Design for LearningInstructor: Laura Beth Jackson and Brittany Crabtree Grade Level: 6th gradeLesson Title: Intro to the Great Depression Date: May 15th, 2014 Curriculum 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):The students will defend their reactions to the beginning of the Great Depression by responding to a journal entry as if they were alive during at the start of the Great Depression according to a teacher-made rubric.

Learning Objective(s) stated in “kid-friendly” language:Today we are going to begin learning about a time in history known as the Great Depression. By the end of today, you will be able to write a journal entry about how you would have responded to the Great Depression if you were living back on the day it started.

Evaluation of Learning Objective(s):Students will write a journal entry in their social studies journal about their reactions to the beginning of the Great Depression. They will be given the “Great Depression Intro Journal” prompt (see attached) and be graded according to the “Great Depression Intro Journal” rubric (see attached). The rubric includes five grading criteria: content, focus, perspective, support, and organization. Students can receive a score of three, two, or one in each category for a maximum of fifteen points. The students will write from the perspective of a person in 1929 when the Great Depression began. The goal of this formative assessment is for the students to personalize the circumstances of the Great Depression and defend their reactions. They should base their responses using their knowledge of Black Tuesday and the actions of President Hoover.

Engagement:Because the goal of the “And One Thing Leads to Another” unit is for students to understand cause and effect relationships, the teacher will engage the students and activate prior knowledge by introducing the unit through discussion of modern day examples of catastrophic events with drastic results. She will begin with the event of the tornado outbreak of 2011 as the students are old enough to remember the event and still see the effects of the tornadoes today. The teacher will show the “Modern Day Catastrophic Events PowerPoint” (see attached) that includes pictures from of the tornadoes. The class will do a word splash in their social studies journals followed by a discussion on the changes that they remember and observed from the tornadoes. Good morning guys! Today we are going to begin a new social studies unit. What’s our big concept in history for the year? Wait for student response. Great! Cause and effect! For example, we talked about the concept of cause and effect in our last unit on the Roaring Twenties. Quick, everyone on your feet and demonstrate the cause of radio in the United States we talked about! Students then get up and start dancing the Charleston. Well don’t I have a

classroom full of wonderful dancers! While radio and dancing are a fun cause and effect relationship, many times more major events happen that show us cause and effect as well. Those events cause changes in multiple areas of our society and our world, even sometimes in areas you wouldn’t think that were related. Let’s start off today with a very relatable example. Three years ago in Alabama, there were some really bad storms that took place and there were many tornadoes that hit our area. How many of you can remember the tornadoes of 2011? Wait for students to respond. Yes, I can remember them very well too. It is something I will never forget… I remember being very frightened not only for me, but also all of my students. As the teacher is talking, she pulls up the “Modern Day Catastrophic Events” PowerPoint to show pictures of the tornadoes of 2011. Take a look at these pictures. What are some ways that you all remember the tornadoes affecting Alabama? Try not to only think about the environment impact, although that was certainly huge. Think about other ways you and your family were affected. Did you go back to school? Did you dad go back to work? What about grocery shopping… I wasn’t able to find bread at any store for two days because the trucks couldn’t get through all the storm damage! To help you organize your ideas, we are going to do a word splash activity really quickly. While I know you have all done word splashes before, let’s go over the directions again really quickly. Go ahead and get out your social studies journals. Wait for students to follow directions. Flip to the first page of your Great Depression section. In the center of the page, write “2011 Tornados.” Wait for student to follow directions. Now that your topic is ready, you will take the next two minutes to write any word that comes to your mind when you think about the tornados. It can be anything and everything… just what jumps in the forefront of your mind. When everyone is finished, we will use the word splashes to guide our discussion. As you guys write your word splashes, I’m going to make my own word splash on the board as well. If you would like, you may also use your markers to add some color to your word splashes. Are there any questions? Wait for student response. Great! You may start on my count of three. One, two, three! Teacher ensures students are on task while she makes an example word splash on the board. Three, two, one… times up! Everyone hold up your word splashes. Wait for student response. Wow, you all remember a lot about the effects of the tornadoes and chose some pretty powerful adjectives. To give everyone a chance to share, how about we go around the room and everyone will share their “favorite” word on their word splash. I’ll start. The word that sticks out most to me is “community.” After the tornados, the community and different organizations came together to help those in need. Table one, would you start our sharing time? Wait for student response. “Damage”, that’s a great word. Not only did the tornados cause a lot of damage in our area, but also to people’s emotions as well. Teacher leads the rest of the students to share their word splashes. Thanks so much for being so personal and sharing your word splashes with us. All of the words you guys talked about are the results, or effects, of the tornadoes. The tornadoes were the cause that affected the lives of so many people. The teacher will continue this conversation about the concept of cause and effect by discussing more modern day examples and showing pictures of those examples on a slide show. Just to make sure we are all thinking about cause and effect, let’s talk about a couple of other modern day examples of how catastrophic events cause various changes in our society. Hurricane Katrina was another weather related event that affected many people. You guys are a little young to remember, but does anyone know about some of the effects of Hurricane Katrina? Wait for students to respond. Great, a few of you do. Like ________ said, Hurricane Katrina took place in the year 2005. Even though Hurricane Katrina didn’t directly affect you like the tornadoes, what do you think are some effects of Hurricane Katrina? Wait for students to respond. Yes, because it was a

