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Description
OVERVIEW
In this lesson, students will read six short passages about key events to record the dates, primary details, and significance of key events that occurred during the Great Depression.
LESSON TIME
This lesson will take approximately 90 - 120 minutes
Exact times may vary based on the specific needs of individual classes.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION
- What are the key events of the Great Depression era? What were the details, causes, effects, and significance of each event?
Teacher Tools
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Lesson Plan, Teacher Guide, Sources
Downloadable/editable versions of this lesson plan, including a step-by-step guide through the lesson. When applicable, a list of primary sources used in the lesson is also included.
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This ready-to-use classroom slideshow contains the warm-up exercise, the daily objective, the “We will / I will” statements, and the essential question for the lesson.
It guides the class through the assignment providing larger versions of images, visual representations of the directions, and supports for reading and answering questions including sentence stems for in-class responses. It concludes with the exit ticket.
Student Activities
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Warm-up & Exit Ticket
In this printable warm-up / bell-ringer activity, students will read three (fictional) newspaper headlines related to the era and write at least one piece of information they would expect to read in each article. Headlines include, “Crisis: No One is Buying Texas Oil or Cotton,” “Federal Government Helps Struggling Americans,” “Dust Storms Affect Panhandle Farmers.”
In this exit ticket, students will choose ONE event from the era from a list of options and write at least one cause and one effect of their chosen event. Events include the stock market crash of 1929, falling oil and gas prices in Texas, Roosevelt’s New Deal, and the Dust Bowl.
The Warm-up and Exit Ticket document includes two warm-ups on the front of the page and two exit tickets on the back of the page. This formatting reduces the number of copies needed, as teachers will cut each printed page in half. Each student will receive a half-page with the warm-up on the front and the exit on the back.
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Grade Level Work
In this printable assignment, students will create their own short, constructed responses to record the date/dates or timeframe, and key information from the readings. They choose from three options provided for the most accurate description of the significance of each topic.
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In this printable assignment, students will complete their chronological timeline notes chart by choosing from multiple-choice response options for the dates, key details, and significance of each event.
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In this printable assignment, students will create their own short, constructed responses to complete their timeline by recording the date/dates or timeframe, key details, and significance of the events described in each reading.
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Grade Level Readings
This is a set of six printable short readings about key topics and events of the Great Depression. Readings are each a half-page long and written at a grade-level Lexile level.
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Foundations Readings
This is a set of six printable short readings about key topics and events of the Great Depression. Readings are a half-page long written at a grade-level Lexile level with key information presented in bold.
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Advanced Readings
This is a set of six printable short readings about key topics and events of the Great Depression. Readings are a half-page long each and written at an above-grade Lexile level.
Sources
Previews and links to sources referenced in this lesson.
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Picturing Texas: The Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information Photographers in the Lone Star State, 1935-1943
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F. W. Woolworth Store with Group of Women, Bonham, 1925.
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Downtown Bonham, Texas, February 26, 1929
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New Deal program building a city drainage system in Port Arthur, 1930
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Franklin D. Roosevelt Signing the Social Security Act, August 14, 1935
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Lyndon B. Johnson
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Sam Rayburn at the Denison dam
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