Grade Levels

Intermediate, Commencement, 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade

Procedure

Lesson One: Newspapers, 1910-1919

1. Project or print and distribute the page from the March 4, 1913, New York Tribune.

2. Have the students study the pages and make observations by answering the question: "What can you tell about the history of this day and time in history from reading the newspaper?"
3. Note the names of individual people, advertisements, headlines, etc. Students may be divided into groups with each group assigned one of the newspaper pages.
4. Direct the students to create a neat, organized chart with six headings (each heading/category should have a distinct symbol on the chart). Possible headings include:
   • History and politics
   • Religion
   • Science and technology
   • Literature
   • Education
   • The arts (music, painting, theater)
   • Health and medicine
   • Daily life (births, deaths, marriages, divorce)
5. Using the available secondary sources, each student is responsible for finding information for two of the categories in the newspaper and adding this information to the chart in a neat and orderly manner. (Skills used--charting and note-taking).
6. Repeat the above newspaper exercise with a current newspaper. Change the groupings for the current day newspaper. Ask the students to notice if there are any sections found in the current newspaper that are not found in the 1913 newspaper.
7. As a conclusion to this lesson, each student first writes a summary of the events from one of the categories. Next, the student writes a letter explaining what she or he would like his or her grandchildren to know about this day in history. In this lesson students are creating both a secondary source (the summary) and a primary source (the letter). Help students to understand the distinction between primary and secondary sources. Read definitions of primary and secondary sources inUsing Primary Sources and discuss with students as necessary.
8. Direct students to put these letters in envelopes in a safe place for the future generation.

Lesson Two: Searching for Primary Sources

Students learn how to locate primary sources about San Francisco in the American Memory collections for 1900-1929. Note: If you are in another big city such as Chicago or New York, you may wish to substitute that city or a state for this lesson. Before making this change, be sure to do some preliminary searching using the substituted city or state name. For San Francisco, using the 1900-1929 time period provides very good results. For another city or state, it may be necessary to modify the decade selected for this lesson, which teaches searching techniques in the American Memory collections.

What was happening in San Francisco from 1900 to 1929?

1. Have students access the American Memory collections and complete the following:

• From the American Memory collections homepage, select More browse options.
• From the Browse Collections by Time Period section, select the years 1900-1929.
• Select one or two of these collections, which appeal to you.
• Click on the title and search in this collection using the keyword San Francisco.

Note: some collections will be more successful than others in this search.

2. Have students find something that interests them about San Francisco in the decades from 1900-1929. Some items to consider are:

• What did the city look like?
• What buildings existed?
• What events were happening?
• Who were the important people?
• What did people wear and do?

3. After the students complete the search, have them report to the class.

• Explain what you found.
• Explain how you found the item. Explain your search methods.
• Explain why it is interesting to you.
• Explain what it reveals about life in San Francisco (or California) at that time.

Lesson Three: Presidents of the United States

Who was President of the United States during the decades of 1900-1929?

Students can also learn more about the presidents by following these directions:

1. Go to the American Memory collections homepage.
2. Select Presidents.

This will bring you to a page that lists collections containing information about the presidents. Students can learn more about World War I from additional online or print resources.

Evaluation

• Students working in groups create topical charts based on information found in the 1913 newspaper and supported by research in secondary sources.
• Students working in groups create topical charts based on information found in a current newspaper and supported by research in secondary sources.
• Each student creates a secondary source, writing a letter explaining what she or he would like her or his grandchildren to know about this day in history.

Students

Students will follow the teacher's directions in class.

Procedure

Lesson One: Analyzing an Interview

Find complete directions for this lesson in the student Lesson One: Analyzing an Interview.

Lesson 2: Conducting an Interview

Direct the students to the student page Lesson Two: Conducting an Interview. Remind the students to take careful and extensive notes or to tape (audio or video) the interview.

1. You may require the students to do a transcript (not a summary or interpretive narrative) of the interview. If the interview is extremely long, this requirement may be adjusted to fit a major section of the interview.
2. The typed transcript should be at least four pages.
3. If only a portion of the interview is transcribed, the student must hand in the notes or tape from the entire interview.
4. Students are directed to perform spell-check and grammar-check on the interview transcript. They are not to change the grammar, idioms, etc., of the person interviewed but to use [sic] to indicate these non-standard items.

