OUT OF THE DUST BOWL
SUMMARY
This unit, Out of the Dust: Overcoming hardships, will focus on the multiple
ways communities work through hardships, using the experiences of the
Oklahoma dust bowl survivors as a reference point and example. Created for fifth
grade students, this unit will allow students to explore the ways communities face
hardships, how they can overcome them, and the examples they find in their own
communities.
By integrating Math, Social Studies, Science, Language Arts, and Art, the
students will learn about ways people experience and overcome hardships by
exploring reading accounts of dust bowl survivors (fiction and nonfiction),
exploring the ways humans impact their environments and vice versa, exploring
the ways hardships impact creative ability and vice versa, and exploring the ways
in which the people in a community help one another in the midst of hardships.
Our unit will begin by exploring the theme of overcoming hardships by learning
about the Oklahoma dust bowl and its survivors, but this will only be the starting
place for the exploration of ways people survive difficulties in their own
communities.
MAJOR CONCEPTS
Language Arts
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Note taking
Compare and Contrast
Using graphic organizers
Essay writing
Art
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Two-dimensional collage art
Three-dimensional collage art
Connection between visual art and the real world
Identifying Hobo Signs and their uses
Social Studies
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Causes and effects of the Market Crash of 1929
Great Depression: Start to finish
Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal
The Dust Bowl and Modern Migration
MAJOR CONCEPTS
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Science
Causes and effects of erosion on the environment
Water Cycle
How ecosystems function
The scientific method
Collecting and analyzing data
Being responsible with environmental resources
Math
Graph differentiation (bar, line, circle)
Graph interpretation
Graph analysis
Graph making
SUNSHINE STATE STANDARDS
Language Arts
Standard: Reading Process, Reading Comprehension- The student uses a variety of strategies to comprehend
grade level text. The student uses a variety of strategies to comprehend grade level text.
Standard: Writing Process, Prewriting- The student will use prewriting strategies to generate ideas and formulate
a plan.
Standard: Drafting- The student will write a draft appropriate to the topic, audience, and purpose.
Standard: Revising- The student will revise and refine the draft for clarity and effectiveness.
Standard: Publishing- The student will write a final product for the intended audience.
Standard: Communication, Listening and Speaking- The student effectively applies listening and speaking
strategies.
Art
Standard: Skills and Techniques-The student understands and applies media, techniques, and processes.
Standard: Creation and Communication- The student creates and communicates a range of subject matter,
symbols, and ideas using knowledge of structures and functions of visual arts.
Standard: Cultural and Historical Connections- The student understands the visual arts in relation to history and
culture.
Standard: Applications to Life- The student makes connections between the visual arts, other disciplines, and the
real world.
SUNSHINE STATE STANDARDS
Social Studies
Standard:
Time, Continuity, and Change [History]
Standard:
People, Places, and Environments [Geography]
Standard:
Production, Distribution, and Consumption [Economics]
SUNSHINE STATE STANDARDS
Math
Standard: Data Analysis and Probability
Science
Standard: Force and Motion
Standard: Processes that Shape the Earth
Standard: How Living Things Interact with Their Environment
Standard: The Nature of Science
GRADE LEVEL EXPECTATIONS
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Language Arts
LA.5.1.7.3 Benchmark Description: The student will determine the main idea or essential message in grade-level text through inferring, paraphrasing,
summarizing, and identifying relevant details
LA.5.1.7.6 Benchmark Description: The student will identify themes or topics across a variety of fiction and nonfiction selections
LA.5.1.7.8 Benchmark Description: The student will use strategies to repair comprehension of grade-appropriate text when self-monitoring indicates confusion,
including but not limited to rereading, checking context clues, predicting, note-making, summarizing, using graphic and semantic organizers, questioning, and
clarifying by checking other sources.
LA.5.1.7.7 Benchmark Description: The student will compare and contrast elements in multiple texts
LA.5.3.1.1 Benchmark Description: The student will prewrite by generating ideas from multiple sources (e.g., text, brainstorming, graphic organizer, drawing,
writer's notebook, group discussion, printed material) based upon teacher-directed topics and personal interests;
LA.5.3.1.3 Benchmark Description: The student will prewrite by organizing ideas using strategies and tools (e.g., technology, graphic organizer, KWL chart,
log).
