The “Dirty Thirties” (otherwise known as the Dust
Bowl)
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Lori Stephens
Smart Intermediate
Davenport Community Schools
Summer 2009
http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/fsa/8b38000/8b38200/8b38293t.gif
Abandoned farm in the dust bowl area of
The calamity of the 1930 Dust Bowl has been lost to most students of American history. The chairman of the American National Red Cross told a national radio audience, “In all its experience of more than a thousand emergencies the Red Cross has never been confronted by a disaster of larger proportions.”
-- United States Department of Agriculture, Yearbook of Agriculture, 1931
(
As part of this unit, students will critically examine, respond to, and report on photographs and documents as historical evidence of the widespread effects of the 1930s Dust Bowl.
Overview/ Materials/Historical Background/LOC Resources/Standards/ Procedures/Evaluation/Rubric/Handouts/Extension
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Objectives |
Students will: · Use the Library of Congress to search and evaluate primary documents. · Develop research skills and strategies, especially keyword searches, for locating information on the World Wide Web. |
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Recommended time frame |
3 Days |
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Grade level |
7th Grade |
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Curriculum fit |
Language Arts |
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Computer with Internet access Dust Bowl Review Worksheet Journal Rubric |
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Language Arts Standard (1.1a): Students will apply reading, writing, and speaking skills to communicate effectively. Language Arts Power Benchmark: Students will be able to use a wide range of strategies to interpret, evaluate, and appreciate literary and informational texts. Grade Level Benchmark: Apply knowledge of text structures such as chronological order, cause and effect, compare and contrast, literary elements, and fact and opinion to support comprehension of a variety of text formats. |
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Day One: ·
Hand
out Dust Bowl Review Worksheet and begin completing. ·
Students
will view videos and resources listed in Resource Table on the effects of the
Dust Bowl. ·
Begin
the Dust Bowl WebQuest and complete journal as
instructed. Day Two and Day
Three: ·
Complete
the Dust Bowl WebQuest and journal. |
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Students will complete the Dust Bowl Review Worksheet and turn it in with their completed journal. |
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N / A |
By the 1930s, many American farmers were in serious financial difficulty for a variety of reasons. Intensive farming had destroyed the protective cover of vegetation, and the hot dry summers began to turn the soil into dust. The drought began in 1930, and portions of 30 states experienced dry conditions. High winds in 1934 turned an area of some 50 million acres into a giant dust bowl. The Dust Bowl (or the “Dirty Thirties”) estimates that over 7,000 people died from dust pneumonia and other dust-related deaths. 2.5 million were left homeless or were forced to migrate.
This lesson is designed
as an introduction to the Dust Bowl.
Students will gain an understanding of everyday life before, during, and
after the Dust Bowl. Lives were changed,
and people were forced to migrate to other regions in the
…The dust I had labored in all day began to show its effects on my
system. My head ached, my stomach was
upset, and my lungs were oppressed and felt as if they must contain a ton of
fine dirt….” http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dustbowl/sfeature/eyewitness2.html
Primary
Resources from the Library of Congress
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Description |
Citation |
URL |
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Abandoned farm in the
Dust Bowl area of |
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http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/fsa/8b38000/ |
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Video of dust storm and definition of what a dust storm is. 20 seconds |
“Dust Bowl Storms 1930.” / Online Video / viewed July 30, 2009 |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmSTg6vEhCo |
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A segment from Discovery Channel's “Making of a Continent” about the Dust Bowl wind erosion of the 1930s. 2.54 minutes |
“U.S. Dust Bowl of 1930s” / Online Video / viewed on July 30, 2009 |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2CiDaUYr90 |
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First-person account of what it felt like to be in an actual Dust Bowl. 1.10 minutes |
“The Great Dust Storms: A Ken Burns Style Video” / Online Video / viewed on July 30, 2009 |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEYb9xjAhHI |
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Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940–1941. Timothy Egan is the
author of the book The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who
Survived the Great American Dust Bowl. The book was awarded the National
Book Award for nonfiction.
29.33 minutes |
Collection is about
migrant work camps in National Public Radio interview with author about his novel detailing the 1930s Dust Bowl. Fresh Air program aired on December 4, 2006. |
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/tshome.html http://www.npr.org/templates/story/ |
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Dust Bowl WebQuest. Students are assigned
the task of creating a journal for a fictional family who lived through the
Dust Bowl. |
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http://www.milforded.org/schools/foran/acesare/wq |
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Dust Bowl Migration Photographs of the Dust
Bowl and Migrant Camps. |
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http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/ |
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The Grapes of Wrath: Scrapbooks and Artifacts |
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http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/01/grapes/index.html |
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Visions In the Dust: |
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http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/99/dust/intro.html |
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Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother Photograph Collection. |
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http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/128_migm.html |
Rubric
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Handouts