American Centuries

Pocumtuck Valley
Memorial Association

American Centuries > Lessons > History Lessons By Teachers > The Great Depression

The Great Depression

Details

Author
Dianne Cerone
Topic/Subject Area
Industry, Occupation, Work
Historical Era
Great Depression and World War II, 1929–1945
Grade Level
Elementary (K–5), Middle School (6–8), High School (9–12)
Creation Date
2012
Last Revision Date
2024

Related items

About This Lesson

Summary and Objective

Through this introduction activity, students will understand that the Great Depression had a significant impact on Western Massachusetts. To achieve this, students will review various local Western Massachusetts newspaper articles and editorial cartoons. Students will also examine the lyrics from three popular songs from the Depression era and draw conclusions about the message(s) they each contain. Working in small cooperative groups, students will make some conclusions of hardships gleaned from or implied in the historical pieces. Then the teacher will facilitate a class discussion with each group sharing their findings or conclusions in the larger group.

Materials & Resources

Collection Items
Websites for Song Lyrics

Teaching Plan

  1. To make connections to previous knowledge and or misconceptions, the teacher will have students brainstorm what they know about the Great Depression and what life might have been like during that era in Western Massachusetts, as well as the rest of the nation. (5 minutes) Teachers in other parts of the country might want to have their students make predictions about how the Depression might have affected their part of the country differently/uniquely.
  2. Students will visit the American Centuries website and examine the editorial cartoons and review local newspaper articles listed in the Materials & Resources section. Students will then draw conclusions about the effect of the Depression on Western Massachusetts. (15 minutes) The editorial cartoons depict the effects and problems that arose for families, industry/business, and the government. The written/printed text examines the impact of the Depression and how individuals had to make difficult personal choices based on money including taking salary cuts and sharing jobs. These excerpts also highlight some of the creative ways communities or groups banded together in Western Massachusetts to tried and help their struggling unemployed citizens/neighbors to get needed necessities, their local businesses from going under, or their towns from going bankrupt. Teachers in other parts of the country might want their students to do some of their own local research using local libraries, other local sources or archives where students can find information on how the Great Depression affected their unique part of the country.
  3. The teacher will facilitate a class discussion where students will present their thoughts/findings/impressions/conclusions. (10 minutes) Teachers in other parts of the country could then have their students make comparisons of their local information with Western Massachusetts by creating charts or Venn diagrams and then make some conclusions.
  4. The teacher will make copies and pass out lyrics to three popular songs from the Depression Era. Students will be divided into three groups (one group for each song) and each group will be asked to (a) examine lyrics and (b) draw conclusions about what they say about the effect of the Depression on the Nation. (10 minutes)
    1. George Michael’s “Brother Can you Spare a Dime?” that highlights how far down an individual fell economically from a place of comfort and prosperity to one of total destitution.
    2. “Big Rock Candy Mountain”, first recorded by Harry McClintock, that made reference to folk leaving their homes and families to find the promise of a better life somewhere else.
    3. Woody Guthrie’s “Do Re Me” that made reference to folk up and moving to find the promise of a better life, when in reality there was no better life anywhere without money/work.
  5. The teacher will again facilitate a discussion in the larger groups where each group of students will present their thoughts and insights and make any connections to the previous class discussion.