Failed Banks, Political Despair and Drought: 
How the American People Survived the
Great Depression

Morgan Langtimm

Robert Mitchell Elementary School

Sixth Grade

TAHP Portfolio Cover Sheet

AUTHOR: Morgan Langtimm

TITLE:  Failed Banks, Political Despair and Drought:  How the American people survived the Great Depression

HISTORICAL TOPIC/ERA: 1929-1939 The Great Depression

NEVADA STANDARDS:

• Nevada History Standard 8.5.8 Identify major events of the Great Depression, such as the Dust Bowl.
• Nevada History Standard: H2.[6-8].23 Explain the causes of the Great Depression and the impact the Great Depression had on society and its effect on U.S. political policy.
• Nevada History Standard: H2.[9-12].9 Describe the causes and consequences of the Great Depression.
• Nevada History Standard: H2.[9-12].10 Analyze the policies and programs of the New Deal, and their effects on political, economic, and diplomatic institutions.
• Nevada History Standard: H3.[6-8].12 Explain the major social, technological, and cultural developments of the 1920’s.
• Nevada History Standard: H.4.[6-8].8 Discuss the effects of World War II on American economic and political policies.
• Nevada History Standard: G5.6-8.1 Use map elements, including scale, to identify and locate physical and human features in the United States and the world.
• Nevada History Standard: G6.[6-8].4 Evaluate the role regions have played in historical events.
• Nevada History Standard: G8.[6-8].3 Describe the changes that result from human modification of the physical environment.
• Nevada History Standard: G8.[6-8].4 Discuss the impact of natural hazards on the use and distribution of resources.
• Nevada History Standard: E10.[6-8].5 Compare the rewards and risks of saving money in financial institutions.
• Nevada History Standard: E10.[6-8].13 Distinguish between a high rate and a low rate of unemployment for the U.S. economy over time.
• Nevada Mathematics Standard: 3.6.4 Compare and use unit cost in practical situations.
• Nevada Language Arts Standard: 1.6.5 Apply knowledge of content-specific vocabulary in text to build comprehension.
• Nevada Language Arts Standard Content Standard 2.0 Students use reading process skills and strategies to build comprehension.
• Nevada Language Arts Content Standard 3.0 Students read literary text to comprehend, interpret, and evaluate authors, cultures, and times.
• Nevada Language Arts Content Standard 5.0 Students write a variety of texts using the writing process.
• Nevada Language Arts Content Standard 6.0 Students write a variety of texts that inform, persuade, describe, evaluate, entertain, or tell a story and are appropriate to audience and purpose.
• Nevada Language Arts Content Standard 8.0 Students speak using organization, style, tone, voice, and media aids appropriate to audience and purpose. Students participate in discussions to offer information, clarify ideas, and support a position.

BACKGROUND:
The Great Depression
The Great Depression was an economic slump in North America, Europe, and other industrialized areas of the world that began in 1929 and lasted until about 1939. It was the longest and most severe depression ever experienced by the industrialized Western world.  Though the U.S. economy had gone into depression six months earlier, the Great Depression may be said to have begun with a catastrophic collapse of stock-market prices on the New York Stock Exchange in October 1929. During the next three years stock prices in the United States continued to fall, until by late 1932 they had dropped to only about 20 percent of their value in 1929. Many banks were consequently forced into insolvency; by 1933, 11,000 of the United States' 25,000 banks had failed. The failure of so many banks, combined with a general and nationwide loss of confidence in the economy, led to much-reduced levels of spending and demand and hence of production, thus aggravating the downward spiral. The result was drastically falling output and drastically rising unemployment; by 1932, U.S. manufacturing output had fallen to 54 percent of its 1929 level, and unemployment had risen to between 12 and 15 million workers, or 25-30 percent of the work force.

The Great Depression had important consequences in the political sphere. In the United States, economic distress led to the election of the Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt to the presidency in late 1932. Roosevelt introduced a number of major changes in the structure of the American economy, using increased government regulation and massive public-works projects to promote a recovery. But despite this active intervention, mass unemployment and economic stagnation continued, though on a somewhat reduced scale, with about 15 percent of the work force still unemployed in 1939 at the outbreak of World War II. After that, unemployment dropped rapidly as American factories were flooded with orders from overseas for armaments and munitions. The depression ended completely soon after the United States' entry into World War II in 1941. In Europe, the Great Depression strengthened extremist forces and lowered the prestige of liberal democracy. In Germany, economic distress directly contributed to Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933. The Nazis' public-works projects and their rapid expansion of munitions production ended the Depression there by 1936.

At least in part, the Great Depression was caused by underlying weaknesses and imbalances within the U.S. economy that had been obscured by the boom psychology and speculative euphoria of the 1920s. The Depression exposed those weaknesses, as it did the inability of the nation's political and financial institutions to cope with the vicious downward economic cycle that had set in by 1930. Prior to the Great Depression, governments traditionally took little or no action in times of business downturn, relying instead on impersonal market forces to achieve the necessary economic correction. But market forces alone proved unable to achieve the desired recovery in the early years of the Great Depression, and this painful discovery eventually inspired some fundamental changes in the United States' economic structure. After the Great Depression, government action, whether in the form of taxation, industrial regulation, public works, social insurance, social-welfare services, or deficit spending, came to assume a principal role in ensuring economic stability in most industrial nations with market economies. http://www.english.illinois.edu/MAPS/depression/about.htm

The Dust Bowl

The Dust Bowl of the 1930s lasted about a decade. Its primary area of impact was on the southern Plains. The northern Plains were not so badly affected, but nonetheless, the drought, windblown dust and agricultural decline were no strangers to the north. In fact the agricultural devastation helped to lengthen the Depression whose effects were felt worldwide. The movement of people on the Plains was also profound. 

Poor agricultural practices and years of sustained drought caused the Dust Bowl. Plains grasslands had been deeply plowed and planted to wheat. During the years when there was adequate rainfall, the land produced bountiful crops. But as the droughts of the early 1930s deepened, the farmers kept plowing and planting and nothing would grow. The ground cover that held the soil in place was gone. The Plains winds whipped across the fields raising billowing clouds of dust to the skies. The skies could darken for days, and even the most well sealed homes could have a thick layer of dust on furniture. In some places the dust would drift like snow, covering farmsteads.
http://www.english.illinois.edu/MAPS/depression/dustbowl.htm

Portfolio Table of Contents

Activities and Learning Goals:

Activity 1: Primary Source: How it all started: The Stock Market Crash
Learning Goal:  Students will work in cooperative groups to learn how to accurately track stocks over a two-week period to gain conceptual learning of how the stock market is operated.  Once students have managed their stocks, they will be immersed in a teacher simulated stock market crash in which they will experience a similar incident of the October 29th, 1929 crash.  Throughout this simulation students will read primary source newspaper articles and compare/contrast them with the simulation they just experienced. 

Activity 2: Literature Connection: Children of the Great Depression
Learning Goal: Students will read developmental texts about how life was like for children during the Great Depression.  Students will actively participate in guided reading groups, book club discussions and activities that help develop literacy acquisition.  This will help construct meaning as they read, write and discuss texts.   

Activity 3: Foldable: Life during the Depression: Four Perspectives
Learning Goal: Students will create a foldable with four different perspectives on the Great Depression.  They will focus on Stock Market Investors, Farmers & their Families, Children of the Dust Bowl, and City Dwellers.  This activity will allow students to gather up all the information they have learned in this unit and apply it in a foldable writing project.  

