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Summary
Ethel Carnie Holdsworth’s (1886-1962) life and writing provide an engaging starting point for exploring the experiences of working-class communities in Britain and in Lancashire’s cotton industry. Having worked in a mill from childhood, she drew on her experiences to write poetry, journalism and novels about poverty, inequality, women’s lives and workers’ rights.
Through English, pupils investigate how Ethel used writing to expose injustice. They explore the viewpoints and feelings of mill workers, speak and write in role, and produce a newspaper article about life in the cotton mills.
Through drama, pupils explore how strikes and unfair working conditions affected workers, families and communities. They use role play, tableaux, physical theatre, mime, narration and choral speaking to communicate ideas and emotions and create collaborative performances.
Through art, pupils examine how images, colour, composition, lettering and slogans can communicate a powerful social message. Inspired by Ethel’s writing and visual interpretations of This Slavery, they design protest posters expressing mill workers’ calls for fairness, dignity and change.
Together, the lessons show pupils how writing, performance and visual art can give a voice to overlooked communities, challenge injustice and encourage social change. Assessment was built into the project to evaluate pupils’ learning and response to the activities. Positive post-activity assessment provided encouraging evidence of pupils’ understanding and engagement, demonstrating the value of combining creative activities with opportunities to reflect on their learning.
These resources were developed through collaboration between Professor Nicola Wilson and doctoral researcher Jenny Harper at the University of Reading, Jules Gibb of Mid Pennine Arts, and Andrea O’Niel of Intersect Education. The project brings together academic research and creative practice.
How to use the lesson plan
This lesson plan is for a scheme of work lasting 6 weeks or 6 lessons
- Key topics to be covered and knowledge achieved by the end of the session are outlined.
- Supplementary resources have been provided which may be used in class to better situate the content with students.
- The ‘Further Reading’ section provides references to further resources which you can use to develop your own knowledge or your teaching materials.
Evaluation
For teachers
We are keen to evaluate and monitor the effectiveness of these resources as they are used by teachers in schools. You can scan the QR code on the final page of this resource which will take you to a short post-survey (‘Lesson Plan Effectiveness Evaluation’).
We encourage you to be as open and honest as possible as this will enable us to better develop the materials. All data will be anonymised prior to analysis.
If you do not feel comfortable answering the survey, or prefer to give feedback in a different way, please contact Stéphanie Mitchell, (s.mitchell@reading.ac.uk).