The Great Depression
“Buddy, can
you spare a dime?”
by
Ann
Elmborg
Last Updated: November 29, 2000
Introduction | Task | Resources | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion
|
What do you
do when your parents and grandparents tell you stories about how much tougher
their lives were “in the old days”? Do you roll your eyes as you think to
yourself, “Here we go again. Now I
have to listen to one of their old stories about how they had to walk five
miles to school, in the snow, uphill--both ways!” Well, if
that’s your response, and the person talking to you is talking about a time
in the last century called the “Great Depression,” then maybe all those
stories of hardship and challenge are true.
And maybe
those stories don’t even begin to capture the widespread suffering and
misery, or the enormous victories and joys of the human will, that
characterize one of the most amazing times in the history of our country. Let’s find
out together.
Log entry #1. Examine the pictures in the frame to
the right. As you do so, think about the fact, during the Depression,
thousands of Americans lived as this family is living—without homes and
with hope fading fast. Read
Lange’s explanation of the situation in which she took these pictures. On the left side of your
log, write the details from the pictures and Lange’s description that
strike you in some way. On the
right side, make some personal response to those details. Write a summary or a poem; pose
questions; draw a picture; make some kind of personal connection to the
visual and verbal information. Listen to the sound file
below as you write. The song you
hear, “Hard Times” describes a feeling of the time that we are going to
learn lots more about in the next few weeks. |
Dorothea Lange took these pictures in March of 1936 when she encountered this migrant family in Nipomo, California. In 1960, Lange recalled this event as follows: I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a
magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her,
but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working
closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her
history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had
been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that
the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food.
There she sat in that lean- to tent with her children huddled around her, and
seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There
was a sort of equality about it. (From: Popular Photography, Feb. 1960). |
The Project Goal for this class is to create a
Depression Alive! Fair for your classmates in Team 74. This Fair will provide your peers a window
through which your peers can learn about the hardships, the joys, the
challenges, failures, and incredible triumphs of normal human beings who rose
to meet the nearly unimaginable challenges of extraordinary times.
In order to gather as much information as
possible about this enormous topic, each of you will research a different facet
of American life during the Great Depression.
You will have two kinds of tasks to fulfill—Required Tasks for Everyone
and Final Presentation Options.
REQUIRED
FOR EVERYONE:
1.
Formal Proposal--In this document, you will
propose (set forth) the area and purpose of your research. What aspect of the time period will you be
investigating, and what, at least initially, do you think you can do with this
topic.
2.
Annotated bibliography—In this required part of
your project, you will make a list of your sources in which you briefly
describe those sources and their use.
3.
A double-entry journal—In this journal your will
record the facts you gather in your research and their sources, your responses
to them, and the plans you are making for your final presentation.
4.
A final presentation of your information--This presentation can style
can come from one of the options listed below, or you may propose your own
presentation format, an option that I would need to approve.
FINAL
PRESENTATION OPTIONS:
1.
A dramatic presentation of your research findings in the persona of
someone who actually lived—or a fictional character who might have lived—during
the Great Depression.
2.
A PowerPoint presentation that presents the information you have
found. This presentation should be
accompanied by your own oral presentation of the information.
3.
A demonstration or performance of how something necessary
or popular was done during the Depression.
4.
A filmed interview or a recreation of an interview with someone who actually lived
through the Depression and would be willing to share his or her experiences
with you.
5.
A multi-media presentation that captures sights and sounds of the Great
Depression.
6.
A collection of artifacts from the Depression, accompanied by explanations
of their use and value or the memories connected to them. This explanation may be in either written or
oral form.
7.
A web page designed to present your topic to an audience of
your peers.
http://tlc.ai.org/depressi.htm
http://www.halcyon.com/evrob/tutor/greatdepression.htm
http://www.spa3.k12.sc.us/broome/ht.htm
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/oralhist/ohhome.html
http://oven.com/ridingtherails/index.html
http://www.wssd.k12.pa.us/RL/RLTEAM/Great.Depression.html
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/wpahome.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rails/sfeature/tales.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rails/sfeature/chord.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rails/sfeature/obstacles.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dustbowl/sfeature/eyewitness.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dustbowl/sfeature/newdeal.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dustbowl/peopleevents/index.html
The Depression: Twelve Historical Documents
The Depression Hits Home: Photo
Collection
Surviving the Dust Bowl—PBS Video
Riding the Rails—PBS Video
Describe to the learners
how their performance will be evaluated. You can link to a separate rubric
document from here, or you could briefly summarize your criteria on this page.
Also specify whether there will be a common grade for group work vs. individual
grades. Make sure the evaluation of your students evaluates the accomplishment
of the objectives listed in the lesson.
Put a couple of
sentences here that summarize what they will have accomplished or learned by
completing this activity or lesson. You might also include some rhetorical
questions or additional links to encourage them to extend their thinking into
other content.
Webmaster: Ann Elmborg aelmborg@esc.cr.k12.ia.us
Based on a template from The Webquest Page.