weather event, Hurricane Katrina also destroyed lots of property and many people lost their homes. Also like in the tornadoes, you are right in saying that the hurricane caused the community to come together again and help those in need. Even national agencies such as the Red Cross worked to help those people who were affected by the hurricane. Ok, I have one more event that greatly changed the lives of Americans and the American government. This event took place on September 11, 2001. Although I know you weren’t alive, I bet someone can tell me what happened on that day? Wait for student response. Yes, thank you _________. On September 11, the Twin Towers, two very tall buildings in New York City, were hit by planes as a result of a terrorist attack. To be honest with you, this was one of the worst days in my life and still affects all of use today. What are some effects caused by this event? I’ll give you one example that affected me when I flew to Mexico for spring break. Before September 11, you didn’t have to go through as much airport security. In response to the hijacked planes, the government maximized security. This spring break, I almost missed my flight because the TSA security lines were so incredibly long! What are some other examples of how September 11 affects our lives today? Wait for student response. Great observations class! Sadly, this event did result in the loss of many lives and great destruction in the city of New York. It also caused changes in the way the American government handles security and the threat of terrorism in government laws. And I didn’t even think of ______’s response, but your mom is right that gas prices in the United States increased following 9/11. This happened because many oil companies are based in Middle East, who raised the cost of gas that America buys from them. Since this event, the price of gas has remained high in the United States. I hope that as a result of our discussion and word splash, you realize that many catastrophic events have major effects on many all areas in our society… even if they may not be directly related. Like we have studied all year, most all of history follows the same cause and effect relationship. Throughout this week we are going to continue our running discussion of cause and effect during an event called the Great Depression, our next history unit. By the end of our little introduction today, we are going to learn about the causes and effects of the Great Depression. You will get to pretend you were living on the day the Depression started write a journal entry about how you would have responded. Let’s go ahead and dive on in! Teacher transitions into teaching portion. Learning Design:

I. Teaching: To teach the basic content of the lesson, the teacher will use the “Great Depression Content” PowerPoint. One of the main events that will occur during this lesson is the introduction of the class’ timeline that includes events and vocabulary definitions. The students will be able to interact with the information throughout the entire unit by placing important events and key vocabulary words on a classroom timeline. The teacher will emphasize the idea of the Great Depression as an event that caused many lasting effects in America to prepare students for future lessons. Ok class, as I mentioned today we are going to start our new history unit on by learning about the Great Depression. I’ll give you a little hint for the week: the Great Depression is our catastrophic event, like the tornados and September 11, for the week. Today we are just going to focus on the basics of the Great Depression and why it took place, but the rest of the week we will talk about its effects. I have a PowerPoint that I am going to use today and during this week as we discuss our content. We are going to take notes as a class, but I will also post this week’s PowerPoint on our class webpage for you to refer to when you are studying for our test at the

end of the unit. Has anyone heard of the Great Depression before? As she is speaking, teacher pulls up the Great Depression Content PowerPoint to slide three. Give me a thumbs up if you have. Wait for student response. Ok, so I see that some of us have heard of the Great Depression and some of us haven’t. That is perfectly fine because we are going to learn all about it this week. Teacher flips to slide 3. Take a look at the “what” bullet point on our slide. Who would like to read this aloud? Wait for student to read. Thank you. The Great Depression was a time of economic, or financial, crisis in the United States. During this time many people did not have jobs and businesses failed and had to close down. Although we are going to focus on the Great Depression’s effects in America, it also made an impact in other areas around the world as well. In a lot of ways, it was a global chain of cause and effect! Now let’s talk about when the Great Depression took place. We know it was a long time ago, but I think we are ready for the exact timeframe. Take a look up at our class time line. ________, what is the most recent event we posted on our timeline? Wait for student response. Bingo! The Roaring Twenties, which occurred throughout the 1920s decade. Just to make sure we are all on the same page, everyone hold up on his/her fingers on how many years are in a decade. Wait for student response. I’m glad I see so many tens! So the Roaring Twenties refers to most of the 1920s decade. The Great Depression actually begins at the end of the 1920s decade, in 1929, and lasts all the way until the beginning of World War II in the 1940s decade. Using your wonderfully strong math skills, who can raise their hand and tell what decade the Great Depression must occur in from what I just told you? Wait for student response. Exactly! When you think about the Great Depression, I want you to associate it with the 1930s decade. That will help you keep your history facts in order. Take a look at our classroom timeline that we’ve been building this year and see where this would fit in. Everyone point up to where it’ll be on the timeline. Wait for student response. Great! I have a Great Depression heading card for us to add with the approximate dates of the Depression and a basic definition on it. ______, would you please come up to the board and hang this in the right spot on our timeline? It’s starting to get really full with history events! Student comes and hangs the Great Depression card on the timeline following the Roaring Twenties section. Thank you. We are going to continue hanging key words and events on our timeline during today’s lesson and throughout the entire week, just like we’ve been doing all year. Onto the next bullet point on our slide, let’s talk about all the reasons why the Great Depression happened. Before we talk about these, what do you notice about this bullet point? No ideas? I’ll give you a hint: did I list one or more than one cause of the Great Depression? Wait for student response. Exactly! Like our other history events this year, multiple things caused the Depression. I listed a few of the reasons on the PowerPoint. For example, high taxes over time discouraged companies to trade with other countries. Why would taxes make companies not want to trade and exchange with other countries? Wait for student response. No ideas? Ok, imagine you are a company. Would you want to pay extra in tax money just to ship things outside of the country? Wait for student response. Of course not! That’s why the high taxes weren’t good for the economy then. Also, remember how we talked credit in our Roaring Twenties unit? Wait for student response. Right! Credit is when you borrow money to make a purchase and pay it back the bank over time. Buying on credit allowed people in the 1920s to buy a lot of new material products that they hadn’t in the past. However, when you don’t pay back what you borrowed, the bank will repossess, or take back, what you bought. Although the twenties decade was a time of prosperity, by the end o the decade, many people found themselves with lots of stuff bought on credit, but no way to pay it all back. It’s here we see another cause and effect relationship in the causes of the Great Depression! What do you think happened when people

