Immigrants often had a hard time making a living when they arrived in America. As newcomers, lacking education and skills, they had to compete with each other for the lowest-paying job. (1)
A man could work twelve or fourteen hours a day and still not earn enough to support his family. Everyone had to help out. (2)
Working children were common everywhere. Kids eight or ten years old worked in factories, warehouses, laundries, and stores. They ran errands, delivered packages, hauled coal and firewood, sold newspapers, shined shoes. Almost everyone over fourteen was employed full time. Youngsters under fourteen were supposed to be in school, but the law was not strictly enforced. (3)
In 1890, an investigation by the Working Women’s Society of New York found that a majority of salesgirls and cashiers in retail stores were under age:
The girls are sent to the store before they have fairly entered their teens, because the money they earn there is needed for the support of the family. …To keep their places they are told to lie about their age and say they are over fourteen…. (4)
The Women’s Investigating Committee found the majority of the children employed in the stores to be under age, but heard only a single instance of the truant officers calling. In that case they came once a year and sent the youngest children home; but in a month’s time they were all back in their places and were not again disturbed. (5)
When it comes to factories, where hard physical labor is added to the long hours, stifling rooms, and starvation wages, matters are even worse. In
Factories, the legal workday was ten hours a day, six days a week. (6)
Children under sixteen could not be employed unless they could read and write English. Children under fourteen could not legally be employed at all. But in factories as well as retail stores, the law was often ignored.
Pauline Newman was an immigrant child who worked in a New York City clothing factory:
It was child’s work, since we were all children. We had a corner in the factory which was like a kindergarten. The work wasn’t difficult. The shirtwaist finished by the [sewing machine] operator would come to us, so we could cut off the thread left by the needle of the machine. You had little scissors because you were children. Somehow the employer knew when the inspector was coming. Materials came in high wooden cases, and when the inspector came we were put into them and covered with shirtwaists. By the time he arrived, there were no children. (7)
In the busy season, we worked seven days a week. That’s why the sign went up on the freight elevator: If You Don’t Come In On Sunday, Don’t Come In On Monday. (8) / (1)What do you know about immigrants after reading this part of the text?
I know that immigrants are people that are new to the country because it said right here that they arrived in America, and that they are newcomers. I also know that an immigrant is someone who is moving to America, not just visiting, because it says that they need to make a living. If you were just visiting, you wouldn’t have to make a living. “Make a living,” means to earn money so you can live.
(2)Why did the author tell us about men working long hours and that everyone had to help out?
(3)The author is creating a picture of all family members working together so they could have the things they need to survive. By telling us that the men worked for twelve to fourteen hours a day and that it still wasn’t enough, I think he is trying to lead into the next section about immigrant children working.
(3)So what do we know about the immigrant children and the laws?
If working children were common and visible everywhere then we know that the laws were ignored and that children weren’t getting an education. Enforced means ignored because the author used the word “but” when he told about the laws saying that children were supposed to be in school butthey weren’t enforced. “But” means that it didn’t happen. From what the author is telling us, we can infer that these immigrant kids would probably always have low paying jobs because if they didn’t attend school then they be educated enough to get higher paying jobs when they were older.
(4)The author used a colon before the explanation about the under aged girls working in the stores. What’s different here?
After the colon, it sounds more like someone is talking. The piece of text we read previously sounds more like an author’s description about what it was like for immigrant children. I think that this part was taken from a primary source, maybe someone’s journal or something.
(5)Tell me about the word “calling”.
The word “calling” has a lot of different meanings like calling on the phone or someone calling me to dinner but I don’t think the author meant either of those. I think when the author said that the truant officers were calling he meant, “coming by” because he said they came once a year and sent the youngest children home.
(6)Tell me what the author does to help us visualize factory work. (Follow up query) Does he do a good job creating a picture for us?
I noticed that the author used several interesting adjectives to help me visualize what it was like. Instead of just saying “physical labor” he said, “hard physical labor”. “Stifling rooms” and “starvation wages” help you to know that both the rooms and the wages were terrible. Instead of saying, “the workday was long”, the author said that the workday was ten hours a day, six days a week. I think this is good way to explain the workday because we know exactly how long the children had to be at the factories. The adjectives he used do paint a good picture for us.
(No query needed for craft and structure.)
(7)What do we already know about the colon?
We know that someone else besides the author is doing the talking now. Once again, it’s probably taken from a primary source document. I also noticed the change in tense because the writer or speaker of this part keeps using the word “we” like they were actually there. I’m thinking that it’s either an interview that was done or a journal entry. I think it’s exciting to hear someone who was a child working in the factory tell about what it was like! This person doesn’t act like the work was too bad because he or she says that the work was child’s work and that it wasn’t difficult.
(8)Tell me about the meaning of the sign.
The sign was saying that if you weren’t willing to work seven days a week then you would lose your job. I think that the author chose this important statement to put at the end of this chapter to make us think about America and how it’s supposed to be the land of the free but maybe it didn’t feel like it to these immigrants.
As you do the second close reading of this text, place a copy on the document camera and mark up the text as you think aloud. This will be used to help organize the information for your critical analysis.
Sample
In the beginning of the chapter, the author tells us about immigrants. He points out that an immigrant is someone who is a new to America and plans on staying. He explains that life for the immigrants was difficult so the whole family had to work. He uses this statement to take the reader to the important part of the chapter, children working. The author points out that there were laws against children working but lets us know that those laws didn’t really matter by telling us that children were seen working everywhere. The author did a nice job of making the information believable by using quotes from actual immigrants to explain what it was like back then. He also helped me visualize what life was like for the children during that time by using adjectives as he described factory work. Without even saying the word “freedom”, the author made me wonder if America was really the land of the free by ending this section with a statement that forced immigrants into this way of life.