level w/60 the great depression by the numbers · the great depression by the numbers level w/60...

B e n c h m a r k e d u c a t i o n c o m p a n y

Themes• Economy• Stock Market• Survival

The Great Depression by the NumbersLevel W/60

Social Studies

Skills & Strategies

Anchor Comprehension Strategies

• Draw Conclusions• Summarize Information

Comprehension • Determinetextimportance

• Identifycauseandeffect

• Usegraphicfeaturestointerpretinformation

Vocabulary/Word Study Strategies • Identifyantonyms

Social Studies Big Idea • Significanteconomiceventsofthe

twentiethcenturyinfluencedthepolitical,social,andeconomicsystemsoftheUnitedStates.

TeACher’S Guide

Pages 4–6: During Reading: Introduction–Chapter 1 • Model Metacognitive Strategy: Determine Text Importance • Model Comprehension Strategy: Summarize Information • Identify Antonyms

Pages 7–8: During Reading: Chapter 2 • Apply Metacognitive Strategy: Determine Text Importance • Guide Comprehension Strategy: Summarize Information • Use Graphic Features to Interpret Information: Charts and Graphs

Pages 9–10: During Reading: Chapter 3–Conclusion • Apply Metacognitive Strategy: Determine Text Importance • Apply Comprehension Strategy: Summarize Information • Identify Antonyms

Page 11: After Reading • Administer Posttest • Synthesize Information: Research

D a y

1

2

3

4

5

A c t i v i t i e s

A dd i t i o n a l R e l a t e d R e s o u r c e s

Notable Trade Books for Read-Aloud• Appelt, Kathi. Down Cut Shin Creek:

The Pack Horse Librarians of Kentucky. HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2001.

• Graves, Kerry A. Going to School during the Great Depression. Capstone Press, 2001.

• Hoffman, Nancy. Eleanor Roosevelt and the Arthurdale Experiment. Shoe String Press, 2001.

• Lasky, Kathryn. Christmas After All: The Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift. Scholastic, 2001.

Web Site for Content Information• New Deal Network http://newdeal.feri.org/The New Deal Network is a teaching and research database consisting of over 20,000 photographs, political cartoons, and texts from the New Deal period. It was created by the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. Its “Classroom” section includes lesson plans, additional resources, and a time line.

C o r e L e s s o n P l a n n i n g G u i d e

© 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC. All rights reserved. Teachers may photocopy the reproducible pages for classroom use. No other part of the guide may be reproduced or transmitted in whole or in part in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including pho-tocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

ISBN: 978-1-4108-2590-22

Lesson at a GlanceBefore Reading (page 3)

• Build Background• Introduce the Book• Administer Preassessment

During Reading (pages 4–10)

Introduction–Chapter 1 (pages 4–6)

• Model Metacognitive Strategy: Determine Text Importance

• Set a Purpose for Reading• Discuss the Reading• Model Comprehension Strategy:

Summarize Information• Identify Antonyms

Chapter 2 (pages 7–8)

• Apply Metacognitive Strategy: Determine Text Importance

• Set a Purpose for Reading• Discuss the Reading• Guide Comprehension Strategy:

Summarize Information• Use Graphic Features to Interpret

Information: Charts and Graphs

Chapter 3–Conclusion (pages 9–10)

• Apply Metacognitive Strategy: Determine Text Importance

• Set a Purpose for Reading• Discuss the Reading• Apply Comprehension Strategy:

Summarize Information• Identify Antonyms

After Reading (page 11)

• Administer Posttest• Synthesize Information:

Research Information/Identify Cause and Effect

Writing Workshop (pages 12–13)

• Model the Writing Process: Write a Summary Including Main Points and Ideas

Blackline Masters (pages 14–16)

• Summarize Information (page 14)• Identify Antonyms (page 15)• Summarizing (page 16)

Page 3: Before Reading • Build Background • Introduce the Book • Administer Preassessment

The following five-day lesson plan is just one option for incorporating this teacher’s guide into your daily lesson plans.

Before ReadingBuild Background • Say: You’ve probably heard the word depression before.

