ARCHIVES, KHEEL CENTER, CORNELL UNIVERSITY VIA GROVE/ATLANTIC several sources. A tide of immigrants poured into the fledgling garment industry around turn of the One online starting point is the 20th century. Abundant labor drove wages down and set off a brutal competition for Cornell University Library site, work. Tiny tenement rooms became squalid little factories, known as sweatshops. which, according to designers, was made “specifically to assist high Fire site: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/ Research Reform school students in writing a research trianglefire/texts/stein_ootss/ootss_r Tammany Hall had managed to paper from primary sources.” This c.html?location=Sweatshops+and+Str control the election of most of New is an exemplary site that provides ikes. York’s officials since the 1860s. Its resources for the teaching of a variety David Von Drehle spent hours pouring methods and corruption were not of American history courses, contains over newspaper accounts, court records secrets, but accepted. For decades, a valuable collection of primary and first-person sources to compile a list Tammany leaders had resisted factory documents for professional historians of the 146 victims, six of whom remain investigations and reforms. Have who want to research workers’ lives, anonymous. A similar list, giving the students research the reform movement and shows the potential of the World names and ages of most of the victims that took place after the Triangle Wide Web for introducing a wider of the Triangle Waist Factory fire, is fire to the New Deal. Give students audience to the impact of labor unions found at http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/ “Tammany Hall and Workplace Safety on American history. trianglefire/victims.html. Have Reform.” A list of possible subjects for students graph the ages. Students could research is provided. Students might Meet the People compare ages and, by using names, the be asked to present their findings as Read the first person account of Rose percentage of male and females who a PowerPoint presentation, a research Cohen, a girl who worked in a shop were victims of the fire, the percent paper or a newspaper article or feature on Pelem Street and survived the fire. under 20 and other categories. series. This is found on The Triangle Factory

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Triangle Fire Continued Labor and Reform ➤ http://www.pitt.edu/ ~press/goldentrianglebooks/ childlabor.html Child Labor Overview of child labor conditions and reform. Also features the children’s book, Rebels in the Shadows, about brothers working in the mines. ➤ http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ newyork/laic/episode3/topic6/ e3_topic6.html Tammany Hall UNITE ARCHIVES, KHEEL CENTER, CORNELL UNIVERSITY VIA GROVE/ATLANTIC Before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Triangle fire was the worst workplace PBS Kids Learning Adventures disaster in New York. More than 50 workers plunged from windows as crowds watched. in Citizenship presents Tammany Afterward, coroners examined bodies for signs of life. Then police tagged the dead. Hall and introduces cartoonist Thomas Nast. Write What is this in current dollars? Visit the Using information in the KidsPost Cornell site and http://www.yale.edu/ ➤ http://www.nps.gov/elro/ article, excerpts from Von Drehle’s book yup/ENYC/triangle_shirtwaist.html. glossary/tammany-hall.htm and reproducibles in this guide, students 3. Compare the work done by Colonial Tammany Hall are to write a persuasive letter or children with that required of today’s The National Park Service and response to one of these topics: Individual children. At www.washpost.com/nie, Eleanor Roosevelt National citizens can/cannot influence political click on Lesson Plans. Select “Colonial Historic Site provide basic change, votes do/do not matter, or Chores.” This guide’s KidsPost article information. vigilance is/is not required for workplace and research activity focus on chores of safety. Students should be given no more children who contributed to the economic ➤ http://www.ssa.gov/history/ than 30 minutes to write their response. livelihood of their families. fperkins.html Enrichment 4. Research modern sweatshops: Social Security Pioneers: Frances 1. Have students research the Triangle Do they exist and where? A starting Perkins Waist Company fire. They could present point may be to read “For Some, an Bio, speeches and photo gallery their findings in a paper, Web site or Uncomfortable Fit,” which is found introduce Perkins, FDR’s Power Point presentation. A sample in “Sneaker Supply and Demand” Secretary of Labor for 12 years research paper written by a senior at The (washpost.com/nie). Web and print and the first woman to hold a University of Pennsylvania can be found resources are provided to begin the study. cabinet position in the U.S. 5. Read Ashes to Roses by Mary Jane at http://www.tcr.org/triangle.html. ➤ http://www.uniteunion.org/ 2. Twenty-three individual civil suits Auch, which tells the story of a girl in the were brought against the owners of the fi re. This story is historical fi ction—but UNITE! - Union of Needletrades, Asch building. On March 11, 1913, three the story explores true conditions of life Industrial and Textile Employees! in the Triangle factory. This, paired with years after the fire, Isaac Harris and Max After checking the headline news, Meet the People -suggested activities and Blanck settled. They paid $75 per death. go to “Research & Teaching” and the Von Drehle article, should blend well. “UNITE Kids” sections. 4 September 9, 2003 © 2003 THE WASHINGTON POST COMPANY Volume 3, Issue 1

