The Dust Bowl
Teaching with Primary Sources
Illinois State University
Karrie Ruestman
Fox Creek Elementary
Spring 2009
Teaching with Primary Sources
Illinois State University
Audience watching play in recreation hall, Tulare Migrant Camp, Visalia, California
Students will use primary sources to learn what life was like living in the Dust Bowl.
Living conditions, health and the environment were all impacted by the huge dust storms that blew through that region in the 1930’s.
Overview/ Materials/LOC Resources/Standards/ Procedures/Evaluation/Rubric/Handouts/Extension
Overview Back to Navigation BarObjectives / Students will:
· learn vocabulary related to the Dust Bowl
· identify locations on a map that were affected by the Dust Bowl
Recommended time frame / 4 days
Grade level / 4th-5th
Curriculum fit / Social Studies, Language Arts, Technology
Materials / Materials for Day 1:
· Resource table displayed on Smartboard,
· Handout 1 overview of Dust Bowl,
· Loose-leaf paper for diary entries
· Map and worksheet for homework.
Materials for Day 2:
· Map of Dust Bowl on Smartboard
· Book: Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp by Jerry Stanley. Crown Books for Young Readers (July 13, 1993)
· Rubric for each student.
Illinois State Learning Standards Back to Navigation Bar
Language Arts:
Goal 1: Read with understanding and fluency
· 1.A.2b Clarify word meaning using context clues and a variety of resources including glossaries, dictionaries and thesauruses.
Goal 3: Write to communicate for a variety of purposes.
· 3.B.2d Edit documents for clarity, subjectivity, pronoun-antecedent agreement, adverb and adjective agreement and verb tense; proofread for spelling, capitalization and punctuation; and ensure that documents are formatted in final form for submission and/or publication.
Social Sciences:
Goal 16: Understand events, trends, individuals and movements shaping the history of Illinois, the United States and other nations.
· 16.C.2c (US) Describe significant economic events including industrialization, immigration, the Great Depression, the shift to a service economy and the rise of technology that influenced history from the industrial development era to the present.
· 16.D.2b (US) Describe the ways in which participation in the westward movement affected families and communities
Goal 17: Understand world geography and the effects of geography on society, with an emphasis on the United States.
· 17.A.2b Use maps and other geographic representations and instruments to gather information about people, places and environments.
Procedures Back to Navigation Bar
Day One:
· Students will be introduced to The Dust Bowl as part of their unit on The Great Depression.
· After a brief discussion explaining the Dust Bowl and sharing pictures from the resource table on the Smartboard, students will be shown the picture of the Dust Bowl Refugee and asked to write a diary entry as if they were that woman. These entries will be shared in class.
· For homework, students will complete the map activity.
Day Two:
· Collect maps and ask for questions.
· Show map on Smartboard and discuss how people from the Dust Bowl moved west for what they thought were better conditions and chances.
· Students will read excerpts from Children of the Dust Bowl in pairs. They will begin composing an interview with a Dust Bowl survivor (either someone who stayed or someone who moved west.
· The rubric will be shared with them.
Day Three:
· Students will work on their interviews together.
Day Four:
· Students will perform their interviews for the class.
Evaluation Back to Navigation Bar
1. Paragraphs will be assessed for proper grammar and mechanics.
2. Students will be given a grade on the homework map activity.
3. A rubric will be used to assess interviews.
Extension Back to Navigation Bar
Students will read this letter to Mrs. Roosevelt from a teenage Dust Bowl sufferer and make corrections. Then they are to write a reflection of what it must have been like to be that child. (Letter is posted separately in the handouts section).
Kismet, Kansas
Nov. 3, 1937
Dear Mrs. Rosevelt:
I am 13 years old and will be 14 the 27 of this month. I am a victim of a shut in. I have been sick ever since the 12 of July. And have a very lonely place to stay. My parence's are very poor people. I cant even go to school yet with the other kids. And doubt if I can this year. I have nothing I can do but set around and I get so lonely I don't know what to do. And if you want to cheer me up and make me one of the happies boys in the world just send me some money to get a cheap raido. Ihave got proof by the neighbors that I am sick and have nothing to do. My parence names is Mr. + Mrs. A. J. M. My name is F. M. I live at Kismet. Many, many thanks if you would cheer me up that way I wouldn't spend it for nothing but a radio. It would pass my lonely time a way so much faster. I only ask for a cheep one.
F. M.
Kismet, Kansas
P.S. If I had any thing to do I wouldent ask you of it. It will be highly appreached.
