In studying this topic, students will learn about the development of mass production and how it affected this country's industrial growth. In this case, students should understand the advantages and disadvantages of assembly line production versus the production of craftsmen. A two-column advance organizer in which students identify the advantages and disadvantages of progress serves several purposes. Finally, it can give the teacher a sense of what prior knowledge students have of the topic. Students will invariably mention cars on their lists, and the teacher can share pictures of autos of the pre-mass production era.
Students can look for examples of old inventions and old autos on the Internet if they have access.
A follow-up activity might be for students to identify how the items on their list today differ from those of the earlier period. At this point, new vocabulary essential to the understanding of the target concept should be introduced, either through visual clues or anecdotal definitions. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and visuals can certainly increase students' understanding of the term assembly line. Charlie Chaplin's movie Modern Times has a wonderful ten-minute clip of him working on the Ford assembly line, and an old I Love Lucy episode in the chocolate factory can provide great visuals of an assembly line. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways.