Design for Learning Instructor: Laura Beth Jackson Grade Level: 6th Lesson Title: Great Depression: The Effects on Agriculture Date: May 15 th , 2014 Curriculum Area: Social Studies Estimated Time: 90 minutes Standards Connection: AL 6 th Social Studies (5) Explain causes and effects of the Great Depression on the people of the United States. Learning Objective(s): Students will accurately describe and illustrate the changes to agriculture as a result of the Great Depression when given the “Changes on the Farm Scrapbook Pages” sheet according to a teacher- made rubric. Learning Objective(s) stated in “kid-friendly” language: At the end of our lesson today, you will have the opportunity to take the information we learn and make your own scrapbook pages that provide an illustration and description of the effects of the Great Depression on agriculture in the United States. Evaluation of Learning Objective(s): The students will complete the “Changes on the Farm Scrapbook Pages” sheet (see attached) for their assessment. This assignment will be given for homework and graded according to the “Changes on the Farm Scrapbook Pages Rubric” (see attached). The rubric contains three graded criteria: caption content, mechanics, and illustration. In each criteria area, students can receive a score between 1-3. Each of the four scrapbook pages (Agriculture Before the Great Depression, FDR and AAA, Affects of the Great Depression on Farming, and The Dust Bowl) is graded separately on the three criteria for a total of 36 possible points. Students must receive at least a 28/36 to be considered proficient.
Transcript
Design for LearningInstructor: Laura Beth Jackson Grade Level: 6thLesson Title: Great Depression: The Effects on Agriculture Date: May 15th, 2014Curriculum Area: Social Studies Estimated Time: 90 minutes
Standards Connection: AL 6th Social Studies (5) Explain causes and effects of the Great Depression on the people of the United States.
Learning Objective(s):Students will accurately describe and illustrate the changes to agriculture as a result of the Great Depression when given the “Changes on the Farm Scrapbook Pages” sheet according to a teacher- made rubric.
Learning Objective(s) stated in “kid-friendly” language:At the end of our lesson today, you will have the opportunity to take the information we learn and make your own scrapbook pages that provide an illustration and description of the effects of the Great Depression on agriculture in the United States.
Evaluation of Learning Objective(s):The students will complete the “Changes on the Farm Scrapbook Pages” sheet (see attached) for their assessment. This assignment will be given for homework and graded according to the “Changes on the Farm Scrapbook Pages Rubric” (see attached). The rubric contains three graded criteria: caption content, mechanics, and illustration. In each criteria area, students can receive a score between 1-3. Each of the four scrapbook pages (Agriculture Before the Great Depression, FDR and AAA, Affects of the Great Depression on Farming, and The Dust Bowl) is graded separately on the three criteria for a total of 36 possible points. Students must receive at least a 28/36 to be considered proficient.
Engagement:To engage the students in the lesson, the teacher will review the previous day’s material through discussion. She will then read the poem “Hope” by Karen Hesse aloud to the students. After she reads the poem, the teacher will use a series of comprehension questions to have students make predictions about the speaker, setting, etc. of the poem. The teacher will then introduce the background information of the poem and connect the lesson to the pervious two days. Good morning guys! I hope you all had restful evenings and are ready to dive into our new lesson for the day. Before I start with what we are doing today, would some mind raising their hand to share with me what our big focus is this week? Wait for student response. Exactly! We are learning about the Great Depression and how it affected three specific areas, which are listed on our note sheet and our timeline. What are those three areas again? Wait for student response. Right! Government, agriculture, and American culture! Yesterday, we talked about how the Depression forever changed our U.S. government. Without looking at the notes sheet, can someone raise their hand and tell the class one way that the Depression changed the U.S. government? Wait for student response. All right _________, go ahead and name one of them.
Wait for student response. Very good! Remember how we talked about FDR, his 100 Days program, and the 3 R’s? Until then, no president had ever involved the government in providing relief or help for regular American people. As a result, Americans today expect the government to intervene if there is a serious crisis. Does anyone remember another way that the Great Depression affected our government? Wait for student response. I’m impressed! You all clearly listened and absorbed what we discussed yesterday. You’re right. Another way the Great Depression changed our government was by expanding its power. ________, can you explain for me a little more by providing an example? How exactly did the Great Depression make the U.S. government have more power? Wait for student response. You’re very close, so would you like to phone a friend to help you out? Wait for student response. You’re right that the government power grew, but it’s not just because FDR made the alphabet soup programs. Who would like to help him out? Wait for student response. Great response! You’re exactly right! The bank holiday was when FDR shut down all of the banks and only let ones that were using good, responsible banking practices reopen. Now let’s make the connection: how did the bank holiday and other actions like it expand the power of the U.S. government during the Depression? Wait for student response. Exactly ________! Never before had the government stepped in and intervened so much in private business or the economy. FDR’s actions set a precedent, or an example, for future presidents. Good thinking so far. Now that we are solid on the ways the Great Depression affected the U.S. government, let’s shift our thinking to think about how the Depression changed farming in the United States. Teacher projects a copy of “Hope” by Karen Hesse onto the SMART board. On the board, I have a poem by an author named Karen Hesse. I’m not going to tell you much more about it until after we have had a chance to read it and discuss. I’ll read the poem aloud to you first, and then we will go around the room to take turns reading it again so you’ve had a chance to get the whole message. Follow along with the words as I read aloud. Teacher reads poem, then leads the class through a group reading on the second time. After the class has heard the poem twice, the teacher will ask a series of comprehension questions such as: Can you paraphrase the poem? Who is the speaker in the poem? How would you describe this speaker? What is the speaker’s tone (mood)? Which words tell you this tone? Is the poem ironic in any way? Are there any words do you need to look up? What images does the poet create in your brain? How does that image change? Are there any metaphors (comparisons) used in the poem? How do they help you understand its meaning? Do you have any guesses where this poem takes place (farm, city, etc.)? How did you infer your answer? Do you have any guesses as to what this poem is actually about? (hint: it’s a historical event) Those were some excellent predictions class! Are you ready to find out about some of the actual background of the poem? Wait for student response. Great! This poem is called “Hope” and is written by Karen Hesse. Hesse is actually a children’s author from today who wrote a book called Out of the Dust. The book is about a girl living on a Midwestern farm with her family during the Great Depression, and this poem is from the book. Based on that information alone, do you think life for families on farms during the Depression was easy? Wait for student response. I definitely agree with you. Like we talked about during our discussion, the poem has a sad but hope tone. The reader can infer that this family has been having a very hard time. However, that still doesn’t explain why the rain imagery is so important in the poem. Lucky for you, we are going to solve that mystery during our note-taking time today. On that note, I need you to go ahead and get out your Great Depression notes sheets from yesterday. If you handed them to me, I have them here for you on the front desk. You may come up and collect them. Teacher waits for students to follow directions. All right, let’s go ahead and dive in to our lesson! At the end of our lesson today, you
will have the opportunity to take the information we learn and make your own scrapbook pages that provide an illustration and description of the effects of the Great Depression on agriculture in the United States. Does everyone have his/her note sheets ready? Wait for student response. Great! Let’s get started! Teacher will then transition into the teaching portion of the lesson.
Learning Design:
I. Teaching:To teach the content of the lesson, the teacher will use the “Great Depression Content” PowerPoint presentation (see attached). As the teacher goes through the PowerPoint, she will periodically stop to ask comprehension questions, higher level thinking questions, and guide students to take quality notes on the Great Depression Unit Notes (see attached). Teacher will start with slide 19. In order to understand the changes made to agriculture because of the Great Depression, we first have to think about what farming was like before the Depression don’t we? Remember how in our last unit we talked about the “Roaring Twenties?” Can anyone raise their hand and describe what life was like during the Roaring Twenties? Wait for student response. Good memory! During the twenties, life for many Americans was super nice: people started buying more products and participating in leisure activities. Unfortunately, farmers weren’t quite so lucky during the 1920s. Unlike today, farms were mostly family owned and operated: they didn’t have the big commercial tractors like we do today! Farming was a lot of hard work, and many farming families didn’t make much money. Based on what you already know, where do you think these farming families lived? Can someone go up to our class map of the United States and point it out on a map? Wait for student response. No guesses? That’s ok, I’ll help you out. Teacher points areas out on map as she talks. In the 1920s and even before, many families rushed out to land in the Midwest to start farming. The government was providing people with lots of land at a low price, and many families saw farming as a good way to provide for their families. This motivated and caused them to “head west!” However, like I said already, many families were disappointed with the money they made from farming and did not share in the prosperity that urban people had in the 1920s. So now let’s fast-forward to the stock market crash on Black Tuesday. In your table group, I want you to discuss how you think the crash affected farmers? I’ll give you one minute to make your predictions. On your mark, get set, go! Teacher allows students to discuss. As students work, teacher roams around the room to listen for particularly strong or insightful answers. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… Times up! Finish your last thought and then eyes back up here. Wait for students to respond. I heard some really good thoughts from you all. Let’s go around the room and have our table leaders for the week share one “nugget” of information their group discussed: how do you all think the stock market crashing affected our farmer friends out in the Midwest? Teacher goes around the room and gives every table the chance to respond. You guys really brought your A game to class today.. those are some great answers! Because the farmers were already struggling financially, the stock market crash was particularly hard on them, but not because they lost all their money in stocks. When urban people had less money to spend, they couldn’t buy as much food, which means the farmers made even less money off their crops. To make things worse, remember yesterday how we talked about loans: money you borrow from a bank to make a big purchase and pay back over time? Wait for student response. Well, many of these farmers had used loans to buy their farms. When they had less money coming in, they couldn’t pay the bank back the money they owed every month. Can someone raise their hand and remind the class what happens when you don’t pay back a loan?
Think back to our lesson from Monday. Wait for student response. Sadly you’re right. The bank will come and repossess, or take away, what you bought with the money you owe. So with less money coming in, farmers couldn’t pay their debts, and many lost their farms. Just like we talked about yesterday with Hoover, the whole situation created a lot of frustration for farmers, and some resorting to rioting to protest what they saw as unfair treatment from banks. Teacher clicks to slide 20. Here are some pictures of the Midwest during the Depression. What do you notice about these photographs? Wait for student response. Good observations guys. Both show how hard and bad life had gotten for many farmers. The mailbox picture shows a family that has to sell their possessions because the bank is taking their farm back, while the picture on the right shows a riot. See how much we were able to infer about farming life from these pictures alone? Now let’s take a minute to examine pictures ourselves… it will give you a chance to practice! I am going to pass out photos of farmers during the Great Depression. With your table groups, I want you to discuss what you notice in your photo and have the table leader for the week write down your observations on a white board. When you are all finished, we will share as a class. Table leaders, pull out a white board and market from the materials bucket and get ready to write! Teacher passes out the “Lesson Class Photo Activity” (see attached) photographs, table leaders prepare table, and students discuss photos. When the teacher notices students finishing, she will call the classes’ attention and lead a discussion. I heard some awesome inferences about farming life from your pictures. Group 1, would you mind sharing your picture and what your table discussed? Teacher will allow all groups to share their pictures and observations that highlight the unrest in the farming community during the Great Depression. As you can see, our farming system was on the verge of collapsing by 1932. That’s an event for our timeline don’t you think? _______, you have been extremely diligent about turning in your homework this week. Would you please come add “farming industry in chaos” to our timeline? Where will this card go? Wait for student response. Absolutely right! This is before FDR was elected in 1932, so this event falls between Black Tuesday and the 1932 election. Great work and add the card please! Teacher waits for student to follow directions and continues teaching. However, like we learned about yesterday, what big event happened in 1932? Wait for student response as teacher points to the class timeline. That’s right! Herbert Hoover lost the election to FDR, who became President. Based on what we learned yesterday, how do you think FDR reacted to the unrest in the farming industry? Wait for student response. Right again. In typical FDR fashion, he took some big steps to change what was going on in farming that forever changed how our farming system works in this country. Like we talked about yesterday in our government lesson, you can see changes that resulted from the Great Depression today! Teacher flips to slide 21. When FDR arrived in office in 1932, he noticed that one of the big problems in the farming industry was over-production. At your table, I would like everyone else to also pull out an individual white board from the materials bucket. Wait for students to follow directions. I’m going to give you thirty seconds to come up with a definition for “over-production”: based on the name alone, what do you think over-production is and why would it be a problem? If you would like, you may also add a picture to draw the definition and use any synonyms you can think of. Your time starts now! Teacher gives students time to answer question. Times up! Eyes back up here please! __________, can you share your definition of “over-production” with the class? Wait for student response. It’s exactly like what it sounds isn’t it? Show your picture to the class. Wait for student response. See how she drew a pile with everyone turning their back on it? Over-production is when too much of a product is produced and there isn’t enough people to buy it. It can be any product that people buy from Legos to cars to cell phones. What do you think
happens as a result of over-production? Wait for student response. You’re right. Now the manufacturer is stuck with a bunch of things they can’t sell to make money on. Since it costs money to make the product, the person who makes the product looses money. In terms of farming, it cost money to farm: the farmer has to buy the seeds, pay any additional workers to help work the fields, buy farm equipment, etc. If a farmer can’t sell all the corn or grain he grew, he looses money. “Over-production” relates to the idea of supply and demand. “Supply” is how much of a product is available to buy, and “demand” is how many people want to buy the product. Teacher explains supply and demand by simultaneously drawing on the board as she speaks and using a gummy bear demonstration. To make this lesson relevant to you guys, let’s use gummy bears as an example of supply and demand. Table leaders, please come up to the front and collect one bag of gummy bears for your table group. Don’t open them yet though! I promise you will all get to eat some, but wait until I give the all clear. Ok, let’s say all of the sudden, a scientist discovers that gummy bears will cure and prevent you from ever getting sick again. What do you think people will do? Wait for student response. Of course! Everyone is going to go buy as many gummy bears as they possibly can! This is called “demand”: how desirable a product is. Now everyone, I need you to sit on your hands. Wait for students to follow directions. Great! Table leaders, go ahead and open your bag of gummy bears and put them all in a pile on the table, leave them there, and then sit on your hands. Wait for students to follow directions. On my count of three, everyone in your group has five seconds to grab as many disease-curing gummy bears as they possibly can. One, two, three! Teacher lets students get as many gummy bears as possible. Times up! Everyone put the gummy bears in front of you. Count how many you have and raise your hand if you have the most at your table group. Teacher waits for students to follow directions. How many do you have? Anyone have more? No? Looks like you have the most disease curing gummy bears. But there are no more to be had in the whole wide world…. The world supply of gummy bears is suddenly GONE!!! Everyone else, do you think you would be willing to pay ________ a whole lot of money if you needed more gummy bears? Why? Wait for student response. Exactly! You want the gummy bears so you would never be sick again, and you are willing to do whatever it takes to get them. That’s exactly what happens in the economy with supply and demand. Still don’t eat your gummy bears, but get out the white boards again. You may work as a group if you wish, but I want everyone to draw a graph of supply and demand with the gummy bears. Teacher simultaneously writes and labels a graph on the white board as she explains. Think back to math class and our coordinate plane. If my x-axis is the world price of gummy bears and the y-axis is my world demand of gummy bears, can you draw a line that would represent the scenario we just acted out with our gummy bears: what would happen to the price if the world demand goes up? Again, work with your table group if you need a little support, but I want everyone to come up with their own graph. When you all have a picture, I’ll have you hold them up in the air for me to see. Teacher allows students to collaborate together and calls attention to her as they finish. Ok, hold your boards up please so I can see what you came up with. Wait for student response. Great! I see most of you drew a line like this. Teacher draws on her graph on the board. When demand for a product goes up, the price will generally go up as well because more people want a limited amount of product. In this case, people wanted the limited amount of gummy bears because they cured all sickness. They are willing to pay a lot of money for it. This idea is exactly why diamond rings cost so much money. There are a limited number of diamonds in the world, so people are willing to pay a whole lot of money to buy them! Demand goes up, prices go up. Now let’s think about what happened to farmers in the Depression: the opposite. Go ahead and erase your line, but leave
your graph on the board. Teacher waits for students to comply. Because the economy crashing caused many people to have less money, they didn’t buy as much food, but farmers kept on growing the same amount of crops. So demand for food fell, but the supply stayed the same. This caused a situation of over-production of farm products! Let’s follow the same procedure. Draw the appropriate graph line for the farmers’ situation. Teacher waits for students to respond. Hold up your graphs! Great! I can see you understand that, when demand goes down, so does the price. Teacher draws the appropriate line on the board as she speaks. Before I flip to the next slide, I’m going to give you thirty seconds to talk with your table group about how the idea of supply and demand relates to our overall focus on cause and effect for this unit. Each group will take a minute to share their “nugget” of information when finished. Your time starts now! Teacher allows students to discuss. Three, two, one. Times up! Let’s start with table two since you are always in the middle. Can you share what your table discussed? How does the idea of overproduction, supply, and demand relate to our big concept of cause and effect? Wait for student response. I like that answer. So you guys are saying that supply and demand are related to overproduction; if one of these is out of balance, the other areas are affected as well. Very good. Table 1, can you share what your group discussed? Teacher will lead students through sharing their table discussions, then move into the next part of the content. Very good all of you, and you may go ahead and each have some gummy bears! Please make sure everyone gets about the same amount and eat them quietly while we continue. Now, like we did yesterday, take a minute and pretend you are President FDR and you notice this problem of over-production in the farming industry. Can I get three people to raise their hand to share how they would choose to solve the problem of over-production? Wait for student response. Those are all well-thought out plans, but can’t you see what a complicated situation FDR faced? Ready to find out how he handled the problem of over-production in agriculture? Wait for student response. Teacher ensures students are following directions before continuing to teach. FDR actually created another program as part of his alphabet soup New Deal agencies to deal with the problem of over-production in farming. Thankfully, this one’s initials are easy to remember. It’s called the Agricultural Adjustment Act, or the AAA. This law was passed in 1933, and it actually set limits on how much of a particular crop a farmer could grow. Who wants to add the AAA to our timeline? Wait for student response. ________, your hand is raised very respectfully. Will you come add the AAA to our timeline? Wait for student to follow directions and continue teaching. In order to make farmers go along with this plan, the government promised to provide a monthly check to make up for the money. Now this wasn’t a forced program, but one that a farmer could choose to sign up for. If you were a farmer, would you go along with this plan? Hold thumbs up if you think you would sign onto the AAA program? Wait for student response. Can you explain why? Wait for student response. All right, show me a thumbs-down if you wouldn’t sign up for the AAA. Wait for student response. And why wouldn’t you sign up? Wait for student response. Those are both good reasons, thank you for sharing. Well, I’ll tell you that most farmers in the Great Depression signed up for FDR’s AAA program. If a lot of farmers signed up, can someone raise their hand and predict what happened? Wait for student response. No guesses? Well I’ll let you know it’s a good outcome. As a result of the AAA program, over-production of farm crops slowed down and farmers were slowly able to pay back the loans they owed because they got government checks. So thanks to the AAA program, life for farmers got a little easier! However, it takes a while for such a big mess like the farming industry chaos to steady out, so the changes weren’t instant. Before we move onto the next part of agriculture in the Great Depression, we are going to take a quick breather to think about all the information we just took in. I want
everyone to get out a piece of scrap paper. Wait for students to respond. Great! We are going to do a “Three Minute Pause.” I’m going to give you three minutes to write down these three things. Teacher writes the three requirements on the board as she talks. First, I want you to summarize what we just learned. Then I want you to write about any connections you can make to what we have talked about so far. Does this topic or anything said so far remind you of another lesson we’ve studied or something you’ve seen in your everyday world? Lastly, I want you to write down any questions you have for me. Is there anything I can clarify? I’ll give you a warning every minute. Remember, you’ve only got three! On your mark, get set, go! Teacher waits while students write. Three, two, one, times up! Eyes on me! I can see you all took this assignment seriously. Although that seems like a little activity, I promise it’ll help all this information stick in your brains. As far as your questions go, turn and talk with your partner to see if they can’t help you answer it. I’ll give the entire class one minute. After that one minute, I’ll answer any questions you and your partner could not find the answer to. Go ahead and start. Teacher times out one minute. Ok that’s one minute! Raise your hand if your group still has an unanswered question. Wait for response. Ok, what is your question ________? Wait for student response. Fabulous question! No, FDR couldn’t force farmers into following the laws set up by the AAA. However, most farmers were in such bad shape they welcomed participation in