started to realize that they couldn’t pay back all the banks? Do you think they continued to buy more fancy stuff like cars and clothes? Wait for student response. No! They had to start reducing their spending. However, the companies that made the cars and clothes continued to produce a lot of products that they couldn’t sell anymore. Is that good for a business to have unsellable merchandise? Wait for student response. It’s not! As you can see, people buying on credit led to less spending which led to business failure… it’s the perfect storm for an economic downturn! Finally, our last cause of the Great Depression has to do with companies. Bullet point number two says, “over-valuing of stocks.” Now, I’ll bet the word “stock” is new to most of you, but it’s essential that you understand what stock is… it’s mentioned throughout any study of the Great Depression! To help you remember this word, we are going to do a quick little graphic organizer together on the board. Teacher pulls up the “Stock Definition Sheet” (see attached) onto the SMART board. Because this is such an important word, we are going to fill out this sheet together to make sure we have a solid definition for the word “stock.” When it’s finished, you can put it in your social studies notebooks for later reference. Table leaders, would you come up to front and grab a copy of the stock definition sheet I put up on the board. They are on the front tables. Wait for students to follow directions. Great! Thanks table leaders! Let’s start with the definition box. Sometimes, we use context clues to find the meaning of words. This time however, we need an exact definition to fully understand a lot of parts in our unit, so we are going to use the dictionary. __________, would you mind grabbing a dictionary for us and looking up the word “stock”? While he’s doing that, have any of you ever heard of a stock before? Wait for student response. What do you think it means? Wait for student response. Ok, not too far off. It definitely has to do with money, but let’s see what the dictionary says. Have you found the word stock for us yet? Wait for student response. Great! Go ahead and read it aloud for us will you? Student reads the definition aloud. Thank you for being our class researcher for the day. Like _______ said, the dictionary defines “stock” as portion of a company that people can buy and sell. I know that’s might be hard to understand, but let’s write that on the notes sheet in the definition box together first before we discuss it further. Like I said, it’s important for you to know the exact “dictionary definition” for this word. Teacher writes, “stock is a portion of a company” on the SMART board as students write on their personal note sheets. When students are finished writing, the teacher will continue to teach. Basically, you can buy “portions” of a company, and we call it stock. When you buy a stock, the company will use your money to try and expand its business. When the company is extremely profitable and making a lot money, we say the stock’s value has gone up. People will then sell their stock if it goes up to make money. For example, if a person bought a stock for $5 but sells it for $10, how much money did that person make on their stock? Hold up your fingers with your answer. Wait for student response. Right! You would make $5! So the stock market can be a great way to make money. However, the reverse is true as well. If the company is not doing well, we say the stock is going down. People will loose money if they try and sell a stock for less than they paid for it. Are there any questions about what exactly “stock” is before we move onto our other boxes? Wait for student response. Great question! _______ asked how you buy stock. It’s actually pretty easy. There are a couple different ways you can buy stock, but many people use a stockbroker. Stockbrokers are people trained to help people buy stocks and hopefully make smart decisions when they are buying and selling their stocks. Are there any more questions? Wait for student response. Let’s move onto the example box on our note sheet then. Has anyone ever heard of an example of a stock, maybe one that your parents own, that we can write in the example box? Wait for student response. I’ve heard of Apple stock too! Do you think you may want to buy Apple stock? Wait for student

response. Ok, seems like some people would, but others of you look unsure. _________, why do you look hesitant to buy Apple stock? Wait for student response. Interesting, so you are worried if the stock is going down right now? You want to make money so we’ve got to check it first! Thankfully, looking up the value of stocks is super easy on the Internet. We can pull up the value using several different websites, but I like to just use my iPhone because it’s so easy and quick. Teacher pulls out iPhone, turns on mirror function to display the information on the SMART board, and pulls up Apple stock information. What do you notice about the Apple stock, which is represented by the abbreviation APPL, at this moment? Wait for student response. Right, it is in a red box with a minus sign. Any guesses to what that might mean? Wait for student response. Very good! That means the stock’s value has fallen. Is the company making money if the stock has fallen? Wait for student response. Exactly right, it means the company’s business isn’t doing quite as well. In fact, it looks like Apple stock has fallen a little bit. The larger the number in that red box, the more the stock’s value has fallen. Now that we have all this information, give me a thumbs up or a thumbs down if you think you would like to buy Apple stock? Wait for student response. I think I agree with the thumbs down people. I want to buy stock, or part of a company, only in corporations that seem to be increasing in value so I can make money. Even though Apple may not be doing the best right now, let’s still use this stock as our example on our notes sheet since you guys are all so familiar with it. Teacher puts the phone away and flips the SMART board back to the “Stock Definition Sheet.” Teacher points to the corresponding boxes as she is talking. I want everyone to write the stock abbreviation APPL in the example box, but then you can write whatever else you would like to help you remember an example of stock. I think I’m going to write about the little red and green boxes we saw when we looked up the stock values on the iPhone. That will help me remember that stocks’ values fall and rise. Go ahead and get started! As the students are writing, the teacher will simultaneously write on the board in the example box. Do we feel like we are getting a better understanding of stocks by filling out this sheet? Wait for student response. Great! One last thing before we continue our opening on the Great Depression Unit: we are going to draw pictures of stock in our last box! Now I know you can’t draw an exact picture of “stock”, but I want you to draw a picture that represents, or will help you remember, what stock is. I think I’m going to draw a company building and circle a small piece of it. This will help me remember that stock is small piece of a company that people can buy. However, you can draw any picture you think will best help you remember the definition. I’ll give you three minutes to complete your pictures. When you are finished, fold your paper hamburger style and use your glue sticks to glue them into the Great Depression section of your social studies notebooks. Is everyone’s social studies notebook in your desk and do you have any questions? Wait for student response. Great! Remember, you only have three minutes! On your mark, get set, draw! Teacher gives students time to draw their pictures and ensures that all students are staying on task. Teacher will give a one minute warning and regain students’ attention by flipping the lights. I saw some really good drawings guys. Make sure that your social studies notebooks are put back away in your desks for now, but we will be using them again shortly! So by now, we should have a really strong understanding of what a “stock” is. Teacher pulls up slide 3 on the Great Depression Content PowerPoint. Would someone like to explain the last cause of the Great Depression on bullet point three? Wait for student response. You are so right! It seems as though defining stock really helped you understand what happened to cause the Great Depression. Yes, over-valuing stock means that people said their stock was worth more than it actually was. Over time, this leads to economic problems because difference in what people are paying for stock and how much money the company is actually making.