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“The Triangle Fire New York Tragedy Changed America”

By David Von Drehle Imagine: Instead of starting high school, you must leave your family and friends to cross the ocean on a steamship crowded with strangers, bound for a job in a faraway country. You can’t speak the language of your new country. Your new home is with relatives you have not seen in years. Fear. Loneliness. Homesickness. Rosie Freedman did it. Rosie was 14 years old in 1907. She had seen her city in Russia burn in a hate-filled riot. Her family sent her across the Atlantic Ocean aboard a steamship to live in crowded, smelly New York City with an uncle and aunt. Rosie found a job at a crowded fac- UNITE ARCHIVES, KHEEL CENTER, CORNELL UNIVERSITY VIA GROVE/ATLANTIC tory making clothes from morning to Remains were taken to the Charities Pier on Twenty-sixth Street in New York City, night. At first she earned less than 50 where thousands of survivors, and morbid sightseers, examined the dead. Six vic- cents a day and had to pay all her own tims were never identified. bills. She even had to pay her uncle for a place to sleep in his tiny apartment. vived by running to the roof. But most on the job in America every day. Mines But somehow, by the time she was 18 of the ninth-floor workers, 146 of them, collapsed, ships sank, locomotives years old, Rosie was sending enough were trapped. The fire escape collapsed. crashed, exposed machinery grabbed money home to support her family The elevators could no longer run. The workers by the arm or leg or hair and in Russia. And she was not unusual. door to the last staircase was … locked. pulled them in. Thousands of young people in those The New York City Fire Department’s Yet the government did little to pro- days worked to support their faraway tallest ladder was raised outside the tect workers — until the Triangle fire. families. Rosie worked at the big- factory — but it reached only the sixth The people of New York were out- gest blouse factory in New York, the floor. raged by what happened to so many Triangle Waist Company, with girls Some victims jumped out the win- young people such as Rosie Freedman. such as Kate Leone and Sara Maltese, dows. Some, including Rosie, Katie and Over the next four years, New York who were just 14 themselves. Sara, stayed inside and died. It was the passed a record number of laws to On March 25, 1911, a match or ciga- worst workplace disaster in New York protect workers, especially very young rette ember in a pile of fabric scraps history until Sept. 11, 2001. workers. By the middle of the century, started a fire inside the Triangle fac- And just as 9/11 happened in broad there were new worker safety laws tory, high above the New York City daylight, with cameras watching, all across America. Rosie Freedman streets. Rosie, Kate and Sara worked on the Triangle fire happened in broad must have felt very insignificant as she the ninth floor, along with about 250 daylight on a beautiful spring day. sailed to New York. But the courage other blouse makers, mostly women Thousands of people rushed to the and sacrifice of young people such as and girls. scene to watch the awful sight. Rosie Freedman changed the course of The fire started on the eighth floor, Afterward, there was plenty of talk the 20th century. That’s the good part where the workers barely managed to about making workplaces safer. But in of the awful story of the Triangle Waist escape. On the 10th floor, workers sur- those days, more than 100 people died Company fire.

