THE GREAT DEPRESSION & EVERYDAY LIFE 

David J. Burt
Introduction
Standards 
Objectives
Activities
Assessment 
Results
Resources


Introduction
The Great Depression wasn't just the Stock Market Collapse, Bank Failures, the Dust Bowl and the New Deal. If students are to truly understand the impact of the Depression they need to know what happened to common people.  This lesson will introduce the students to everyday life and what happened to ordinary people during those trying times.

Subject:  The Great Depression
Topic: Experience of Ordinary People
Grade Level: 11
Student Lesson name and URL: What was it really like?
Standards Addressed
Eleventh Grade
Social Science: US History & Geography
The Great Depression

11.6  Students analyze the different explanations for the Great Depression and how the New Deal fundamentally changed the role of the federal government, in terms of:

3.  the human toll of the Depression, natural disasters, unwise agricultural practices and their effect on the depopulation of rural regions and on political movements of the left and right with particular attention to the Dust Bowl refugees and their social and economic impact in California

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Instructional Objectives
  1. Students will study the Report of The Great Plains Drought Area Committee and create their own  graphics explaining the causes of the Dust Bowl.
  2. Students will study the Discovery Channel Online site and answer the questions from the study guide.
  3. Students will find and analyze the real life experiences of one person based on primary documents found in sources such as the Library of Congress and various sites.  The sites referred to will deal with those who emigrated to California--the Oakies
  4. Students will write a "who, what, when, where, why, how"  summary of the person studied.
  5. Students will study the picture collection of Dorothea Lange and the Farm Services Administration sites, select a picture  and evaluate the information in the picture according to National Archive guide.
  6. Working in groups of four students, will collaborate in designing a flyer, with text, graphics and pictures summarizing the lives of the people they researched. 
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Student Activities
Students will complete pre-test, diagram the causes of the Dust Bowl, research and summarize the experiences of one person found in the Library of Congress, examine and summarize one photo (Dorothea Lange and Library of Congress)  and prepare a newspaper in a group.  


Introductory Activity
The pre-quiz to measure the students' prior knowledge.

Enabling Activities
Students will:

  1. Study the Report of the Great Plains Drought Area Committee and outline the causes and effects of the Dust Bowl

  2. Read and summarize the events of "Black Sunday" as related on Discovery Channel Online.

  3. Research and summarize one oral history as found in "Voices from the Dust Bowl" collection in the Library of Congress.

  4. Research documents found in the Library of Congress to explain the experiences of the migrants in California.

 

Culminating Activity
Students working in groups of four will produce a newspaper that explains the causes and effects of the Dust Bowl.  The paper will include the four summations of the oral histories researched and the pictures copied.

Each student will turn in Causes Outline, Black Sunday Study Guide and Research Guide for primary sources from the Library of Congress.

Students will complete a multiple-choice quiz to determine what they have learned about the Dust Bowl during this lesson.
 

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Assessment
Since this will serve as the research project for this quarter it is worth 80 points and is based on this rubric.
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Results
My classes include regular, GATE and one for our performing arts academy with a total of 135 students.

The results of this spreadsheet are from one of my regular classes.
 

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Web Resources & Supplementary Materials

Introductory Activity
Pre-Test

Enabling Activity
http://newdeal.feri.org/hopkins/hop27.htm-- Report of The Great Plains Drought Area Committee

Outline to write the summary

http:discovery.com/area/history/dustbowl/dustbowl.1.1.html--An article about Black Sunday and what it was like during a dust storm.

Study guide for Black Sunday

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afctsthml.tshome.html.--Voices From the Dust Bowl; The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940-1941--Interviews, ballads and meeting of minutes from the ethnographic survey.  A couple of local articles for Imperial County.  Have your students look for an area near your school

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsahtml/fahome.html  --America from the Dust Bowl to World War II; Black-and-white Photographs from FSA-OWI, 1935-1945, many pictures from all over California.  The 427 pictures from Imperial County will be of local import to my students.  Have your students look for an area near your school.

Research Guide for the primary sources

 

Culminating Activity
Post-test to measure student progress.

The rubric containing requirements of the entire project.

 
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Southwest High School
El Centro, California
David J. Burt dburt@cuhsd.k12.ca.us
Last Revised: 05/28/01 19:07