LA.5.3.2.1 Benchmark Description: The student will draft writing by using a prewriting plan to focus on the main idea with ample development of supporting
details, elaborating on organized information using descriptive language, supporting details, and word choices appropriate to the selected tone and mood;
LA.5.3.2.2 Benchmark Description: The student will draft writing by organizing information into a logical sequence and combining or deleting sentences to
enhance clarity
LA.5.3.3.2 Benchmark Description: The student will revise by creating clarity and logic by deleting extraneous or repetitious information and tightening plot or
central idea through the use of sequential organization, appropriate transitional phrases, and introductory phrases and clauses that vary rhythm and sentence
structure;
LA.5.3.3.4 Benchmark Description: The student will revise by applying appropriate tools or strategies to evaluate and refine the draft (e.g., peer review,
checklists, rubrics).
LA.5.3.5.1 Benchmark Description: The student will prepare writing using technology in a format appropriate to audience and purpose (e.g., manuscript,
multimedia);
LA.5.3.5.3 Benchmark Description: The student will share the writing with the intended audience.
LA.5.5.2.1 Benchmark Description: The student will listen and speak to gain and share information for a variety of purposes, including personal interviews,
dramatic and poetic recitations, and formal presentations; and
LA.5.5.2.2 Benchmark Description: The student will make formal oral presentations for a variety of purposes and occasions, demonstrating appropriate language
choices, body language, eye contact and the use of gestures, the use of supporting graphics (charts, illustrations, images, props), and available technologies.
GRADE LEVEL EXPECTATIONS
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Art
Benchmark VA.A.1.2.1: The student uses and organizes two-dimensional and three-dimensional
media, techniques, tools, and processes to produce works of art that are derived from personal
experience, observation, or imagination.
Benchmark VA.A.1.2.2: The student uses control in handling tools and materials in a safe and
responsible manner.
Benchmark VA.A.1.2.4: uses good craftsmanship in a variety of two-dimensional and threedimensional media.
Benchmark VA.B.1.2.1: The student understands that subject matter used to create unique works
of art can come from personal experience, observation, imagination, and themes.
Benchmark VA.C.1.2.2: The student understands how artists have used visual languages and
symbol systems through time and across cultures.
Benchmark VA.E.1.2.1: The student understands the influence of artists on the quality of everyday
life.
GRADE LEVEL EXPECTATIONS
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Social Studies
The student understands selected social and cultural transformations of the 1920’s and 1930’s (for example, impact of the automobile,
racial tensions, role of women).
The student understands the social and economic impact of the Great Depression on American society (for example, business failures,
unemployment, home foreclosures, breadlines).
The student extends and refines use of maps, globes, charts, graphs, and other geographic tools including map keys and symbols to
gather and interpret data and to draw conclusions about physical patterns (for example, in the United States).
The student knows how regions in the United States are constructed according to physical criteria and human criteria.
The student understands varying perceptions of regions throughout the United States.
The student understands reasons certain areas of the United States are more densely populated than others.
The student understands ways the physical environment supports and constrains human activities in the United States.
The student understands ways human activity has affected the physical environment in various places and times in the United States.
The student knows examples from United States history that demonstrate an understanding that all decisions involve opportunity costs
and that making effective decisions involves considering the costs and the benefits associated with alternative choices.
The student understands that scarcity of resources requires choices on many levels, from the individual to societal.
The student understands the basic concept of credit.
The student understands that any consumer has certain rights (for example, an individual, a household, a government).
The student understands the roles that money plays in a market economy.
The student understands basic services that banks and other financial institutions in the economy provide to
consumers, savers, borrowers, and businesses.
The student knows ways the Federal government provides goods and services through taxation and borrowing (for example, highways,
military defense).
GRADE LEVEL EXPECTATIONS
Science
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Uses scientific tools (for example, stopwatch, meter stick, compass) to measure speed, distance, and
direction of an object.
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Knows that rocks are constantly being formed and worn away.
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Understands how atmospheric pressure affects the water cycle.
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Understands how eroded materials are transported and deposited over time in new areas to form new
features (for example, deltas, beaches, dunes).
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Understands how the surface of the Earth is shaped by both slow processes (for example, weathering,
erosion, deposition) and rapid, cataclysmic events (for example, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes).
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Extends and refines knowledge of ways people can reuse, recycle, and reduce the use of resources to
improve and protect the quality of life.