Activity 4: Art Piece/Writing: Franklin D. Roosevelt
Learning Goal: The students will create an art piece by creating a puzzle from an image.  Once the puzzle is complete and the image can be seen, the students will write about what they think the significance of that image is.  Then at the end of the unit students will write again on the same image, but they will now understand the significance of the image.

Activity 5: Wordle Activity: The Great Depression
Learning Goal: In pairs, students will compare and contrast two Wordles.  They will use a graphic organizer that will aid them in this activity.  Students will then create their own Wordle on any portion of the Great Depression that they choose to research.  Afterwards, students will switch Wordles and try and have students guess which area of the Great Depression they chose to do.

Activity 6: Student Project: Concert Series
Learning Goal: Students will listen to Great Depression songs by Woody Guthrie and then work in small groups to create their own song.  Students will research and create a memorized song that will be performed in costume in front of fellow classmates and parents.  Students will provide an introduction to their song and the inspiration behind it.  It will be called The 1930s Great Depression Concert Series. 

Failed Banks, Political Despair and Drought:
How the American people survived the Great Depression

AUTHOR: Morgan Langtimm

HISTORICAL TOPIC/ERA: The Great Depression
 
GRADE LEVEL(S): 6th

TIME REQUIRED:  Twelve consecutive 30-45 minute class periods.

BACKGROUND:
The Great Depression was an economic slump in North America, Europe, and other industrialized areas of the world that began in 1929 and lasted until about 1939. It was the longest and most severe depression ever experienced by the industrialized Western world.  Though the U.S. economy had gone into depression six months earlier, the Great Depression may be said to have begun with a catastrophic collapse of stock-market prices on the New York Stock Exchange in October 1929. During the next three years stock prices in the United States continued to fall, until by late 1932 they had dropped to only about 20 percent of their value in 1929. Many banks were consequently forced into insolvency; by 1933, 11,000 of the United States' 25,000 banks had failed. The failure of so many banks, combined with a general and nationwide loss of confidence in the economy, led to much-reduced levels of spending and demand and hence of production, thus aggravating the downward spiral. The result was drastically falling output and drastically rising unemployment; by 1932, U.S. manufacturing output had fallen to 54 percent of its 1929 level, and unemployment had risen to between 12 and 15 million workers, or 25-30 percent of the work force.
http://www.english.illinois.edu/MAPS/depression/about.htm

NEVADA STANDARDS:

• Nevada History Standard: H2.[6-8].23 Explain the causes of the Great Depression and the impact the Great Depression had on society and its effect on U.S. political policy.
• Nevada History Standard: H2.[9-12].9 Describe the causes and consequences of the Great Depression.
• Nevada History Standard: E10.[6-8].5 Compare the rewards and risks of saving money in financial institutions.
• Nevada Language Arts Standard: 1.6.5 Apply knowledge of content-specific vocabulary in text to build comprehension.
• Nevada Language Arts Content Standard 5.0 Students write a variety of texts using the writing process.
• Nevada Language Arts Content Standard 6.0 Students write a variety of texts that inform, persuade, describe, evaluate, entertain, or tell a story and are appropriate to audience and purpose.

STUDENT LEARNING GOALS:
Students will work in cooperative groups to learn how to accurately track stocks over a two-week period.  Students will calculate the daily rise and fall of their stock and will gain conceptual learning of how the stock market is operated.  Once students have managed their stocks, they will be immersed in a teacher simulated stock market crash in which they will experience a similar incident of the October 29th, 1929 stock market crash. 

MATERIALS/SPECIAL ARRANGEMENTS:

• Example stocks from the newspaper
• Stock market journals
• Internet or daily newspaper for tracking stocks (newspaper is easier to track)
• http://www.nasdaq.com/
• http://www.nyse.com/
• http://www.marketwatch.com/
• Background Information
• Read Aloud: http://www.42explore2.com/depresn.htm
• Pictures to show during Read Aloud: http://www.images.google.com
• Stock Market Crash: http://www.pbs.org/fmc/timeline/estockmktcrash.htm
• Calculators
• Fake money
• Loan contract
• Pretend Life Information Sheet
• Book: The Dust Bowl by Tricia Andryszewski, p. 28-30
• Internet Sites for Primary Source Information
• Newspaper Articles: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug99/walters/crash.htm
•  Newspaper Articles: http://greenfreelibrary.newspaperarchive.com/
• Newspaper Articles: http://xooxleanswers.com/newspaperarchives.aspx

SETTING THE STAGE:
Lesson 1:  KWL and Developing Background Knowledge
Activate prior knowledge by discussing the word depression.  Begin KWL chart on the Great Depression and then read aloud information on the Great Depression.  Students summarize in learning logs and add onto KWL chart.
 
Lesson 2: Develop Background Knowledge, Pre-teach Vocabulary, KWL
Now that students have a general idea of the Great Depression, now we need to focus on how it started. Pre-teach vocabulary, have student read information on the 1929 Stock Market Crash, and add onto KWL chart.

ACTIVITIES/STRATEGIES:

Lesson 1: Setting the Stage
1.  Teacher begins by saying, "Today we will start our new unit on the Great Depression.  Does anyone know what the word depression means?  Talk with your shoulder partner."  Teacher asks students to share out.
2.  Next, students move to sit on the carpet to participate in a KWL chart.  Ask students what they think they know about the Great Depression (K).  Have students discuss with partners.  Write down everything that is mentioned, even if incorrect. 
3.  Once the K is completed on the KWL chart, ask students what they want to know about the Great Depression (W).  Writes down everything that is mentioned, even if it's incorrect. 
Next read aloud Read Aloud: http://www.42explore2.com/depresn.htm while showing pictures on the overhead or Elmo.  Stop periodically to model think aloud strategy.
4.  Pass out learning logs to students.  Have them put their name on cover.  Tell students to write a brief summary about what was just read.  If they get done early they can illustrate their summary.
5.  Add on to KWL chart under the L for what was learned.

Lesson 2: Setting the Stage

1.  Teacher begins by saying, "Today we are going to continue learning about the Great Depression but we are going to specifically focus on how the Great Depression started.  Before we read about that we are going to look at some important vocabulary words that is needed in order to comprehend."
2.  Pre-teach the following vocabulary words: stock, stock market, stock trading, capital, invest, investment, and inflation.  This can be done in a variety of ways so use your best judgment based on your students.
3.  Next pass out copies of Stock Market Crash information from the following website http://www.pbs.org/fmc/timeline/estockmktcrash.htm.  Students read aloud with a partner.  Have students use their pencils to underline words, phrases, or sentences that they feel is important. 
4.  Then reread aloud the same texts the students just read (this should be displayed on the overhead or Elmo) and highlight the key information that is most important.  Have students now highlight what you are highlighting.
5.  Add on to KWL chart under the L for what was learned.

