The “Dirty Thirties” (otherwise known as the Dust Bowl)
Lori Stephens
Smart Intermediate
Davenport Community Schools
Summer 2009
http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/fsa/8b38000/8b38200/8b38293t.gif
Abandoned farm in the dust bowl area of Oklahoma, April 1936.
The calamity of the 1930 Dust Bowl has been lost to most students of American history. The chairman of
the American National Red Cross told a national radio audience, “In all its experience of more than a
thousand emergencies the Red Cross has never been confronted by a disaster of larger proportions.”
-- United States Department of Agriculture, Yearbook of Agriculture, 1931
(Washington, 1931), 1, 194; New York Times, Jan. 23, 1931, p. 17.
As part of this unit, students will critically examine, respond to, and report on photographs and documents
as historical evidence of the widespread effects of the 1930s Dust Bowl.
Overview/ Materials/Historical Background/LOC Resources/Standards/
Procedures/Evaluation/Rubric/Handouts/Extension
Overview
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Objectives

Recommended time frame
Grade level
Curriculum fit
Materials
Students will:
Use the Library of Congress to search and evaluate
primary documents.
 Develop research skills and strategies, especially
keyword searches, for locating information on the
World Wide Web.
3 Days
7th Grade
Language Arts
Computer with Internet access
Dust Bowl Review Worksheet
Journal Rubric
Davenport Community School District Standards
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Language Arts Standard (1.1a):
Students will apply reading, writing, and speaking skills
to communicate effectively.
Language Arts Power Benchmark:
Students will be able to use a wide range of strategies to
interpret, evaluate, and appreciate literary and
informational texts.
Grade Level Benchmark:
Apply knowledge of text structures such as
chronological order, cause and effect, compare and
contrast, literary elements, and fact and opinion to
support comprehension of a variety of text formats.
Procedures
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Day One:
 Hand out Dust Bowl Review Worksheet and begin
completing.
 Students will view videos and resources listed in
Resource Table on the effects of the Dust Bowl.
 Begin the Dust Bowl WebQuest and complete
journal as instructed.
Day Two and Day Three:
 Complete the Dust Bowl WebQuest and journal.
Evaluation
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Students will complete the Dust Bowl Review
Worksheet and turn it in with their completed journal.
Extension
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Bar
N/A
Historical Background
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By the 1930s, many American farmers were in serious financial difficulty for a variety of reasons.
Intensive farming had destroyed the protective cover of vegetation, and the hot dry summers began to turn
the soil into dust. The drought began in 1930, and portions of 30 states experienced dry conditions. High
winds in 1934 turned an area of some 50 million acres into a giant dust bowl. The Dust Bowl (or the
“Dirty Thirties”) estimates that over 7,000 people died from dust pneumonia and other dust-related
deaths. 2.5 million were left homeless or were forced to migrate.
This lesson is designed as an introduction to the Dust Bowl. Students will gain an understanding of
everyday life before, during, and after the Dust Bowl. Lives were changed, and people were forced to
migrate to other regions in the United States to be able to support their family. The quote below shows
some of the medical problems from the Dust Bowl.
…The dust I had labored in all day began to show its effects on my system. My head ached, my stomach
was upset, and my lungs were oppressed and felt as if they must contain a ton of fine dirt….”
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dustbowl/sfeature/eyewitness2.html
Primary Resources from the Library of Congress
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Image
Description
Citation
Abandoned farm in the
Dust Bowl area of
Oklahoma, April 1936.
Video of dust storm
and definition of what a
dust storm is.
20 seconds
A segment from
Discovery Channel's
“Making of a
Continent” about the
Dust Bowl wind
erosion of the 1930s.
2.54 minutes
First-person account of
what it felt like to be in
an actual Dust Bowl.
1.10 minutes
URL
http://memory.loc.gov/
pnp/fsa/8b38000/8b38
200/8b38293r.jpg
“Dust Bowl Storms
1930.” / Online Video /
viewed July 30, 2009
http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=mmSTg6v
EhCo
“U.S. Dust Bowl of
1930s” / Online Video /
viewed on July 30, 2009
http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=x2CiDaU
Yr90
“The Great Dust
Storms: A Ken Burns
Style Video” / Online
Video / viewed on
July 30, 2009
http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=KEYb9xj
AhHI
Voices from the Dust
Bowl: The Charles L.