Extension

You may wish to create a file or a Web site of interview transcripts. The transcripts and the resulting history research papers and visuals created for the history research paper oral presentation may form part of a presentation or display for "Grandparents' Day," if such an event is celebrated at your school.

Evaluation

1. The collected interview transcripts should be read, but not marked or graded, by the teacher. If the transcripts do not meet the requirements, they should be returned to the student for revision. The comments should focus on what was interesting or unique about the person, the good qualities of the interview process, and ask questions of the student to further his or her learning from the interview.
2. A roundtable sharing of what each student found interesting during the interview concludes this unit. As the students share one to three interesting things, the teacher and the librarian should make notes. These "interesting things" often lead to the topics that the students pick for their history research paper Unit 4. The librarian and teacher can use this list to help students select their topic.

Students

Lesson One: Analyzing an Interview

One of the ways to learn about history is to conduct an interview with a grandparent or elder. In preparation for your interview, you will study one of the interviews gathered by the Federal Writers' Project during the Depression years of 1936-1940. The interview,Women and the Changing Times, is now part of American Life Histories, 1936-1940 in the American Memory collections.

Read the transcript of this interview with Mrs. Blount. As you read this primary source document make some notes.

Here are some of the questions you might ask about this interview:

1. Where and when did this interview take place?
2. Who was the interviewer?
3. What questions do you think the interviewer asked Mrs. Blount in order to elicit the information in this document? Make a list of these questions.
4. What facts do you learn about Mrs. Blount?
5. What additional questions would you like to ask Mrs. Blount if you were conducting the interview?
6. What aspect or topic of this interview appeals to you most?
7. If you were to summarize what you learned from this interview, what would you say?

Be sure to save your notes from this assignment for use during Unit III, when we use primary and secondary sources to learn about family life during the Great Depression.

Lesson Two: Conducting an Interview

After you have finished your analysis of the interview from the American Memory collections, you are ready to prepare to interview.

1. Select a person and ask to interview him or her. Express interest in learning about his or her life and if necessary explain the class project. If asked, tell the person that he or she may choose not to answer some of the questions--that you will be flexible but are most interested in learning his or her life story. Arrange for a specific time and place to meet for the interview. If necessary, the interview may be conducted by phone.
2. Before conducting the interview, print out a consent form. Complete this form before you hold the interview and return it to your teacher. Both you and the person you interview should sign the form.
3. Refer to the list of Interview Questions to ask during the interview. Some of the questions are mandatory and some are optional.
4. In addition to the required questions, ask at least two questions that you have created yourself.
5. Points to remember in conducting the interview are:
   You are looking for quality information.
   If the person you're interviewing does not want to answer a particular question, don't insist.
   If you are interested and intrigued with something the person being interviewed is discussing, continue the conversation.
   If you don't complete all of the questions, don't worry; get through as many questions as possible.
6. You may record your interview, but you must type it out.
7. Hand in a typed interview transcript written in complete sentences--except for the vital statistics. Include the questions with the answers.
8. If only a portion of the interview is transcribed, you must hand in the notes or recording from the entire interview.
9. Use spell-check and grammar-check and proofread the interview transcript. Do not correct or change the grammar, idioms, etc., of the person interviewed. If the person interviewed uses unique phrasing or pronunciation of a word, insert [sic] in the transcript following each non-standard item, to indicate that the phrasing or spelling is intentional and reflects the language of the answers.
10. To conclude this unit, you will participate in a classroom roundtable discussion, in which you will share with you classmates what you found most interesting during the interview.
11. Take note of one to three "interesting things" that might form a topic for further research.

Procedure

Lesson One: What can be learned from a photograph?

1. This lesson may be done online or offline, depending on the available equipment. If time or equipment constraints exist, do this exercise as a class, using a projector.