the program, even if it meant they had to give up some of their rights as farmers. Are there any other questions? None? Ok let’s move onto the second part of agriculture during the Depression! Teacher flips to slide 22. However, another event called “The Dust Bowl” threw farmers for a loop and made life still harder for farmers! From the sound of the name alone, what does “Dust Bowl” make you think of? Wait for student response. It makes me think of really thick dust to! Let’s find out exactly what the Dust Bowl is and why it was so devastating for farmers. Teacher flips to slide 23. Now I did trick you a little bit: the Dust Bowl actually refers to both a region and an area. Remember how we pointed out where the Midwest was a few minutes ago? Well, the Dust Bowl is a specific place in the Midwest, specifically around Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska. Teacher again points out areas on the class map for students to see. We call this region the Dust Bowl, but the term also refers to what took place there. The Dust Bowl was a period of dust storms that really damaged the agriculture in these areas. Even though these storms didn’t happen because of the bad economy, they sure did hit the country at a bad time didn’t they!? However, the Dust Bowl wasn’t a totally random event. There are some key events that caused the Dust Bowl to happen. The first is a human-caused problem. Does anyone have an idea of what “resting the fields” may mean? Wait for student response. No, it doesn’t mean they took a nap! You guys probably didn’t know this, but farmers are supposed to not plant on a field every couple of years to let the soil rest. During its off year, the soil regains the nutrients that the plants’ roots pull from it so it will be fertile for the next year. Since I know you guys aren’t exactly experienced in the field of farming, let me pull out an example of exactly what I mean when I talk about soil depletion. Teacher will pull out two buckets: one full of good and the other bad soil. See how this soil is a dark, almost black, color. How does it compare to the other bucket of soil _______? What are your observations? Wait for student response. I noticed that as well. The dark soil looks almost wet, and is really thick. The other soil has lots of bumps in it and is a lighter color. Let’s take a class vote on which soil we think is the good soil vs. the bad soil. Thumbs up for bucket one being the good soil. Wait for student response. Very good! It’s not hard to see that bucket one’s soil looks a whole lot healthier than bucket two’s. You can even tell a difference when you touch it. I’ll bring the buckets around to each table group so you can feel the difference between the good and bad soils. Teacher brings the buckets around to each table
group. Isn’t that crazy how different they feel. Well, farmers before the Depression didn’t take the time to rest their fields. Instead, they just kept on planting and planting, which robbed all the nutrients from the soil. What do you think happened as a result of their bad farming techniques? Did their soil look like bucket one or bucket two? Wait for student response. Right again. Their soil became really poor and dry just like bucket two’s. Not only that, it became really loose, especially on the top portion. So if a wind were to come across a field that has poor, loose topsoil, it just blows right away. Well, that’s exactly what happened. A series of droughts, which is a period with out rain, and windstorms hit the Midwest during the Great Depression years. As you can see from the graphic on the slide, the result of poor farming practices, drought, and windstorms were terrible dust storms throughout the Midwest. Witnesses describe the dust as being so thick, you couldn’t even see through it all. Want to see some pictures of the dust storms? I know it’s likely something you guys have never experienced before. Teacher clicks through the following slides to give students a visual representation of the Dust Bowl and shows students the map and graph of the drought of the Dust Bowl region. See this map on this slide (slide 26)? Who would like to interpret the information on this graph for me? Teacher gives students a moment to think and waits for student response. ______, why don’t you come up to the board and share? What do you think this graph is showing us? Tell how you came to that conclusion. Teacher waits for student response. Exactly. This graph shows us the severity of the drought in the Midwest. The color-coding at the bottom displays how moist the soil is. How does this map and key demonstrate one of the causes of the Dust Bowl? Wait for student response. You guys are really learning a lot today! Yes, drought, or lack of rain, was one of the key factors that caused the Dust Bowl. This graph gives a visual representation of how bad the drought actually was in the summer of 1934. Teacher flips to slide 27. By now, I’m sure you realize that we are going to talk a whole lot about cause and effect with the Dust Bowl! Take a look at the slide I have projected onto the screen. So our cause, our catastrophic event, is the Dust Bowl. Now let’s look at some of the effects. Probably the saddest consequence of the Dust Bowl is the plight of migrant workers. Just based on the definition alone, can someone raise a hand to give me a possible definition for a migrant worker? Wait for student response. Very good! A migrant is someone who moves around and doesn’t stay in one place, so a migrant worker is someone who moves around looking for work. To help you remember what a migrant worker is, everyone get on there feet! Wait for students to respond. On the count of three, we are all going to migrate to a new seat together. One, two, three, go! Students and teacher migrate to a new area of the room. Ok my little migrant workers, how does it feel to be sitting in a new part of the room? Wait for student response. I’ve heard, weird, strange, and uncomfortable, all of which are great words to describe how migrant workers probably felt moving around to new places. Just think about it: because of the Dust Bowl, 60% of the residents in the Midwest had to move elsewhere to look for farm work. A lot of them moved west, especially to California, because there were a lot of farms there. Sadly though, they often times weren’t treated very well by the people when they arrived. Why do you think they may have been unfairly treated? Wait for student response. Ok, maybe it had something to do because they were from a different place, but I also want you to think about the job situation. Were there a whole lot of jobs available for people in the Depression? Wait for student response. No there weren’t! So imagine you are living in California as a farm worker and all these people from out of town migrate to your farm looking for work. You’ve already had a hard time finding a job, and now you have all this extra competition. Now can you make a prediction as to why migrant workers weren’t treated well? Wait for student response. I knew you’d get there. You’re exactly right. It’s just like supply and demand: the jobs were in short
