Curated OER
Read All About It! California History of the 30s and 40s
Explore the Great Depression! Discover the challenges people experienced during the time period. Learners investigate photographs from the Dust Bowl and WWII era and create a story line about the photographs, writing a newspaper article...
Curated OER
Important People from the 1930s to 1940s
Students study contributions of important people during the Great Depression. Using the internet, they research and collect information on an assigned individual. Students write an essay on the person researched.
Curated OER
Photographs from the Great Depression: Jacob Have I Loved 
Students research the Great Depression and World War II. In this Great Depression lesson, students analyze photographs of the depression era as they begin reading Katherine Paterson's Jacob Have I Loved.
Curated OER
Jacob Have I Loved
Middle schoolers examine visual images about the novel, Jacob Have I Loved. They compare pictures from "America from the Great Depression to World War II" that are described in the book and other studies of the Chesapeake Bay. They...
Curated OER
What Kind of Santa Claus You Are.
Students use a photograph analysis sheet to analyze primary sources (photographs) of the Great Depression in small groups. They then write a poem about kids in the Depression Era that reflects their comprehension of the period and...
Curated OER
America's Economy: Sorrow And Hope
Students discover how Americans found the hope that broke the Great Depression. In this American economics lesson, students watch "America's Economy: Sorrow and Hope." Students then discuss the implications of the depression and...
Curated OER
Eckstine, Stayhorn, and the Dorseys: Masters of Swing
Students explore the history of swing music. In this music history lesson, students research the Dorsey Brothers, Billy Eckstine, and William Strayhorn to learn about swing music. Students define swing, develop a timeline of events in...
Curated OER
The Wealth Tax of 1935 and the Victory Tax of 1942
Students explain that during the Great Depression and World War II, the Roosevelt administration implemented new, broader, and more progressive taxes in order to cover the costs of the New Deal programs and the war.
Curated OER
About Life: The Photographs of Dorothea Lange
Students use art to analyze a period in history. In this lesson about the effect of art on history, students study many different pieces of photography by Dorothea Lange. Students will observe photographs from certain time periods and...
Curated OER
Radio Broadcasting Before Television
Students compare the radio to other forms of mass communication. In this Radio Broadcasting Before Television activity, students learn the different types of radio shows in the 1920s and 30s. Students write and perform radio scripts...
Curated OER
On the Other Side of the Color Barrier: Segregation and the Negro Leagues
Students study segregation that occurred in the past and that is currently occurring. In this equal rights lesson, students use primary source documents to student segregation of the past. In a culminating activity, students find or draw...
National Endowment for the Humanities
The Music of African American History
High schoolers examine role spirituals have played in African American history and religion, examine Harriet Tubman's use of spirituals in her work, explore power of spirituals in Civil Rights Movement, and work with oral tradition,...
Curated OER
Read All About It! Events and People of the 1930s and 1940s That Shaped California and the Nation.
Pupils look carefully at four photographs by Dorothea Lange and discuss them in terms of what is depicted and what she may have wanted to communicate. They review what they learned about the Dust Bowl, the Depression, the war era, and...
Curated OER
World War II
Fifth graders examine primary sources to explore the events leading to World War II. In this World War II instructional activity, 5th graders develop questions and research answers from information found in primary documents....