Figurin Somepin 'Bout the Great Depression
Amy McElroy and Chris Pietsch
By examing primary sources, including songs, newspapers, interviews,
and photographs of migrants in California during the Great Depression,
students will create a scrapbook from the point of view of a migrant evidencing
the students' understanding their language and issues affecting their lives.
Using "Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin
Migrant Worker Collection 1940-1941" and "America from the Great Depression
to World War II: Photographs from the Farm Security Administration-Office
of War Information 1935-1945" American Memory collections, students will
select photographs and use the voices from the documents to create their
own captions, letters and/or songs based on the primary sources. This lesson
can be used in connection with a unit on the Great Depression, and specifically
The
Grapes of Wrath.
Objectives
At the end of these lessons, students will be able:
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to utilize the FSA/OWI American Memory collection and Todd and Sonkin collection
for research
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to develop research skills and strategies, such as key word searches, for
procuring information
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to recognize and utilize the different voices of migrants
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to understand the politics of migrants and the Great Depression
Time Required
Between seven and ten total class days, about half in a computer lab, and
half in a regular classroom setting. This total time does not include time
to finalize the completed scrapbook.
Recommended Grade Level
The recommended grade level for this lesson is high school sophomores or
juniors, and may be adapted to any level of study concerning the Great
Depression.
Curriculum Fit
This lesson is ideal for a team-taught American Studies course, but can
adapted to a history only or English only class. The curriculum involved
is with a unit on the Great Depression in general, and more specifically
with a unit on The Grapes of Wrath and the Great Depression.
Resources Used
Procedure
Lesson
One: Analyzing a Photograph (1-2 days)
Using the FSA/OWI collection, students will search, select, and learn
how to analyze a photograph of a migrant.
Lesson
Two: Gathering Voices (3 days)
Using The Grapes of Wrath and the Voices from the Dust Bowl collection,
students will collect a migrants' quotations which illustrate different
aspects of their language.
Lesson
Three: Analyzing Issues (2 days)
Students will interpret articles and editorials from newspapers in order
to understand the migrants' relationship to political issues of the Great
Depression.
Lesson
Four: Putting It All Together (2 days)
From the perspective of the migrant selected in Lesson One, students
will gather photographs and use the quotations and notes from their analyses
to compile a scrapbook.
Evaluation and Extension
Evaluation
Students' scrapbooks must contain evidence of the language migrants
used during the Depression and the issues with which
they had to deal. Please see the Scrapbook
Rubric.
Extension activities
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Small groups of students may create a skit which could be inserted into
the government camp portion of either the novel or film versions of The
Grapes of Wrath, and includes the student-created characters.
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In addition to resources used in Lesson Two concerning use of language,
Woody Guthrie songs may be added for an additional voice. Because the Woody
Guthrie song lyrics website does not link properly, the best we can do
is give you the URL, which is www.geocities.com.
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Students may read the newspaper articles (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/script.html)
which address John Steinbeck and The Grapes of Wrath in order to
understand the writing process.
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Students may compare and contrast the Republican and Democratic Party policy
positions of the 1930s with those of the modern day.
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Students may develop a thesis concerning what their political views would
have been if they lived during the Great Depression. In other words, would
they have been a Republican, Democrat, socialist, or communist, and why?
Top of Page
For any questions or comments, contact:
Chris Pietsch
First created July 1999