Chapter 11, Section2: Social

Problems in England
Central focus: This lesson will focus primarily on social reform in Great Britain during the

1800s. The previous lesson will have focused on political change and reform in Great Britain. I

plan to cover slavery, labor reform, the suffragette movement Irish independence and the potato

famine. Students will be given a speech by a famous suffragette, Emmaline Pankhurst. I plan to

ask students to analyze this speech for its purpose and meaning. The importance of this lesson is

to connect the legal reforms in Great Britain to the social reforms.

Lesson Objectives in Blooms Taxonomy format:

Students will discuss the changes taking place in Great Britain and their effects on the

working class, women, and the government.

Students will translate a primary document into their own words to show understanding.
Students will interpret a speech regarding the presented course material.
Students will relate primary documentation to course material.

School learning targets:

1. I can describe the growth and advancement of democracy in Britain and France.

2. I can identify the development of reform movements throughout the world especially

womens suffrage.

3. I can explain the idea of self-rule and how certain English colonies or territories achieved
 self- rule.

Pre-instructional Activity: Coming into this class period I plan to give a small formative

assessment. This assessment will test student knowledge from the previous day. I want to do this

for a few reasons. Foremost, I want to make sure that students remember the important points

from the previous class period. This will also ensure that the class begins on a serious note. This

is important because There is a lot of material that needs to be covered on this day of class.
Directed Teaching: This lesson will be centered on outside resources/ content material. I plan to

use several outside sources in order to connect the students with resources related to this material

and give them a holistic experience with the material. I will cover the abolition of slavery in

Great Britain, the improvement of working conditions, the suffragette movement, and

independence in Ireland. The major activity in this class period is the reading of a speech by

Emmaline Pankhurst. This activity is intended to help students visualize and understand what the

social situation was like in Great Britain during this time period. Followed by time to analyze the

speech, there will be a discussion before moving forward in the content material.
Guided practice: In the middle of the class period, I plan to hand out a speech by a very famous

leader in the suffragette movement, Emmaline Pankhurst. The major purpose of this assignment

is to give students insight into the lives of women in Great Britain in the 19th century. This is

important to the lesson as it is a serious topic in social history. This document will give students

a chance to analyze a primary document and think through the situation that is presented in the

speech.
Differentiation of lesson: There is no assignment for this day of class other than to interpret the

speech. Students who are non-English speakers will have the opportunity to ask for any

clarification of words that they do not understand. Students with Reading disabilities will be

given time and extra support if needed.

Resources: The Content presented in this lesson follows the textbook Chapter 11 section 2. The
Students text book is Prentice Hall World History from 1500-Present.

The speech came from: https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2007/apr/27/greatspeeches.

Emmeline Pankhurst Speech: November 3, 1913

I do not come here as an advocate, because whatever position the suffrage movement may
occupy in the United States of America, in England it has passed beyond the realm of advocacy
and it has entered into the sphere of practical politics. It has become the subject of revolution and
civil war, and so tonight I am not here to advocate woman suffrage. American suffragists can do
that very well for themselves.
I am here as a soldier who has temporarily left the field of battle in order to explain - it seems
strange it should have to be explained - what civil war is like when civil war is waged by women.
I am not only here as a soldier temporarily absent from the field at battle; I am here - and that, I
think, is the strangest part of my coming - I am here as a person who, according to the law courts
of my country, it has been decided, is of no value to the community at all; and I am adjudged
because of my life to be a dangerous person, under sentence of penal servitude in a convict
prison.

It is not at all difficult if revolutionaries come to you from Russia, if they come to you from
China, or from any other part of the world, if they are men. But since I am a woman it is
necessary to explain why women have adopted revolutionary methods in order to win the rights
of citizenship. We women, in trying to make our case clear, always have to make as part of our
argument, and urge upon men in our audience the fact - a very simple fact - that women are
human beings.

Suppose the men of Hartford had a grievance, and they laid that grievance before their
legislature, and the legislature obstinately refused to listen to them, or to remove their grievance,
what would be the proper and the constitutional and the practical way of getting their grievance
removed? Well, it is perfectly obvious at the next general election the men of Hartford would
turn out that legislature and elect a new one.

But let the men of Hartford imagine that they were not in the position of being voters at all, that
they were governed without their consent being obtained, that the legislature turned an absolutely
deaf ear to their demands, what would the men of Hartford do then? They couldn't vote the
legislature out. They would have to choose; they would have to make a choice of two evils: they
would either have to submit indefinitely to an unjust state of affairs, or they would have to rise
up and adopt some of the antiquated means by which men in the past got their grievances
remedied.