Lesson 3: Stock Market Simulation (2 weeks)
Day 1-5: Getting Familiar with the Stock Market

1. Day 1: Show three examples of stocks over a period of three days.  Place stocks on the overhead or Elmo for students to look at.  Have a class discussion about each of the stocks.  Discuss how each stock is different and may increase or decrease on a daily basis.
2.  Day 1 continued: Next as a class, calculate the amount of invested money gained and lost for each share of stock invested.  Have students all calculate using their calculators and record their calculations in their Stock Market Journals.
3.  Day 1 continued: Put students in groups of 4-5 people.  Give each group examples of several different stocks over a period of a couple days.  Have each person in the group calculate the gain or loss in those stocks over the period time allowed.  Have them agree as a group and then log their calculations in their Stock Market Journals.
4.  Day 2:  Present students with 6-10 stocks that they will choose from to follow closely over the next 8 days.  Inform them that they will be pretending they are living in the late 1920's and today is October 22, 1929.  Have students sign up for one stock each.  Only have a maximum of four students per stock.  Explain to students that they will be given a loan of one thousand dollars from Langtimm Bank (your last name + bank) to invest in their stock but they must sign a contract in order to get the loan. Pass out and go over contract.  Have all students sign contract.  Next, have students fill out an information sheet about their pretend life in the 1920s.  Have them glue this sheet in their Stock Market Journals.
5.  Day 2 continued: Have students locate their stocks via the Internet or newspaper and record the current stock price.  Then students need to calculate how many shares of stock they own in that stock and record it into their journals.  Have students write predictions of future gains or losses.
6.  Day 3-5: Students track their stocks, calculating and recording gains and losses of their investment in their journals.  Continue predictions.

Day 6-10 Teacher Controlled Simulation

7.  Day 6: Inform students that they will no longer track stocks through the newspaper or Internet.  The teacher, you, will present stock prices on the board throughout the day.  Then begin by stating, "Today is October 26, 1929 and stock prices are beginning to fall.  You might be in danger of losing all of your money that is invested into the Stock Market.  You have the option to sell some or all of your shares, trade shares, or keep your current investment the same.  If you choose to cash out your stock, money will be given to students for the amount that their stock is worth.  You will then have the option to buy into another stock or choose not to invest anymore into the Stock Market." 
8.  Day 6 continued:  Next, have students get into same stock groups to discuss their options.  Explain that every student has to make their own choice but you can work as a group if you want.  Once the students decided on a decision, have them write in their Stock Market Journals the decision they decided on for that day.  Have the teacher, you, sign the bottom as a binding contract.  This is where the fake money comes into place!
9.  Day 6 continued: Allow students to buy, sell or cash in their stocks.  This is very chaotic, which is exactly what it should be like!  That is how it was during the original crash!  This is done before any new stock prices are shown!  Once students have made their decision and the teacher, you, have signed their Stock Market Journals place the new prices of each stock on the overhead or Elmo (decrease each stock but by very little).  Have students track and record changes of their stock in their Stock Market Journals.  Also, have students discuss why they chose the action they did and how it will affect their pretend 1920s life.  Any student who has cashed in their stock now becomes a banker with you, the teacher.
10.  Day 7: Place new stock market prices on the board.  These prices should drastically start to decrease.  Allow students to sell, trade, buy or cash in their stocks.  Basically everyone should have less than the original $1,000 bank loan.  Therefore, it doesn't matter if they cash in their stock because they still owe the bank money and the overall effect will still work!    Have students track and record changes of their stock in the Stock Market Journals and explain reasons behind their actions.
11. Day 8: Place new stock market prices on the board.  These prices should drop drastically!  Allow students to sell, trade, buy or cash in their stocks.  Have students track and record changes of their stock in their Stock Market Journals and explain reasons behind their actions.
12.  Day 9:  Tell students, "Today is October 29th, 1929 and the Stock Market just crashed!  All investments are worthless."  The teacher, you, and the bankers begin to try to collect all the loans from the students.  Students are asked to repay the bank.  If they are unable to pay the loan back, which will be most students, then the bank will take ownership of personal property that was stated on the initial contract (this is only for the remainder of the day).  This will be a very dramatic reenactment of what it was like.  Some students will have more personal property than others.
13.  Day 9 continued:  After all personal property is removed and locked up somewhere (put aside) have students respond in their Stock Market Journal about losing everything.  Explain to students that, that was the only money they had.  Have them write about what they will do next in their pretend 1920s life. 
14.  Day 9 continued: Have a class discussion about their responses in their journals.  Really focus on the sense of depression and hopelessness.  Next, read portions of primary source newspaper articles from the http://greenfreelibrary.newspaperarchive.com/ website of and the real Stock Market Crash of 1929.  Add onto the KWL about what we learned about stocks, borrowing, and panic.  Have students summarize in their journals.  Before the end of the day give back all personal property and collect all fake money.
15.  Day 10: Have students partner read more primary source newspaper articles from the http://greenfreelibrary.newspaperarchive.com/ website about the effects of the Stock Market Crash of 1929.  Have a class discussion about the similarities and differences of the real event and our classroom simulation.  On the overhead create a Venn Diagram, students do this too in their Stock Market Journals.  Whole class brainstorm a couple similarities and differences.  Next, have students write a compare/contrast written response to this activity.

EVALUATION OF STUDENT LEARNING:
I will assess student learning by:

• informally assessing student's learning logs to check for accuracy of information
• informally assessing student's stock market journals to check for completion and accuracy.  Is the student accurately tracking his/her stock?  Are the calculations accurate?  Is the student responding daily about his/her stock? Est.
• informally assessing participation in stock market simulation.  Is the student actively getting involved in simulation (trading or selling stocks, est.).  Does the student understand the concept of stock market crash? 
•  formally assessing student's compare and contrast written response.  Can the student compare and contrast the classroom stock market crash with the real October 29, 1929 crash?

Failed Banks, Political Despair and Drought:
How the American people survived the Great Depression

AUTHOR: Morgan Langtimm

HISTORICAL TOPIC/ERA: The Great Depression
 
GRADE LEVEL(S): 6th

TIME REQUIRED: 2-4 weeks of daily/every other day meetings of 1 ½ hour sessions for the entire class 

BACKGROUND:
For most, it is difficult to imagine life during the Great Depression. While the Depression began at the end of the 1920s, the entire nation suffered most dramatically during the period 1929–1933.  Most characteristic of life during the Great Depression was the widening gap between the “haves” and “have-nots.” Unemployment rose from a shocking 5 million in 1930 to an almost unbelievable 13 million by the end of 1932. It would be rural America that would suffer the greatest. Unemployed fathers saw children hired for sub-standard wages. In 1930, 2.25 million boys and girls ages 10–18 worked in factories, canneries, mines, and on farms. Children left school to support their families.  Some middle-class families managed to hold onto their homes by taking in boarders, bartering, and stretching every available dollar.

http://www.allabouthistory.org/life-during-the-great-depression.htm

Life in rural areas during the Depression was hard. Because prices for crops were very low, farmers received little for their efforts. They could not repay the loans that they had taken out on their farms in more prosperous times, and many lost their houses and farms. As the hard times deepened, the Red Cross and the government set up stations to dispense food and other necessities to the needy. Out in the country, there were not as many food stations, so people had to travel long distances to town to receive supplies. This trip was a hardship because few had transportation or the money to make the trip.

http://www.museum.siu.edu/museum_classroom_grant/Museum_Explorers/school_pages/bourbonnais/page4.htm

NEVADA STANDARDS:

• Nevada History Standard 8.5.8 Identify major events of the Great Depression, such as the Dust Bowl.
• Nevada History Standard: H2.[6-8].23 Explain the causes of the Great Depression and the impact the Great Depression had on society and its effect on U.S. political policy.
• Nevada History Standard: H2.[9-12].9 Describe the causes and consequences of the Great Depression.
• Nevada History Standard: H2.[9-12].10 Analyze the policies and programs of the New Deal, and their effects on political, economic, and diplomatic institutions.
• Nevada Language Arts Standard: 1.6.5 Apply knowledge of content-specific vocabulary in text to build comprehension.
• Nevada Language Arts Standard Content Standard 2.0 Students use reading process skills and strategies to build comprehension.
• Nevada Language Arts Content Standard 3.0 Students read literary text to comprehend, interpret, and evaluate authors, cultures, and times.
• Nevada Language Arts Content Standard 5.0 Students write a variety of texts using the writing process.
• Nevada Language Arts Content Standard 6.0 Students write a variety of texts that inform, persuade, describe, evaluate, entertain, or tell a story and are appropriate to audience and purpose.

