Title: The Great Depression: How do governments respond
to social, political, and economic crises?
to social, political, and economic crises?
Unit Essential Questions
How do governments respond to social, political and economic crisis?
What caused the Great Depression?
Why did the crash of the market affect those who did not own stock?
How did the concept of checks and balances relate to the New Deal?
What parts of the new deal legislation are still in effect today?
What was the impact of the Great Depression on life in the U.S.?
Major Topics
Causes of the Great Depression
Hoover vs. FDR
New Deal
-Response to the New Deal
-Second New Deal
Effects of New deal on America
Effects of New deal on Europe/Environment
Effects of the Great Depression
Teaching Strategies
Digital Lecture
Collaborative group work
Hands-on demonstrations
Inquiry project
Webquest
Purpose The major topics we plan to teach within my unit on the Great Depression stem from the New York State Curriculum and include the following; causes of the Great Depression, Hoovers reactions to the depression in comparison to the presidency of FDR, the New Deal, public response to the New Deal, the Second New Deal, effects of the New Deal on America, Europe and the environment and lastly the overarching effects of the Great Depression. In order to teach these major topics I am planning on using a variety of teaching strategies. Digital lectures will be incorporated into the lessons on the causes of the Great Depression, Hoover vs. FDR and effects of the Great Depression. I felt that these topics would be most likely to be featured on the regents exam and therefore they were good topics to create digital lectures for. This way students can refer back to these lectures when they want to review at the end of the year. I also plan to use hands-on demonstrations during the lesson on causes of the Great Depression to demonstrate how the banks failed through giving each student a certain amount of money and then explaining how the loan process works and why this caused the banks to fail. The teaching strategy I plan to use to teach the New Deal is collaborative group work. Students will form groups of three to four and will then be presented with specific problems facing FDR during the Great Depression. These problems will relate directly to certain New Deal programs, and with teacher guidance students will develop the ideas of the New Deal on their own through group discussion. To teach the effects of the New Deal I plan to incorporate a webquest in which students will explore how the New Deal changed the American landscape, as well as what effects the New Deal may have had on their local community. In order to then connect the unit topics as well as incorporate current events I plan to develop a student inquiry project that will ask students to look at how governments respond to social, political and economic crisis. The rationale for including a inquiry project will be further explained below.
Major TopicsCauses of the Great Depression
Hoover vs. FDR
New Deal
-Response to the New Deal
-Second New Deal
Effects of New deal on America
Effects of New deal on Europe/Environment
Effects of the Great Depression
Teaching Strategies
Digital Lecture
Collaborative group work
Hands-on demonstrations
Inquiry project
Webquest
Purpose The major topics we plan to teach within my unit on the Great Depression stem from the New York State Curriculum and include the following; causes of the Great Depression, Hoovers reactions to the depression in comparison to the presidency of FDR, the New Deal, public response to the New Deal, the Second New Deal, effects of the New Deal on America, Europe and the environment and lastly the overarching effects of the Great Depression. In order to teach these major topics I am planning on using a variety of teaching strategies. Digital lectures will be incorporated into the lessons on the causes of the Great Depression, Hoover vs. FDR and effects of the Great Depression. I felt that these topics would be most likely to be featured on the regents exam and therefore they were good topics to create digital lectures for. This way students can refer back to these lectures when they want to review at the end of the year. I also plan to use hands-on demonstrations during the lesson on causes of the Great Depression to demonstrate how the banks failed through giving each student a certain amount of money and then explaining how the loan process works and why this caused the banks to fail. The teaching strategy I plan to use to teach the New Deal is collaborative group work. Students will form groups of three to four and will then be presented with specific problems facing FDR during the Great Depression. These problems will relate directly to certain New Deal programs, and with teacher guidance students will develop the ideas of the New Deal on their own through group discussion. To teach the effects of the New Deal I plan to incorporate a webquest in which students will explore how the New Deal changed the American landscape, as well as what effects the New Deal may have had on their local community. In order to then connect the unit topics as well as incorporate current events I plan to develop a student inquiry project that will ask students to look at how governments respond to social, political and economic crisis. The rationale for including a inquiry project will be further explained below.
Rationale
I have decided to cover the major areas of the Great Depression that are stressed upon by the New York State Curriculum while also correlating with the Core Curriculum standards. The content and lessons for this unit is in direct correspondence with New York State standards one though five. My lesson topics for this unit were modeled from the New York State Social Studies Resource Guide book, where the major events stressed were: “contributing factors” to the Great Depression, “responses to economic woes, the New Deal, effects on work, family, communities, and environment during the Great Depression, and effects of the Great Depression on Industrialized Europe.” Each of the lessons allow students to develop the necessary skills required in the core curriculum standards as well. Students, through inquiry projects, webquests and group work will utilize a variety of primary and secondary resources to understand why the country fell into a depression and how our government responded to this crisis. The overall unit goal is for students to develop their critical thinking skills through use of primary and secondary sources in a variety of ways, connecting the events of the Great Depression with other past events as well as events from more recent times.
*For quick reference of New York State standards: Standard one, “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." Standard two, "use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in world history and examine the broad sweep of history from a variety of perspectives." Standard three, "use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the geography of the interdependent world in which we live—local, national, and global—including the distribution of people, places, and environments over the Earth’s surface." Standard four, "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." Standard five, "use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the necessity for establishing governments; the governmental system of the U.S. and other nations; the U.S. Constitution; the basic civic values of American constitutional democracy; and the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship, including avenues of participation.”
Throughout the course of this unit, I plan to interweave direct instruction about the Great Depression with an inquiry project. This inquiry project will ask students to examine government responses to political, social, and economic crises in the US in an effort to compare the government responses during the Great Depression. This will allow students to make a connection between the content being presented and current or past events that are of interest to students. I chose this methodology for several reasons. First, an inquiry project allows me to differentiate instruction as students will be placed in small heterogeneous groups that are completely student driven. Student groups will have an opportunity to choose a topic to research, decide on research methods, and choose how to demonstrate their learning. Throughout the inquiry process, the teacher will act as a facilitator and guide students to various multi-modal mediums to enhance their learning. This project also allows teachers to lead students in instruction about effective small group collaboration and really work to develop good inquiry skills, which also helps to fulfill current Common Core Standards. The inquiry approach also offers significant benefits over a more traditional coverage approach. Inquiry offers student voice and choice, strategic thinking, authentic investigations, student responsibility, cross-disciplinary studies, multiple resources, and a real purpose for students. Students are the knowledge creators, and this project allows authentic opportunities to engage in learning.
Link to Unit Plan Website with Full Lesson Plans and Handouts