These reasons I just mentioned on the PowerPoint all play a part in why the Great Depression began. With all that background information, I think we are ready to talk about the day the Great Depression started… it was a crazy day that’s for sure! Historians call the day that the Great Depression began Black Tuesday. Specifically, this day took place on October 29, 1929. Before we discuss Black Tuesday any further, can I get a volunteer to come hang up our Black Tuesday card on the timeline so you will have a visual of the day? Wait for student response. Thank you _____ come on up here! As student walks up, teacher says: Since Black Tuesday is the start of the Great Depression, where do you think it will hang on our timeline? Wait for class response. Exactly! It goes up right beside our Great Depression card at the end of the Roaring Twenties. The student hangs up the Black Tuesday card. Thanks! To understand Black Tuesday, you have to understand what the Stock Market is. _______, can you remind us of the definition of a stock? Wait for student response. Right! It’s the portion of a company that people can buy. The Stock Market is the place that the stockbrokers and other people monitor and trade a lot of thes stocks. On Black Tuesday in 1929, the Stock Market “crashed.” With your elbow partner, I want you to answer this question in our turn-and-talk style: what do you think I mean when I say the Stock Market “crashed?” Teacher roams the room as students discuss listening for strong answers and any misconceptions. One, two, three eyes on me! I heard lots of good, and a few silly, ideas! _______, you had an interesting comment. Would you mind sharing what you and your partner talked about? What did you say the word “crash” meant? Wait for student response. Very observant! Everyone remember how we said that people were over-valuing their stocks? These two guessed that the Stock Market “crashed” because companies and people finally realized their mistake. While it’s a little more complicated, that’s the basic idea of what happened on Black Tuesday. As people started to realize that their stocks were not worth as much as they originally believed, they panicked and everyone tried to sell the stock. They would sell them at very cheap prices just to get rid of them because they were not sure what was happening. Since there were so many people selling their stocks and no one was buying new stocks, what do you think happened? Wait for student response. Yup! Companies’ stock started to become worthless because there were no buyers, and people who owned a lot of stocks lost all of their money very quickly. Since the Stock Market had big role in causing the Great Depression, it is an important vocabulary word for us to know and I want us to add it to our timeline. ________ will you please come hang our stock market card on our timeline after Black Tuesday? This card has our definition of the stock market on it in case anyone needs a refresher later. The student comes forward and hangs the card on the timeline as the teacher flips to slide 5 and shows pictures of Black Tuesday. Here are a few pictures from Black Tuesday. First on our slide is a graph of gains and losses on the Stock Market. Would someone like to use their knowledge of graphs to interpret this one for the class? Wait for student response. Thumbs up if you agree with _______’s analysis of this graph. Wait for student response. Great! You are all right to agree… this graph does show that stock’s values fell dramatically on Black Tuesday! See how our graph reading skills are important even in our non-math subjects? The next picture on the slide shows a newspaper headline from Brooklyn, New York about the stock market crash. News of the crash spread quickly thanks to media like news papers and radio… How do you think that contributed to the panic? Jump up in the sky once if you think all the media coverage increased people’s panic that the stock market had crashed? Wait for student response. Wow! You all jumped up! Can someone raise their hand and defend why you believe that media added to the panic on Black Tuesday? Wait for student response. So you jumped because you think that