Math
MA.5.S.7.1 Data Analysis
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Students will interpret, analyze, and compare data represented on line graphs or double bar graphs.
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Students will identify, interpret, or describe a graph that shows a quantity that changes over time.
LEARNING GOALS
Language Arts
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To be able to assess prior knowledge about a subject, set personal learning goals, and assess learning
that has been accomplished
To develop compare and contrast skills.
To develop and strengthen note taking skills
To develop and strengthen writing skills, such as using graphic organizers, pre-write, edit, and
publish
Develop creative writing skills
Art
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To identify the key components in creating two-dimensional and three-dimensional collage art.
To apply those component skills into making a two-dimensional and three-dimensional pieces of
collage art.
To be able to identify hobo signs and their uses.
To be able to depict the lifestyle of someone living during the Great Depression and display it in their
art projects.
LEARNING GOALS
Social Studies
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To identify the events that led to the Market Crash of 1929 and the key historical events during the
Great Depression through class lecture and watching the PBS documentary The Panic is On.
To understand the social repercussions of the Great Depression such as unemployment, foreclosures,
breadlines, and the welfare system through watching the PBS documentary The Panic is On.
To identify how individuals and the government overcame the hardships of the Great Depression
through class lecture, and watching video interviews of survivors of the Great Depression and the
Dust Bowl.
To understand that scarce resources requires individuals and governments to make difficult decisions
through class lectures.
To identify the primary cause of modern migration and the consequences migration has on the social
make-up of regions through class lectures and examining the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s.
Math
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To be able to learn about different causes and effects of erosion.
To be able to learn how to purify water with household items.
To be able to understand what caused the Dust Bowl and what were its effects on the environment.
To be able to record and organize data from the class experiments.
LEARNING GOALS
Math
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
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Language Arts
When provided with the subject The Dust Bowl, students will be able to, within a fifteen
minute duration, describe what they know about the subject with a partner, summarize their
knowledge, and present their knowledge with the class.
Students will be able to compare and contrast hardships experienced in Out of the Dust, with
those their community has faced, with 80% accuracy.
As a culminating activity, a group of students will be able to select an event from Out of the
Dust and re-tell it, answering who, what, where, when, and why questions, in a newspaper
article format, with 80% accuracy, and present article to classmates, teacher, and parents.
To prepare for a two page essay, students will be able to create an essay map recalling specific
generous acts from the story Out of the Dust, and be able to describe the help that was given, the
reason the person needed the help, and details about the person who provided the help, with
100% accuracy, based on created developed rubric.
Students will be able to write a five paragraph essay describing a generous act from the story,
Out of the Dust, using supporting details and information from the story, an effective
organizational pattern, and correct punctuation, grammar, and sentence structure with 80%
accuracy, based on teacher created rubric.
While reading/listening to the story, Out of the Dust, students will be able to attend to the story,
ask questions relevant to the story and answer comprehension questions with 80% accuracy.
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
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Art
The student will be able to correctly identify hobo signs and their uses on a 25question test, with 80% accuracy.
Given the materials, the student will be able to create a two-dimensional collage hobo
sign that could be used in today’s world, with 80% accuracy based on class rubric.
The student will be able to cooperate with another peer to create a diorama depicting
the lifestyle of Depression Era people, with 80% accuracy based on a class rubric.
The student will be able to give a presentation about their diorama and explain why
they chose that specific lifestyle to depict and how the Dust Bowl affected that
lifestyle, with 80% accuracy based on class rubric.
Given the materials, the student will be able to create a two-dimensional collage
poster to advertise either the talent show or the president's ball from Out of the Dust,
with 80% accuracy based on a class rubric.
The student will be able to give a presentation about their collage poster and answer
class questions given at the beginning of the project, with 80% accuracy.
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
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Social Studies
Students will be able to answer their own KWL assessment from the beginning of
the unit, with 80% accuracy.
Students will be able to write a 3-5 page paper on the Great Depression, with 80%
accuracy based on a class rubric.
Students will demonstrate understanding of the personal hardship that
individuals faced during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl by writing a
series of journal entries based on their own fictional character from the era, with
80% accuracy based on a class rubric.
Students will be able to answer a five question short answer quiz on modern
migration, with 80% accuracy.