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An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program

David Von Drehle is a senior national writer blouse factory make? How were they for The Washington Post. Formerly, he was the able to save enough money to send to editor in charge of the Style section and the their faraway families? New York Bureau Chief. Triangle: The Fire That The girls at the Triangle made Changed America is his third book; his others between 50 cents per day—for workers- covered the death penalty in America and the in-training—and about three dollars per disputed 2000 presidential election. A native day, for the most skilled seamstresses. of Aurora, Colorado, he lives in Washington One girl I write about in detail, Rosie with his wife and four children. Interview Freedman, managed to send about What initiated your interest in the a quarter of her income back to her Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire? David Von Drehle, author, family in Russia. She paid half her “Triangle:“Triangle: The FFireire wages to her uncle for room and board. I first heard of the Triangle fire just That Changed America She spent about a quarter of her money after I moved to New York as a reporter (one week’s salary per month) on in 1989. I covered another terrible clothing, transportation, entertainment fire. By chance, it happened on the and incidentals. The rest she mailed anniversary of the Triangle fire, March home. The young women and men were 25. Later, I moved to an apartment one incredible. block from the scene of the fire, and I used to walk past the building where it How do Alfred E. Smith and Bob Wagner happened and look up at the windows fit into the story of Tammany Hall, which and wonder. Enough wondering made is usually a story of corruption? this book. Alfred E. Smith and Bob Wagner were What keeps you going in what might classic Tammany men. They were born be a mundane and solitary search for poor in the immigrant neighborhoods information? History pivots on the small decisions— of the Manhattan East Side. They rose through the often corrupt Tammany In my research, little discoveries keep to lock or not to lock a door. What are system. But they were men with good me going toward bigger and bigger some of these seemingly insignificant hearts, and the terrible conditions they discoveries. I love to work in libraries, decisions made before and after the saw in the streets as they grew up made because one strand of reading leads to fire? them dedicate their lives to improving another, and another. I chase these little The entire story of the Triangle fire conditions for the poor. They had the strands, fascinating, sad, outrageous and its amazing legacy is one small hard, tough political sense of Tammany, or funny strands—and if you follow chance or decision after another. The mixed with the warm, good hearts of enough of them you will trip across the story of the incredible strike of women reformers. The combination made them really important things. blouse makers that begins the book all two of the most effective politicians in In what way does looking at events and hinges on the relentless drive of a few America history. history through the perspective of the young women, like Clara Lemlich, who Secretary of Labor Francis Perkins said children of the time period influence kept urging the workers on even after that March 25, 1911, was “the day the how you tell the story? she was savagely beaten by hired thugs. The key decision of the book—by New Deal began.” In what way is this The perspective of children was political boss Charlie Murphy, who true? crucial to this book. I write in finally decided to embrace a better The line from the fire to the New “Triangle” about tenement factories in future —was made in a few short, clear Deal is very simple. From the horror which children as young as 3 and 4 and strokes. of the fire came the decision by New 5 years old worked long hours for low York’s Democratic boss, Charles F. pay. Two of the girls who died in the At the time of the fire, the average Murphy, to seize the moment and put Triangle fire were just 14 years old— workman made a dollar a day. How Tammany Hall on the side of reform. Sara Maltese and Kate Leone. much did the girls who worked for the

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The reform agenda that Tammany’s victims is the workers in America today Students of the Triangle fire should men passed over the next three years are 30 times less likely to die at work learn three things, I hope (and was hugely popular. Al Smith was than workers in 1911 were. That is maybe more): That this event, often elected to four terms as governor. Bob real progress. But there is more to be remembered only in passing, was one Wagner became a U.S Senator. When done, and the example of the shirtwaist of the pivotal moments in 20th Century another New York Democrat, Franklin workers shows that organizing and history ... that change came about D. Roosevelt, became president, the voting can eventually make a difference. after the fire not because of altruism New York reform agenda became the The title of your book is Triangle: The or shame, but because the workers of New Deal, with Wagner writing most Fire That Changed America. What was New York were organized and they of the laws, creating things we take for the change? voted—votes matter in politics ... granted today, such as Social Security, and that we owe a lot to those brave, public housing and fair labor laws. The The “change” in America was the mostly anonymous, young people who New deal was born in the ashes of the birth of genuine reform in American walked on the freezing pickets lines of Triangle. government, and the creation of the the shirtwaist strike and died in the idea that government can protect Are we doomed to repeat the tragedy? Triangle fire. My book contains the workers and improve social conditions. first-ever list of the names of the people What immediate connections do you People did not always believe that. draw from the past for the present? who died in the fire, and tells, for the What lessons do you hope students will first time, some of their life stories. We are not doomed to repeat the draw from the Triangle Fire? That is because I feel we owe it to them tragedy. The legacy of the Triangle to remember them.

