Oklahoma Social Studies TOT.C.1.2
The Standard
Explain the socio-economic ideas of Marx and Engels as outlined in their treatise The Communist Manifesto, including the claim known as “dialectical materialism,” which proposed that history must be viewed through the lens of “class struggles” between “oppressor and oppressed.”
Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies (2026)
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students explain how Marx and Engels described owners and wage workers as opposing classes under capitalism. They explain the claim that conflict between classes drives historical change. They describe the change Marx and Engels predicted workers would bring about.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given a factory example, a student identifies the owners and workers and explains why they might disagree about wages and profits. They connect that conflict to the writers' prediction that workers would take control of production.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think class struggle means any argument between rich and poor, rather than conflict tied to ownership and labor. They may think the writers wanted to abolish personal belongings, rather than private ownership of factories and other means of production.
How to Assess It
- On an exit ticket, describe a factory whose owner earns profits while workers earn wages. Ask students to name the two classes, explain their conflict, and state the change Marx and Engels predicted.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs owner, worker, factory, wage, and profit cards; have them arrange the cards to show who owns, works, and gets paid.
After students read the opening paragraph of the pamphlet, ask them to write why owners and workers might disagree about wages.
Play a card match: students pair claims about ownership, wages, and social change with supporting lines from a short excerpt.
Use a fictional cafe menu and payroll sheet to ask who owns the equipment, who earns wages, and who receives profits.
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