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Great Depression Resources
Additional Great Depression Lesson Plans
- The Magpie Sings the Great Depression
http://newdeal.feri.org/magpie/index.htm
The lesson plans here center around essays written by DeWitt Clinton High School (NYC) students in a publication called The Magpie. The documents present perspectives of the Depression from young adults at the time. The images from the publication are not to be missed-they are really quite sophisticated for their age group. The lesson plans are not particularly spectacular, but nevertheless are worth reviewing.
- New Deal Network - Great Depression and the Arts (8-12 Lesson Plans)
http://newdeal.feri.org/nchs/index.htm
A FERI site with four arts-centered lesson plans geared for the high school history classroom. For me, the two most interesting-one exploring the experiences of migrants (mainly based on John Steinbeck's writings) and the other examining New Deal Theatre projects-focus on both political and personal responses to the economic, ecological, and governmental crisis. All of these lessons seem to aim to merge the personal/individual experience with broader political and environmental forces.
- New Deal Network Classroom
http://newdeal.feri.org/classrm/classdmr.htm
The lesson plans included here target middle and high school students and aim to bring out individual perspectives on the Depression. One interesting set of plans centers around women's letters written to Eleanor Roosevelt. Clearly emphasized here are American calls for direct involvement by the government (to the point of asking for the First Lady's old clothes).
- The Great Depression and the 1990s
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/97/depress/overview.html
Quite detailed lesson plans, complete with descriptions of standards and three lesson descriptions. The focus here is on the debates on the size of the government and the welfare state. The three lessons-Perspectives on the Welfare State, Understanding the Times, and The New Deal's Legacy-aim to make the period understandable in contemporary terms for students. Nothing really innovative here, but the overall detail may make this useful for teachers.
- Declaring "War" on the Great Depression
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/fdr-inaugural/
A very generalized lesson plan that provides an introduction to FDR's plans to deal with depression. Concludes with primary sources.
- FDR's Fireside Chat on the Purposes and Foundations of the Recovery Program
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/fdr-fireside/
This site has the same format and sources as the above.
- EDSITEment
http://edsitement.neh.gov/tab_lesson.asp?subjectArea=3&subcategory=23
This includes three of the five the lesson plans listed below. Each lesson plan is nicely organized and provides guiding questions for teachers and students. Primary sources associated with each lesson link to the American Memory site, which was included in the sources above.
- Dust Bowl Days
http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=300
Here is the introduction to the plan: " The ballads of Woody Guthrie, the novels of John Steinbeck and the WPA photographs of artists such as Dorothea Lange have embedded images of the Dust Bowl in the American consciousness. Introduce this dramatic era in our nation's history to today's students through photographs, songs and interviews with people who lived through the Dust Bowl. Help your students understand the problems Americans were facing during the Great Depression."
- Profiles in Courage: To Kill A Mockingbird and the Scottsboro Boys Trial
http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=526
Although not typically the focus of typical lesson plans on the Great Depression, race relations form key components to understanding the period. This interesting lesson plan uses records from case of the so-called the Scottsboro Boy's, this lesson plan attempts to bring historical context to Harper Lee's fictional account.
- Depression-Era Photographs
http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=304
This lesson plan uses the photographs available online through the New Deal Network (mentioned above).
- What the Depression would be like today
http://www.pbs.org/fmc/lessons/lesson6.htm
Centered on the PBS series "The First Measured Century," this lesson plan attempts to bring into focus the economic aspects of the Depression for today's students. A fine lesson plan if one wishes to focus largely on economic issues.
Additional Resources
- Studs Terkel's Depression Oral Histories
http://www.studsterkel.org/htimes.php
This site contains oral histories of everyday Americans, New Deal advisers, local officials. It is a great resource for personal narratives.
- http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/features/timeline/depwwii/race/race.html
This site discusses race relations during the Great Depression and WWII. It has several primary documents. Also, photographic evidence of segregation. Teacher resource
- The New Deal Network
http://newdeal.feri.org/
Sponsored by the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, a wing of the FDR Library, this site offers a wide range of resources for teachers. There are a seemingly inexhaustible number of primary sources, including personal letters to FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt , photos and art images. There are several links to lesson plans here.
- Primary Sources: Voices from the Dust Bowl
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/tshome.html
This site has primary sources from individuals living in the so-called Dust Bowl, including recordings, photographs, manuscripts, and publications. College students collected the materials in the field in 1940 and 1941. There are over 400 images and 2,000 song lyrics. This appears to be a very useful site.
- Primary Sources: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers Project
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/collections/wpa/
Here is how the LOC folks describe this site: "This collection contains 2900 biographical interviews obtained during the Depression years of 1936-1940. Writers contributed to this project through an employment program of the Works Progress Administration. The writers chronicled interviews with Americans asked to recall significant events in their lives. The resulting collection offers a rich exposition of everyday life in rural and urban United States , from the end of the Civil War through the years of the Great Depression. Each document in this collection relates the compelling story of a human life." There is lots to work with here.
- National Archives
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/depression-wwii.html
This is the National Archive's educator-oriented "Teaching with Documents" website. There are surprisingly few primary sources and teaching units available here. Each plan contains links to a few primary sources. The resources applied to the education branch of the National Archives seems to be surprisingly poor.
- PBS Sites
"Surviving the Dust Bowl"
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dustbowl/
While not actually a teaching plan or primary source, this American Experience film might offers a useful resource to teachers. Included here are suggestions for teachers on how to use/present this film and a few links to primary sources.
- "Bright Dreams and Hard Times"
http://www.natureshift.org/oldsite/natureshift/curricula/Grandparent_Attic/depress/prim_intro.htm
Photographs and documents from the South Dakota during the Depression.
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