STUDENT LEARNING GOALS:
Students will read a developmental book based on factual events that occurred during the Great Depression.  This activity will build students knowledge of what life was like during the Great Depression so they can fully understand future activities.   Students will actively participate in guided reading groups, book club discussions and activities that help develop literacy acquisition.  This will help construct meaning as they read, write and discuss texts.   

MATERIALS/SPECIAL ARRANGEMENTS:

• Book: Children of the Dust Days, by Karen Mueller Coombs (3rd-4th grade level)
• Book: Going to School During the Great Depression, by Kerry A. Graves (5th-6th grade level)
• Book: Out of the Dust, by Karen Hesse (5th-6th grade level)
• Photo copies of books if you can’t find enough copies for guided reading groups
• Book Club folders
• Sticky notes inside a Ziploc baggie placed inside Book Club folders
• Blank or lined paper to place inside Book Club Folders to create written pieces and specific jobs
• Book Club jobs created by Shari Nielsen Dunn (a packet that is placed in Book Club Folder that describes jobs that they can perform after reading selected pages)
• discussion director (teacher), illustrator, word wizard, summary expert, passage master, connector, mind-picture maker, character captain, map maker and clue finder
• Construction paper bookmarks to write assigned reading and jobs on
• Internet sites
• Setting the Stage:
• http://www.allabouthistory.org/life-during-the-great-depression.htm
• http://www.images.google.com

SETTING THE STAGE:
Read personal accounts of the Great Depression and show pictures on the overhead or Elmo to show the severity of this devastating event.  Have a class discussion on the pictures.
http://www.allabouthistory.org/life-during-the-great-depression.htm
Pictures can be received at http://www.images.google.com

ACTIVITIES/STRATEGIES:
Students should have already participated in book clubs prior to this unit.

• Pull developmental guided reading groups and pass out the appropriate book.  Conduct a book walk of the book giving an overall gist of the book. Depending on length of book, this could take anywhere from 2-4weeks.  This is a great way to incorporate reading groups in with the overall unit.  Follow the listed steps below.
• Each group should meet for about 20-30 minutes daily or every other day depending on the students needs.
• In guided reading groups the teacher pre-teaches key vocabulary for the upcoming reading and models comprehension strategies the students are required to use.
• Students do NOT read using the Round Robin method, instead students silently read in groups stopping at the same point.  If you don’t want to always have the students silently read they can partner read in groups, choral read or echo read.  If certain students read quicker than the others they are informed to re-read that section again to build fluency.  The silent reading should take no longer than 10 minutes.  The teacher can either silently read the same passage (either previously or now) OR conduct running records on students while they read.  
• Once students are done reading they can begin writing in their folders based on whatever assignment the teacher feels necessary: summarize, personal connection, thoughts/feelings, est. (3-5 minutes)
• Now the group discussion begins of the reading that was just read.  Use higher order thinking skills and questions to really develop understanding of the reading.  Make sure the students are doing most of the discussing, NOT the teacher! (5-8 minutes)
• Next, decide as a group what the assigned reading should be done for the following meeting (usually about 15-20 minutes worth of reading; I tell my kids that they can use this reading for their nightly reading log).  Also assign book club jobs that they must complete.  This is a great way to get reading grades!  Students write the assigned pages and personal job on their bookmarks.  Students conduct jobs in the Book Club folders and use their sticky notes to ask questions or write unknown vocabulary works on.  If they have questions and/or vocabulary words that is discussed at the beginning of group.
• At next meeting begin by having students share their specific book club job.  This is a great assessment tool to see if students actually read their assigned pages.  Then repeat process for the next guided reading session.
•  Extension:  At the end, teachers can have students complete a non-traditional book report or project of some sort. 

EVALUATION OF STUDENT LEARNING:
I will assess student learning by:

• informally assessing student’s discussion in reading group.
• formally assessing students Book Club folders: daily writing connection to reading and nightly Book Club job.
• formally assessing non-traditional book report of end project.

Failed Banks, Political Despair and Drought:
How the American people survived the Great Depression

AUTHOR: Morgan Langtimm

HISTORICAL TOPIC/ERA: The Great Depression
 
GRADE LEVEL(S): 6th

TIME REQUIRED: 30-45 minute sessions for one week 

BACKGROUND:
Stock Market Investors
The collapse of the United States stock market helped trigger the Great Depression. Although the market recovered slightly in early 1930, many investors were very wary and, not only did they not invest in the stock market again, but also reduced their spending on consumer goods which had a severe effect on the manufacturing industry. The sales of luxury goods, such as automobiles and radios, were particularly hard hit. Commodity prices also fell and job losses in the agricultural, logging and mining sectors were very high. The US government made frantic attempts to protect these industries and introduce the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in 1930. This resulted in the economy of foreign countries being pulled down as protectionist policies severely hampered global trade among industrialized countries.
http://hubpages.com/hub/Great-Depression-Stock-Market

Farmers & their Families
During World War I, farmers worked hard to produce record crops and livestock. When prices fell they tried to produce even more to pay their debts, taxes and living expenses. In the early 1930s prices dropped so low that many farmers went bankrupt and lost their farms. In some cases, the price of a bushel of corn fell to just eight or ten cents. Some farm families began burning corn rather than coal in their stoves because corn was cheaper. Sometimes the countryside smelled like popcorn from all the corn burning in the kitchen stoves. Some farmers became angry and wanted the government to step in to keep farm families in their homes. In other areas around the state, farmers banded together like a labor union and threatened to prevent any milk from getting from farms to towns and cities. They hoped that this would raise the price that farmers were paid for their products. They set up blockades on country roads and made any trucks carrying milk, cream, butter or other farm products to turn around and go back home. They called it “The Farm Strike.” Not all farmers joined the movement, however, and the effort did not have any effect on prices. In some ways farmers were better off than city and town dwellers. Farmers could produce much of their own food while city residents could not. Almost all farm families raised large gardens with vegetables and canned fruit from their orchards. They had milk and cream from their dairy cattle. Chickens supplied meat and eggs. They bought flour and sugar in 50-pound sacks and baked their own bread. In some families the farm wife made clothing out of the cloth from flour and feed sacks. They learned how to get by with very little money. But they had to pay their taxes and debts to the bank in cash. These were tough times on the farms. http://www.iptv.org/IowaPathways/myPath.cfm?ounid=ob_000064