people were spreading rumors? When they heard about the stock market crash on the radio or in a newspaper, they immediately told their friends, who told their friends, who told their friends, etc. I think there is something to your answer. Ever heard the phrase, “spread like wildfire?” Wait for student response. Well that phrase, which means news spreads quickly, is exactly what happened. The media coverage of Black Tuesday caused more people the news and rush to tell everyone they could. Newspaper headings like these are a prime example of the media coverage! Teacher flips to slide 6. As we always talk about cause and effect in our history studies, let’s take a minute to do a quick pause and recap at all the effects that Black Tuesday itself had on the beginning of the Great Depression. Instead of me just telling you all the effects that Black Tuesday had to cause the Great Depression however, you are going to tell each other! We are going to play a little review game I like to call “Around the World.” Before I explain the game to you, we are going to set up the room so we can play. Tables three and four, would you mind moving your desks to the side of the room as quickly as possible? Teacher points to corresponding areas as she speaks. Thank you for doing that so quickly. Now I need all my table three and four friends to come into the center floor and take a seat. Wait for students to follow directions. Ok, now I need tables one and two to come and form a circle around the group in the middle. You have exactly six seconds to follow my directions! Six, five, four, three, two, one! Now that we are all circled up, I want the people sitting on the floor to partner up with someone standing up; standing people stay in the circle formation though! When everyone on the inside part of the circle has a partner, I want you guys to form another circle on the inside and face your partner. Wait for students to follow directions. Way to listen guys! Now that we have our two circles, we are ready to play “Around the World.” When I say go, I’ll start some soft music from the 1930s, and you and your partner will discuss what you know about the effects of Black Tuesday. So for example, if I tell you to discuss cats, you and your partner will talk about what you know about cats for thirty seconds. Of course, your topics will actually be related to the effects of Black Tuesday. Let me give you a quick hint: I’m going to leave the slide projected on the SMART board in case you need to refer to it during your conversations! Make sure you are talking about the effects of Black Tuesday though, because I’ll be walking around the room to make sure you are all on task! When time is up, I’ll pause the music. When you hear the music stop playing, people in the middle will switch their partners. The music will start again and be your cue to begin a new conversation with your new partner. Before we start, I’m going to do a quick demonstration of the right and wrong way to switch partners for my friends in the middle. First off, I’ll show you the wrong way. Teacher runs, allowing arms to flail and being extremely noisy. Teacher stops to address the class. Of course that is not how we will switch partners! That kind of behavior is inappropriate, and I may accidently hurt someone if I act that way. Can someone raise their hand and offer me some suggestions so I will switch partners the right way? Wait for student response. Excellent suggestions! I agree: there should be only walking feet when we are changing partners, and I also don’t think we will need a lot of extra noise as well. We are big sixth graders after all, so I’m sure you can all switch partners quietly and calmly. Now that’s all covered, are there any questions about what we are going to do? Wait for student response. None? Great! You and your partner have thirty seconds to discuss the effects of Black Tuesday. On your mark, get set, go! Teacher turns on the “1930s Pandora station” from her computer and monitors students as she walks around the room. At the end of thirty seconds, the teacher will pause the music and allow the students to switch partners. As students are switching, the teacher must ensure they are following classroom safety rules. Teacher will lead students through a few rounds of “Around the World” before recalling their attention. I heard some

wonderful discussions guys! Everyone take a seat in the empty area in front of the SMART board and let’s do a quick recap. Who would like to raise their hand and share something they talked about with their partner? Wait for student response. Excellent! You’re right, stocks became worthless, which hurt many companies and led to many people not having jobs. I like how you were able to relate your discussion to our big idea of cause and effect! As you can see on the PowerPoint, not having a job is also called unemployment. Teacher points as she talks. Unemployment continued to rise as the Great Depression continued and reached its peak at 25% in 1933. That means that 25% of Americans did not have a job! Anyone else want to share something from a discussion they had? Wait for student response. Excellent! We also talked about how Black Tuesday caused people to panic. Take a look at the picture on the slide. When people panicked about the crash of the Stock Market, many of them also rushed to banks to withdrawal their money and protect it. In a time of such confusion with all the Stock Market drama, many Americans looked to the president for guidance and leadership in this scary situation. Teacher flips to slide seven. The president at the beginning of the Great Depression was man named Herbert Hoover. Herbert Hoover was the 31st president of the United States and he was a millionaire. He was elected in 1928. Take a look at our timeline. If Hoover was elected president in 1928, how long had he been president before Black Tuesday? Wait for student response. Right! He had only been president for one year before the Great Depression began on Black Tuesday in 1929. Since Hoover was president when the Great Depression started, he faced many challenges that no other president had faced before. However, he did not handle the Black Tuesday catastrophe like the majority of the American people thought he should have. Hoover did not think that the government needed to intervene, or get involved, when the Stock Market crashed. President Hoover believed that the Great Depression was a problem that was limited to the economy and that the government had no right to get involved with people and companies’ money. Hoover believed in an idea we call “Rugged Individualism”. The teacher will write the word individualism on the SMART board. Instead of using the dictionary to define “individualism” like we did with the word “stock”, let’s look at the word itself and see if we can construct a meaning. Does anyone see a word they already know in this word? Wait for student response. Great! _______ sees the word “individual” within “individualism.” Now for an easier question, what does “individual” mean? Wait for student response. Of course, individual means a single person. It’s the opposite of a group. We can use this definition we already know helps us better understand what Hoover’s ideal of “rugged individualism” means. Just like the word “individual” means a single person, “rugged individualism is the idea that everyone should be able to help themselves out without aid. In your table groups, take a minute to discuss why President Hoover’s emphasis on why you think rugged individualism affected people during the Great Depression. As students discuss, teacher walks around the room to listen for strong answers. One, two, three, eyes on me! While all of you had some good things to say, I heard _____________’s group give a really good answer. Does one of you mind sharing what your group talked about with the rest of us? Wait for student response. Well done! Since this was a major belief for Hoover, he did not have the government act to help the people in the first few years of the Great Depression. How do you think people felt when Hoover didn’t unite the government to help? Make a face that shows how you think people would feel. Wait for student response. Great angry faces… I’m almost of little frightened! You are right though. Because of the lack of government help, people who became poor and homeless people because of unemployment during the Depression grew extremely frustrated with Hoover. In fact, they even created a new name to call the tent cities in which they lived: Hoovervilles! While it’s very dark

