Title:Leah’s Pony andthe Dust Bowl

Grade Level: Third

Time Frame: 50 minutes

Subject Matter: Social Studies and Language Arts

Teacher Information

Name: Kim Alexander and Stephanie Ohlson

School: Central Elementary

City, State: Roxana, IL

AAM/TPS Consortium: SIUE

Lesson plan Rationale or Understanding Goal:

The students will gain an understanding of how families and farmswere affected by the Dust Bowl.

Objectives:

  • examine primary source materials to gain knowledge of the Dust Bowl
  • use historical fiction to gain knowledge of the Dust Bowl and how it relates to people
  • compare and contrast primary source materials to characters and events from a story

Purpose of Library of Congress Resource:

  • Library items give students the opportunity to examine and analyze authentic farms during the Dust Bowl.

State Standards:

2.B.2a Respond to literary material by making inferences, drawing conclusions and comparing it to their own experience, prior knowledge and other texts.

2.B.2c Relate literary works and their characters, settings and plots to current and historical events, people and perspectives.

16.A.2c Ask questions and seek answers by collecting and analyzing data from historic documents, images and other literary and non-literary sources.

Materials

  • Venn diagram worksheet
  • Leah’ s Pony by Elizabeth Friedrichfound in Harcourt Trophies basal
  • See attached list of images

Procedures

  1. Students will read the story Leah’s Pony.
  2. Students will view the photographs of the Dust Bowl farms and compare and contrast the photographs to the images in the basal.
  3. Students will create a Venn diagram of the farm images and description in the bookand the two photographs.
  4. Teacher will lead a class discussion of what the students discovered while creating the Venn diagram.
  • What items were the same in the photos and the illustrations in the book?
  • What items were different in the photos and the illustrations in the book?
  • Do the photos or the illustrations in the book give us a better understanding of what the Dust Bowl was like? Why?
  1. Students will also discuss the Dust Bowl.
  • What does the phrase Dust Bowl mean?
  • What are some issues that made farming difficult during the Dust Bowl?
  • How were families affected by the Dust Bowl?

Formal Assessment

Students will be assessed on demonstrating an understanding of the inconsistencies that exists between the photographs from the Library of Congress and the illustrations in the book by filling out the Venn diagram worksheet.