supply and demand to be hired is high. If you’re a worker in California, you are scared that one of these new comers is going to make it harder for you to find work. Tomorrow, we are even going to learn about a book that tells us about a migrant worker family and the hardships they personally faced as they moved out west. Just like you were uncomfortable moving seats, they were even more unsettled being in a new place with unfriendly locals. You may all move back to your original seats now… I’m giving you until the count of 7! Teacher counts down as students follow directions. Now that you’ve migrated back to your seats, let’s start to wrap up for the day. While the AAA did provide some relief for these migrant worker families, it wasn’t enough to keep the situation from being extremely desperate and dangerous. Unfortunately, the Dust Bowl lasted a long time as well. In fact, the dates of the Dust Bowl follow the time of the Great Depression exactly. Most historians note the start of the Dust Bowl in 1931 and ending around 1939. So when you think of the Dust Bowl, you can easily remember that it follows the same time as the Depression! Who would like to come add the Dust Bowl to the timeline? Wait for student response. __________, would you come up and add the card? Wait for student to follow directions. Thanks… our timeline is sure starting to get full! Teacher flips to slide 27. Now we are going to keep thinking about cause and effect, but this time we are going to think about how the Great Depression changed the agricultural industry as a whole. Just like yesterday, I want you to go ahead and get out your notes sheet and it’s time to jot some information down. ___________, can you read me the cause listed at the top left column? Wait for student response. Thank you. Remember back to a few minutes ago when we talked about how the agriculture industry was on the verge of collapse… think back to these pictures we looked at and what your group looked at together. Teacher flips the PowerPoint back to slide 20 to give students a reminder of the previously taught content. See? There were farmers loosing their land and starting riots, and overproduction of crops was a big problem. Teacher flips back to slide 28. So FDR took big steps to help the agricultural industry that still affect us today. Can someone read the first bullet point for me aloud? Wait for student response. So the Agricultural Adjustment Act, or AAA, was one of those countless alphabet soup agencies. Who can tell the specific details of what it did? Wait for student response. Right on! It offered money to farmers who would let the government regulate how much of what crops they grow. This helped solve the over-production problem. Well, just like we learned about yesterday with the banking holiday, the AAA expanded the government’s power into farming as well. In the first box on your notes sheet (teacher pulls up Great Depression Unit Notes and points to the box on the note sheet), you may write either the first bullet point word for word or put what I just said into your own words, but the fact farmers’ experienced protection from the government during the Depression changed the way people farmed forever. Instead of planting whatever they wanted, the government regulation forced them to be more strategic. I’ll give you a minute to write before we move on. If it will help you remember the that the Great Depression increased government regulation in farming, you may also draw some type of picture in or below the box as well as you write down your notes. Teacher waits for all the students to finish writing before continuing. Also as a result of the Great Depression, farms slowly became company based rather than being owned by small family farmers. After you write that down in the second box on your notes sheet, discuss in your table group some predictions of why you think this shift from family farms to company farms occurred. Teacher allows students to respond. ______________, I heard your group make an interesting point. You guys think that farms became more cooperate after the Depression because the hard times forced people off their land? I think that’s definitely part of it. Like I said, many families lost their farms when they couldn’t pay back debts, so many of them
flocked to the city. Americans started becoming more urban, or living in cities, so companies started buying and managing farms to make sure there would be enough food supplied. That change from the Depression is still in effect today. Ever heard of companies like Tyson or Del Monte? Wait for student response. I know Del Monte make the peaches in the cans! That’s exactly my point. Your food no longer comes from family farms, but from corporations that run our farms today. This also goes hand and hand with the government regulations of farming introduced during the Great Depression. The government has an easier time managing a smaller number of large company farms, rather than a bunch of smaller, family owned farms. We will see in our 1950s unit that Americans continued to become more and more urban and less country. Like we just did with the last effect of the Great Depression on agriculture, let’s write this down in the other box (teacher points to corresponding box on SMART board notes) Teacher writes, “farming industry becomes company instead of family run” and allows students to copy. So to review, who can raise their hand and tell me the two ways agriculture in American was affected by the Great Depression? Wait for student response. Exactly ________! Not only did the AAA provide more protection for farmers, but farms also became more commercial rather than family owned. Now time for a tricky question that will make you use your brains: notice I didn’t mention the Dust Bowl as a direct effect of the Great Depression. In your table groups, I’m going to give you a minute to discuss why you think I didn’t include the Dust Bowl on our cause and effect charts. Your time starts now! Teacher lets students discuss their theories and walks around the room listening for insightful answers. Times up and eyes on me! Wait for student response. ________’s group, I really liked what you guys were saying. Will one of you share with the group your answer as to why I didn’t put the Dust Bowl on my cause and effect chart? Wait for student response. It’s like you just read my mind. That’s exactly why: although the Dust Bowl was certainly a challenging time for many Americans in the farming industry, the Great Depression did not directly cause it. It has it’s own set of causes and effects like the drought and poor soil rotation, but since it occurred during the Depression era, we study the Dust Bowl in this unit. Are there any questions about that little detail? Wait for student response. None! Great! Teacher flips to slide 29. We are all done learning about the effects of the Great Depression on agriculture, but get excited for tomorrow. We are going to learn about how the Great Depression changed American culture. I think you will be surprised with all the things you have heard of in tomorrow’s lesson! Go ahead and put away your notes sheet for now so we can move onto our next activity. Teacher gives students the chance to obey and moves into the practice portion of the lesson.