Children of the Dust Bowl
During the Dust Bowl, before school, children would have to milk cows, and feed the chickens, horses, and other animals every day.  Rural kids had to walk miles just to get to school, but then again children really wanted to go to school and learn how to speak and read.  At school they had mechanics, shop, design, math, writing, and reading classes. Their books weren’t as good as ours are today. Their books had dust in them. Some pages had faded letters that you couldn’t read.  For water fountain, they used a water pump. The water wasn’t always clean but it was something to drink.    At school they had to recite their homework, which means tell the whole class their homework.    Recess time was not much of a recess, since the only thing the children had to play on was a maypole, which is a pole that has chains on it and you swing around it.  During a hard windy day, teachers would send children home and they would have to walk backwards because the wind was so hard.   After 8th grade, children usually quit to go help on the farm and try to help with food depending if it was a girl or boy. Children in Oklahoma wanted to move because of so many dust storms. So did the parents, so they had a little car and their entire luggage and left. It took a lot of days and nights but eventually they would get to California. It wasn’t as good as they expected. Actually it wasn’t good at all.  They tried to find jobs but couldn’t because signs said no Okies (people from Oklahoma) allowed, so some people rented a poor house for $1.00 and that was a lot back then especially for Okies because people wouldn’t give them a chance.  Children suffered watching their parents suffer with no food and barely any water. They used a stream near by to wash clothes, take baths, and use the bathroom in, and when it rained the stream got all muddy and children would drink out of the stream and get diseases.   It was a horrible time for the Okies.  Some people thought it was so bad that they headed back to the horrible dust storms and starvation.  And when the Okies went to the California school kids called them dumb Okies or even worse because Okies didn’t learn as much as they should of because of all the dust storms during which the children couldn’t go to school.  http://library.thinkquest.org/TQ0312210/childrenslife.html

City Dwellers
When factories and stores shut down, many workers lost their jobs. Before the Great Depression, people refused to go on government welfare except as a last resort. The newspapers published the names of all those who received welfare payments, and people thought of welfare as a disgrace. However, in the face of starving families at home, some men signed up for welfare payments. For most it was a very painful experience. Town families could not produce their own food. Many city dwellers often went hungry. Sometimes there were soup kitchens in larger cities that provided free meals to the poor. Winters were an especially hard time since many families had no money to buy coal to heat their houses. The government created programs to put Americans to work. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) hired many men to work on parks, roads, bridges, swimming pools, public buildings and other projects. Teen age boys were hired by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). They lived in barracks, were given clothing, and provided with free meals. The small salary that they earned was sent back to help their families. The CCC boys planted trees, helped create parks, and did other projects to beautify and preserve natural areas. The 1930s are remembered as hard times for many American families. With the coming of World War II, the government began hiring many men to serve in the army. Factories began receiving orders for military supplies. But the memories of the Depression did not go away. Many Americans worried that when the war ended, hard times would come again.
http://www.iptv.org/IowaPathways/myPath.cfm?ounid=ob_000064

NEVADA STANDARDS:

• Nevada History Standard 8.5.8 Identify major events of the Great Depression, such as the Dust Bowl.
• Nevada History Standard: H2.[6-8].23Explain the causes of the Great Depression and the impact the Great Depression had on society and its effect on U.S. political policy.
• Nevada History Standard: H2.[9-12].9Describe the causes and consequences of the Great Depression.
• Nevada History Standard: H2.[9-12].10Analyze the policies and programs of the New Deal, and their effects on political, economic, and diplomatic institutions.
• Nevada History Standard: G8.[6-8].3Describe the changes that result from human modification of the physical environment.
• Nevada History Standard: G8.[6-8].4Discuss the impact of natural hazards on the use and distribution of resources.
• Nevada Language Arts Content Standard 5.0 Students write a variety of texts using the writing process.
• Nevada Language Arts Content Standard 6.0 Students write a variety of texts that inform, persuade, describe, evaluate, entertain, or tell a story and are appropriate to audience and purpose.

STUDENT LEARNING GOALS:
Students will create a foldable with four different perspectives on the Great Depression.  They will focus on Stock Market Investors, Farmers & their Families, Children of the Dust Bowl, and City Dwellers.  This activity will allow students to gather up all the information they have learned in this unit and apply it in a foldable writing project.  

MATERIALS/SPECIAL ARRANGEMENTS:

• Setting the Stage:
• Great Depression Videos: http://hubpages.com/hub/Great-Depression-Stock-Market
• Large white construction paper
• Colored pencils and/or markers
• Pencils
• Graphic organizer
• Access to a computer and Internet
• Websites:
• http://hubpages.com/hub/Great-Depression-Stock-Market
• http://www.iptv.org/IowaPathways/myPath.cfm?ounid=ob_000064
• http://library.thinkquest.org/TQ0312210/childrenslife.html

SETTING THE STAGE:
Watch several short videos on the Great Depression to recapture the life of people during the 1930s. 

ACTIVITIES/STRATEGIES:
This activity should be done towards the end of the Great Depression unit.

• Watch videos on the Great Depression to recapture the life of people during the 1930s.
• Explain to students that they will be creating a foldable on four different perspectives on the Great Depression: Stock Market Investors, Farmers & their Families, Children of the Dust Bowl, and City Dwellers.
• Next, pass out a graphic organizer that is separated in those four areas.  Begin filling it out as a whole class on the overhead or Elmo.  Do NOT completely fill it out; children need to learn how to use what they have learned.  Fill out about 1-2 areas per section.
• Show example of foldable (teacher created) so students have a model of what it should look like.
• Pass out large construction paper to each student and have them follow your directions on how to create the foldable
• Hold construction paper long ways
• Fold paper using a shutter fold
• Now fold shutter fold in half hot-dog style
• Open up fold and cut on inside crease to the edge
• This will create a four-flap section in the inside with a title cover for the outside
• As a class label the outside title together: Four Perspectives on the Great Depression.  Next have them put their name on cover as well.  Then have the students label the four inside flaps: Stock Market Investors, Farmers & their Families, Children of the Dust Bowl, and City Dwellers
• Next explain to students that each flap must contain a colored picture (printed or drawn) and 6-7 facts in paragraph format that summarizes what the Great Depression was like for that particular perspective.
• Allow students to use their journals, information around the room, books and the Internet to gather information.  Only allow students to use specific Internet sites that have already been teacher approved.
• Students work independently on their foldable until it is completed.  Students share in small groups their foldable.

EVALUATION OF STUDENT LEARNING:
I will assess student learning by:

• informally observing students actions towards gathering appropriate information
• formally assessing the final foldable assignment for accurate information and completion.

Failed Banks, Political Despair and Drought:
How the American people survived the Great Depression

AUTHOR: Morgan Langtimm

HISTORICAL TOPIC/ERA: The Great Depression
 
GRADE LEVEL(S): 6th

TIME REQUIRED: One hour for initial activity, 30-45 minutes for later follow-up

BACKGROUND:
In the summer of 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Governor of New York, was nominated as the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party. In his acceptance speech, Roosevelt addressed the problems of the depression by telling the American people that, "I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people." In the election that took place in the fall of 1932, Roosevelt won by a landslide.

