Great Depression Unit
Topic:
The Great Depression
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Subtopics:
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Causes and Results of Depression
Diverse Ways of Life During the
Depression
The Role of the Government in Economic
Recovery
Champaign-Urbana and Illinois during
the Depression
Brainstorming
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Causes and results of Depression:
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Stock Market Crash
President Hoover
President Roosevelt
Government Policies
New Deal
Increases in taxes
 Poverty
Diverse Ways of Life During the Depression
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Diverse Ways of Life During the
Depression
Hoovervilles
Sacrifices across socioeconomic statuses
Unemployment
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The Role of Government in Economic
Recovery
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Public Works Program
Reconstruction Finance Corporation
Bonus Army
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Champaign/Urbana and Illinois during
the Depression
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Interviewing community members who
lived through the Great Depression.
Key Perspectives
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Making choices and taking actions: students
will critically analyze the political and
societal actions that were taken by the
government and society as a whole during
this time.
Living with uncertainty: engagement of
students in significant ideas and
experiences. To address this perspective we
plan to integrate math, literature, history,
and social studies.
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Rationale:
This unit is important to teach to fifth graders
because they have the tools necessary to
comprehend the Great Depression. The Great
Depression changed society and there are still
lasting effects felt today. The Great Depression
lead to preventative actions being taken to ensure
that history will not be repeated. By making the
unit meaningful and integrating other subject areas
we are using the best practices in social students
education. We are also allowing students to
critically analyze and form their own opinions on
how the Great Depression came to be.
Instructional Strategies:
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Using Documents
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Students will read a letter written to Eleanor
Roosevelt
Community Resources:
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Students will research at library
Community member will be interviewed on
personal experiences from Great Depression
Instructional Strategies
Interviews
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Interviewing a community member
Students will create questions to ask
Incorporated current events
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Students look at current economic issues
and relate them to the past.
Background Information
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A local teacher informed us that this topic is discussed
briefly in fifth grade only if tied with a book in literature. In
sixth grade it is also discussed if time at the end of the year.
It is not until eighth grade that students are fully immersed
into what the Great Depression really is.
The teachers we interviewed seemed to feel apprehensive
about this topic because it is more recent than say the war
1812. The Great Depression still has lasting effects both
emotionally and economically. These teachers choose not to
cover it in depth because they do not feel their students are
capable of fully understanding it and appreciating its
history.
Doing History
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Benefits of using Documents:
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According to Doing History; “If children are
to enthusiastically engage in sustained
conversation about history, four things are
required:
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Questions worth discussing
Questions that do not have single answers
Sufficient and appropriate data sources so that
students can attempt to answer the questions
Imaginative entry into the past (24).”
Doing History
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Instructional Strategies:
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“Students should not be limited to a single
learning style (38).”
“All students should be given the time and
support to engage in a variety of
assignments (38).”
“Authentic tasks allow for student choices
(38).”
Literacy Link
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Read aloud from Karen Hesse’s Out of the
Dust
Reading a letter
Writing the newspaper article
Writing letter to legislature
Going to the library for research
Through reading these stories, writing stories, and
researching students will be encouraged to place
themselves in the characters shoes and hence
experience the Great Depression.
Essential Questions and
Enduring Understandings
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How does economic turmoil affect people?
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Everyone in the nation was affected regardless of
socioeconomic status
Extreme unemployment
What role does government play in the economics
of a nation?
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All major economic decisions involve the government
Decisions made at the national level affect the local
level
Standards
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VII Production, Distribution, and Consumption
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f. Explaining and illustrate how values and beliefs
influence different economic decisions
I. Use economic concepts to help explain historical
and current developments and issues in local,
national, or global events
Unit Sketch
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Tuning in:
Students will receive a letter that was
written by a child who lived through the
Great Depression. This letter will help
bring into light the hardships faced by those
who experienced this time of turmoil.
Mason, Wisconsin
January 9, 1934
Dear Mrs. F. Roosevelt,
I suppose you'll be kind of surprised to hear from a poor little girl. I am ten years old. On
Christmas eve I had wished for Santa Clause to come but my mama said the chimney
was blocked & he couldn't come, so I had a poor Christmas. I was expecting Santa to
bring me some things.
I lost my daddy when I was two years old.
I have read in the papers how good you are to the poor and thought maybe you can help me
some. I will appreciate it all my life.
To-day we have started school from our Christmas vacation & all the children talk about
how many presents Santa has brought them & I felt so bad cause I had nothing to say. I
guess that is all. My address is R#2, Box 7 Mason, Wisconsin
Yours truly,
M. A.
Tuning In:
The teacher will engage students with
a read aloud from “Out of the Dust”
by Karen Hesse. This story takes
place during the Great Depression
and will allow students to gain an
understanding of the hardships faced
by families similar to theirs. This
will allow students to make personal
connections and thus make history
relevant to them.
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Preparing to find outAfter reading the letters we will create a KWL
chart. Students will discuss what they already
know, and what they would like to know. After
the students discuss what they would like to learn
about the Great Depression, they will prepare
questions that they can research or ask a
community member who will be coming in to
discuss their experiences of the Great Depression.
At the end of the unit, we will revisit this chart and
discuss what was learned.
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Finding outA community member will come in and share the
hardships they endured throughout the Great
Depression. Afterwards, students will be able to
ask questions and interview the speaker. Students
will research any remaining questions via the
internet. They will also have the opportunity to
visit the library and research using books, journals
and other documents.
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Sorting outAfter the students have interviewed and
conducted their research, they will organize
their information in an article format. This
article will then be used as part of the
culminating activity which will be creating
a newspaper.
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Going FurtherThe dust bowl in the Great Depression was caused
by erosion and weathering. Students will perform
various activities to see what wind erosion is, why
it happens, and its effects. We will also study
Albert Einstein the famous scientist who migrated
to the United States in the early 1930’s.
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Making connectionsStudents will see how the prices of many
things familiar to them have changed over
time. Through the lesson, students will
understand that there is not only a price
increase in goods, but that there was an
increase in wages as well.
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Taking actionsStudents will write a letter to the legislation
regarding any topic that is of economic
concern to them. After having studied the
Great Depression, students will have seen
how a national problem hit home. Students
will then discuss a national topic and how
its concerns them at the local level.
Bibliography
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Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
Doing History by Linda S. Levstik and
Keith C. Barton
http://newdeal.feri.org/eleanor/index.htm
Assessment:
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Formative
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Informal and formal
Group work
Individual
Peer Assessment
Summative
Student will be graded on their overall participation
throughout the unit and their final newspaper
projects.
Reflection
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Stressful, time consuming, and scary
Great group members
Talkative yet hardworking
Used many outside resources
Asked for help
Prefer lesson planning over unit
planning
Reflection Cont…
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Best part was learning ourselves
Organization is key
Learned importance of Unit planning