Todd and Robert
Sonkin Migrant
Worker Collection,
1940–1941.
Timothy Egan is the
author of the book The
Worst Hard Time: The
Untold Story of Those
Who Survived the
Great American Dust
Bowl. The book was
awarded the National
Book Award for
nonfiction.
29.33 minutes
Collection is about
migrant work camps in
Central California
during 1940 and 1941.
Viewed on July 30,
2009.
http://memory.loc.gov/
ammem/afctshtml/tsho
me.html
National Public Radio
interview with author
about his novel detailing
the 1930s Dust Bowl.
Fresh Air program aired
on December 4, 2006.
http://www.npr.org/te
mplates/story/story.ph
p?storyId=6576200
Dust Bowl WebQuest.
Students are assigned
the task of creating a
journal for a fictional
family who lived
through the Dust Bowl.
http://www.milforded.
org/schools/foran/aces
are/wq
Dust Bowl
Migration
http://www.loc.gov/tea
chers/classroommateri
als/primarysourcesets/
dust-bowl-migration/
Primary Source Set
Photographs of the
Dust Bowl and Migrant
Camps.
The Grapes of Wrath:
Scrapbooks and
Artifacts
http://memory.loc.gov/
learn/lessons/01/grape
s/index.html
Visions In the Dust:
A Child’s Perspective
of the Dust Bowl
http://memory.loc.gov/
learn/lessons/99/dust/i
ntro.html
Dorothea Lange’s
Migrant Mother
Photograph Collection.
http://www.loc.gov/rr/
print/list/128_migm.ht
ml
Rubric
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DUST BOWL JOURNAL
Name: ________________________
Teacher:
Date : ___________________
Title of Work: ___________________
Criteria
1
At least five
journal entries
Creative and
colorful cover for
the journal
including name,
date, class,
teacher’s name
and title.
3
4
No entries.
All five entries
One or two journal Two to four journal written in a clear
entries with no
entries with no
and creative
grammatical errors. grammatical errors. manner with no
grammatical errors.
____
No cover.
A cover with limited
information and
little effort shown.
Some creativity
exhibited; most
information is
included.
____
Good use of
No Internet resources
Internet
are used in the creation
resources and
of the journal entries.
guided questions.
Dust Bowl
Review
Worksheet
2
Points
No Dust Bowl Review
Worksheet.
High level of
creativity exhibited
with all information
typed correctly.
.
Few Internet
All Internet
Most Internet
resources and
resources have
resources used and
guiding questions
been used and all
guiding questions
are used in the
guiding questions
have been
creation of the
have been
answered.
journal entries.
answered.
No more than 10
No more than 7
All questions
questions
questions completed
completed on Dust
completed on Dust
on Dust Bowl
Bowl Review
Bowl Review
Review Worksheet.
Worksheet.
Worksheet.
Total---->
Teacher Comments:
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http://www.milforded.org/schools/foran/acesare/wq/rubric.html
____
____
____
Handouts
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Dust Bowl Review
Photograph Evaluation
1. Speculate as to when and where these photographs may have been taken.
2. Which image “speaks” to you and why?
3. If every picture tells a story, what story do these photographs convey?
4. What questions do these images evoke?
General Information
1. What year did the Dust Bowl conditions start to impact the United States?
2. What are the reasons why the Dust Bowl occurred?
3. Name five of the ten states affected by the Dust Bowl.
4. What common characteristics do you see in the areas that were impacted and
those that weren’t?
5. What groups of people did the Dust Bowl affect the most and how did they deal
with it?
6. How were children affected by the Dust Bowl?
7. Why do you think farmers wanted to stay on the farm?
8. What would the farmer lose by leaving his farm? What would he gain?
9. List some ways that people tried to keep the dust out of their lungs and homes.
10. Describe Black Sunday.