Unit / Topic
Lesson Title
Lesson Author
Subject Area
Great Depression
Eating on a Shoestring
Christy Barnes & Robert Harrison
FACS/ US History II
Date
Grade
3/10/04
7
AREA(s) OF INTERACTION
Identify the AOI that will serve as the primary lens for the lesson:
( ) Approaches to Learning
( ) Community and Service
( ) Homo faber
( X) Health and Social Education
( ) Environment
How the AOI will be presented:
Students will explore the realities of feeding a family on a very limited budget by
comparing the cost of living in the 1930s to the cost of living today. Using primary
documents and technology to make the comparison, the class will consider the impact of the
economy on citizens’ health and welfare.
GUIDING QUESTION
How do people and nations deal with adversity?
Context
Middle School students are increasingly responsible for managing their own diet, and
they are growing in their ability to manage financial resources and to understand the cost
and relative value of goods and services. This lesson engages their natural interest in eating
and provides them with real-world practice in budgeting and applied mathematics.
Many of the students at high-needs schools like Glasgow are familiar with the
realities of very limited economic resources. This lesson draws on their life experience and
helps them how to maximize nutrition while working within a tight budget.
The lesson connects what students know with the realities of life in the United
States during the Great Depression. It also teaches about New Deal relief programs, the
interrelated nature of community life (the tradition of helping out your neighbor), and
American pragmatism (“make-do” spirit). It encourages the historical habits of mind of
historical empathy (“perceiving past events and issues as they were experienced by people
at the time”) and change and continuity (“comprehending the interplay of change and
continuity”).
National Standards for History
Historical Thinking Standard 2 (Chronology)
A. Identify the author or source of the historical document or narrative and
assess its credibility.
B. Reconstruct the literal meaning of a historical passage by identifying who
was involved, what happened, where it happened, what events led to these
developments, and what consequences or outcomes followed.
C. Identify the central question(s) the historical narrative addresses and the
purpose, perspective, or point of view from which it has been constructed.
National Standards for History
Era 8 : The Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)
STANDARD 1
The causes of the Great Depression and how it affected American society.
STANDARD 2
How the New Deal addressed the Great Depression, transformed American federalism,
and initiated the welfare state.
SOL, POS, MYP Objectives
VA SOL
USII.1 The student will demonstrate skills for historical and geographical analysis,
including the ability to
a) analyze and interpret primary and secondary source documents to increase
understanding of events and life in United States history from 1877 to the
present;
b) make connections between past and present
USII.5d The student will demonstrate knowledge of the social, economic, and technological
changes of the early twentieth century by identifying the causes of the Great
Depression, its impact on Americans, and the major features of Franklin D.
Roosevelt’s New Deal.
FCPS POS
7.1.9
Students will be able to identify and analyze the political, social, and economic
impact of the Great Depression on the United States:
c. analyze the impact of the Great Depression on the everyday lives of ordinary
Americans
d. evaluate the effect of the major features of the New Deal on American
government and society
IBMYP Humanities (History)
Fundamental Concept: Continuity and Change (examination of the forces that shape history.
These forces have interacted to make the world as it is today.
Aim:
develop critical thinking and historical imagination through working with, and
understanding, the fragmentary evidence of the past
Technology Types and Branches (How technology is used)
Information: primary source (FERA receipt); newspaper advertisements
Materials: calculator; PC lab
Systems: internet, internet grocery distribution service, U.S. agriculture
Assessment/Criteria for Technology & Subject Area
SUMMATIVE Identify summative assessment
tools/tasks
( ) Oral Presentation
( ) Observation
( x ) Participation
( ) Performance
( ) MYP Criterion
( ) Class work
( ) Skills Test
( X) Written Test
( ) Task specific rubric
FORMATIVE Identify
formative assessment tasks
( X ) Skills Test
( ) Other
( X ) Observation
Provided by instructor
( ) Attribute List
( ) Other
Materials
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1934 Relief Committee Receipt (primary source document)- 1 copy per student or
student group (www.archives.state.al.us/teacher/dep/dep4/doc1.html)
transparency of typed list
selection of groceries listed on the receipt
soup kitchen poster, alphabet soup, bowls, spoons
alphabet soup worksheet and list of New Deal agencies
calculators
modern day prices (gathered from newspaper grocery advertisements or online
services); grocery order worksheet (optional)
exit slip; homework/extension (budgeting exercise);
Itinerary, Procedures and Instructional Activities
Step 1 (5 minutes):
Engage student interest by displaying groceries from the 1930s and the Phoenix Soup
Kitchen.
Instructional Strategy & Task:
Make predictions: Ask, “What are these things? What do they have in common? How much
would they cost today? How much do you think they cost 70 years ago?” Record student
predictions. (Optional: provide an incentive for the student whose prediction comes closest
to the actual amount. The winner can be revealed at the end of the lesson.)
Differentiation:
More advanced students can try to think of dishes or menus that involve this set of
ingredients.
_________________________________________________________
Step 2 (15 minutes):
Review and engage prior learning.
Instructional Strategy & Task:
Tell what you know: Ask, “What do we already know about the Great Depression?” Using
vocabulary, review problems (Great Depression [not enough money or jobs], high
unemployment rate, banking collapse, not enough food, Dust Bowl, poor old people) and
solutions (FDR, New Deal, works programs, Social Security).
Differentiation:
Advanced students could work in cooperative learning groups to brainstorm answers to a
“Problems/Solutions” T Chart.
_________________________________________________________
Step 3 (20 minutes):
Examine an historical document from the Great Depression.
Instructional Strategy & Task:
Make inferences: Ask, “What is this?” Assist students in answering “W” questions (who,
when, where, why). Look for key words (especially relief). Compare the handwritten receipt
with a typed version displayed by transparency projector.
Differentiation:
Students with independent study skills could complete a guided reading worksheet about
the document, or a generic document analysis form like the one available from the NARA
(www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/lessons/analysis_worksheets/document.html) and
transcribe the handwritten document for themselves.
Step 4 (25 minutes):
Find out how things have changed since the Great Depression by investigating the price of
groceries today.
Instructional Strategy & Task:
Use resources: Students use the internet to determine the price of the 1934 Relief order
groceries today. Go to www.peapod.com to search for grocery prices and build a modern-day
grocery order. As the teacher assists students in their search, conduct an informal
discussion of how economic hardship and prosperity affect diet.
Differentiation:
To save time and frustration for students with limited language or technical ability, the
internet search can be guided by a partial grocery list; alternatively, students may be
supplied with the list and per item prices, with instructions to multiply across for line item
totals, add down for a subtotal, calculate tax, and determine a grand total.
_________________________________________________________
Step 5 (10 minutes):
Consolidate information and assess student learning.
Instructional Strategy & Task:
Summarize: Ask, “What is different between grocery prices in 1934 and grocery prices in
2004?” “How does the price of food affect people’s lives?” “How did the role of the
government change during the New Deal?” Students complete an exit slip (Create graphic
organizer).
Differentiation:
Independent writers could write a Thank you letter from the recipient of the food relief to
President Roosevelt that describes why they needed assistance and explains how they will
use the groceries they received from the relief agency.
Extension homework: students complete budgeting assignment from American Journey
textbook (p. 719).
Attachments
soft:
primary document
hard: alphabet soup wksht
transcribed list
grocery order wksht a/b/c
budget assignment
list of New Deal agencies
exit slip