humor, the Hoovervilles were a terrible place to live and some were even dangerous. Even though he wasn’t very popular, President Hoover’s inaction caused a lot of anger and frustration at the beginning of the Great Depression. Since he was an important figure, do you think he deserves a place on our history timeline? Wait for student response. I agree! Can I have one more volunteer to add Herbert Hoover to our timeline? Wait for student response. Thank you _________. As student is hanging card, teacher says: On our Herbert Hoover card, we have the dates Hoover was president along with the definition for rugged individualism. Before we move onto our next activity, let’s discuss the effects that Herbert Hoover’s actions had just like we discussed the effects of Black Tuesday. The teacher flips to slide 8. So we established that Hoover didn’t lead the government to take much action to end the Depression or help people who were suffering because of unemployment. What belief did Hoover hold that caused him to not take strong action to stop the Depression? Wait for student response. Right… it’s known as rugged individualism. People who hold this belief expect for individuals to take care of their own problems. We can see here an example of how even our personal beliefs have effects on other people! The next bullet point is another cause and effect example. Remember how you all showed me your angry faces earlier? Americans grew angrier and angrier at Hoover and the government. They were desperate but felt ignored because of the inaction. This was just one terrible cycle we are going to keep on learning about for the next few days! The teacher flips to slide 9. We are done for now, but tomorrow we are going to move to the year of 1932 at the end of Hoover’s presidency. We will learn about how Americans frustrations and the unemployment problems caused by the Great Depression forever shaped our government. Get ready… some big changes are coming! Teacher will transition into practice portion of the lesson.

II. Opportunity for Practice: For the practice portion of the lesson, the students will work in table groups. Each group will be given a “Great Depression Character” card (see attached) that describes a person that might have been living during the Great Depression. The descriptions on the card are as follows: recently unemployed father, a business owner who heavily invested in the stock market, a member of Herbert Hoover’s presidential cabinet, and a teenager trying to find a job. The students will work together in their groups to make a poster that includes the description of the person they were given and how the beginning of the Great Depression would have specifically affected that person. The “Great Depression Character Directions” sheet (see attached) will be displayed on the SMART board during the activity. Ok class, now that we have the basics of the Great Depression down, we are going to do an activity at your table groups on to what we discussed today. Before I let you start, I’ll put up the directions on the SMART board and we will go through them as a group. I’ll keep them up there for you to refer to as you work. The teacher puts the directions on the SMART board. I am going to give each table group a card with a description of a person on it. Each table will get a different person. Teacher holds up examples of the “Great Depression Character” cards as she explains. This person will be either an unemployed father, a business owner who invested heavily in the Stock Market, a member of Hoover’s cabinet, or a teenager trying to find a job at the start of the Depression. All of these are example of someone that could have been living during the time of the Great Depression. Your job as a table group will be to think about how the Great Depression would have affected the lives of your assigned person. Put yourself in their shoes: what do you think they would they think, say, and feel about the chaos and hardships of the Depression? You will work as a table group and create a poster about the person on your character card. Your poster should include

the description of your person, how the Great Depression would have affected your person, and what your person’s reaction might have been to the Great Depression. Feel free to include visuals on your poster… the prettier and more visually appealing the better! I will go ahead and pass out a description card and poster to each table group. While I’m doing the, I would like the table leaders to gather supplies your table might need for your posters: markers, scissors, glue, etc. Once you get all of your supplies you may begin working. I know this won’t be a problem because you guys have so much self-control, but I need you guys to watch your volume as you work so we don’t disturb other classes. If I have to give the class three strikes for volume, I’ll have to take away three minutes of talking during your lunch period, which is no fun at all! When everyone is finished with their posters, each group will have an opportunity to share the posters with the class. Are there any questions before we begin working? Wait for student response. Excellent question _____! I have no problem with bullet points for the different sections on your poster, just as long as the reader is fully able to understand the message of the poster. Any other questions? None? Ok, I’ll give you all fifteen minutes to work so go ahead and start! As students work, the teacher will walk around the room to ensure that students are following directions, staying on task, and answer any questions. The teacher will provide a five-minute warning and then lead the cleanup and presenting process. The teacher will regain students’ attention with a quick flip of the lights. Great work guys! You are all going to be impressed with your classmates’ work. To decide who goes first, I’ll use our class name sticks. If the name I pull out of the jar is in your group, you will present first. Teacher pulls out a name from the jar. Looks like ________’s group is the lucky winner! Come on up here and start off our share time. When you present, tell us which card you go and explain how the Great Depression affected them and their possible reaction. Also make sure you speak up so we can all hear about your wonderful work. Get started whenever you are ready! Teacher will lead all the table groups through sharing their posters. As students are sharing, the teacher will formatively assess students’ understanding of how the beginning events of the Great Depression (Black Tuesday and Herbert Hoover’s inaction) affected different groups of Americans. The teacher will ask groups questions such as: “Why do you think your person would be frustrated? Are there feelings justifiable? How does your character poster compare to ________’s? What are the similarities and differences? What do you think the primary cause of these reactions is? Once all the groups have presented, the teacher will transition into the assessment portion of the lesson. Thank you so much for sharing everyone. I really enjoyed seeing you all use your creative abilities to place yourselves in the shoes of someone in the Great Depression. I’ll hang these posters above our timeline so we can refer to them through the week as a reminder of the effects of the Great Depression on all different groups of American people. Now, it’s finally time to get your social studies journals back out. To wrap up for the day, I have a quick journal entry for each of you to do!