The New Deal Roosevelt had promised the American people began to take shape immediately after his inauguration in March 1933. Based on the assumption that the power of the federal government was needed to get the country out of the depression, the first days of Roosevelt's administration saw the passage of banking reform laws, emergency relief programs, work relief programs, and agricultural programs. Later, a second New Deal was to evolve; it included union protection programs, the Social Security Act, and programs to aid tenant farmers and migrant workers. Many of the New Deal acts or agencies came to be known by their acronyms. For example, the Works Progress Administration was known as the WPA, while the Civilian Conservation Corps was known as the CCC. Many people remarked that the New Deal programs reminded them of alphabet soup.

By 1939, the New Deal had run its course. In the short term, New Deal programs helped improve the lives of people suffering from the events of the depression. In the long run, New Deal programs set a precedent for the federal government to play a key role in the economic and social affairs of the nation.
http://memory.loc.gov/learn//features/timeline/depwwii/newdeal/newdeal.html

NEVADA STANDARDS:

• Nevada History Standard: H2.[9-12].10 Analyze the policies and programs of the New Deal, and their effects on political, economic, and diplomatic institutions.
• Nevada History Standard: G8.[6-8].3 Describe the changes that result from human modification of the physical environment.
• Nevada Language Arts Content Standard 6.0 Students write a variety of texts that inform, persuade, describe, evaluate, entertain, or tell a story and are appropriate to audience and purpose.

STUDENT LEARNING GOALS:
The students will create an art piece by creating a puzzle from an image.  Once the puzzle is complete and the image can be seen, the students will write about what they think the significance of that image is.  Then at the end of the unit students will write again on the same image, but they will now understand the significance of the image. 

MATERIALS/SPECIAL ARRANGEMENTS:

• Printouts of Great Depression artwork
• These can be found on http://www.images.google.com
• FDR and the New Deal Image: http://newdeal.feri.org/images/ac37.gif  

Enlarge this image to poster size. Make 2 copies of black and white. One copy you will cut up into even pieces and the other will be to show the final product.

• On the cut up poster pieces, label the back of the pieces with numbers so you know where to place the students image
• Snack size baggies filled with one piece of white chalk, a cotton ball and q-tip for each student
• Equal size pieces of black construction paper
• Large piece of butcher paper to glue student's artwork on.  Make sure to label the butcher paper with the corresponding numbers to the poster.
• FDR and the New Deal Video: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/

SETTING THE STAGE:
Pass out several different pieces of Great Depression artwork to groups of students.  Have students discuss and quickly write down what they think the artist was trying to portray.  Share whole class.  Then explain to students that they will be recreating a piece of artwork but they won't know what it is until everyone's piece is done.

ACTIVITIES/STRATEGIES:

• Use the image listed above or find an image that works well with the unit.
• Enlarge the image to poster size.  Make 2 copies in black in white.
• Laminate both posters if possible.
• Cut up 1 of the posters into even pieces so that each student can get one.  Write a number on the back of the poster so you can put it back in order.
• Cut up black paper with either the same size as the poster pieces or larger.
• Pass out the baggies with chalk, cotton balls, and q-tips.  Explain that these are to use to recreate their section of the artwork.
• Allow students plenty of time to work on their puzzle piece.  Make sure to have something else planned for those students who work fast.
• Then call the students up in the number order to glue their recreated image on butcher paper.
• Once all the images are glued discuss what the image is and how they think it relates to the Great Depression.
• Next, place the other laminated poster next to the recreated one to compare.
• Then have students write about the image.  This will mostly be fictional because they don't have the knowledge yet about the image.
• Place the artwork, original poster and written accounts on a bulletin board.
• Next, watch segments of FDRs New Deal Videos online (this can be done in the computer lab or whole class, depending on time est.).  This will be the start of providing information about the piece of artwork.
• Then, towards the end of the unit the students should have enough knowledge about the Great Depression and that particular piece of artwork that they write again about the image again but they use factual information.

EVALUATION OF STUDENT LEARNING:
I will assess student learning by:

• formally comparing pre and post writing samples

Failed Banks, Political Despair and Drought:
How the American people survived the Great Depression

AUTHOR: Morgan Langtimm

HISTORICAL TOPIC/ERA: The Great Depression

GRADE LEVEL(S): 6th

TIME REQUIRED: One 30-minute class session and 1-hour computer lab session

BACKGROUND:
For most, it is difficult to imagine life during the Great Depression. While the Depression began at the end of the 1920s, the entire nation suffered most dramatically during the period 1929–1933.  Most characteristic of life during the Great Depression was the widening gap between the “haves” and “have-nots.” Unemployment rose from a shocking 5 million in 1930 to an almost unbelievable 13 million by the end of 1932. It would be rural America that would suffer the greatest. Unemployed fathers saw children hired for sub-standard wages. In 1930, 2.25 million boys and girls ages 10–18 worked in factories, canneries, mines, and on farms. Children left school to support their families.  Some middle-class families managed to hold onto their homes by taking in boarders, bartering, and stretching every available dollar.

http://www.allabouthistory.org/life-during-the-great-depression.htm

Life in rural areas during the Depression was hard. Because prices for crops were very low, farmers received little for their efforts. They could not repay the loans that they had taken out on their farms in more prosperous times, and many lost their houses and farms. As the hard times deepened, the Red Cross and the government set up stations to dispense food and other necessities to the needy. Out in the country, there were not as many food stations, so people had to travel long distances to town to receive supplies. This trip was a hardship because few had transportation or the money to make the trip.

http://www.museum.siu.edu/museum_classroom_grant/Museum_Explorers/school_pages/bourbonnais/page4.htm

NEVADA STANDARDS:

• Nevada History Standard: H2.[6-8].23 Explain the causes of the Great Depression and the impact the Great Depression had on society and its effect on U.S. political policy.
• Nevada History Standard: H2.[9-12].9 Describe the causes and consequences of the Great Depression.
• Nevada Language Arts Standard: 1.6.5 Apply knowledge of content-specific vocabulary in text to build comprehension.
• Nevada Language Arts Content Standard 5.0 Students write a variety of texts using the writing process.
• Nevada Language Arts Content Standard 6.0 Students write a variety of texts that inform, persuade, describe, evaluate, entertain, or tell a story and are appropriate to audience and purpose.

STUDENT LEARNING GOALS:
In pairs, students will compare and contrast two Wordles.  They will use a graphic organizer that will aid them in this activity.  Students will then create their own Wordle on any portion of the Great Depression that they choose to research.  Afterwards, students will switch Wordles and try and have students guess which area of the Great Depression they chose to do.

MATERIALS/SPECIAL ARRANGEMENTS:

• Internet access to: http://www.wordle.net/
• 2 sample Wordle printouts for student partners
• http://memory.loc.gov/learn//features/timeline/depwwii/newdeal/newdeal.html
• http://library.thinkquest.org/TQ0312210/childrenslife.html
• Compare and Contrast Graphic Organizer
• Research Graphic Organizer
• Printer
• Pencils
• Computer lab access for students (1 computer per student)

SETTING THE STAGE:
Show students various examples of Wordles on the overhead or Elmo.  Students will immediately think this is interesting!  Ask them what they notice about the Wordles.  Explain that they will create their own Wordle! 