What is a depression? (Possible answer: a time of sadness or discouragement) What other meanings are there for that word? (Possible answer: a low part in an area or a time of money troubles) Have you ever heard of the Great Depression? What do you know about it? When did it take place? How were people affected by the Great Depression?

• For two minutes, have students write down everything they know about the Great Depression. Then ask students to volunteer what they have written.

• Draw a web with “The Great Depression” in the center circle. Write the students’ ideas in the outer circles. Add as many circles as needed. (Possible answers: unemployment, 1930s, stock market crash of 1929, homelessness)

• If important concepts such as unemployment, stock market crash, and Black Tuesday are not familiar to students, introduce them.

Introduce the Book • Give students a copy of the book. Have them read the title and

then turn to the table of contents. Ask: What do you think you will read based on the chapter headings?

• Have pairs of students use the table of contents to choose one chapter to skim. Have pairs skim the chapter to locate one or two boldfaced words and one or two pictures to talk about. Remind students to use the glossary to check word meanings.

• Ask: Based on the words and pictures, what do you think this book will be about?

• After students share and respond, explain that The Great Depression by the Numbers will be about one of the most difficult times in the history of the United States.

Administer Preassessment• Have students take Ongoing Assessment #29 on page 94 in the

Comprehension Strategy Assessment Handbook (Grade 6).

• Score assessments and use the results to determine instruction.

• Keep group assessments in a small-group reading folder. For in-depth analysis, discuss responses with individual students.

Informal Assessment Tips

1. Assess students’ ability to use the table of contents and glossary.

2. Document informal observations in a folder or notebook.

3. Keep the folder or notebook at the small-group reading table for handy reference.

4. For students who struggle with using the table of contents and glossary, model how to read a table of contents, running your finger down each column to find the chapter titles and page numbers. If necessary, also model how to read a glossary and skim a chapter for boldfaced words.

© 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC 3

stock mar-ket crash of

1929unemployment

1930s homelessness

TheGreatDepression

During Reading: Introduction–Chapter 1

Model Metacognitive Strategy: Determine Text Importance

• Use a real-life example of determining text importance. Say: When I read a magazine or newspaper article, I read the headline to guess what the key points might be. Then I read the first paragraph and see if the key points are listed there. If so, I continue reading, looking for details that explain, expand, and prove those points. These details are called supporting details. If the story contains sidebars, charts, or captions, I read that information, too, because I may need it to understand the author's main ideas. Authors include lots of interesting details that are not part of the key topics. You need to think: Why is the author writing this? What does the author want me to know? Is this detail important to my understanding of the main ideas in the writing?

• Read pages 2–3 aloud. Say: In the introduction, the author directs my attention to the ideas she wants me to learn. On these pages, not all of the paragraphs give key topics. The second paragraph, for example, gives more details about the different ways people survived during the Great Depression. The picture and Solve This! section add interesting details, but are not essential to my understanding of the main topics. The time line, however, is important because it summarizes most of the main events in the book. To help me figure out what is important, I can ask who, what, when, where, why, and how questions.

Set a Purpose for Reading • Ask students to read Chapter 1 silently to discover what caused

the Great Depression. As they read, have them jot down the author's key topics on self-stick notes or in their journals. Point out that there are many sidebars, illustrations, and captions in the chapter. Students should read them with the understanding that the information found there may not be as important as the information in the running text, but may provide supporting details.

4 © 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC

Good readers decide and remember what is important and what is not important as they read. To do this well, readers must be able to identify the difference between key topics and supporting details, notice and select new information, and distinguish between important and interesting information. Good readers keep track of their thinking by writing ideas in a journal or on self-stick notes.

Content InformationStudents may be interested in the following facts about the 1920s:

• On a farm in the 1920s, there was no electricity or indoor plumbing. Most small cities, however, had paved streets, electricity, water systems, and phone systems.

• At first, electricity was used to light homes in small cities. Later it was also used to run appliances such as washing and sewing machines, toasters, and irons.

• On farms, it took another ten to twenty years before electric appliances were used. One of the most important changes for farmers was the availability of gasoline-powered automobiles and trucks, especially in states that were sparsely populated.

