Breehan: November 2007

The Great Depression: 6th Grade Unit
Theme: The Great Depression

Description of Lesson:

To start, students will brainstorm ideas as to what they think is meant by the term “Great Depression” and they will create an idea web. They will then work in small groups looking at pictures and describing what they think is happening in the pictures, applying the concepts they discussed in the idea web. Finally, the students will work in these groups answering questions about the Great Depression and then the class will end with them teaching the class what they learned.

Materials:

· Printed lyrics to the Rudy Vallee’s song, “Brother Can You Spare a Dime”
· The song “Brother Can You Spare a Dime”
· Chalk or markers for the board (depending on the kind of board in the classroom)
· Photos with no captions, enough for each person in the class to have one
· Photos with the correct captions

Goals:

My goal for this lesson is to make sure that students know what the Great Depression was and all the different aspects that contributed to it because there was no one cause or reason. Also, I want to increase my student’s vocabulary and oral speaking abilities.

Objectives:

1. The students will identify the different causes of the Great Depression.
2. The students will know how the people of that time were affected by the Great Depression.
3. The students will begin to understand the efforts of the United States Government to help the people during this tragedy.
4. The students will learn about Winona during the Great Depression and the times of the Stock Market Crash.

Procedure:

a) Introductory Experiences:
1. To begin this class, take five minutes to either share the Front Page News assignment or give the class extra time to work on them. (5 min)

2. One presentation/work time is completed, pass out the lyrics to Rudy Vallee’s song, “Brother Can You Spare a Dime” and play the song for the class. Make sure they are paying close attention to the lyrics. (2 min)

3. Take one minute have the students talk about the lyrics to the song and why or how they relate to the Great Depression. (1 min)

b) Developmental Experiences
1. Write on the board, “What is meant by the term “Great Depression?” Have the students brainstorm a list of responses. Organize them into an idea web that the students should copy in their notes. (10 min)

2. After the discussion, ask the students what they THINK the government did or should have done to deal with the problems they listed. (3 min)

3. Ask the students if any of the problems they listed are still problems today, especially when looking at economy. (3 min)

4. Divide the class into groups of 4 and give each group at least four pictures. Tell the groups they need to assign a speaker, a picture holder, and a writer. They are to look at the pictures on their table and describe what they think is happening in the image and have the writer write these descriptions and a caption for the picture in his/her notebook. Once each group has their captions, have them get up and go to the next table, working in a clockwise pattern. Continue until everyone is back at that starting table. (10 min)

5. Have each group stand at their table when it is their turn to present. Moving in a clockwise manner, the picture holder holds the picture up so everyone in the class can see what the speaker is describing. Have each group share their descriptions and their captions for the pictures. (8 min)

b) Culminating Experiences:
1. Bring the class back together and tell them all to take one picture, and put the rest of the pictures in a pile on their desk as well as their descriptions and captions paper. Make sure each group member has his/her name on the paper. Tell them we will go over the pictures tomorrow and I will let them know the correct captions for each picture. (1 min)

2. Explain their homework is to write a diary entry from the point of view of a person in the photograph they chose. Encourage students to include information about the lives of people in the 1930s and which state they think their person was from. (1 min)

3. Take time to answer any questions (1 min)

Assessment:
Asking the students questions in the beginning will be an initial assessment of what they learned and know about what the Great Depression was and how it affected the people of that time. Creating the idea web based off of student responses will be a formative assessment of what they have learned this far during this unit. Also, walking around observing and listening to the student’s looking at the various pictures and discussing what they think is happening in each picture will be assessing their thought process based on what they have learned about those times and the people of those times.