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
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Science
Student will be able to know the causes of wind erosion and answer questions
related to the experiment on what causes and what are the effects of this type of
erosion with 80% accuracy.
Student will be able to effectively purify water with household items provided
and answer questions on how the filtration process works with 80% accuracy.
Student will be able to correctly record and organize data from their experiments
with 90% accuracy.
Student will be able to complete a KWL chart on what caused the Dust Bowl and
answering "want to know" questions with 75% accuracy.
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
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Math
The student will correctly create X and Y axes on line paper with 100% accuracy.
The student will correctly label X and Y axes on line paper with 100% accuracy.
The student will correctly identify line graphs, bar graphs, and/or circle graphs
with 100% accuracy.
The student will correctly plot data points on line paper with 80% accuracy.
The student will correctly create data intervals on line paper with 80% accuracy.
LESSON PLAN OVERVIEW
Language Arts
The Language Arts component of this ITU will explore the ways communities
overcome hardships by reading the story, Out of the Dust, a fictional account of one
family's struggles and triumphs and those of their community of farmers in
Oklahoma during the dust bowl. Students will complete a KWL chart, examining what
they already know about the dust bowl, what they want to know, and culminating in
what they learned. They will compare and contrast the experiences of the characters in
the story with those struggles in their own community. They will learn note taking skills
as they keep a story journal to use throughout the unit. They will learn how to effectively
use an essay map and will write a five paragraph essay describing a generous act from the
story. As a culminating activity, the students will chose events from the story to present
in a newspaper format, which will be presented at the class parent's night.
LESSON PLAN OVERVIEW
Art
The visual arts component of this interdisciplinary thematic unit will focus on the
students’ understanding and application of two-dimensional and three-dimensional art.
Students will use a variety of media to explore the lifestyles of those living during the Great
Depression. They will then use their new found knowledge to create their collage artwork.
The first week, students will take excerpts from the book Out of the Dust, by Karen Hess. They
will use the excerpts to create a two-dimensional collage poster advertising one of two events
that occur in the story. Students will also be paired up for their diorama home project. The
diorama will depict the lifestyle of someone living during the Great Depression. The second
week, students will watch a film called Riding the Rails. It is a documentary about teenagers
who were forced to survive on their own by traveling on trains to get from one destination to
the next. After the documentary, the students will be introduced to hobo signs. Hobo signs
were a form of communication that hobos used during the Great Depression to give
information and warnings to fellow travelers. The students will study hobo signs and be given
a test on them. During the last week of the unit, the students will create their own hobo sign that
could be useful for a traveler today. They will also bring in their completed dioramas and share
them with the class. All the students’ artwork will be on display during the culminating parents
night.
LESSON PLAN OVERVIEW
Social Studies
The Social Studies component of this interdisciplinary unit will examine how
Americans overcame hardships during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl in
1930s America. Students will first examine the economic factors leading up to the
market crash of 1929 and collapse of the banking system. Then, the unit will cover the
social effects and hardship associated with the Great Depression including
unemployment, inflation, foreclosures, breadlines, and the welfare system. The unit
will also cover the Dust Bowl in the Midwest with a lesson on modern migration and
its effects on the social make-up of a region including overpopulation, under
population, and discrimination. Finally, the lesson will conclude with an
examination of the New Deal policies and how the United States eventually pulled
itself out of the Great Depression.
LESSON PLAN OVERVIEW
Science
The Science component of this interdisciplinary unit will focus on erosion and
how ecosystems on earth change through natural occurrences and through human
intervention. Students will learn from reading accounts of the Dust Bowl what were
the chain of events that led to the catastrophe. Students will conduct experiments to
learn what are the causes and effects of erosion. Students will learn about using the
scientific method to investigate the question of what caused the Dust Bowl and what
can people do to prevent that type of event from happening again.
LESSON PLAN OVERVIEW
Math
The math component of our unit will focus on reading and understanding linear
graphs. Students will learn how to understand raw data from the Dust Bowl era (1934)
and construct a graph using temperatures from 1934 and 2009. Students will learn how
to label axes correctly, plot data points, and connect the data points on graph paper.
The lesson fits into the ITU as part of a greater understanding of the impact these
high temperature have on our environment and communities overall.
