Learning Activity

Challenged Children of the 1930s

Subject Area

Social Studies

Grade(s)

Overview

Students will watch a short video clip about how children were affected by the Great Depression. They will compare and contrast their lives to the lives of children in the 1930s. Students will pay close attention to how children's lives changed at school, at home, and in the workforce due to the high poverty and economic failure of the times.

This resource was created in partnership with Dothan City Schools.

Content Standards

Social Studies (2010) Grade(s): 6

SS10.6.5
Explain causes and effects of the Great Depression on the people of the United States.

Unpacked Content

Vocabulary

depression
economic failure
Hoovervilles
migration
Dust Bowl
New Deal
Tennessee Valley Authority
river systems

Knowledge

Students know:

What caused the Great Depression and the effect it had on the people of the United States.

Skills

Students are able to:

Examine cause and effect to see relationships between people, places, ideas, and events.
Use map skills to locate places of historical significance.

Understanding

Students understand that:

There were many causes and effects of the Great Depression on the people of the U.S.

Interdisciplinary Connections

Phase

Before/Engage

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to list and explain in detail at least three ways children's lives were affected and changed by the Great Depression.

Activity Details

Before the students begin the video, the teacher will pass out a main idea and details graphic organizer so they can record their learning as they watch the video. The students will watch the first 4 minutes of the video focusing on how the children were affected during the Great Depression. After the video, the teacher will use his/her document camera to project the graphic organizer on the interactive whiteboard. The students will share what they wrote on their graphic organizer and the teacher will write their answers on his/her graphic organizer. As the students give their responses, the teacher will add comments or interject questions to help the students relate to the children of the 1930s. For example, if a student mentioned some kids had to go to work at age 8, ask the students how old they are. Have them think back to when they were that age or if they have a sibling that age. Ask your students to pretend they are a child from the 1930s and contemplate how they would feel about having to stop school and go to work full-time. Ask them what might could be some positive or negative effects. What emotions might they feel?

Assessment Strategies

Assessments include:

Completed graphic organizer
Participation in classroom discussion

Acceleration and Intervention

Acceleration

Advanced students could create a skit based on their learning from the video and class discussions. After writing the skit, the students could take turns performing it for the class.

Intervention

For struggling students, the teacher could give sentence starters on the graphic organizer so they can fill in the blanks while watching the video instead of writing the whole sentence on their own.