I am in the dust bowl. We didn't raise any crop this year. And we have to live off of the releif and theres no injoyment out of that. But were thankful for it. My mother is sick and under the doctor's care most of the time and my Grandma that lives with me is very poorly. And that keeps my heart broken all the time. And nothing to amuse myself with.
thanks alot
Primary Resources from the Library of Congress
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Image / Description / Citation / URL/ Home of a dust bowl refugee in California. Imperial County / Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC 20540 USA, Lange, Dorothea, photographer., [reproduction number LC-USF34-016264-C DLC]. / http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/fsaall:@field(NUMBER+@band(fsa+8b31761))
/ The winds of the "dust bowl" have piled up large drifts of soil against this farmer's barn. / Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC 20540, Rothstein, Arthur, photographer, (reproduction number LC-USZ62-129049 DLC). / http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/fsaall:@field(NUMBER+@band(cph+3c29049))
/ Dust Bowl Refugee / Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection, [reproduction number, e.g., LC-USF35-1326] / http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/fsaall:@field(NUMBER+@band(fsa+8b31783))
/ Dusty fields / Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC 20540 USA. FSA-OWI Collection, (reproduction number LC-USZ62-130633 DLC). / http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/fsaall:@field(NUMBER+@band(cph+3c30633))
/ Dust storm approaching Stratford, Texas, April 1935. / Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain) / http://images.encyclopedia.com/getimage.aspx?id=2794767&hero=
Teaching with Primary Sources
Illinois State University
Rubric
Back to Navigation Bar
1 / 2 / 3 / ScoreInformation / Little information collected. Needed to be reminded to stay on task. Did not use time wisely. / Some information from book used. Stayed on task but did not get “whole picture” of Dust Bowl from reading. / Reality of the Dust Bowl really captured in the information collected. Included all important parts.
Interview
Development / Some interview components are missing. Minimal facts included. / All interview components are present, but information is not organized in a way that “flows”. / Interview is well organized with all components present.
Presentation / Reading from notes. No eye contact.
Volume is not loud enough. / Some eye contact between interviewer and interviewee. Had to be reminded of volume. / Good eye contact and body language between interviewer and interviewee. Volume is
appropriate.
Total ______
Comments ______
______
______
______
______
Handouts -1
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Dust Bowl is the name given to the to the U.S. prairie states that suffered ecological damage in the 1930's. They also suffered to a lesser extent in the mid-1950's. The problem in the prairie regions of the United States began during World War I. The high price of wheat and the needs of Allied troops encouraged farmers to raise more wheat by plowing and seeding areas in prairie states. These states included Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. These lands had formerly been used for grazing livestock.
After years of adequate yields on these lands, livestock returned to graze and their hooves pulverized the vulnerable topsoil. In the year 1934, strong winds began to blow the soil in huge dust clouds. In succeeding years, from December to May, these dust storms occurred again and again. Both crops and pasture lands were ruined by harsh wind and dust storms, which proved to be a severe health hazard. The uprooting, poverty, and human suffering caused during this period is notably portrayed in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.
Through later governmental intervention and new methods of erosion preventing farming, the Dust Bowl phenomenon has been virtually eliminated, and thus, is now only a historic reference.
Handouts -2
Handouts -3
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Name______Date______Class Period_____
Student Activity - Dust Bowl Map
by Carol Schlenk
Follow these instructions to complete the map on the following page. Then answer the questions on this sheet and attach it behind your map.
1. Title your map: Region of the Dust Bowl, 1930’s.
2. Label the following states on your map: Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma.
3. Color the central part of the Dust Bowl area orange.
4. Color the larger dust bowl area yellow.
5. Color the area of Texas not in the Dust Bowl green.
6. Color the non-Dust Bowl area of remaining states brown.
7. Draw a compass rose on your map.
8. Create a map key which explains the following:
a) Area of the Dust Bowl (yellow area)
b) Area receiving most severe wind erosion (orange area)
- Which state had more of its total land area in the Dust Bowl?
______
10. Which state had the least of its total land area in the part of the Dust Bowl receiving the most severe wind erosion?
______
11. What is a popular name for the area of North Texas affected by the Dust Bowl?
______
- What do we call the region of the United States affected by the Dust Bowl?
Teaching with Primary Sources
Illinois State University
Handouts - 4
Kismet, Kansas
Nov. 3, 1937
Dear Mrs. Rosevelt:
I am 13 years old and will be 14 the 27 of this month. I am a victim of a shut in. I have been sick ever since the 12 of July. And have a very lonely place to stay. My parence's are very poor people. I cant even go to school yet with the other kids. And doubt if I can this year. I have nothing I can do but set around and I get so lonely I don't know what to do. And if you want to cheer me up and make me one of the happies boys in the world just send me some money to get a cheap raido. Ihave got proof by the neighbors that I am sick and have nothing to do. My parence names is Mr. + Mrs. A. J. M. My name is F. M. I live at Kismet. Many, many thanks if you would cheer me up that way I wouldn't spend it for nothing but a radio. It would pass my lonely time a way so much faster. I only ask for a cheep one.
F. M.
Kismet, Kansas
P.S. If I had any thing to do I wouldent ask you of it. It will be highly appreached.
I am in the dust bowl. We didn't raise any crop this year. And we have to live off of the releif and theres no injoyment out of that. But were thankful for it. My mother is sick and under the doctor's care most of the time and my Grandma that lives with me is very poorly. And that keeps my heart broken all the time. And nothing to amuse myself with.
thanks alot