Lesson Title:
Farming as a Way of Life

Grade Level: 
Grade Six Lesson 2

History-Social Science Standard: 
6.2.2   Students trace the development of agriculture techniques that permitted the production of economic surplus and the emergence of cities as centers of culture and power.

Correlation to K-8 California Adopted Textbooks: 
Houghton Mifflin Social Studies, A Message of Ancient Days, pp. 120-133

Setting the Context:  
The development of settled communities led to the domestication of plants and animals. Learning to control/work with their environment made possible the beginning of agriculture, or farming. With the arrival of agriculture, not everyone was needed all day in the fields to raise food for the group. Therefore, others explored other occupations becoming toolmakers, builders, fishers, crafts persons, priests, and leaders. The farming was eventually left to the farmers. As farming developed, workers were needed to assist in the farming. Often conditions were not favorable for these workers.

Focus Question: 
What are some of the problems and solutions facing farm workers today?

Expected Learning Outcomes: 
Students will explain the difficulties experienced by farm workers that led to the development of the rights and regulations we have today.

Assessment: 
Students will demonstrate an understanding of the plight of farm workers by completing a problem/solution “T” chart. This chart will list several problems facing farm workers today, along with their solutions.

Key Concepts:  
The plight of farmers and farm workers today.

Essential Vocabulary: 
wages
strike
picket line
boycott
United Farm Workers Union
Teamsters Union
fast
nonviolence

Primary Sources:  
Internet:  CDE Middle School Biography, United Farm Workers and the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation Videos:  The Fight in the Fields: César Chávez and the Farm Worker Movement; Fighting for Our Lives, The United Farm Workers' 1973 Grape Strike

Books:   Ferriss, Susan and Sandoval, Richard. The Fight in the Fields, César Chávez and the Farmworkers Movement (Chapter 6 – Blood in the Fields)

Arrange for a guest speaker – grower, farm worker, or union organizer.

Visuals: 
See videos above.

Procedure

Motivation:  
What are the most critical problems in the fields? What are the problems that you learned from the video or book? How can the plight in the fields be corrected?

Making Connections:  
Farming gradually developed as a result of specialization and knowledge of working with the environment. Successful farming practices brought about the need for additional farm help. 

Possible questions: Why do people end up working for wages on land owned by others? Why don't farm workers have their own farms? Why do growers pay farm workers low wages? In the 1960s and 1970s there was turmoil in the fields, why was the philosophy and strategy of nonviolence used by César E. Chávez so important? Discuss the problems that plague farm workers and present day solutions to these problems.

Vocabulary Activities:  
Vocabulary words will be placed on the board. Students will keep a vocabulary journal to define the words from class discussions, videos, and guest speakers. At the culmination of this lesson, students will be given a word/definition match skill sheet to demonstrate their understanding of the vocabulary.

Guided Instruction: 
How can the plight in the fields be corrected? Show and discuss the video. 

Teacher places a model “T” chart on the board displaying problems/solutions of farmers and farm workers. A few problems/solutions are completed together as a class. Students are instructed to make a chart of their own and fill in additional problems/solutions as derived from textbook/videos/class discussion. Some key problems should be: very low wages, poor working standards, no drinking water, no portable toilets, corrupt contractors, and so forth.

Guest speaker gives insight into the problems/solutions of farmers and farm workers. Classroom discussion ensues, with students participating in questioning the speaker. 

Students continue to fill in their “T” chart.

Integrating Language:  
Students will listen to teacher’s introduction, read textbook, watch video, participate in classroom discussions, listen to guest speaker, and complete a “T” chart.

Enrichment:  
Interview a grower or farm worker to learn more about farming as a way of life. Use the following guidelines in your interview:

1)	Arranging the interview: The key is to establish rapport with the potential interviewee.

2)	Setting up the location of the interview: Choose as quiet a location as possible.

3)	The interview process: An oral history interview is not a general dialogue. The purpose of the interview is to listen to what the interviewee has to say to stimulate the narrative with understanding comments and intelligent questions. Ask open-ended questions first, waiting to see where they lead.

4)	Possible themes: family, migration, childhood, job history, strikes, and unions.

5)	Possible questions: What were some of the problems that you faced as a farm worker? How did these problems affect your family? Were the problems ever resolved?

If there is no one to interview, go to the CDE Web site and select former farm workers from the Internet to complete the assignment.

Farming Problem/Solution T-Chart

								Name___________________

								Date____________________

		Problem				Solution				

Farming Skill Sheet

								Name___________________

								Date____________________

Choose the best word to match each meaning below. Write the word in the blank.

	Wages  	strike	picket line	boycott	fast

	United Farm Workers Union		Teamsters Union 	nonviolence

1.	Person posted by a union at a place of work affected by a strike________________

2.	To quit work in order to obtain a change in a job or situation_________________

3.	Pay given for work done__________________

4.	Philosophy of César E. Chávez: "it is hard work, the willingness to sacrifice, and the patience to win"__________________

5.	A labor organization primarily dealing with transportation and drivers_______________

6.	To abstain from food, for César Chávez a form of protest__________________

7.	A farm workers' union founded in 1962 by César Chávez__________________

8.	Concerted action used to stop the buying of certain items_________________