Social and Economic Impact on Americans Lesson Plan

Unit Topic: The Great Depression

Lesson Topic: Social and Economic Impact on Americans

Grade Level: 11th Grade

Standard addressed: VA SOLs:

USII. 6 The student will demonstrate knowledge of the social, economic, and technological changes of the early twentieth century byd) Identifying the causes of the Great Depression, its impact on Americans, and the major features of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.

VA Technology Standards: C/T 9-12.5 The student will demonstrate knowledge of technologies that support collaboration, personal pursuits, and productivity. Respectfully collaborate with peers, experts, and others to

contribute to an electronic community of learning. Model responsible use and respect for equipment, resources, and

facilities.C/T 9-12.9 The student will use a variety of media and formats to communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences. Determine the most effective tool, format, and style to

communicate to specific audiences.NETS:

1. Creativity and InnovationStudents demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Students:a. apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes.b. create original works as a means of personal or group expression.c. use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues.d. identify trends and forecast possibilities.

3. Research and Information Fluency

Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Students:a. plan strategies to guide inquiry.b. locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media.

Time: 90-minute class block

Aim/Key Question: What was the impact of the Great Depression on Americans? *Aim is posted on Smart Board.

Materials: Graph worksheets, Smart Board, 280 slide presentation of iconic images, Photo Story 3 for Windows, Comic Life (optional), picture graphic organizer, student computers

Objectives: 1. Identify: Unemployment rate, workers’ wages, bank failure rate, business failure rate, foreclosures, Dust Bowl, “Okies,” bread lines, Hoovervilles, middle-class, marginal workers (African Americans, Mexican-Americans, and women.) 2.) Compare and contrast the impact of the Great Depression on different societal groups.3.) Reflect on the social and financial burdens that individuals felt during the Great Depression. *Objectives posted on Smart Board.

Web Sites/Links: 280 Slides VoiceThreadPrezi (optional for differentiation) Teacher Example using Photo Story 3 for Windows on VimeoTeacher Example using VoiceThread Image 1 Dust BowlImage 2 Hooverville Image 3 Industrial Workers on Bread LineImage 4 African AmericansImage 5 Mexican Americans Image 6 Great Depression Mother and Children Bing Crosby’s “Buddy Can You Spare a Dime?” song/slide showChristmas After All: The Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift, 1932

Motivation/Anticipatory Set:

(Obj. 1 and 2)

*Teacher will hand out graph paper to each student and post the numerical data that they will have to graph on the board, withholding what the topic of each graph is. The students will graph workers’ yearly wages, bank failures, and the unemployment rate from 1920 until 1932.

*Once the students have completed their graphs the teacher will ask the students what they thought the graphs represent based on what they know about the economic situation during the time period?

*Teacher will distribute copies of the graphs with their respective titles.

*Teacher will ask students questions pertaining to the graphs: 1.) What trends do you notice in workers’ wages? ---Both farmers and workers’ wages had decreased sharply during the 1920s and then increased steadily until 1929, when they declined dramatically. 2.) How would you characterize unemployment during the 1920s compared to the early 1930s? ---In 1921, unemployment was 12 percent, but throughout the rest of the decade it remained below 6 percent, until 1929 when it spiked to almost 25 percent. 3.) What year had the highest number of bank closures? ---1931---2300 banks closed 4.) What comparison can we make between the trends in workers’ wages and the unemployment rate? What does this trend mean for workers’ wallets?---As workers wages declined, unemployment increased. This meant that workers who were unemployed were not making any money and those who were fortunate enough to have a job were making barely enough to live on. 5.) Based on these statistics, what would you predict the trends in home foreclosure rates, business failures, and gross national product would be? (Show graphs) ---home foreclosures increase, business failures rise, and GDP declines.

Focus: (Obj. 1) Today we will be learning about the economic impact on Americans during the earlier part of the Great Depression. Last class we learned about some of the causes of the Great Depression such as overproduction, uneven distributions of income, buying on margin, speculation, the Crash of 1929, and the missteps of banks and the Federal Reserve. Now let’s take a closer look at how the depression affected Americans’ wallets.

Procedures: (Obj. 1 and 2)

*Hand out picture graphic organizer for students to take notes on during the slide show.

*Teacher will explain that Americans from different regions of the country and from socioeconomic groups felt the economic burdens of the Great Depression.

*Teacher will show a picture of the dust bowl and then point out on the map (Oklahoma, Arkansas/mid-western U.S.) of where it took place.

Image 1

---What do we think this is a picture of?

*Teacher will read the following excerpt from a boy living in Iowa during the time:

“We endured it for three years. I think it was the dust that gave Mother the shivers. She stuck paper strips along the window sills, rolled rugs against the doors, but still it sifted in, dry and fine as talcum powder, but gritty to taste and touch. The dust left a film on dishes in the cupboard, on sheets folded in drawers, on woodwork and chairs, on people’s faces and hair. Outside, if the

wind blew, visibility would be cut by a few yards. Autos ran at midday with their headlights on. Drifts of dust piled against fences like snow, sometimes two and three feet high.”

---Can you visualize what the dust bowl must have been like to live through? What images stuck in your mind after reading this passage?

---What caused the dust bowl? What do you think the impact on farmers during the depression was?---Teacher explains that the dust bowl was caused by drought and overuse of land. Many farmers were in debt and had a surplus of agricultural goods. Many lost their farms and were forced to migrate west to California to find work as migrant workers, they were known as “Okies” because many were from Oklahoma.