2. Direct the students to the student lesson What can be learned from a photograph? for the exercise on primary source photographs. The lesson uses the Dorothea Lange photographs of the migrant woman with her children.
3. Using the Teacher's Guide to Analyzing Prints and Photographs and the Primary Source Analysis Tool, ask the students: "What do you see?"
4. Ask the students: "What do you see?" and direct them to record their answers on the Primary Source Analysis Tool. Select questions from the Teacher's Guide to Analyzing Prints and Photographs to guide further observation and discussion.
5. Point out to the students that they each observe different things and have different perceptions of the same thing. Intense disagreements may occur when the students look at the various photographs.
6. As a conclusion to this lesson, the class as a whole should discuss what this series of six photographs by Dorothea Lange reveals about family life during the Great Depression.

Lesson Two: What can be learned from a document?

1. This lesson uses the same document, "Women and the Changing Times," a transcript of an oral interview, that was used in the interview unit. If you have completed Unit 2 with your students, direct them to locate the document and their notes from the earlier lesson, both of which should have been placed in the project folder.

2. Direct the students to the student lesson What can be learned from a document?.
3. In this lesson, students learn about the Great Depression from a primary source document. It is best if students record the details that they learn from the interview on the Primary Source Analysis Tool. Before the students begin, select questions from the teacher’s guide Analyzing Books and Other Printed Texts to focus the group work, and select additional questions to focus and prompt a whole class discussion of their analysis.
4. The printed document may also be used to teach annotation.
5. A class discussion on what this document reveals about family life in the Great Depression is very valuable

Lesson Three: Gees Bend

The students' challenge is to use their new skills of observation and deduction to learn about family life in the community of Gees Bend, Alabama, during the time of the Great Depression. The lesson also challenges the students to expand their research skills.

As students ask questions and seek answers, the teacher and the librarian provide helpful instruction on how to look for information. This lesson involves information access, search strategies, and use of information that is located.

1. Direct students to the student lesson Gees Bend.
2. The students start with a selected group of Twenty Photographs of Gees Bend, Alabama. Explain that the photographs were taken during the Depression by Marion Post Wolcott and Arthur Rothstein, two photographers who were part of a project sponsored by the Farm Securities Administration-Office of War Information of the New Deal.
3. Students search online and print resources for information about Dorothea Lange and her photography of Depression farm communities.
4. Students use maps from reference sources, print and online, to locate Gees Bend.
5. Students use research sources, print and online, to learn the reason why the town is named "Gees Bend."
6. Students research the history of this community in its plantation period.
7. The students compile their research and create oral presentations. These ten to fifteen minute presentations may be recorded or performed live.
8. After the activity, have students locate and read the American Memory presentation about Arthur Rothstein, which provides additional information about Gees Bend.

Lesson Four: What can be learned from a sound recording?

This lesson uses the song "Sunny California."

1. Direct the students to the student lesson What can be learned from a sound recording?.
2. The students listen to the recording several times in order to understand all of the words. Students analyze the sound recording, recording their thoughts on the Primary Source Analysis Tool. Before the students begin, select questions from the teacher’s guide Analyzing Sound Recordings to focus and prompt analysis and discussion.
3. The teacher may need to acquaint the students with the "ballad" form so that they are better able to understand this song. If students are acquainted with other ballads such as Barbara Allen, they may be more receptive to this song and the lesson.
4. The teacher explains that this woman's song is a type of ballad in which she tells the sad story of her move to California.
5. The teacher may find that providing a transcript of the song is useful. To accomplish this, a student or group of students can be assigned to listen to the song and create a transcript. The teacher should check and edit the transcript before copying and distributing it to the class.
6. After completing the lesson, the class should discuss what the words of the song reveal about family life during the Great Depression.

Lesson Five: Focused Research Essay

1. Using all the information gathered about family life in the Great Depression from documents, photographs, and sound recordings, assign the students to write an essay about family life in the Great Depression.

2. Students form a thesis about family life in the Great Depression and support this thesis by drawing upon specific details learned from the study of the primary source materials. The thesis should be a main question about family life in the Great Depression. Discuss with students that in writing the paper, they are creating a secondary source by using the results of their focused research.
3. Teachers usually ask students to write a thesis statement and think of a thesis as a declarative sentence not as an interrogatory one. In this project, the approach is different. Students are asked to begin with a main question, an interrogatory sentence. The interrogatory sentence becomes transformed into the thesis. This approach is purposefully taken in this lesson and throughout the project because learning how to ask good questions leads to better student research and writing. The use of questions as guiding tools continues in Unit Four: Conducting and Presenting Research.