Minds-On/ Hands-On Activity

1. Have small groups of students play a stock market game. Tell students that they are to imagine they have $1,000 to invest in the stock market. Have each group read the stock quotes in the newspaper (or on the Internet) to determine which and how many stocks they want to buy as a group.

2. Model how to read and use the stock quotes section and determine, for example, how many shares of a $50 stock you could buy with $1,000. (20 shares) Challenge the groups to decide whether they should invest all their money in one stock or diversify—buy several different types of stocks.

3. Ask each group to create a chart or scorecard, recording which and how many stocks they bought, the total amount invested, and how much leftover “cash” they have, if any. Have each group select a spokesperson to present the group’s stock investment plan to the class.

a

qq

Discuss the Reading • Have students take turns sharing one key topic they learned.

• Ask: What key topics did the author want you to learn? What are some interesting supporting details that she included? Look for details that answer the questions who, what, where, when, and how much or how many.

• You may wish to list the ideas on the board, and then have students suggest supporting details for each. For example, list this idea from page 6: People went into debt. Then list supporting details: Americans wanted more goods; they bought on credit; they thought they could pay off their debts.

Model Comprehension Strategy: Summarize Information• Say: Nonfiction text is more difficult for me to understand

than fiction text because there is so much information to remember and learn. Even if I keep notes, I still have a hard time remembering key pieces of information. To help me remember, I can summarize or paraphrase the information using my own words. Summarizing means pulling out the most important details and reducing a long piece of text to a few sentences. I have to remember to use only the key topics and a few supporting details when I summarize.

• Continue: I know that a main idea often appears in the topic sentence of a paragraph. Other times, I must use what I read to guess or infer the main idea. If I can reduce several pages of text to a few key sentences, I find it much easier to understand and remember what I’ve read.

• Pass out the graphic organizer “Summarize Information” (blackline master, page 14 of this guide). You may want to make a chart-size copy of the organizer or use a transparency.

• Tell students that as they read, they will complete the first two rows together and the last row independently.

• Have students return to Chapter 1 and follow along while you show them how to find the causes of the Great Depression. Write the information on the graphic organizer as you find it. Read pages 4–5 aloud and say: On page 4, the author says the 1920s were a time of great prosperity for many people and businesses mass-produced more goods. This made people want to buy more things. I’ll write that idea in the Key Topics column. The graph on page 5 is a graphic feature that supports the key topic. Write ideas on the chart.

Informal Assessment Tips1. Observe students as they

differentiate between key topics and supporting details on self-stick notes or in their journals.

2. In a folder or journal, jot down what you see each student doing.

3. Take notice of students who are not writing notes about the text they read.

4. Remind students that determining text importance helps them focus on the author's reasons for writing and enables them to better summarize what they've read.


Summarize Information

Chapter

Chapter 1: Causes of the Great Depression

Chapter 2: Effects of the Great Depression

Chapter 3: Effects of Government Actions

KeyTopics Summary

Page 4: In the 1920s, great prosperity made people want to buy things. Businesses produced more.

Introduction–Chapter 1


• Remind students to continue to look for causes of the Great Depression for their summaries. Read pages 6–9 and say: The author explains that many Americans bought things on credit and that farmers had more food than people needed. She also describes how Americans thought the good times would continue, so they bought more products and stocks. I’ll write those ideas in the Key Topics column.

• Complete the row by reading aloud pages 10–11. Say: These pages are about how businesses’ sales dropped, workers lost their jobs, and stocks fell. I’ll write that in the Key Topics column. Now I can put all of the key topics together and write a summary. Write the summary in the Summary column of the graphic organizer. Say: My summary does not include every fact and detail, but it does include what’s important. We’ll continue summarizing text as we read the rest of the book.

Identify Antonyms• Tell students that words that show contrast are called antonyms.

Have students turn to page 10 and locate the word rose. Say: What do you think this word means? (increased or went up) Can you find a word in the text that is its opposite? (drop) What does this word mean? (decrease or go down) What word does the author use to signal an opposite? (but)

• Tell students that they will look for additional antonyms as they continue reading The Great Depression by the Numbers.