II. Opportunity for Practice: During the practice portion of the lesson, students will get to explore the Dust Bowl in further detail using the PBS Interactive Dust Bowl link. The teacher and students will use the grade-level laptop cart lab. When the students have finished the webquest, the teacher and students will discuss what they learned during the activity and how the decisions they made during the game affected the outcome. I think you are all going to like the next activity we do. We talked about the Dust Bowl today, but we still don’t have a very good idea of what it must have been like to live through it. Well, we are going to use the laptop lab today to find out! I will send you each by table group to go collect a laptop from the grade-level lab. When you get back to the classroom, please log in and then wait for more instructions. Teacher leads students through acquiring a laptop and logging in. Once every student is ready, the teacher will continue to give directions. Now that we are all logged in, go to our class home page and click on the link I attached under
the social studies tab. Give me the thumbs up when you are there. As students pull up the website, the teacher will also pull the site up on the SMART board. Great! Now that we are all there, we are almost ready to begin! This is an Interactive Dust Bowl activity. When you click “get started,” you will suddenly become an American living during the Dust Bowl. You will have to make a series of decisions that will affect everything that happens to you, just like in real-life. We are going to discuss what happened to each of us at the end of this activity, so if you would like to get out a scratch sheet of paper to jot down some notes during this activity, you are more than welcome to. Before I let you begin, can someone raise their hand and remind me of the rules we have for when we use the laptop lab? Wait for student response. Definitely that’s one of the most important. I do not want to see you on any other sites besides the Interactive Dust Bowl website. Also, make sure we are staying on task and paying attention to the activity. Remember, if I assign computer work, it’s because I think the activity is really fun and beneficial for you! Are there any other questions or housekeeping things we need to cover before you guys travel back in time to the Dust Bowl? Wait for student response. Ok, you guys can go ahead and get started! As students proceed through the activity, the teacher will roam the room to ensure the students stay on track, answer any questions, and remind students to jot down notes. When the class seems to be finishing the activity, teacher will give a five-minute warning, then call the students attention back to her for a discussion. All right guys eyes up here! Now that you are all finished, go ahead and close your laptop lids. Wait for students to follow directions. Let’s start our discussion by finding out where everyone went on this little journey! Raise your hand if you chose to go to Morton County, Kansas? Wait for student response. Ok, how about Texas County, Oklahoma? Wait for student response. And last but certainly not least, who went to Follett, Texas? Wait for student response. Looks like you guys went all over the Midwest. Beyond where you chose to live, each of your Dust Bowl experiences were totally unique because of the decisions you made. Since every unique choice you guys made throughout the lessons had a direct effect on your experience during this activity, I’m going to partner you up using the class name sticks. Once I give you your partners, you will tell each other the story of your journey in the Dust Bowl. As you are telling your story, I want you guys to think about questions such as (teacher writes questions on the white board as she talks): Did anyone make any decisions they regretted? Why do you regret those decisions and how would you change them? What about good decisions? What did you feel when you made those good/bad decision? Do you think your feelings were similar to the people who lived during the Dust Bowl? If you really were living in the time of the Dust Bowl, how would you have reacted? Now let’s relate our experience in the webquest to what we learned in our note taking today…. What cause the Dust Bowl? Even though no one person was responsible, which figures think received a lot of blame for the situation in the Midwest? In your lives today, do you ever see public figures taking the blame for problems that aren’t necessarily their fault? Why do we react that way? Really try and put a lot of details into your story to keep your listener interested! Are you ready to move into your partner groups? Great! Teacher pairs off students using the class name sticks and students begin telling their story. Teacher walks around the room as students work to monitor and keep students on task. When the students are finishing their stories, the teacher will end the conversations and transition into the assessment portion of the lesson. Great thinking guys! Thank you so much for taking that activity seriously and following directions on the computer so well. I think you guys now have a really strong understanding of what living in the Dust Bowl was like and what it might have been to live through that natural disaster in American history. It’s now time for me to give you your homework for the evening, so I would like each table group to go and put away
their laptops. Table group one, you may go. Teacher leads student in putting away laptops. When all the computers are put away, teacher will transition into the assessment portion of the lesson.