ACTIVITIES/STRATEGIES:

• Have students partner up.  Pass out copies of two different Wordles about the Great Depression.  Explain that they will be discussing the similarities and differences they notice about the Wordles. 
• Pass out the graphic organizer they will be using and explain what the directions are.
• Explain to students that they will use the graphic organizer to write down their thoughts and to try and guess what the topic is.
• After students completed their graphic organizer put the first Wordle on the overhead or Elmo and ask for volunteers to tell what they think it is.  Afterwards tell students what the real topic was.  Then repeat for the second Wordle.
• Next, explain how you create a Wordle.
• You can either create your own words to put into a Wordle or you can copy/paste a small section of text.  The larger words mean that they were repeated more times in the text.
• Pass out the research graphic organizer.  Explain to students that they are going to create their own Wordle on ANY part of the Great Depression (stock market crash, Okies, Dust Bowl, FDR, est.).  Tell them to keep it a secret from their classmates because they will try to guess each other's. 
• Students MUST complete the graphic organizer before they create their Great Depression Wordle.  Students cannot save their Wordle so they will have to print them the day of.
• If they get done early, they can create another Wordle on themselves.

EVALUATION OF STUDENT LEARNING:
I will assess student learning by:

• formally assessing the compare and contrast graphic organizer for completion
• formally assessing the research graphic organizer for completion and accuracy
• formally assessing the end Wordle for accuracy and importance.

Research on the Great Depression

Name:________________________________________________ Date:_______

Great Depression Topic:_____________________________________________

Go to any of the approved websites:

• http://www.britannica.com/
• http://www.loc.gov/index.html
• http://memory.loc.gov/fsowhome.html
• http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/depression.htm
• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dustbowl/peopleevents/index.html
• http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/glossary/great-depression.htm
• http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/GreatDepression.html
• http://hoover.archives.gov/exhibits/Hooverstory/gallery06/gallery06.html
• http://memory.loc.gov/learn//features/timeline/depwwii/newdeal/newdeal.html
• http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/water_02.html

1.  Which website did you decide to get your information from?  Write it down.
______________________________________________________________________________

Information collected from the website

2.  Now use the summary you just wrote to create a Wordle.  Go the http://www.wordle.net/ and have fun!  Before you print your Wordle get it approved by me!

Failed Banks, Political Despair and Drought:
How the American people survived the Great Depression

AUTHOR: Morgan Langtimm

HISTORICAL TOPIC/ERA: The Great Depression
 
GRADE LEVEL(S): 6th

TIME REQUIRED:  One-two months of daily 20-30 minute sessions.  One night performance.

BACKGROUND:
In 1929, the Stock Market crashed. The Great Depression that followed was the worst crisis in America since the Civil War. As the 1930s began, one out of every four wage-earners — more than 15 million men and women — was without work. In Mississippi, on a single day in 1932, one quarter of the entire state was auctioned off. Thousands of jobless men wandered the landscape. Dust storms born in Texas and the Dakotas darkened skies all the way East to Washington. Prices of wheat and corn and cotton fell so low, the crops were left to rot in the fields. In Boston, children with cardboard soles in their shoes walked to school past silent shoe factories with padlocks on the doors. In New York, a jobless couple moved into a cave in Central Park and stayed there for a year. They could find nowhere else to live.

Hard times hit black America hardest. In some northern cities, six out of 10 African-American workers lost their jobs. Poor southern migrants continued to come north, crowding into neighborhoods already packed with people, competing for the fast-dwindling number of jobs. Black businesses failed, crushing the entrepreneurial spirit that had been an essential element of the Negro Renaissance. But the people of Harlem endured.

The music business came close to collapsing. In Chicago, shivering jobless men burned old phonograph records to keep warm. American record companies, which had sold more than 100 million copies a year in the mid-20s, were soon selling just six million. Most of them went out of business. The Victor Company stopped making record players altogether for a time and sold radios — and radio programs — instead.

Nevertheless, the Depression meant that millions of people all over America would now be able to hear music — all kinds of music — played by all kinds of people for free. And jazz, which had always thrived in adversity and come to symbolize a certain kind of American freedom, would be called upon to lift the spirits and raise the morale of a frightened country. And in the process, it would begin to break down the barriers that had separated Americans from each other for centuries. http://www.pbs.org/jazz/time/time_depression.htm

NEVADA STANDARDS:

• Nevada History Standard: H2.[6-8].23 Explain the causes of the Great Depression and the impact the Great Depression had on society and its effect on U.S. political policy.
• Nevada History Standard: H2.[9-12].9 Describe the causes and consequences of the Great Depression.
• Nevada Language Arts Content Standard 6.0 Students write a variety of texts that inform, persuade, describe, evaluate, entertain, or tell a story and are appropriate to audience and purpose.
• Nevada Language Arts Content Standard 8.0 Students speak using organization, style, tone, voice, and media aids appropriate to audience and purpose. Students participate in discussions to offer information, clarify ideas, and support a position.

STUDENT LEARNING GOALS:
Students will listen to Great Depression songs by Woody Guthrie and then work in small groups to create their own song.  Students will research and create a memorized song that will be performed in costume in front of fellow classmates and parents.  Students will provide an introduction to their song and the inspiration behind it.  It will be called The 1930s Great Depression Concert Series. 

MATERIALS/SPECIAL ARRANGEMENTS:

• Woody Guthrie music:
• http://www.rhapsody.com/woody-guthrie
• http://www.last.fm/music/Woody+Guthrie
• Woody Guthrie lyrics: http://www.woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/Lyrics.htm
• Paper & Pencils
• Access to Internet
• Access to musical instruments
• Donated/bought old clothes for costumes
• Create an announcement and send home with parents
• Random materials for backdrop/set of concert

SETTING THE STAGE:
Play various songs by Woody Guthrie while students follow along with copies of the lyrics.

ACTIVITIES/STRATEGIES:

• Play Great Depression songs by Woody Guthrie.  These can be played on any computer with Internet access.  Pass out song lyrics for the songs the students will listen to so they can follow along.
• Discuss the songs and what the students noticed.
• Next explain to the class that they will be creating their own Great Depression song and performing it in costume to parents and classmates.  Go over requirements:
• Song must be at least 3 minutes long
• Song must be factual information about the Great Depression
• Song must have a chorus
• Everyone in group MUST sing
• Background instruments/sound is the groups responsibility
• Students can find this on the Internet
• Students can record their own beat with spoons, washboards, harmonicas, guitars, est.
• Students can use a previous known beat and apply it to their song
• Students must memorize the song
• Students must write and memorize an introduction to their song that they will present before they sing their song
• Students must perform in costume.  This shouldn't be difficult.  Most people in the Great Depression were poor and had rags for clothes.
• Depending on school dynamics, the teacher might have to bring in a lot of this; or you can go on a fieldtrip to a local thrift store to find clothes.
• Parents can also donate time/effort into making costumes for students.
• Allow plenty of class time for them to create their song and revise it.  Allow time to practice performing in front of the class.
• As a class decide on the backdrop/set of the stage and recruit students to help build the backdrop/set.  This would be a before/lunch time/after school project where students need to sign up for
• Also, create a flyer to be sent home to announce the event.

EVALUATION OF STUDENT LEARNING:
I will assess student learning by:

• informally assessing cooperation in song group.
• formally assessing final production of song for authentic accuracy and completion.
• formally assessing final presentation at concert series for performance and accuracy.

