Bridget Moore

EDU 5170
Lesson Plan
1/8/15
Lesson Plan: The Dust Bowl
This is a lesson plan for an 11th Grade US history class. Total Time = 45 minutes. If the lesson
spills over into the next class that is okay.
Standards:
A) History of the United States and New York, Geography, and Economics
1. Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of
major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the history of the United
States and New York.
2. Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of
the geography of the interdependent world in which we livelocal, national, and global
including the distribution of people, places, and environments over the Earths surface.
3. Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of
how the United States and other societies develop economic systems and associated
institutions to allocate scarce resources, how major decision-making units function in the
U.S. and other national economies, and how an economy solves the scarcity problem
through market and nonmarket mechanisms.
B) ISTE NETS:
1. Research and information fluency- Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and
use information.
a. Plan strategies to guide inquiry
b. Locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a
variety of sources and media
c. Evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness
to specific tasks
d. Process data and report results.
2. Digital citizenship- Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to
technology and practice legal and ethical behavior.
a. Advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology
b. Exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration,
learning, and productivity
c. Demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning
d. Exhibit leadership for digital citizenship

3. Technology operations and concepts- Students demonstrate a sound understanding of

technology concepts, systems, and operations.
a. Understand and use technology systems
b. Select and use applications effectively and productively
c. Troubleshoot systems and applications
d. Transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies
Lesson Objectives:
A) Content Objectives
1. As a class students will explore the causes of the Dust Bowl and discuss its effects on
farmers. The powerpoint will guide this discussion.
2. By the end of the power point lecture the students will be able to explain how the
depression affected women and the role of Eleanor Roosevelt
3. As a class students will discuss and generalize about how the New Deal reached out to
help African Americans and other groups of Americans.
4. Students will learn how the creative arts reflected the needs of Americans during the
depression.
5. Students will practice vocabulary skills by defining dust bowl, black cabinet, civil rights,
and Indian New Deal verbally as a class.
6. Students will begin to write a creative letter that demonstrates their understandings of the
time period thus far by using ancestry.com as a primary source database.
B) Technology Objectives
1. Students will be introduced to ancestry.com and learn to navigate and do research through
the site specific to this time period.
2. Students will continue to use their Microsoft Word skills and learn on how to create a
professional or personal letter addressed to the people they found on ancestry.com. The
letter will be about the effects of the New Deal, the Great Depression, and/or the Dust
Bowl.
3. Students will practice navigating the classroom website.
Introduce the Learning Activity:
A) To communicate to the class the objective of this lesson I will begin with a bell-ringer warmup. The bell-ringer will focus on analyzing primary sources and ask the students to recall the
section they read for homework. On the board when they walk in will be a primary quote from
their textbook and the following questions:
"I visited one group of... miners and their families, who had been living in tents for two years... It
[was] fairly common to see children entirely naked... And some had nothing at all, actually hadn't
eaten for a couple of days."

-Lorena Hickok, "Report From West Virginia," August 13-26, 1933

The guiding questions that they should answer in their notebooks will be:
1. What group of people is Lorena talking about?
2. Do you think all people were hit this hard by the depression?
3. What government programs were aimed to help them?
After the bell rings I will give the students 2 more minute while I go around the room to check
homework and attendance. The attendance lists are located in the top drawer of my desk. Then as
a class we will answer these questions. Then I will explain that this class will be about learning
about the Dust Bowl and how people actually lived during this time period.
B) The motivator for this lesson to get the students interested will be ancestry.com. After the bell
ringer I will ask the students if they have great-grandparents or grandparents that were born
during this time period. Either way, if they do or do not know, ancestry can help us find out
more.
Total Amount of Time: 5 minutes
Provide Information:
Next, we will begin the lecture through power point and the students will take notes. The
powerpoint is accessible through my website at http://student.plattsburgh.edu/bgrav003/. It is
under the "Lesson Plans" and titled "The Dust Bowl." The power point begins with a series of
photographs. For each slide I will ask, what do you see? If there are people, what do their facial
expressions tell you? Can you tell what ethnicity they are? How do you think farmers felt?
Would you stay or leave? Do these pictures change your mind about the New Deal? Then there is
a primary quote about the Dust Bowl which I will read aloud. Like the last power point, I will
encourage discussion throughout and the headings and titles will be easy for them to follow
because they correspond with the textbook. There are extra textbooks located on the book shelf
next to my desk. The power point and discussion is where students have access to vocabulary,
definitions, pictures, and explanations. It is also accessible on the class website. Then I will hand
out directions for their ancestry.com and Microsoft Word activity. (The hand out is included in
this lesson plan.) I will tell the students that access to ancestry.com is available on the classroom
website under the resources link. I will also inform them that final assignment for this activity is
due on January 15th (the due date is in the guidelines) and that they will have some time to work
on this activity in class next week.
http://www.ancestrylibrary.com/
Total Amount of Time: 20 minutes
Provide Practice:

A) Students will practice explaining the effects of the Dust Bowl and Great Depression by
writing personal or professional letters in Microsoft Word AFTER using ancestry.com. They
should follow the guidelines that are in the handout. Students will also have practice researching
and examining primary sources on ancestry.com that relate to this time period. They must
evaluate each source and obtain the information that they think is most pertinent for their letter.
B) Students will practice using interactive technology by using ancestry.com. This site is
interactive because they are in control over the search and have the ability to create family trees,
profiles of certain people, and they can share their information. This practice is individual and
students will learn how to navigate the site on their own with my assistance if need be.
Total Amount of Time: 18 Minutes
Provide Knowledge of Results:
A) Verbal feedback on content will be constant throughout class because it is a small group.
However, the typed letter will be due the following Friday and taken for a written grade.
B) Feedback for ancestry.com usage will also be verbal reinforcements. I will continually
monitor the room and ask students how they are doing or if they need help. I will also remind
them that the information that they provide in their letter about a person must be true, and that I
can search ancestry to ensure this.
Review the Activity:
By the end of the lesson the students should have a better understanding of what life was like
during this time period and how the New Deal was perceived by different groups of people. I
will end the class by asking the students to share their preliminary findings and their opinions
about ancestry.com.
Total Amount of Time: 2 minutes
Method of Assessment:
The assessment will be based around my verbal feedback and the letters that they hand in. A
rubric for the letter is included.

Name:____________________________

Date:________________

Ancestry.com
Searching for that right moment
Ancestry.com is a great site to explore the census and find out about ordinary
people of the past. Today you will explore ancestry on your own to find out about
people of the early 20th century. Then you will use what you found to write a letter
to this person (or family) about life during the Great Depression and/or Dust Bowl.
Guidelines for Ancestry:
Remember we are focusing on the 1920s and 1930s. It is okay to search before and
after these dates, but you want to relate their lives to what we know about this time
period.
If you have a specific person you would like to search then hit the green
Begin Search link on the home page. Follow the instructions after that.
To be sure that you are receiving information that relates to this time period
use the Search Census link and choose the 1920 census or 1930 census.
Sometimes it is easiest to simply search a last name or a specific place.
Once you find a person of interest write down notes about their lives:
Where were they born and where do they live?
What was their occupation?
Who is in their family?
What ethnicity are they?
Are they married?
Are there any special documents associated with them?
(marriage certificates, death certificates, military documents)
You can also email some of the documents to yourself or click
on the charts and graphs tab at the top of the page to record
information.
Once you find this person try tracking them in other census years to see if
these characteristics have changed.

If you need help ask!

Guidelines for the letter:

This letter can be personal- you know the person, or professional- you have never
met the person. Be creative! Ask questions, criticize or praise the New Deal and
FDR, tell a story, make connections, etc. There is flexibility with this letter,
however you must include the following:
Vocabulary words from this unit (they should be in your notes, on the power
point, and in the textbook) Minimum of 5.
A date, a greeting, an ending, and signature.
The letter should be one to two pages long double spaced.
Provide a citations page (ancestry.com provides source citation and
source information at the bottom of the page you are on)
The focus must be one the Great Depression and/or Dust Bowl.
Due Date: Friday, January 15, 2016
At this point you should know how to use Microsoft Word, but

If you need help ask!

Name:____________________________

Date:________________

Rubric for Ancestry Letter

1

No citations

One citation

Language
and
Organizatio
n

Poor command
of language and
conventions.
Many errors
throughout, no
planning,
submitted late.

Limited
command of
language and
conventions. A
few errors
throughout.
Minimal
planning.
Submitted late.

Content

No clear
examples about
the subject area.
No analyzing.
Provides 1 to 2
vocabulary
words with no
understanding
of them.

Voice

There is no
clear purpose to
the letter. Voice

Citations

One or two
citations
correctly
formatted
Demonstrated a
good command
of language and
conventions
with minimal
errors.
Evidence of
standard
planning.
Submitted on or
before due date.
Provides a date,
a greeting, an
ending, and a
signature.

Two citations
with correct
format

Provides a
couple of
examples
without full
comprehension
of the subject.
No analyzing.
Provides 2 or 3
vocabulary
words with
understanding
of them.

Provides a few
examples to
demonstrate an
understanding
of the subject.
Begins to
analyze and
make insights.
Provides 3 or 4
vocabulary
words with
understanding
of them.

The purpose of
the letter is
unclear at times

There is a
purpose to the
letter with an

Provides
examples to
demonstrate indepth
understanding
in own words.
Shows
analytical
thinking and
insights.
Provides
minimum of 5
vocabulary
words with
understanding
of them.
There is a clear
purpose to the
letter with an

Demonstrated a
sophisticated
command of
language
conventions
with
no distracting
errors.
Evidence of
clear planning.
Submitted on or
before due date.
Provides a date,
a greeting, an
ending, and a
signature.

is weak and
there is no
intended
audience.

as well as the
intended
audience. Voice
is present but
weak.

intended
audience. Voice
is clear. Letter
is interesting to
read.

intended
audience. A
unique/creative
voice is present.
Letter is
interesting to
read.