CULMINATING ACTIVITIES
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As a culminating activity, the class will be hosting a parent night where they will have the
opportunity to display a project from each of the disciplines they explored as they
examined the theme, Overcoming Hardships. The following projects/presentations will
be shown:
A newspaper article depicting favorite scenes from the story, Out of the Dust
Collage art poster depicting scenes from the story, Out of the Dust, diorama depicting the
lifestyle of someone living during the Great Depression, and modern day hobo signs
Portfolio containing personal migration journals and Great Depression papers
Science experiment
UNIT SCHEDULE-WEEK ONE
UNIT SCHEDULE-WEEK TWO
UNIT SCHEDULE-WEEK THREE
ASSESSMENTS
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KWL assessment on the Great Depression and the dust bowl
5 question short answer essay test on modern migration, teacher created rubric
Circle area of the Dust Bowl on Map
Teacher created rubric for two essays
Teacher created rubric for two journals
Teacher created rubric for newspaper article
Teacher observation sheet for presentation of newspaper article
25 question test on Hobo Signs
Riding the Rails Art Project
KWL assessment on the cultural aspect of the Dust Bowl (i.e. style of dress, how house looked, what people did for
fun, etc.)
Partner project on creating and presenting a diorama of the Dust Bowl
Collage poster project on Out of the Dust
Dust Bowl line graphing.
Daily temperature line graphing.
Precipitation line graphing.
Unemployment bar graph. Students chart unemployment statistics during 1930 (the year following market crash of
1929 and first year of Dust Bowl).
Class experiment on erosion, teacher created rubric
20 Question test on the causes and effects of the Erosion
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Class experiment on Water Filtration, teacher created rubric
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MEDIA LIST
 Books
 TV
 DVD player
 Lap top
 Printer
 Projector
 DVDs
Weather almanac
handouts
 Select websites
 Map of the United
States
 On-line videos
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REFERENCES-BOOKS
Barnes, R. (1987). Teaching Art to Young Children 49. London, UK: Unwin Hyman LTD.
 Guthrie, W. (1940). Dust Bowl Ballads (CD). Buddha
Recording Label.
 Hesse, K. (1997). Out of the Dust: A Novel. New York,
New York: Scholastic Inc.
 Uys, M. and Lovell, L. (Producers and Directors).
(1998). Riding the Rails. United States: WGBH
Studio.
 Macmillan & McGraw-Hill (2003). Our Nation. New
York: Author.
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REFERENCES-WEBSITES
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http://cdo.ncdc.noaa.gov/pls/plclimprod/somdmain.StateSubQry?DataSet=MONTHLY&StateAbbv=OK
&OutDest=FILE&StateMthd=STATION&ForceOutside=&SortOrder=COOP
http://weather.about.com/od/imagegallery/ig/Global-Warming-Images-Graphs.--5K/1934-USTemperature-Records.htm
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/prelim/drought/zimage.html
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/drought/palmermaps/?index=zndx&month%5B%5D=5&beg_year=1934&end_year=1934&submitted=Submit
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/tv/printables/orange/ss-102.pdf
http://1269.educatorpages.com/Page.aspx?p=1267
http://www.shmoop.com/great-depression/graphing-depression-statistics-activity.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/03/040319072053.htm
http://www.weru.ksu.edu/vids/dust002.mpg
http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/visualizations/es1205/es1205page01.cfm?chap
ter_no=visualization
http://www.survivaloutdoorskills.com/purifying_water.htm
http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_ideas/EnvSci_p052.shtml
http://www.reachoutmichigan.org/funexperiments/quick/hawaii/Wind.html
http://www.weru.ksu.edu/
REFERENCES-WEBSITES
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http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/water_02.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/dustbowl/
http://www.weru.ksu.edu/new_weru/multimedia/dustbowl/dustbowlpics.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depressionhttp:/
www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/depression.htm
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/rails/
http://www.google.com/images?q=The+great+depression&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:enUS:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF8&source=univ&ei=6ydXTMKGMIm8sQPpjKHaAg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&
ved=0CD0QsAQwAw&biw=1128&bih=515
http://www.worldpath.net/~minstrel/hobosign.htm
http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/movies/hankel_money_01.html
http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/movies/hankel_money_04.html
http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/movies/hankel_water_21.html
http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/movies/schmitt_money_04.html
http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/movies/jensen_water_02.html
http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/movies/bolton_life_29.html
http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/movies/thompson_water_06.html
http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/movies/evans_money_06.html