Chapter




KeyTopics SummaryPage 4: In the 1920s, great prosperity made people want to buy things. Businesses produced more. Pages 6–9: Many Americans bought on credit. Farmers had more food than people needed. Americans thought the good times would continue.Pages 10–11: Businesses’ sales dropped, workers lost their jobs, and stocks fell.

The 1920s were a time of great prosperity. Businesses produced more products. Americans went into debt buying on credit, thinking money would always be available. Farmers produced more food than people could buy, so they earned less money. Then business sales dropped, workers lost their jobs, and stocks fell.

Chapter 2

Apply Metacognitive Strategy: Determine Text Importance• Have students review how they determined text importance by

focusing on key topics. Ask them to share any strategies they used.

• Say: Today we’ll look at locating new information. We will use our background knowledge to compare this information to what we already know.

• Ask: What do you know about unemployment? (Possible answer: Unemployed people do not have jobs.) Read page 12 aloud while students follow along. Ask: What does this chapter tell you that you did not already know about unemployment? How has your definition of unemployment changed with what you learned? (Possible answers: People without jobs cannot pay for homes or food. Schools closed in the Great Depression because there was no money to fund them.)

• Explain to students that as they read nonfiction, they will often be faced with new information. Based on their background knowledge, they will be able to learn new information and determine if it is important to the main topics of the text. Often, that new information is the most valuable or important because it gives them an understanding that they did not have before.

Set a Purpose for Reading • Ask students to read Chapter 2, looking especially for any

information that is brand-new to them and noting it in their journals or on self-stick notes. Remind them to look at charts and captions as they read. These may not include key topics, but they may hold information that is new to the students and is therefore interesting.

Discuss the Reading • Ask students to share any information that they learned for the

first time while reading Chapter 2.

• Have volunteers explain how this new information relates to the key topics they have identified in the text thus far. Is the new information an important key topic or just a supporting detail or interesting fact?


Content InformationStudents might be interested in the following events during the Great Depression:

• Some of the most popular songs of the time were “Brother Can You Spare a Dime,” “We’re in the Money,” and “Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries.”

• People grew their own food in gardens. They sewed clothes and reused material to make other household items.

• Harlem, a part of New York City, had an unemployment rate of 50 percent. In 1935, property owned or managed by African Americans fell from 30 percent to 5 percent.

• Schools, with budgets shrinking, shortened both the school day and the school year.


1. Have students work in pairs and look at the photographs in Chapter 2.

2. Ask students to tell what they see and to describe what they think is happening in each picture.

3. Then have students choose the image that they think is the most interesting. Encourage them to talk about how the picture relates to the topic of the Great Depression.

4. Invite students to share their thoughts in small groups or as a class. Discuss their responses, helping them connect the images to the book topic.

a

qq

Chapter 2

Informal Assessment Tips1. Watch students as they work on

the “Summarize Information” chart.

2. In your folder, jot down what you see the students doing.

3. Ask yourself: Are students having problems with this strategy? If so, what are the problems? Are students mastering this strategy? If so, how do I know?

4. For struggling students, review the strategy using the comprehension strategy poster. Use both sides of the poster if needed.

Guide Comprehension Strategy: Summarize Information• Remind students that a summary briefly presents the main idea

and important supporting details of a longer piece of writing.

• Tell them that you are going to work as a group to summarize Chapter 2. Ask students to skim pages 12–13 and find the key topics. Then have them skim and find the key topics on pages 14–15 and 16–19 and write them on the chart.

• Then work with students to complete a summary of Chapter 2.

• Use the graphic organizer on this page for suggested answers. Tell students that the next time you meet, they will practice summarizing on their own.

Use Graphic Features to Interpret Information: Charts and Graphs• Have students turn to page 15 and locate the chart. Point out

that the chart has a title (Depression-Era Prices). The title shows what the chart is about. Each column has a heading to show what information will be in the column. (Item; Price) Demonstrate how to locate information on the chart. Say: To learn how much a shirt cost during the Great Depression, I run my eye down the first column and find the word shirt, then I run my eye across to the second column and see that a shirt cost $0.47. Wow! Compare that to the today’s prices! How much do shirts cost today?