III. Assessment:Teacher will begin the assessment portion of the lesson by explaining the “Changes on the Farm Scrapbook Pages” sheet. The teacher will then share the rubric with the class and allow for questions. All right guys! I’m super proud of all your hard work for the day. Instead of doing a traditional quiz for your assessment, with this lesson we are going to do something a little more fun. Raise your hand if you have ever made a scrapbook before. Wait for student response. More of you than I thought! I’m glad some of you seem to enjoy making scrapbooks, because that’s exactly what you are going to do tonight! For homework, you are going to complete this “Changes on the Farm Scrapbook Pages” assignment and bring it back to class with you tomorrow. Teacher projects assignment onto the SMART board and points to the corresponding pages as she speaks. As you can see, I’ve created a template for you to make a scrapbook that shows a sort of timeline, like the one we have in our classroom, that will help you think about the changes made to the U.S. agriculture system as a result of the Great Depression. The first box is all about farming before the Depression, the second is about FDR and AAA, the third is about the effects of the Great Depression on farming, and the last covers the Dust Bowl. Each page has a place for you to draw a picture, or a “photograph” that illustrates the heading. Below the picture, I’ve included a place for you to write a caption. Can someone raise their hand and give me a definition for the word “caption”? Wait for student response. Perfect! It is a description of a picture. Each of your four pictures will need a caption that describes them. Not too hard is it? Even though I know you all can do it, let’s go over the rubric I plan to use in grading this homework assignment. Teacher flips SMART board to the “Changes on the Farm Scrapbook Pages Rubric”. As you can see, I’m grading each of the pictures on three areas: caption content, mechanics, and illustration. You can read the descriptions for yourselves, but please make sure to follow these directions as you make your scrapbooks. I know these are pretty detailed… this assignment covers everything we talked about today. If you feel the need to go back and look at the PowerPoint, remember I’ve posted it on our class site! Also, I’ll post an example after class today of this assignment in case you would like to use it as a reference. Are there any questions about this assessment before we move on today? Wait for student response. Ok! If you come up with any questions after you leave today, feel free to come in early tomorrow and I will be able to help you. However, it is due at the beginning of class tomorrow, so please make your very best attempt. I will still count points off if you didn’t make any attempt at all to finish the assignment. Go ahead and put those in you binders and we will wrap up our Great Depression lesson for the day! Teacher lets students follow directions and transitions into the closing portion of the lesson.
IV. Closure: To close the lesson, students will complete a 3-2-1 activity on notebook paper. Before we move on, we are going to use our 3-2-1 strategy so I can tell what you have learned and what I may need to review before our test. Everyone get a piece of notebook out and write your name at the top. Teacher waits for students to follow directions. You guys have all done this before, but just to review, I want you to write three things you learned today, two things you have a question about, and one topic you would like to know more about. When you are finished with your 3-2-1, go ahead and set them on my desk. Any questions? Wait for student response. All right, go ahead and get started! When students are finished, teacher will move onto the next lesson.
Materials and Resources: SMART board and computer “Hope” poem by Karen Hesse (one SMART board compatible) Great Depression Content PowerPoint presentation Individual white boards and markers (one/student) Pictures of farms during the Great Depression (one/table group) “Great Depression Unit Notes” (one sheet/student) (one SMART board compatible) “Lesson Class Photo Activity” (one photograph/table group) Gummy bears (one bag/table group) Good and bad soil examples Interactive Dust Bowl Link: http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/interactive/ Grade-level laptop lab (one laptop/student) Class name sticks “Changes on the Farm Scrapbook Pages” sheet (one/student) (one SMART board
compatible) “Changes on the Farm Scrapbook Pages Rubric” (one/student) (one SMART board
compatible) “Changes on the Farm” Scrapbook Pages (Illustrations Included) (differentiation only) “Changes on the Farm” Scrapbook Pages Rubric (Illustrations Included) (differentiation
only) notebook paper Timeline notecards: farming riots, AAA, Dust Bowl Class website link: http://jacksoncrabtreeclasswebsite.weebly.com/
Differentiation Strategies (including plans for individual learners):High-level learners: Instead of using the “Changes on the Farm Scrapbook Pages” sheet, high-level learners will be allowed to design their own scrapbook page that covers at least the same four content areas. Students may choose the medium they use to create their scrapbook page: PowerPoint, Publisher, actual scrapbook paper, etc.
Low-level learners: Instead of having to create both a description and illustration that represents the content area, teacher will provide low-level learners a semi-completed “Changes on the Farm Scrapbook Pages (Illustrations Included)” (see attached). The teacher will provide students with a picture of the content on every scrapbook page. The students will be required to write a caption and will be graded on the “Changes on the Farm Scrapbook Pages Rubric (Illustrations Included) (see attached) as opposed to the regular class rubric.
dancing outside in the drenching night with the gutters racing,with the earth puddled and pleased, with my father’s near-finished pond filling.
When the rain stopped,
my father splashed out to the barn,
and spenttwo days and two nights
cleaning dust out of his tractor,
until he got it running again.
In the dark, headlights shining,he idled toward the freshened fields, certain the grass would grow again,
certain the weeds would grow again, c
ertain the wheat would grow again too.
May 1935
Great Depression Timeline CardsLesson 3
Farming riots: dire financial problems for farmers lead to
protest and riots in the MidwestDate: early 1930s
AAA: abbreviation for Agricultural Adjustment Act; 100 Days program
that increased government regulation of farming
Date: 1933
Dust Bowl: and Dust Storm that destroyed
Lesson 3 Class Activity
Photographs
Name:________________________________________
“Changes on the Farm” Scrapbook PagesDirections: This packet includes four separate “photo” spaces each labeled with a heading. In lines under the box, write a description of the heading. Draw a picture
that represents your description in the photo box.
“Changes on the Farm” Scrapbook Pages(Illustrations Included)
Directions: This packet includes four separate “photo” spaces each labeled with a heading. In lines under the box, write a description of the heading and picture you