Lesson Six: Secondary Sources

As a conclusion to this unit, direct the students to read a secondary source essay or article about the Great Depression from a reference or textbook. The secondary source reading may be duplicated and distributed to the class or read directly from the source.

Students should take notes and/or annotate the article. The notes should focus on life, particularly family life, in the Depression. Students should focus on the following questions:

• What and who were the sources for information in the article?
• What differences do you notice between the information in the primary sources (the photographs by Dorthea Lange, the interview with Mrs. Blount, the photographs of the Gees Bend community, and the sound recording of "Sunny California") and the article?

Conduct a class discussion on the differences between the information learned about the Great Depression from the primary sources and that from the article/entry (secondary source). Creating a board or overhead chart may add clarity both to this discussion and to student understanding.

Evaluation

• Students research the town of Gees Bend, Alabama, using primary and secondary sources, and create oral presentations. These presentations may be taped or presented live.
• Students write an essay about family life in the Great Depression, using information gathered from documents, photographs, and sound recordings.

Students

Lesson One: What can be learned from a photograph?

Not all primary sources are documents with words that provide details and stories. Some primary sources require observation. You can learn about family life during the Great Depression from photographs. By carefully observing photographs, you can learn details and facts about a time period.

Carefully study and observe the first Dorothea Lange photograph of the migrant woman with her children.

• What do you see?
• What do you infer?
• What questions does this photo spark?
• What questions do you continue to have about this photo? Are there any facts or details that you cannot learn from the photo itself?

Record your thoughts about the photograph on the primary source analysis tool. Your teacher may have additional questions to guide your analysis.

Now study the other pictures by Dorothea Lange of the same woman and her children. Think about the following questions as you observe and study these photographs.

• How do these pictures add to your understanding of this woman and her situation?
• What do the photographs reveal about family life in the Great Depression?
• What do you understand about the Great Depression from your observations of the photos?
• What additional information is provided by the title and details about the photos?
• What more do you want to learn about the life of this woman and the time in which she lived?

What else would you need to know in order to understand how this woman's life fits into family life during the Great Depression?

If you were to summarize what you learned from these photographs to another person, what would you say?

Lesson Two: What can be learned from a document?

In Unit Two: Interviewing, you read "Women and the Changing Times," a transcript of an interview with a Mrs. Blount, fromAmerican Life Histories, 1936-1940. As you read this primary source document you made some notes. Review your notes on these questions about the interview.

1. Where and when did this interview take place?
2. Who was the interviewer?
3. What questions do you think the interviewer asked Mrs. Blount in order to elicit the information in this document?
4. What additional questions would you ask Mrs. Blount if you were conducting the interview?
5. What aspect/topic of this interview appeals to you most?

Now, you are going to observe and study this interview in greater depth. Record your thoughts about the interview on the primary source analysis tool. Your teacher may have additional questions to guide your analysis.

What does the interview reveal about family life during the Great Depression? Answer the following questions about Mrs. Blount, a woman who lived during the Great Depression:

1. Make a list of the details you learn about Mrs. Blount and her family. For example, how many people were in her family? What kind of work did the family members do? What do you learn about the type of family? About the children? About the town? About business? About school, etc.? Read the document very carefully. Make notes and write annotations in the margins.
2. What do you notice about the way the informant, Mrs. Blount, responds to the interviewer during the interview?
3. What are her attitudes towards other people?
4. What more do you want to learn about the life of this woman and the time in which she lived?
5. What else would you need to know in order to understand family life during the Great Depression?

If you were to summarize to another person what you learned about family life in the Great Depression from this document, what would you say?

Lesson Three: Gees Bend

You are a TV reporter who has been hired for a presentation on Gees Bend, Alabama. You must research Gees Bend for this presentation. Start with a selected group of Twenty Photographs of Gees Bend, Alabama, taken during the Great Depression.

You may wish to access other photographs of Gees Bend found in the black-and-white photographs of the Farm Security Administration. These pictures show life at home, at work, at school, and at play during the Great Depression. There are more than sixty images, taken by two photographers, that depict life in Gees Bend, Alabama.