• Have students practice reading items from the chart.

• Have students find the graph on page 17. Ask: What is the title of this graph? (Unemployment 1929–1932) What is being measured? (the number of unemployed people in millions per year) What does the line on the graph show about unemploy-ment? (Possible answer: Unemployment rose dramatically over four years.) Explain that a graph is read similarly to a chart, but without columns and rows. Demonstrate finding the number of unemployed people in 1931. Say: To learn how many people were unemployed in 1931, I run my eye across the bottom of the graph to 1931, then I run my eye up to the place where 1931 meets the line. Then I look left at the number listed, which is 8. I know that the numbers are in millions, so 8 million people were unemployed in 1931.

• Challenge students to practice using the graph by working on the Solve This! problems in pairs. Ask volunteers to share their answers with the class.



Chapter




KeyTopics Summary

Page 4: In the 1920s, great prosperity made people want to buy things. Businesses produced more. Pages 6–9: Many Americans bought on credit. Farmers had more food than people needed. Americans thought the good times would continue.Pages 10–11: Businesses’ sales dropped, workers lost their jobs, and stocks fell.

Pages 12–13: Life was very hard for most people by 1932. Many people lived in shanty-towns, with little food. Pages 14–15: There was no state or federal money to help. Jobs paid very little. Pages 16–19: President Hoover asked businesses and government to help create jobs but did not provide a welfare system. People became angry and he lost the next election to Franklin Roosevelt.


By the end of 1932, life was very hard for many Americans. Many lived in shantytowns, with little food. There was not enough state and federal money to improve the situation. President Hoover tried to help, but was not as successful as people wanted. He would not create a national welfare system, and people became angry. He lost the next election to Roosevelt.


Chapter 3–Conclusion

Apply Metacognitive Strategy: Determine Text Importance• Have students look through their notes. Ask them to review different

methods for determining text importance. (Possible answers: discriminating between key topics and supporting details; noticing new information and summarizing it based on background knowledge) Explain that another method of determining text importance is to decide which information is key, and which is interesting but unimportant.

• Read page 20 aloud. Ask students to identify the key topics of this page. (Roosevelt had a New Deal for the country to end the Great Depression.) Ask volunteers to share any new information they learned. (Possible answer: He wanted to stop runs on banks first.)

• Model deciding which information is important and which is interesting but unimportant. Say: Congress passed laws to stop runs on banks. Is that important or unimportant information? (important) Congress passed laws to create programs to provide food and jobs. Is that important or unimportant information? (important) These programs were called by their initials. All the programs together were sometimes called “alphabet soup.” Is this important or unimportant information? (unimportant) Remind students that information may be interesting and important or interesting and unimportant. Interest is a matter of taste and opinion. What one student finds interesting may not interest others.

Set a Purpose for Reading • Have students read Chapter 3 and the Conclusion by themselves.

Encourage them to practice deciding whether information is important or unimportant. Ask them to record their summaries in their journals or on self-stick notes.

Discuss the Reading • Ask volunteers to share their notes with the class. You may wish to

have them record their ideas on the board or on chart paper.

• Ask students to explain which information they decided was important and which was unimportant. Challenge the class to suggest guidelines for determining whether information is important or unimportant. (Possible answers: Important information is in bold print. It is in the headline. It is given a lot of space for discussion. It is a supporting detail of a key topic. It is new information to me.)

Content InformationStudents may be interested in the following points from President Roosevelt’s second fireside chat about plans connected with the New Deal:

• Jobs would be given to one-quarter of a million unemployed men with families. They would do forestry and flood-prevention work, live in camps for free, and send their paychecks home to their families.

• States would be given more power to improve welfare programs, to provide money and food to needy women and children.

• President Roosevelt ended his chat by urging the nation to be happy about these improvements, but not to go out and spend wildly.


1. Have students create and implement their own New Deal.

2. Ask students to form small groups. Have each group brainstorm a list of problems in the school or the community that they think need fixing.

