Voices of Change: Ireland and the Wider World · 6th Year

Active learning ideas

Life Inside a Workhouse

Active learning immerses students in the harsh realities of workhouse life, making abstract historical facts tangible. Through movement, role-play, and close reading, students directly engage with the physical, emotional, and systemic challenges faced by the poor, fostering deeper empathy and retention than passive methods allow.

• NCCA Curriculum Specifications
• NCCA: Primary - Social, cultural and aspects of everyday life
• NCCA: Primary - Story

• 35–50 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 4 activities

Activity 01

• Stations Rotation
• 45 min · Small Groups

Stations Rotation: Workhouse Daily Life

Create four stations with replicas: diet (measure stirabout portions), labor (try oakum-picking), dormitories (examine bunk models), and rules (read extracts). Groups rotate every 10 minutes, noting differences for children versus adults. Conclude with a class chart comparing experiences.

Compare the experiences of children and adults within the workhouse system.

Facilitation Tip

For Station Rotation: Workhouse Daily Life, set up visual timers at each station to mimic the rigid schedules inmates followed, reinforcing the oppressive structure of workhouse routines.

What to look for

Pose the question: 'If you were a workhouse inmate, which aspect of daily life do you think would be the most challenging, and why?' Encourage students to reference specific details about diet, labor, or living conditions in their responses.

• Remember
• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Self-Management
• Relationship Skills

Activity 02

• Gallery Walk
• 50 min · Pairs

Role-Play: Family Separation Debate

Assign roles as workhouse inmates, guardians, or officials. In pairs, prepare arguments on family separation ethics using key questions. Groups present to the class, then vote and reflect on historical impacts.

Analyze how the workhouse system impacted family structures.

Facilitation Tip

During Role-Play: Family Separation Debate, assign students roles based on age, class, or gender to ensure diverse perspectives are voiced and debated.

What to look for

Ask students to write two sentences comparing the experience of a child and an adult in the workhouse, and one sentence explaining how the system aimed to discourage reliance on relief.

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Create
• Relationship Skills
• Social Awareness

Activity 03

• Gallery Walk
• 35 min · Small Groups

Source Analysis: Inmate Testimonies

Provide excerpts from children's and adults' accounts. Individually highlight conditions and family effects, then share in small groups to build a collective timeline of a typical day. Discuss ethical implications.

Evaluate the ethical implications of separating families within the workhouse.

Facilitation Tip

In Source Analysis: Inmate Testimonies, provide transcriptions with gaps or unclear phrases to encourage close reading and inference skills.

What to look for

Present students with a short primary source excerpt describing workhouse conditions. Ask them to identify two specific hardships mentioned and one potential ethical concern raised by the text.

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Create
• Relationship Skills
• Social Awareness

Activity 04

• Gallery Walk
• 40 min · Whole Class

Whole Class: Family Structure Mapping

Draw pre-Famine family trees on large paper. In whole class, simulate workhouse entry by separating members and annotating changes. Evaluate long-term effects through discussion.

Compare the experiences of children and adults within the workhouse system.

Facilitation Tip

For Whole Class: Family Structure Mapping, use large butcher paper to allow groups to physically arrange family units and cross out separated members, visualizing the system’s impact.

What to look for

Pose the question: 'If you were a workhouse inmate, which aspect of daily life do you think would be the most challenging, and why?' Encourage students to reference specific details about diet, labor, or living conditions in their responses.

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Create
• Relationship Skills
• Social Awareness

A few notes on teaching this unit

Teaching this topic benefits from a balance between empathy and evidence. Avoid romanticizing or sensationalizing the hardships; instead, ground discussions in primary sources and systemic analysis. Research shows that role-play and station work help students process trauma-informed content, but close teacher facilitation is key to preventing emotional overload. Pair historical rigor with reflective writing to help students process what they learn.

Students will demonstrate understanding by accurately describing workhouse routines, comparing adult and child experiences, and explaining how the Poor Law system enforced family separation. Look for evidence-based arguments in discussions, maps, and analysis of primary sources, showing they connect personal perspectives to historical evidence.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During Station Rotation: Workhouse Daily Life, students may assume workhouses provided comfort due to the structured environment.

  During Station Rotation: Workhouse Daily Life, redirect students to compare the visual austerity of each station (e.g., sparse food bowls, worn tools) with their own assumptions about refuge, using firsthand accounts to ground the discussion in evidence.

• During Role-Play: Family Separation Debate, students might believe families stayed together in workhouses.

  During Role-Play: Family Separation Debate, have students physically separate into designated areas for men, women, and children based on Poor Law rules, then discuss how the system reinforced this division through policy and architecture.

• During Station Rotation: Workhouse Daily Life, students may think children faced the same hardships as adults.

  During Station Rotation: Workhouse Daily Life, point students to the child labor station labeled 'schoolroom' or 'light duties' and ask them to compare the tools or tasks with the stone-breaking or oakum-picking stations for adults.

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Methods used in this brief

• Stations Rotation
• Gallery Walk