*Play the film clip of Bing Crosby singing “Buddy Can You Spare a Dime?” that shows images of bread lines, unemployment lines, etc. Distribute lyrics of “Buddy Can You Spare a Dime.

---What do you think the relationship is between the images presented and the song’s lyrics? What do you think the clip says about the workingman at the time?

---Teacher will explain that there was a lack of public relief programs for the unemployed and many people had no choice but to wait on soup kitchen, bread lines, and in shelters for a meal and warm bed. Before 1933, only local government assistance and the American Red Cross offered public assistance. There was no such thing as unemployment benefits, Social Security Income, or Medicaid. Many Americans also had a negative attitude toward public assistance because it was commonly believed that if you were poor it was your own fault and public assistance would make people not look for work. Many individuals, especially children were malnourished.

*Show a picture of a Hooverville. Image 2

*Have a student read aloud the description that Minnie Swift gave of a Hooverville in 1932 that is on their hand out.

Christmas After All: The Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1932:

“We all walked over to the shantytown. This is the one they call Curtisville. It is the biggest Hooverville in the state of Indiana even if they do call it after the vice president. It was a long, cold walk but I forgot the cold and my freezing feet when we got there. Honest to gosh, I saw people living in contraptions that you couldn’t believe. I saw one family living in a pile of old tires covered with a tarp! Marlon said it was very dangerous. If all those tires collapsed they’d be squashed to death and there was a little baby, just a toddler. Then we saw ramshackle shacks with tin roofs made from flattened garbage cans. Garbage cans and oil drums were the most important part of Curtisville. People lit fires in them, cooked on them, flattened them into sheets for roofs or walls, and some people who were too tired to build anything just crawled into them and slept.

---Why do you think Hoovervilles developed? What do you think about these living conditions? Would you want to live in these types of conditions? Would you characterize this as poverty? Why do you think they were called Hoovervilles?

---Teacher will explain that Hoovervilles developed as more and more people lost their homes and became homeless. Hoovervilles were shacks, made

from whatever materials were available, such as cardboard boxes, tires, etc. Hoovervilles were named after President Hoover because many felt that he had done little to ease the suffering of the poor.

*Explain impact on middle-class professionals.

---What do you think the economic impact was on professional and white-collar middle-class individuals and families? ---Explain that while professionals did better than the industrial workers and farmers, many had to make do with less and cut back on expenses by canning their own food or making their own clothes. A common saying was “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.”

*Show picture of industrial workersImage 3

*Show pictures of marginal workers.---How do you think marginal workers were treated during this time of serious economic hardship?

---Explain many of these workers were discriminated against and used as scapegoats.

---Explain African Americans had already experienced little economic opportunity during prior to the Great Depression. During the economic crisis, there was a push for “Negro Removal” in which jobs that had been considered below a white man’s level (bellhops, street cleaners, and garbage collectors) were now desired because other jobs had disappeared. African Americans were therefore the first to be laid off from industrial jobs as well. Unemployment for African Americans in major cities was 30-60% higher than that of whites. By 1932, African American unemployment was almost 50% and racial violence such as lynching increased.

Image 4

---Explain that Mexican Americans in the Southwest and working in agriculture did not fare much better than African Americans. Like many other immigrant groups, Mexican Americans were blamed for stealing white men’s jobs. The Labor Department responded by deporting anyone who did not have full documentation, even if they were legal. The government in its deportation also ignored the fact that children who were born in the U.S. were natural citizens. Between 1929-1935, 82,000 Mexicans were deported and half a million total during the 1930s. Many also left voluntarily.

Image 5

---Explain that women were barred from many jobs and were not paid as much as men. It was commonly believed that men should be breadwinners and women were homemakers and that if women worked they would be taking jobs from men. However, traditionally female jobs such as teachers, secretaries, and sales clerks were still reserved for women. Many African American women lost traditional jobs such as maids or other domestic jobs because white women were now willing to do these jobs and safe money rather than pay someone else to do them. Overall, women working in traditional women’s work increased during the 1930s, as women took whatever job they could to contribute to the family’s income.

Image 6

Developmental Activity:

(Obj. 1, 2, and 3)*Students will create a digital story telling presentation using the preselected iconic Great Depression images using Photo Story or VoiceThread. *Teacher presents an example of Great Depression images using Photo Story on Vimeo and an example of VoiceThread. *Preselected images will have been uploaded onto student computers in a Great Depression photo file.

*Questions for students to think about when creating a digital photo story of Great Depression images.

1.) What images will you select? (Students must have a minimum of 6.)

2.) How will you present these images? (Example: chronologically, thematically, topically, etc) 3.) What will your captions or titles for each image say?4.) Will you add music or narration? 5.) How will this digital photo story convey the impact of the Great Depression on Americans?

Differentiation: *Students who are lower-level learners will be paired with higher-level learners. *Students may have the option to create photo stories with less images; just create arrangement of images in a slide show; create a collage using Prezi with less descriptions or comic strip using Comic Life.

Closure/Assessment/Evaluation: (Obj. 3)

*Students will present their digital photo story or voicethread. *Teacher will evaluate each presentation based on if the following criteria are met:

6 images Systematically organized A captions or title for each image Music or narration existing for some part of the presentation Conveys impact of Great Depression on Americans Creativity Thoughtfulness

*Discussion of aim: What was the impact of the Great Depression on most Americans?