3. Have each group choose one problem from their list and then have them develop a plan for solving it. Remind students that Roosevelt’s New Deal programs often helped people help themselves. They provided jobs rather than just giving people money. Encourage students to think creatively about solving problems by empowering others. Give them time to do research in the library or interview school or town officials if necessary.

4. Groups should implement their plans and report back to the class about how successful their programs were. Have students share what they learned in the process of trying to solve a community problem.

a

qq

Chapter 3–Conclusion

Apply Comprehension Strategy: Summarize Information• Review the graphic organizer with students and explain that they

will summarize information on pages 20–27. Ask them to look for the effects of the government programs on unemployment. Ask: How did government programs help people get jobs?

• Ask students if they have any questions before they begin. Remind them to write key ideas, not supporting details.

• Monitor their work and intervene if they are having difficulty completing the organizer. Watch specifically for students wanting to write supporting details instead of key topics related to the “alphabet soup” programs discussed on pages 20–24.

• Discuss student responses together.

• For more practice, have students complete the blackline master “Summarizing” on page 16 of this guide.

Identify Antonyms • Have a volunteer remind the class what an antonym is. (A pair of

words that are opposites in meaning.)

• Have students find the word closed on page 20. Ask: Can you find the opposite for this word in the same paragraph? What is it? (open) Explain to students that sometimes antonyms have indicators such as the word but; however, sometimes they do not, as is the case on page 20.

• For more practice, have students complete the blackline master “Identify Antonyms” on page 15 of this guide.


Informal Assessment Tips 1. Watch students as they summarize

information. Ask yourself: How have the students progressed with summarizing information? What problems are they still having? What questions or concerns do I have about what I observe?

2. Watch students as they complete the graphic organizer independently. Ask yourself: Who is still struggling with this strategy? What are they doing or not doing that makes me think they are struggling? How can I help them?

3. Jot down your thoughts in your folder or notebook.

Roosevelt and Congress provided jobs to artists during the Great

Depression. The government wanted people to unite, have hope, and

have pastimes. Artists painted murals, writers wrote plays, and actors

acted in them so that Americans would have hope, beauty, and fun

in even the toughest times.

1. was over, had begun

2. to sell, to buy

3. new, old

4. better, worse

5. lost, find

6. unemployed, employed

7. close, far

8. more, less

9. began, ended

10. blazed, faded away


Chapter




KeyTopics Summary

Page 4: In the 1920s, great prosperity made people want to buy things. Businesses produced more. Pages 6–9: Many Americans bought on credit. Farmers had more food than people needed. Americans thought the good times would continue.Pages 10–11: Businesses’ sales dropped, workers lost their jobs, and stocks fell.

Pages 12–13: Life was very hard for most people by 1932. Many people lived in shanty-towns, with little food. Pages 14–15: There was no state or federal money to help. Jobs paid very little. Pages 16–19: President Hoover asked businesses and government to help create jobs but did not provide a welfare system. People became angry and he lost the next election to Franklin Roosevelt.

Pages 20–24: President Roosevelt and Congress’s first New Deal provided jobs through the “alphabet soup” programs, such as the CCC and TVA. Page 25: A long drought ruined Great Plains farmers, causing many to move west. Pages 26–27: The Second New Deal programs included the WPA, the Social Security Act, and the Fair Labor Standards Act. World War II brought the U.S. out of the Great Depression.


By the end of 1932, life was very hard for many Americans. Many lived in shantytowns, with little food. There was not enough state and federal money to improve the situation. President Hoover tried to help, but was not as successful as people wanted. He would not create a national welfare system, and people became angry. He lost the next election to Roosevelt.

The first New Deal programs, such as the CCC, provided jobs for people and helped farmers earn more for their work. But many Great Plains farmers moved west after they were ruined by a terrible drought. Roosevelt’s Second New Deal increased government aid through programs such as the WPA and Social Security. The Great Depression ended when World War II started and more workers were needed in factories.

After ReadingAdminister Posttest• Have students take Ongoing Assessment #30 on page 96 in the

Comprehension Strategy Assessment Handbook (Grade 6).