III. Assessment: For the assessment portion of the lesson, the students will complete a journal entry in their social studies journal from the “Great Depression Intro Journal” (see attached). The students will write from the perspective from a person living in the Great Depression in light of the event of Black Tuesday and the actions of Herbert Hoover. After explaining their perspective, students also must defend their reactions. The goal of this formative assessment is for the students to place themselves in the circumstance of this event and write about how they would have responded and why. I am so proud of the work you all did on your posters. You all shared great

information! Now we are going to do a journal entry in our social studies journal so I can see how much you learned today! The teacher pulls up the “Great Depression Intro Journal” prompt on the SMART board. For this journal, you are going to write as if you were living when the Great Depression began. You will write about what your reaction to the starting events of Great Depression would have been. Be sure to include how Black Tuesday and the actions of Herbert Hoover would have affected you and how you would have reacted! The second part of this journal is for you to defend your reactions. I want to know why you think you would feel a certain way. I am going to be using a rubric to grade your journal entries, so I would like to go over it with you before you begin writing. The teacher flips to the “Great Depression Journal Intro” rubric on the SMART board. The rubric covers five sections: content, focus, perspective, support, and organization. For content, make sure you include accurate information about Black Tuesday, the Stock Market, and other things we talked about today. Feel free to look up to the timeline if you need a quick reminder… that’s what it’s there for. The next two categories are focus and perspective. To receive a top score in the focus category, make sure your journal entry doesn’t cover unnecessary topics. Be direct! For perspective, remember: you are in the 1930s! Make sure your journal entry sounds like it is being written at the beginning of the Great Depression. Don’t fall into using the past tense by mistake! The support category is there just to remind you to defend your feelings… make sure you provide reasons so the reader of your journal entry knows why you feel happy, sad, frustrated, scared, etc. Finally, the organization category on this rubric is like any other piece of writing you do at school. The journal entry should flow nicely and not leave the reader confused. I would definitely suggest proof reading it before hand to get full points in this category! Teacher points to corresponding sections on rubric as she explains. I will be looking for each of these things in your journal entry. I’ll leave this rubric along with the journal prompt up on the SMART board so you can refer to it as you write. Once you finish writing your journal entry, place it in the “completed work basket” and wait silently at your desk. When everyone is finished, we are going to do one more activity to wrap up today’s social studies lesson. You may go ahead and begin! Teacher monitors students as they work and is available to answer questions. When the entire class has finished, she will transition students into the closing activity.

IV. Closure: For the closing activity, the class will do a domino activity that will re-emphasizes the concept of cause and effect. For the activity, the teacher will give each table group a set of dominoes. The students will be able to line the dominoes up in any way they would like on their tables. They will then knock one of the dominoes over so that all of the other dominoes will fall as well. The teacher will use this quick domino activity as a way to emphasize the central unit concept of cause and effect that was introduced at the beginning of this lesson. She will point out again how the Great Depression is a cause that resulted in many effects and changes in America and she will inform the students that they will be learning about some of those effects in the following days. The teacher will encourage the students to remember the dominoes as they learn about the effects of the Great Depression. Class, before we end our social studies lesson for today, I want us to do one more quick, and fun activity! This activity relates to our main unit concept of cause and effect. As you do this activity, I want you to be thinking about how it relates to cause and effect so you can discuss it afterward. I am going to give each table group a set of dominoes. You may work together to set the dominoes up in any way you like. Once you line up the dominoes, knock one of them over and see what happens. You may set up as many as you like, but make

sure when I call time you are respectful and follow my directions. Teacher allows students to set up and knock down their dominoes. The teacher will regain students’ attention with a quick flip of the lights Ok guys, please clean up your dominoes and let’s talk about that activity. Table leaders, take them up and place them on my desk when all the dominoes are back in the box. Students clean up their dominoes and return to their seats. If you completed the activity correctly, what happened when you knocked over one of your dominoes? Wait for student response. That’s right. All of the following dominoes fell as well. So any ideas on how this relates to cause and effect with the Great Depression? Wait for student responses. Great thinking! Just as one domino caused all of the other ones to fall down, one event like the Great Depression can cause many effects on other areas of life as well. Throughout this week, we are going to continue to talk about the concept of cause and effect because of the Great Depression. This is a great illustration to keep in mind when thinking about cause and effect. But for now, it’s time to move onto our next lesson. Teacher transitions class to next lesson.

Materials and Resources: Social Studies Journal (one/student) SMART board and computer Modern Day Catastrophic Events PowerPoint “Stock Definition Sheet” (one/student) (one SMART board compatible) “Great Depression Content” PowerPoint (one SMART board compatible) Class set of Webster Children’s Dictionaries iPhone with mirror function 1930s Pandora station “Great Depression Character” cards (one card/table group) “Great Depression Character Directions” sheet (one SMART board compatible) “Great Depression Intro Journal” Prompt (one SMART board compatible) “Great Depression Intro Journal” Rubric (one SMART board compatible) Poster board (one/table group) Markers (one pack/student) Craft supplies: glue, scissors, construction paper, etc. (class supply) Class name sticks Dominoes (one set/table group) Classroom timeline materials: clothes pins Timeline notecards: Great Depression, Black Tuesday, stock market, Herbert Hoover Great Depression Cubing Activities (high-level learners only) Great Depression Intro Journal Key Words list (low-level learners only)

Differentiation Strategies (including plans for individual learners):-High-Level Learners: In addition to completing the journal entry, students will participate in a cubing activity. They will be given the “Great Depression Cubing Activities” cube (see attached) with the following writing prompts and activities:

1. Describe-Describe the event of Black Tuesday, including as many details as possible.2. Compare-Compare and Contrast what life was like during the Roaring 20s and what life

was like when the Great Depression began.3. Associate-Use free association to list things that come to mind when you think about

Herbert Hoover.