UNITE ARCHIVES, KHEEL CENTER, CORNELL UNIVERSITY VIA GROVE/ATLANTIC In David Von Drehle’s new book, “Triangle: The Fire That Changed America,” the author argues that The New Deal was born from Triangle ashes above.

The Cutter’s Art Haste makes waist

“Once the patterns were finished, everything fell to the cutters. They were confident, swaggering men, the divas of the garment district. They hung their coats on pegs beside their big custom-built tables on the eighth floor. When the cutters arrived at work, on each table lay stretched more than a hundred layers of lawn [sheer, cotton fabric popular that season], separated by sheets of tissue paper. ... The cutters took down pattern pieces and fiddled with them like a puzzle until all the pieces fit into the smallest possible stretch of fabric. A wasted inch multiplied by a hundred layers was almost three wasted yards of fabric, and three wasted yards for every hundred waists added up to 360 wasted yards of fabric per week. The cutter’s art—of placing the patterns with maximum efficiency and whisking their distinctive knives like industrial cavaliers—was bedrock of the garment industry. As a result, cutters were well paid and well treated.” — Triangle: The Fire That Changed America (page 107)

Directions: To create a waist (blouse) for sale, patterns were created so each waist would have the same appearance, the waist size could be controlled and sewing could be done efficiently. Pretend you are a cutter. Below are the pieces of a 1910-1915 pattern for a “Ladies’ Gibson Shirt-Waist with a neck- band.” Place the pattern pieces on the paper you have been given. Remember you want to configure the placement of pattern pieces to save the most fabric possible. (Patterns below not to scale.)

Ladies Gibson Shirt-Waist pattern provided courtesy of Past Patterns (pastpatterns.com). Volume 3, Issue 1

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An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program The Workplace at the Turn of the Century From the pages of Triangle: the Fire That Changed America.

1. New York, the most populated state in 1911, had a bustling economy. Read excerpts from David Von Drehle’s Triangle to learn about the American workplace in the early 1900s.

“More than a thousand blouses “The Huyler [candy factory] “In grand progressive style, had taken shape in the seven brothers did not like the fifty- George Price and Frances working hours of March 25, four-hour bill. Candy factories Perkins organized Factory one stitch at a time. The freshly were notoriously grim places to Commission visits to plants and cut pieces went in bales to the work. Boiling the chocolatey, mills all over the state. They took foreman, who distributed them sugary concoctions was steamy, commissioners to an Auburn, to the wicker baskets on the suffocating work, and it was New York, rope factory where floor by each operator’s feet. all done standing up—hour husbands and wives worked Runners and foremen scurried after hour hovering over alternating twelve-hour shifts, back and forth, up and down simmering cauldrons. Workers never seeing each other except the stairs, hunting for the pieces were frequently scalded or cut. to kiss quickly as they passed they needed to keep each part All the wrapping was done by at the gate. They saw a Buffalo of the assembly line busy. The hand—numbingly tedious work. candy factory where chocolate operators fed the pieces through During the busy season before boiled over into open gas flames, their humming, stuttering Christmas, the factories were where the single stairway had machines, and no matter how kept going almost around the no handrail—terribly dangerous quickly the foremen cleared away clock. Like cannery owners, in case of a fire—and where the finished work, the tables the candy makers argued that two toilets served 300 workers, always seemed to be heaped with a limit on hours would make it and one of the two was broken. garments. Piece by piece blouses impossible to run their highly They hit a Cattaraugus County emerged, with each completed seasonal businesses.” cannery at dawn, and found step of the process noted in the (Triangle, page 206) children as young as five, six and bookkeeper’s ledger.” seven working alongside their (Triangle, page 110,) mothers. How long is the day? The commissioners wondered. The Answer: Until the children passed out from exhaustion. (Triangle, page 215)

2. Von Drehle did extensive research, studying as many primary documents as he could find. Read at least three more sources of information about businesses and workplace conditions from 1900 to 1912. Write an evaluation of workplace safety in America in the early 1900s. Include quotations from your sources and Von Drehle.