Synthesize Information: Research Information/Identify Cause and Effect• Tell students that the United States faced slow economic times

before and after the 1930s, including during the depressions of 1873–79 and 1907–08. You might also mention the 1980s and 2000s recession.

• Ask pairs of students to choose a time period of depression or recession to research. Have them identify its causes, effects, and the role the government played in helping the economy or the American people before and after this time.

• As a class, review research strategies. Ask students to suggest methods and tools for research. Ask: Where can we find information? (Possible answers: at the library, on the Internet) How can we find information? (Possible answers: We can look for books and magazine articles at the library. We can search online catalogues, using the topic of “depression” or recession." We could go on the Internet and use a search engine, using the years and the words depression or recession and economy as key words.) What do we do with the information once we find it? (Possible answer: Take notes on the key topics, supporting details, and important and interesting information. Then we share our findings with the class.)

• Suggest to students that they use an organizer, such as the chart shown, to help them take notes as they research.

• Provide class time for students to present their findings.

• Ask: What do all these depressions have in common? How are they different? Is there a pattern in a depression? If so, what is it? Do you think our country will have another big depression? Why or why not?



1. Score assessments and determine if more instruction is needed for this strategy.

2. Keep group assessments in a small-group reading folder.

3. Look closely at students’ responses. Ask yourself: Why has this student answered the question in this manner? For in-depth analysis, discuss responses with individual students.

4. Use posttests to document growth over time, for parent/teacher conferences, or for your own records.

The American Depression/Reccession of _______ – _______

What Government What Government Did Before the Did Before the Causes Effects Depression/Recession Depression/Recession

Model the Writing Process: Write a Summary Including Main Points and Ideas• Remind students that throughout the book, they summarized

chapters.

• On chart paper or the board, make an outline as shown below. Say: I researched information about the dot com depression of the late 1990s. I picked the key topics and supporting details from what I read and wrote them on this outline.

• Use the writing model to show how the information from the outline can be used to write a summary that includes the main points and ideas from the article.

• Have students write summaries of the depression they researched during the activities on page 11 of this guide.

• Encourage students to use books and the Internet to research the topic they chose. Remind them that they are writing a summary, which should include only the main idea and important supporting details.

• Remind students that they are summarizing the information in their own words and not copying another author's words.


1. Observe students as they participate in the individual writing project. Identify those who might need additional assistance during the writing process. Jot down your notes in your journal.

2. During conferences, keep notes on each student’s writing behavior. Ask yourself: What evidence do I have to support the conclusion that this student is writing well or poorly? What can I do about it?

3. Suggest that struggling students summarize the information they read orally and then transfer their thoughts to paper.


Writing Workshop

Teaching Tips: Process Writing Steps

1. Have students independently write a first draft using the cause-and-effect structure.

2. After students complete their paragraphs, have them revise and edit with the help of a classroom buddy.

3. Confer with each student following the first revision and editing.

4. Have students make any additional changes and create a final copy of their paragraphs.

5. Finally, invite students to share their paragraphs with other students.

The Dot Com Depression

1. During the 1990s, many small Internet companies called “dot coms” were started.

2. Many people invested in these dot com companies. The owners bought expensive offices and paid the workers high salaries.

3. Many dot com companies did not have enough customers to make a profit.

4. When many dot coms went out of business, investors lost their money.

© 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC

Dot Com DepressionDuring the early 1990s, when the Internet first started,

people got excited about the new idea of buying and

selling on the Internet. Many people started small

companies—often out of their homes, garages, or even

their cars! These Internet businesses have addresses

that look like this: www.something.com. The letters

“com” after the “dot” stand for “company.” These new

companies were often called “dot coms.”

People with money to loan began investing in these

dot com companies. Many dot coms bought expensive

office buildings and paid high salaries to their employees.

However, some dot com companies did not have enough

customers to make a profit. Many dot coms went bankrupt

because they could not pay their bills. Investors lost their

money. Other dot coms survived this “depression”

because of wise management.