4. Analyze-Analyze the relationship of cause and effect in one modern day catastrophic event in great detail.

5. Apply-Apply what you have learned about the Great Depression by explaining how the Great Depression would have effected everyday life.

6. Defend-Argue whether or not you agree with Herbert Hoover’s reaction to the Great Depression. Include evidence to support your answer.

Each of these activities builds a level on Bloom’s taxonomy. Students will choose to complete either the odd or even number activities. Students will be expected to turn these activities into the teacher by the unit test date.

-Low Level Learners: If students do not provide proficient journal responses, they will meet with the teacher to review what the Great Depression is and how it began during a mini lesson. Then the students will be given the opportunity to rewrite the journal entry. To scaffold their assessment, student will be given the “Great Depression Intro Journal Key Words” list (see attached) to include in their new journal entry. Students will underline the key words when they use them throughout the passage. This list will guide the journal structure and give struggling students a framework for their journal entry.

Samford UniversityDesign for Learning

Stock Definition Sheet

Great Depression Intro Journal Prompt

Example

DefintiionPicture

In your social studies journal, write as if you were living when

the Great Depression began. Explain and defend how you would have reacted to the

events at the start of the Great Depression, including Black Tuesday and the actions of

Herbert Hoover.

Student Name:

Great Depression Intro Journal Entry Rubric

Content, Focus, Perspective, Support, Organization

3 2 1Content Content is

accurate and includes

information on Black Tuesday and Herbert

Hoover.

Content is mostly accurate and

includes minimal information on Black Tuesday and Herbert

Hoover.

Content is not accurate. Black

Tuesday and Herbert Hoover

are not addressed.

Focus The entire entry is focused on

how the student would have

reacted to the start of the Great

Depression.

Most of the entry is focused on

how the student would have

reacted to the start of the Great

Depression; however,

students’ writing may stray at some points.

Entry has no focus on how the

student would have reacted to the start of the

Great Depression.

Perspective The entire entry is written as if the student is

living during the Great

Depression.

Most of the entry is written as if the student is

living during the Great

Depression.

The entry is not written as if the student is living during the Great

Depression.

Support Students provide information to support their

reactions to the start of the Great

Depression.

Students provide some information to support their reactions to the

start of the Great Depression.

Students do not provide support

to their reactions to the start of the

Great Depression.

Organization Entry is organized in a

logical and cohesive manner.

Entry is mostly organized in a logical way.

Some points are not flowing or

cohesive

Entry is not cohesive or logical. The

passage is hard for the reader to

understand.

Score: ____/15Great Depression Character Cards

A recently unemployed father

A business owner heavily invested in the Stock Market

A member of Herbert Hoover’s

A teenager trying to find a job

Directions for Description Card Activity

Directions:

Each table group will be given a description card.

You will create a poster about your assigned person with your table group.

Your poster should include: The description of your person Ways the Great Depression would

have affected your person The reaction of your person to the

Great Depression

A member of Herbert Hoover’s

How did the Great

Depression affect different

people?

Feel free to include visuals on your poster!

Great Depression Timeline Cards Lesson 1

Stock Market: Where stockbrokers buy and

sell portions of companies known as

“stocks”

Great Depression: an economic crisis in the

United States. It was a time of high unemployment and

low business activity.

Date: 1929-1939

Black Tuesday: The day the Stock Market crashed and the official

starting day of the Great Depression.

Date: October 29, 1929

High Level Learners Cubing Activities

Directions: 1) Label each box numbers 1-6. If you would like, you can use

dots like a real cube! 2) In the corresponding box, write the following activities:

1. Describe-Describe the event of Black Tuesday, including as many details as possible.

2. Compare-Compare and Contrast what life was like during the Roaring 20s and what it was like when the Great Depression began.

3. Associate-Use free association to list things that come to mind when you think about Herbert Hoover.

4. Analyze-Analyze the relationship of cause and effect in one modern day catastrophic event in great detail.

5. Apply-Apply what you have learned about the Great Depression by explaining how the Great Depression would have effected everyday life.

6. Defend-Argue whether or not you agree with Herbert Hoover’s reaction to the Great Depression. Include evidence to support your answer.

Black Tuesday: The day the Stock Market crashed and the official

starting day of the Great Depression.

Date: October 29, 1929

3) When your cube is entirely filled out, cut along the solid lines.

4) Once it is cut out, fold your cube along the dotted line.5) To secure your cube, tape or paste on the marked tabs.6) Now that your cube is complete, roll the dice. If the number

lands on an odd number, you will complete all the odd number activities. If the number you role is even, complete the even numbered activities.

*If you don’t like the chance of just rolling your dice, you can pick to complete all the even or odd activities!

7) Your three cubing activities should be complete by the day of the final Great Depression Unit test.

Great Depression Intro Journal Key

Words

Directions: In your journal entry about the start of the Great Depression, include the following words. Underline the word each time you use it in your journal entry.

Stock Market Black Tuesday Herbert Hoover Unemployment One (or more if you like!) of

the following words:oScaredoNervousoAngryoFrustrated