The Great Depression-Select Bibliography

Picture Books
Retrieved from: http://www.carolhurst.com/subjects/ushistory/depression.html

Adler, David A.  The Babe and I.  Illustrated by Terry Widener. Gulliver, 1999 ISBN 0152013784. Grades 2 - 4. Set in the Bronx in 1932, this book gives us a young narrator who learns that his father is not going off to work each morning as he has pretended to do but instead is selling apples on the street. The boy then learns how to help out by selling newspapers near Yankee Stadium, yelling out the exploits of Babe Ruth in order to attract buyers. When the Babe himself buys a paper, our newspaper boy gets to watch a game.

Booth, David.  The Dust Bowl.  Illustrated by Karen Reczuch. Kids Can Press, 1997 ISBN 1550742957. Grades 2 - 6. It seems as if the drought has gone on forever and the boy's father is angry and discouraged. Grandfather, however, remembers a time when the drought and the dust were worse than this. He tells them about the Dust Bowl and the way many neighbors abandoned their farms then. His family decided to stick it out and they did -- through the drought, the cold and the grasshopper plague. The story makes the father decide that he'll stick these hard times out as well.

MacLachlan, Patricia. What You Know First.  Illustrated by Barry Moser. HarperCollins, 1995 ISBN 0060244135. Grades 3 - 5. A little girl vows that she is not moving away even though her family is. She swears she'll stay on the prairie and live in the attic with the new folks or with her uncle who sings cowboy songs. Let them take the baby who won't know the difference and go. The spare, nearly poetic text evokes the feelings of loss and fear familiar to anybody who has had to move while staying within the context of a child's perspective. Moser's pictures are dark and powerful and it is through them alone that you realize the era in which the book is set.

Stewart, Sarah. The Gardener. Illustrated by David Small.  Farrar Straus, 1997 ISBN 0374325170. Grades 2 - 8.  This thoroughly delightful and touching book brings us a series of letters between young Lydia and her family. This is one of those books where the pictures add immeasurably to the plot and must be examined carefully to get the most out of the book. It's the time of the Great Depression and Lydia is sent away from the farm where she lives with her grandmother and parents to her uncle in New York City. She's to help him in the bakery. It's a hard time for all. Lydia misses her family and the gardens terribly. The city is bleak and her uncle even bleaker. Lydia is determined to get him to smile. Her letters home reveal a bit of her plans and there are other hints along the way but the surprise she creates will bring a smile to the readers as well as to her uncle.

Turner, Ann. Dust for Dinner.  Illustrated by Robert Barrett. HarperCollins, 1995 ISBN 0060233761. Grades 3 - 6. This is a book with a limited vocabulary in which a family falls victim to the Dust Bowl. After losing their farm, they set out for California. The plot is sparse but the book makes a good one for less skillful readers.

Novels
Retrieved from: http://www.carolhurst.com/subjects/ushistory/depression.html
http://www.farragutschools.org/vnews/display.v/ART/2007/11/10/471aa5d1a9e30

Curtis, Christopher Paul. Bud, Not Buddy.  Delacorte, 1999 ISBN 0385323069.  Grades 4 - 8
Bud holds all the remnants of his once loving home in a cardboard suitcase as he walks from Flint to Grand Rapids, Michigan in search of a man he believes to be his father. Many people lend a hand especially a labor union leader who finds Bud hiding at the side of the road. Bud's irrepressible good nature and innocence make him a breath of fresh air in the grim times of the Great Depression.

Durbin, William. The Journal of C.J. Jackson: a Dust Bowl Migrant.  Thirteen-year-old C.J. records in a journal the conditions of the Dust Bowl that cause the Jackson family to leave their farm in Oklahoma and make the difficult journey to California, where they find a harsh life as migrant workers.

Fast, Howard. The Immigrants.  The saga of three families living in San Francisco during the earthquake, World War I and the Depression.

Fast, Howard. Second Generation.  This sequel to "The Immigrants" depicts the life of Barbara Lavette, daughter of the son of a poor Italian immigrant and a woman of San Francisco's elite, from the Depression through World War II.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby.  Follow the adventures of Jay Gatsby as he tries to win back the woman he loved and lost.

Hesse, Karen. Out of the Dust.  Scholastic, 1997 ISBN 0590360809. Grades 5 - 9. This spare novel, a Newbery Award winner told in a sort of blank verse, tells of Billie Jo and her family on the plains of Oklahoma in 1934. Many of their neighbors have already left as the dust covers everything. When a fire kills her mother and wounds Billie Jo extensively, her father becomes unreachable. Billie Jo leaves at last only to be pulled back home.
Janke, Katelan. Survival in the Storm : The Dust Bowl Diary of Grace Edwards.  A twelve-year-old girl keeps a journal of her family's and friends' difficult experiences in the Texas panhandle, part of the "Dust Bowl," during the Great Depression. Includes a historical note about life in America in 1935.

Koller, Jackie French. Nothing to Fear.  Gulliver, 1991 ISBN 0152575820. Grades 4 - 7.
The effects of the Great Depression on two families is the center of this novel. The Garveys and Rileys are Irish immigrants living in the same apartment building in NYC. Like many children of that era, Daniel Garvey must take on adult responsibilities, bringing in money for the family and caring for his sister, even begging for money as the Depression grows. His father leaves the family to find work. The Riley family is in even worse shape as their father turns to alcoholism.

Lasky, Kathryn. Christmas After All : The Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift.  A fictional journal in which eleven-year-old Minnie Swift tells how her family dealt with the difficult times during the Depression and how the arrival of an orphan from Texas changed their lives in Indianapolis just before Christmas 1932.

Peck, Richard.  Year Down Yonder.  Dial, 2000 ISBN 0803725183. Grades 4 - 8.  This sequel to Long Way from Chicago brings us back to Grandma Dowdel who rules the town in southern Illinois where she lives. Set in the late 1930s, hard times still prevail here. Joey, the older grandchild, is working in a CCC camp but Mary Alice has come to stay with her grandmother for a year while her parents give up their home. This is a hilarious Newbery Award winner.

Peck, Robert Newton.  Arly's Run. Walker, 1991 ISBN 0802781209. Grades 4 - 8
Arly is saved from a sinking boat crossing Lake Okeechobbe during a storm by clinging to an oar. He makes it to shore only to be forced into migrant labor work. A drunk named Coo Coo becomes Arly's only human contact and the two look out for each other.

Reeder, Carolyn. Grandpa's Mountain. During the Depression, eleven-year-old Carrie makes her annual summer visit to her relatives in the Blue Ridge Mountains and watches her determined grandfather fight against the government's attempt to take his farm land for a new national park.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath.  A family struggles to survive during the Depression by traveling to California looking for work.

Taylor, Mildred D. Let the Circle be Unbroken.  Four black children growing up in rural Mississippi during the Depression experience racial antagonisms and hard times, but learn from their parents the pride and self-respect they need.

Taylor, Mildred. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.  Fogelman, 2001 ISBN 0803726473.
Grades 5 - 9.  This Newbery Winner was the first book written in a series about the Logan family. In this volume, we focus on Cassie, one of four children living in Mississippi during the Depression. The Logan family owns some land and is respected by others in the African American community but the violence that surrounds them is an ever-present threat and Cassie's innocence is shattered when she makes her first visit to town.

Whitmore, Arvella. The Bread Winner. When both her parents are unable to find work and pay the bills during the Great Depression, resourceful Sarah Ann Puckett saves the family from the poorhouse by selling her prize-winning homemade bread.