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An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program Tammany Hall and Workplace Safety Reform

“Since the Tweed era in the 1860s On March 25, 1911, the Triangle fire Included were fire safety laws, and 1870s, the words ‘Tammany lit a cry for safety. A New York State requirements for automatic sprinklers Hall’ had been synonymous with Factory Investigating Commission was in high-rise buildings, mandatory graft, corruption, and the election of founded. Headed by “Tammany Twins” fire drills, protection for women puppets to do the work of dishonest —State Senator Robert Wagner and and children in the workplace. The bosses. That ignominy was largely State Assembly Speaker Al Smith. New York Department of Labor was deserved, but with the installation of Frances Perkins from the Consumers’ reorganized. Smith and Wagner in the first days of League became a commission member. 1911, Charles Murphy promoted the “The work of [of the commission leadership that would move Tammany in] 1912 produced a series of new into an era of change, an era of reform.” laws in the 1913 legislature that was (Triangle, page 210) unmatched to that time in American history. The Tammany Twins pushed through twenty-five bills, entirely recasting labor law of the nation’s largest state.” (Triangle, page 215)

Assignment: Study Tammany Hall before and after the Triangle fire, the individuals who had impact on New York and national labor reform and the organizations that sought workplace safety. Select from the following list a person or organization to research. Consumers’ League New York Factory Investigating Commission

The International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union Frances Perkins

Fiorello La Guardia Progressive Movement

Clara Lemlich Jacob Riis and How the Other Half Lives

Anne Morgan Alfred E. Smith

Charles Francis Murphy Robert F. “Bob” Wagner

New Deal

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An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program

Academic Content Standards (The main lesson addresses these academic content standards.) This lesson addresses academic content standards of Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. Among those that apply are: Maryland Virginia Washington, D.C. Social Studies History Social Studies United States History (2.0). Students Turmoil and Change: 1890s to 1945. The Chronology and Space in Human History. will examine significant ideas, beliefs and student will demonstrate knowledge of Students understand chronological order themes; organize patterns and events; and the changing role of the United States and spatial patterns of human experiences, analyze how individuals and societies have from the late nineteenth century through by placing the stories of people and events changed over time in Maryland and the World War I by describing the impact in the context of their own time and place. United States. of the Progressive Movement on child By the end of Grade 5, the student will Social Studies Skills: 4. Students are able labor, working conditions, the rise of understand multiple causes—how people to identify and distinguish cause and effect organized labor, women’s suffrage, and the and ideas cause or shape events; By the and sequence and correlation in historic temperance movement. end of Grade 8, the student will explain events. 7. Analyze issues by stating and how power, roles of individuals, justice, and summarizing the issue, evaluating different Civics and Economics, 7.4. The student influences apply to persistent issues and viewpoints, and drawing conclusions will compare the policy-making process social problems. By the end of Grade 12, based on data. at the local, state, and national levels of the student will identify the occasions on government with emphasis on the ways which the collaboration of different kinds Writing that individuals and culture, ethnic, of people, often with different motives, has Students will demonstrate ability to write and other interest groups can influence accomplished important changes. to persuade by selecting and organizing government policymakers. relevant information, establishing an Reading/English Language Arts argumentative purpose, and by designing English Language as Meaning Making. Students an appropriate strategy for an identified Writing: The student will write in a comprehend and compose a wide range of audience. variety of forms, including narrative, written, oral and visual texts. expository and persuasive writings. A complete list of State Content Standards A complete list of Standards for Teaching and of Maryland can be found at http:// A complete list of Standards of Learning of Learning of the District of Columbia Public Schools www.mdk12.org/mspp/standards/. Virginia can be found on the Web at http:// can be found at http://www.k12.dc.us. www.pen.k12.va.us/.