Voices of the Great Depression

Lesson 1: Making Sense of Primary Sources
Time Estimated: 1-2 days
Objectives:

Students will:

  1. Gain proficiency in using both visual and text-based primary sources to acquire understanding about the Great Depression and the New Deal.
  2. Learn to use the National Archives and Records Administration’s (NARA) Photograph and Written Analysis worksheets.
  3. Be able to identify the type of written document under analysis, the author, the intended audience, what is being communicated and why, and what the document tells the historian about American history. They should be able to generate questions about the document for further research.
  4. Be able to analyze a photograph by listing people, objects, and activities, and to make inferences based on their observations. Students should be able to generate questions about the photograph for further research.
  5. Begin to think about the scope of the social problems brought about by the economic depression for further analysis.
Materials:
Strategies:
  1. Pass out the student copies of the NARA photograph analysis worksheet. Ask students to anticipate what they might see in a photograph from the 1930s in America. Type student anticipatory ideas into a Word document projected on the screen. Summarize students’ images of the depression evidenced by their statements of anticipation.
  2. Pass out copies of the street beggar. Direct students to examine the photograph for two minutes as noted on the analysis worksheet. Then direct students to examine each quadrant of the photograph after marking a rectangle into quadrants on the white board.
  3. Differentiate between people, objects, and activities by giving an example of each. Ask students to mark their worksheets as to the person, the objects and the activity occurring in the photograph. Type the lists of objects and activities onto a template of the activity sheet projected onto the screen.
  4. Use a Think Aloud method to begin to make an inference about the photograph; e.g., “I think this person is braving the cold for some purpose because her coat is buttoned to her throat and she is wedged into the corner of the storefront so that the building column protects her from the wind.”
  5. Ask students to think/pair/share an inference about the photograph. Type inferences about the photograph onto the template.
  6. Ask students to think/pair/share questions that the photograph causes them to have. Type several questions onto the template. Ask students to think/pair/share about where they could go to find the answers to their questions and list these on the template.
  7. Summarize the activity by discussing how the photograph analysis proceeded from observation to inference to query, and any important historical connections that were made by studying it.
  8. Ask students to reflect upon how the photograph helps them to better understand some aspect of the Great Depression.
  9. Pass out copies of the Sound Recording Analysis worksheet. Direct students to find the map of the Great Depression in their Nystrom Atlas of United States History. Ask students to look at the Nystrom historical wall map of the Great Depression. Ask students to reflect upon how many Americans moved during the depression and why they might have done so.
  10. Pass out copies of the interview transcript. Ask students to think/pair/share about whose voices they will be hearing in the recording, and the date and location of the recording. Record the responses on a template of the worksheet projected on a screen.
  11. Play the recording and direct students to read their copy of the transcript.
  12. Ask students to think/pair/share about the type of recording it is, the unique physical qualities of it, and the tone or mood. Type in responses on the worksheet template while students record on their worksheets.
  13. Ask students to think/pair/share three things they think are important about the recording and notate their responses. Ask students to reflect upon for whom the recording was made and why.
  14. Summarize the activity by reflecting upon how the analysis of the recording entailed pre- and post-listening phases as well as careful analysis of the listening phase. Summaries of historical connections will be reiterated and questions for further research will be elicited.
  15. Ask students to compare and contrast the situations of the begging woman in the photograph with the plight of the hoboes who were the object of the interviewee’s charity.
  16. After recording some of the students’ responses, ask students to reflect upon the fact that homelessness appeared to affect both urban and rural Americans, as well as younger and older Americans. Ask students to brainstorm some other ways in which to differentiate the classes and groups of citizens who may have been affected by poverty, homelessness, or hunger.
Differentiation:

Students who are strong visual learners will be paired with students who demonstrate ability in learning linguistically or by using auditory abilities. Assessment of these abilities can generally be made by teacher observation or they can be done more formally utilizing learning style inventories. Students who have difficulty in written communication should receive the teacher’s assistance in filling out the analysis worksheets if working with their partner proves to be unsuccessful in this regard. Students who appear unmotivated may find connections to the photograph and interview if the teacher asks students to reflect upon a time when the student or his/her family encountered a homeless person begging for money. A discussion of the ongoing problem of homelessness and poverty in the community should provide an adequate hook for students who appear to lack connection to the topic.