Lesson+Overview

Ben Max History Teacher Social Sciences Department Malden High School Lesson implemented January 2011

Topic: The Dust Bowl Unit: The Great Depression & The New Deal Course: United States History II Lesson Duration: about 2.5 hours Prep time: about 45 minutes Topics/Keywords: Dust Bowl, Great Depression, New Deal, Franklin Roosevelt, Great Plains, Woody Guthrie, Dorothea Lange, Drought, Migrant

Overview
This lesson is a two to three day study of the Dust Bowl, the name used for the dirt storms and drought, as well as the region in which they occurred in 1930s America. The Dust Bowl region, home to thousands of farmers in the southern Great Plains, experienced tremendous hardships which heightened the residents' already difficult circumstances due to the economic depression being experienced by the entire country. In this lesson, students will become familiar with the development of the Dust Bowl, its location, the difficulties faced by those affected, their responses to their hardships, the ways in which popular artists captured this time period, and the governmental responses to the disaster. Students use a variety of media, technological resources, and learning and literacy strategies to become experts on this topic. Much of the historical content information used is via WGBH's American Experinces series installment "Surviving the Dust Bowl."

This technology-rich lesson was implemented in an experimental "21st century classroom" in which students individually used wireless laptops on a daily basis throughout the year. Students used these laptop computers to create and maintain virtual notebooks, each developing their own wikispace site as such (using wikispaces.com). Almost all student work was created or embedded into their wikispace virtual notebooks. In this lesson, students use a variety of websites and technology-based tools in conjunction with their academic skills to complete their assignments, including their notes and their final product, aimed to demonstrate their newly acquired knowledge.

__History and Social Sceince Disciplines: US History II: Reconstruction to the Present, 1877-2001__
USII.12 Analyze the important policies, institutions, and personalities of the New Deal era.

USII.13 Explain how the Great Depression and the New Deal affected American society.

__Technology Literacy Standards and Expectations Disciplines__
Use of Computers and Applications Strand, 9 1.32 Identify technology tools that can be used to create a multimedia product.

Research, Problem Solving and Communication Strand, 9 3.6 Use a variety of media to present information for specific purposes (e.g. reports, research papers, presentations, newsletters, web sites, podcasts, blogs), citing sources.