Opening Assignment TURN IN YOUR SHORT STORY. 1.How do you imagine it might feel if you were to lose your job, your home, and your ability to provide for your family? 1.How might this situation affect a person emotionally, physically, spiritually?

Essential Learning Goal and Learning Targets. Essential Learning Goal: The student will understand the causes and effects of the Great Depression and the New Deal. Learning Targets: The student will understand the hardship and suffering associated with the Great Depression by writing a fictional history from the perspective of a person who lived through the Great Depression. The student will recognize the vocabulary associated with the Depression Era including; Dust Bowl, shantytown, soup kitchen, bread line, and direct relief.

The Great Depression Devastates People’s Lives In cities people who found themselves without a home were left to sleep in city parks, or in makeshift shacks built out of scrap materials. With so many people homeless areas would fill up with multiple shacks and became known as SHANTYTOWNS. The many Americans also faced the difficulty of not having enough food. Some people begged, other went through the garbage for food and in places where they were available many Americans stood in BREADLINES or went to SOUP KITCHENS for a free meal.

Impoverished family living in a Shantytown.

A Breadline in New York City

A Soup Kitchen at St. Peter’s Mission in New York City

The Depression in Rural Areas One advantage that rural Americans had over city dwellers was that farmers could grow their own food during the Depression. However this was only true for those who could keep their farms. Between 1929 and 1932 about 400,000 farms were lost to foreclosure. Farmers would also be hard hit along the Great Plains as the DUST BOWL began during the early 1930’s.

THE DUST BOWL The period of drought in the Great Plains during the early 1930’s became known as the Dust Bowl. During the 1920’s farmers from Texas to North Dakota had used tractors to break up the grasslands and plant millions of acres of new farmland. Plowing had removed the thick protective layer of prairie grasses. Combined with exhaustion of the soil and overproduction of crops the grasslands became unsuitable for farming. Wind scattered the loose topsoil, exposing sand and grit underneath. The dust traveled hundreds of miles. One storm in 1934 picked up millions of tons of dust from the Plains and carried it to the East Coast.

Parched fields of the Dust Bowl

Dust Storm Approaching Spearman, Texas April 14, 1935

A dust storm approaches Stratford, Texas 1935

CHILDREN SUFFER HARDSHIPS Children suffered a great deal during the 1930’s. Poor diets and a lack of money for health care led to serious health problems. Clinics and hospitals reported a dramatic rise in malnutrition and diet-related diseases, such as rickets. At the same time cities and states were cutting their budgets and eliminated many child-welfare programs. Falling tax revenues also led to 2600 school closings nationwide. This put 300,000 students out of school. Many teenagers left their families to seek a better life riding the railroads around the nation.

Destitute Pea Pickers in California. Mother of Seven Children. This is one of the most famous photos from the Great Depression.

Teenager catching a ride aboard a train.

CLASSWORK Complete the Writing Assignment detailed on the handout. One page handwritten, due ASAP, its already late!