Writing Model


Name _______________________ _________________ Date __________________


Chapter




KeyTopics Summary


Name _______________________ _________________ Date __________________

Identify AntonymsDirections: Each sentence contains a pair of antonyms. Read the sentences, and underline the antonyms.

1. World War I was over and the new era of prosperity—the Roaring Twenties—had begun.

2. Businesses and factories developed technology to mass-produce and to sell goods, and people wanted to buy those goods.

3. During the 1920s, young people listened to new jazz music and stopped listening to old, traditional music.

4. It seemed as if life had never been better—no one suspected that in a few short years, it would seem as if life could never get worse.

5. During the Great Depression, many families lost their homes. They had to live wherever they could find shelter.

6. During the Great Depression, the number of unemployed people was a quarter of the number of employed people!

7. Farmers who lived close to the land, far from the booming cities, struggled to feed their families.

8. U.S. farmers produced a surplus, or more food than people needed to buy, which meant they earned less money.

9. In 1941, the United States began to fight in World War II, and the Great Depression ended.

10. As World War II blazed, the Great Depression faded away.

Name _______________________ _________________ Date __________________


SummarizingDirections: Read the passage. Then write a summary of its most important points.

Art of the Great Depression

Most of the jobs created by the government during the Great Depression were practical—building roads and dams, planting trees, and cleaning up cities. However, some of the jobs President Roosevelt and Congress created were for artists—photographers, actors, painters, and writers. It was the government’s belief that art was also important, even in a time of emergency. Roosevelt hoped that an art program would unify America, help citizens understand what American art was about, and make art a national pastime. Artists painted murals on subway walls, writers wrote plays, and actors performed in them. Even in a time of great loss and despair, people found beauty, enjoyment, and hope in art during the Great Depression.

•

Skills Bank


BuildComprehensionDrawConCluSionS

Explain Create an overhead transparency of the graphic organizer •“The Great Depression by the Numbers” or draw it on the board. Say: An author can’t give us every piece of information about the topic of a book. We have to figure out some ideas on our own. We can use the text and graphic features as our clues. Using three or more clues to figure out an idea that the author does not state directly is called drawing a conclusion.

Model Say: • I will draw a conclusion about The Great Depression by the Numbers using clues from the text. On page 4, I read that the 1920s were a time of great prosperity for many people. They danced, listened to jazz, and went to the movies. They bought cars and other machines that made their lives easier. On pages 12 and 13, I read that in the early 1930s, millions of people lost their jobs and homes. They had no money, and their families went hungry. Record these clues in the first Clues box on the graphic organizer. Then say: Now I will use these clues to draw a conclusion. I can conclude that the United States in the 1930s was very different from the United States in the 1920s. Write this conclusion in the first Conclusion box.

Guide Say: • Now let’s draw a conclusion about what the 1920s and 1930s were like for farmers. Read the text on page 7. What do you learn about farmers in the 1920s? Now read the text on page 13. What does it tell you about farmers in the 1930s? (Allow time for students to respond, assisting if needed.) Farmers never experienced the good times of the 1920s. Because of surpluses, crop prices were low, so farmers earned less money. In 1933, prices for crops were 60% lower than in 1929. Even so, farmers couldn’t sell the food they grew. Record these clues in the second Clues box on the graphic organizer. Ask: What idea can we figure out from these clues? What conclusion can we draw? (Again allow time for students to respond.) Yes, we can conclude that both the 1920s and the 1930s were bad times for farmers. Record this conclusion in the second Conclusion box on the graphic organizer.

Apply Ask pairs of students to work together to draw other •conclusions using the text and graphic features in the book. Remind them that they are looking for clues they can use to figure out ideas that the author does not state directly. After each pair shares its clues and conclusions, record the information on the graphic organizer. Finally, ask volunteers to read the completed graphic organizer aloud.

name_______________________________________________________ Date__________________

TheGreatDepressionbythenumbersDraw Conclusions

©2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC

TheGreatDepressionbythenumbersDraw Conclusions

Clues Conclusion

level w/60 the great depression by the numbers · the great depression by the numbers level w/60...

Documents