Studying the twenty photos, what can you learn about this community? What observations can you make? What conclusions can you infer from the details you observe? Record your thoughts on the Primary Source Analysis Tool. Your teacher may have additional questions to guide your analysis and discussions.

Develop a list of at least six questions from which you can provide answers during your presentation on family life during the Great Depression in Gees Bend. The answers should be based upon the information you learned from your research. Note that Gees Bend may also be found as Gees' Bend and Gee's Bend. The presentation should be about ten to fifteen minutes.

Lesson Four: What can be learned from a sound recording?

Not all primary sources are documents or photographs that can be read or seen. Some primary sources require careful listening.

You have learned about family life during the Great Depression from documents and photographs. In this section, learn details and facts about the time period by listening carefully to a sound file, a song by Mrs. Mary Sullivan about the travels of her family to "Sunny California." The song is part of the Voices from the Dust Bowl, 1940-1941.

Listen carefully to the song "Sunny California."

Listen to the song more than once and answer the following questions:

1. What can you tell about the family life of these people during the Great Depression?
2. Recall the questions you used when studying the interview with Mrs. Blount. Try to answer some of the same questions about Mrs. Mary Sullivan and her family.
3. If you were to summarize what you learned from the song to another person, what would you say?

Procedure

Lesson One: Instruction for Research Paper

Step One: Topic Selection

The history research paper may focus on twentieth century:

• politics/government/wars;
• religion;
• commerce/economics;
• geography/borders;
• music/the arts;
• sports;
• housing;
• aspects of daily life; or
• specific ethnic groups.

The topic for the history research paper comes from the topics discussed during the interview. The subject for research may have been a major topic of discussion or something mentioned only briefly. For example, during the interview, the person interviewed may have:

• talked about the cars he or she owned;
• mentioned seeing one of the first Technicolor movies;
• spoken at length about the types of early television shows and compared them to the ones now on TV; or
• told stories about the business he started.

Any one of these topics could inspire the choice of the subject for research. Students should choose topics that interest them since they will be spending quite a bit of time working on the history research paper.

The paper is a history research paper about a limited topic for which there are three focused questions unified by a thesis statement. In a brief paper, it is not possible to write about the history of the American automobile. However, it is possible to research and write about the rise and fall of the Studebaker automobile. To limit this topic further, the research and writing could focus on the importance of Studebaker in the history of South Bend, Indiana.

The topic selection and the writing of the three good questions may be the hardest part of the history research paper. The better the focus of the topic or subject and the more carefully asked focused questions, the greater the success the students will have with the history research paper.

Step Three: Research

The research for the paper must include both primary and secondary sources. In the research paper, students:

• present the results of their historical research;
• discuss their interview subject's role in history; and
• reflect on the influence of history on their interview subject's life.

Have students use the techniques learned in gathering information during the study of family life during the Great Depression. Students keep an up-to-date list of all the sources used in research. These sources will become the bibliography.

Step Four: Outline

Students write a detailed outline using their questions and notes as guides. The outline should not use complete sentences. Only the thesis statement and the introductory and transition sentences for each of the three questions should be complete sentences. If students have taken notes on index cards, they can sort their information into piles related to each of the five parts of their outline and then arrange the notes in a logical manner to present information about the question and provide support for the thesis of the research.

The paper might be thought of as five parts linked with transition sentences.

1. Introduction: Include the thesis statement and overview of the historical event, period, or issue that is being researched. Everything in the paper should relate to and support the thesis. The introduction introduces the focused topic and explains, perhaps with a story or some details from the interview, the relationship of this topic to the grandparent or elder.
2. Address the first of the three questions on the chosen topic.
3. Discuss the second question, further addressing the topic and, of course, supporting the thesis.
4. Answer the third and final question on the topic. Relate the discussion to the first and second question, but further address the topic and support the thesis.
5. The conclusion sums up how the thesis has been proven and makes connections to how things are today and how the students live. Other ideas and interests may also be included. Raising questions for further study may be another part of the conclusion.

Writing

Step One: Introduction

The introduction to the history research paper should explain how the topic selected relates to the grandparent or elder. In the introduction, students should answer at least one of these questions:

• How did history the life of the person interviewed - the decisions that they made, the experiences that they had, the relationships that they formed with people, etc.?
• How and what did the person you interviewed contribute to history?
• In what actions and events did s/he participate in making history?

