PPT
Curated OER

Out of the Dust: Background notes about the novel, The Great Depression, and The Dust Bowl

For Teachers 5th - 7th
If your class is reading the historical fiction novel, Out of the Dust, then you are in luck. Here are a few slides that will help you provide historical context for the book, as well as define main characters, setting, symbolism, and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

"Hard Times Come Again No More" : Letters From Arkansas Families in the Great Depression

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Through this series of terrific lesson plans, pupils learn about the extent of poverty in the state of Arkansas during the Great Depression. They read documents from the period which describe how hard times were, view an online photo...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How Hard Were the Times? Investigating the Meaning and Significance of the Great Depression

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students examine causes and effects of Great Depression and its significance on twentieth-century life, analyze value of various types of historical information, specifically primary sources, and relate events, issues, problems, and...
Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Of Mice and Men in the Great Depression: Background and Setting

For Teachers 9th Standards
What were living conditions like in the United States during The Great Depression, and how do those conditions compare with today? That's the question young scholars consider as they prepare to read John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men....
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Rural Life During the Great Depression: A Year Down Yonder

For Teachers 7th - 8th Standards
“Anyone who thinks small towns are friendlier than big cities lives in a big city.” Mary Alice, the fifteen-year-old narrator of A Year Down Yonder, is forced to leave Chicago and spend a year with her Grandma Dowdel in a small rural...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Read All About It! California History of the 30s and 40s

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
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...
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Connecting Informational Text with Litearature: Building Background Knowledge About Mexican Immigration, California, and the Great Depression

For Teachers 5th Standards
Help your class transition as the setting in the novel Esperanza Rising, by Pam Muñoz Ryan, moves from Mexico to California. Beginning with prior knowledge, and moving into jigsaw research groups, class members add to and create posters...
Lesson Plan
Learning to Give

The Beginning of the Storm

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Introduce readers to Mildred Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry with a lesson that sets the context for the novel. Class members research the bigotry in Mississippi during the Great Depression and identify examples in the story of how...
Lesson Plan
2
2
Curated OER

Teaching The Great Gatsby with the New York Times

For Teachers 10th - 12th Standards
East Egg, West Egg, the Valley of Ashes, and the green light. Bring Gatsby, the Jazz Age, and the American Dream to your classroom with a resource designed for teachers. Included in the treasury are six great teaching ideas for F. Scott...
Activity
Curated OER

Life During the Great Depression An Oral History Project

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Although our connections to those who personally witnessed the Holocaust are dwindling, this lesson focuses on conducting an interview and getting some primary source material. There is a list of resources your high schoolers can...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

To the North: A Black Family Leaves Arkansas to Find Work in Michigan

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Upper elementary and middle school scholars study the economic factors that caused so many Arkansans to migrate to different parts of the country looking for work. Use this history lesson plan to help your charges gain a better...
PPT
1
1
Curated OER

To Kill A Mockingbird: Historical Background

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother" and other images set the stage for a PowerPoint about the Great Depression. Whether used as background for Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, or as part of a historical study, the presentation would...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Causes of America's Great Depression

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers identify principal causes of the Great Depression. They analyze causes including a decline in worldwide trade, the stock market crash, and bank failures and explain the legacy of the Depression in American society.
Lesson Plan
1
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National Endowment for the Humanities

Character in Place: Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path” for the Common Core

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
How do writers use the interaction between elements like characterization and setting to create meaning? Readers of "A Worn Path" create a series of comic book-style graphics of Eudora Welty's short story and reflect on how Welty...
Worksheet
1
1
K12 Reader

The Great Depression

For Students 4th - 5th Standards
Try out this reading passage when teaching your class about the 1920s and 1930s. After reading the text, which provides an overview of some major events in these years, learners respond to five related questions.
Lesson Plan
Brigham Young University

Out of the Dust: KWHL Strategy

For Teachers 3rd - 7th
A K-W-H-L chart is a great way to scaffold prior knowledge. As class members begin their reading of Out of the Dust, Karen Hesse’s 1998 Newbery Medal winning verse novel, they chart what they already know about the Great Depression...
Activity
Curated OER

A Multi-Media Approach to Teaching The Grapes of Wrath

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Integrate history, math, and art into a study of The Grapes of Wrath with a series of activities that ask learners to investigate the social, political, economic, and environmental factors at play during the 1930s. Designed to be used...
Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

John Steinbeck’s "The Grapes of Wrath": The Inner Chapters

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Here’s a must-have resource for anyone using The Grapes of Wrath. Everything from guiding questions to background information, from photographs to documentary films, from activities to assessments is included in a richly detailed packet...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Great Depression: Lesson 1

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students recognize how the causes of the Great Depression affected people and their jobs. In this Great Depression instructional activity, students understand that most of the time news only came from newspapers. Students write a...
Lesson Plan
ReadWriteThink

Designing Museum Exhibits for The Grapes of Wrath: A Multigenre Project

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Challenge readers of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath to create a museum exhibit that uses artifacts to focus on one issue raised by the award winning story of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and the Joads.
Worksheet
Worksheet Web

Analyzing the Text

For Students 6th - 8th Standards
Practice analyzing informational text with a reading passage that details the Great Depression. Scholars read about the impacts of World War I, the Roaring Twenties, and the Depression, then answer 10 true or false questions. 
Worksheet
Curated OER

To Kill a Mockingbird Historical Background Study Guide

For Students 8th - 9th
Truly understanding a story means understanding its setting and historical background. This guide, prepared for To Kill a Mockingbird, encourages your class to explore the Great Depression, Hoovervilles, and the Scottsboro trials....
Lesson Plan
PBS

Myth of the West: Lonely But Free I’ll Be Found

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Tumbling tumbleweeds! Scholars work with video clips, primary and secondary documents, and song lyrics to uncover life in the Old West. They examine song's lyrics to uncover myths told in the 1930s about life in the Wild West. 
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Whose History Is It Anyway? Patterns in History

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Read and examine primary source material in order to analyze, synthesize, and debate information about the Great Depression. Critical analysts research various source materials related to the Great Depression. They work in teams to...

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