Final+Project

= Americans Face Hard Times =

Purpose
The purpose of this lesson is to allow you to gain an understanding of the far reaching impact of the Great Depression on American society. This severe negative impact was felt across the country by individuals, groups and institutions.

Objectives:

 * 1) Students will analyze the impact of the Great Depression on various areas of American life and society.
 * 2) Students will analyze and respond to video clips, maps, quotes and text using content response notes.

Essential Questions:
1. What overall impact did the stock market crash and eventual economic depression have on the American society? 2. How were different areas of society including individuals, groups, and institutions affected by the economic collapse? 3. What was the human impact of the Great Depression? 4. What was the Dust Bowl and what were the problems it caused? 5. What were Americans forced to do in order to survive the Great Depression?

Background :
Prior to starting this lesson students learned about the economic conditions of the late 1920’s and the events that lead to the stock market crash of 1929.

=Day One=

Start by opening the following two-column note sheet. It will be used to complete this unit.

__ Do Now __

Where do you go when you have no place to go?
Some of them decided on their own to leave home. Others were told to leave by their parents because there simply was no money to care for them. In either case, tens of thousands of teenagers faced a stark reality during the Great Depression. They had to find their future on the road. At the height of the Great Depression, as many as a quarter of a million teenagers were wandering the nation, riding the railroads from town to town. With no families to support or protect them, they joined the ranks of the jobless, homeless wanderers known as hoboes. For the young hoboes of the Depression—boys and girls, black and white, some less than 16 years old—the daily task was to survive. The lucky ones found or formed communities with other homeless people, who were primarily adults. The unlucky ones fell prey to abuse and violence. Young women often disguised themselves as boys in order to reduce the dangers they faced. African Americans often had the threat of racial violence added to the hardships of the road. Homeless teenagers riding the rails or walking the back roads became a familiar sight in the years of the Great Depression. Along with millions of others, they formed part of the human face of the economic catastrophe that followed the crash. American Anthem Textbook, Holt, 2007

Think/Write/Pair/Share purpose and directions React to this story by responding to the prompt in the left column of your two-column notes sheet. When you have finished pair share your responses with your partner. Then revise your response in your note sheet using a different color font.
 * THINK/WRITE/PARE/SHARE**

Bank Runs
Watch the following video clip and the respond to the prompt below in the left column of you two column notes sheet, then pair share your repsonse with your partner It's a Wonderful Life "bank run" clip

Write a reaction to the video. What do you think happened? How does this video clip relate to the title of the lesson? Pair/share your responses with your partner.

Read the information in the link below and identify the main ideas and three most important details from each section in the right column of your notes sheet. Pair share your repsonses and revise your origninal repsonse.



**Homework**: Write a two paragraph summary of what you learned in class today. Include information on the video and from the readings.

Day Two
__ Do Now __

Read and analyze the folloing quote and respond to the prompt in your two column note sheet. Pair share your responses.
“I’d get up at five in the morning and head for the waterfront. Outside the Spreckles Sugar Refinery, outside the gates, there would be a thousand men. You know dang well there’s only three or four jobs. The guy would come out … ‘I need two guys for the bull gang. Two guys to go into the hole.’ A thousand men would fight like a pack of Alaskan dogs to get through there.” —Ed Paulson, quoted in Studs Terkel’s //Hard Times//

== Go to the online textbook through the link below and sign in using your username and password. Then read and examine //**Life in a Hooverville**// on pages 682-683. identify one main idea and three important supporting details from the text provided. Pair share repsonses. ==

American Anthem Online

The Dust Bowl
media type="custom" key="8761510" In your two column notes sheet write what you can learn about the Dust Bowl from looking at the map?

Now, go back to the online text book and identify main ideas and supporting details in the right side of the note sheet for Devastation in the Dust Bowl on pages684-685. When you are done pair/share your responses with you partner.

Homework: Write two paragraphs explaining the hardships of livning in a Hooverville and living through the Dust Bowl.

Day Three
__ Do Now __ In the same word document that your two column notes sheet is in, please identify the three areas discussed in this lesson that you feel were most heavily impacted by the Great Depression. Briefly explain your reason for each choice. Pair/share your responses with your partner.

Now you will create an outline of this unit using a tool called Bubbl.us. You are to outline what you have learned in this unit about the various areas of American life and how they were impacted by the Great Depression. Please go to the link below for directions on how to use Bubbl.us

I have embedded a sample outline I made about student learning for you to see as an an example of what a bubbl outline can look like.

media type="custom" key="8869620" Homework: Continue to work on your bubbl.us outline.

__ Day Four __

Using only your two column notes sheet, you should write a five paragraph essay in a new word document responding to the following prompt:

Based on what you have learned over the past three days, what **three (3)** areas of American life do you think were the most heavily impacted by the Great Depression? Explain your answer. Be sure to Provide evidence and analysis to support your position.

The follwong rubirc will be used to score your essay. This essay will count as one test grade.