The introduction may present the information about the person interviewed in a personal manner. Students may wish to tell a story to explain the relationship between their focused topic and the person interviewed. The person's experience, or any other interviews that have been conducted, may be included throughout the research paper.

Step Two: Rough Draft

If students have done the detailed outline thoroughly and carefully, the rough draft should almost "write itself." Students are now crafting sentences to present the facts and details clearly so that the reader can follow the logical development of the thesis and see clearly how the thesis is supported and proven.

Step Three: Final Draft

Using the insights gained from the oral presentation, the questions from the class, and the discussions with your advocate, students polish their rough drafts and add conclusions.

The final draft must include a bibliography using correct bibliographic formatting. Footnotes or endnotes to document the exact page source of information may also be required.

The final draft must include a cover sheet. A cover illustration is optional but suggested.

Lesson Two: Presentation and Evaluation

Step One: The Oral Presentation

After completing the rough draft, students present the results of their focused research to the class. Each presentation may be accompanied by some type of visual. Students may use notes and refer to their outlines, but should not read their papers. Each student's advocate will support and assist him/her in the presentation and with the question and answer session.

Step Two: Self Assessment

Students may complete a self-evaluation of their research papers. The following sections of the research paper and oral presentation are required:

A. The history research paper must include:

1. Notes which must cite the source of the information.
2. Outline (complete and detailed).
3. Rough draft.
4. Final draft (four to six double-spaced typed pages).
5. Bibliography in correct format.

B. The oral presentation must include:

1. Work with a partner (personal advocate and coach) on the presentation.
2. Oral presentation of research.
3. Visual accompanying presentation.
4. Formulation of questions about and responses to other students' oral presentations.

Extension

Showcase the posters (or other visuals) prepared for the oral presentations and the research papers at a school function such as Grandparents' Day. Digital pictures of the visuals may be added to a school Web site.

Create an archive of history research papers.

Evaluation

Focused Research History Paper

• Students produce a four to six page focused research paper. Students are expected to formulate their thesis as a question, rather than as a statement, and to support their thesis using material on family life in the Great Depression gathered from primary and secondary sources.

• The topic should relate to the role the person interviewed played in history and the influence of that history on the person's life.

Oral Presentation

• Students create and present oral reports based on their focused research papers.

• Oral presentations must include a visual.

Students

Students will follow the teacher's directions in class.

Procedure

Unit Five: Creating Timelines

Students learn how to compile and organize information, develop and present timelines.

1. Have the class compile a list of all of the research topics examined.
2. Students brainstorm the themes that unite several of the projects. For example, films of the 1920s, musical films of the 1930s, women and the blues, swing dance, and vaudeville all fit the theme of entertainment. The topics of doctors in World War I, army nurses, the polio scare, and women nurses in the early 1900s, would fit a theme of health and medicine. Other possible themes might be sports, domestic life in the 1940s, World War II, transportation, or scientific advances.
3. Students with topics united by a common theme form groups and share their information.
4. Each student group creates a timeline including important events in their lives and the lives of their grandparents/elders, as well as important events and people of the period.
5. Sources of all images should be included. Add the citation to the timeline when the image is found to avoid the difficulty of relocating the citation information at a later time.
6. Share the completed timelines with the class. Another idea is to invite those interviewed to share the results of the project.

Extension

The lesson may be further extended by creating a class archive of transcripts, history research papers, and visuals. For example, students may:

1. Create a file or a Web site of the interview transcripts.
2. Photograph the posters or models created by students as visuals for the oral presentations and add them to the archive.
3. Use a digital camera or scan photographs of the visuals, and add them to the archive.
4. Prepare a presentation or display for "Grandparents' Day," in your school, using the archive of transcripts, history research papers, and visuals.

Evaluation

• Students create timelines on a common topic including important events in the lives of the people interviewed and in their own lives, as well as important events and people from the research projects. A timeline index page with links to the theme timelines should unite the timelines created by the class groups.

Students

Themes

Construct timelines on themes, drawing on several projects. For example, themes might include:

• Entertainment
• Health and Medicine
• Sports
• Domestic Life
• World War II
• Transportation
• Scientific Advances