Learning Experience Plan

Subject: Social Studies Grade level: Eighth Grade

Unit: The Great Depression Length of LEP: 1 Day/25 Minutes

Topic: President Roosevelts New Deal

Content Standards:
8.5 GREAT DEPRESSION: Economic and environmental disasters in the 1930s created hardships for many Americans.
Amidst much debate about the appropriate role of government, President Franklin D. Roosevelt helped to create intensive
government interventions in the United States economy and society. (Standards: 1, 3, 5; Themes: TCC, SOC, GOV, ECO)
8.5c President Roosevelt issued the New Deal in an attempt to revive the economy and help Americans deal with the hardships of the
Great Depression. These New Deal reforms had a long-lasting effect on the role of government in American society and its economic
life, but did not resolve all of the hardships Americans faced. Students will identify key programs adopted under the New Deal,
including the creation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the adoption of
the Social Security Act.

Literacy Standards:

Learning Experience Outcomes Learning Experience Assessments

Students will: 5-7 Facts from the Cues
Identify key programs in the New Deal. Article Venn Diagrams
Relate certain programs to programs Article Annotation
that exist today.
Use Secondary Sources to compare the
Great Depression and the economic
crisis of 2008.

Differentiation
Approaching On-level Beyond
Definitions of the terms given Students will develop their Students will also develop their
in the cues will be given to own definitions for the terms own definitions for the terms

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students on this level, in order given in the cues. This will given. They will also be asked to
to help them differentiate help them develop their own develop their own cues for the
between the terms. connections between the New Deal and the Great
terms. Depression.
Curriculum Integration (Does this lesson correlate with any other content area? Describe.)

Materials Procedures/Strategies

Google Day 1
Classroom
New York Sponge Activity:
Times
Articles Written on the board as students walk in will be the following cues:
October 29, 1929
Whiteboar Social Security
d FDIC
Alphabet Soup
Article
Venn President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Diagrams Economic Crash
The students will then be broken up into pairs of two and discuss what they already
Student know about the Great Depression, President Roosevelt, and the New Deal. Each
Laptops/iP student must write down at least 5-7 facts they know. For those who are on the
ads approaching level, definitions of the listed terms will be given. For those who are on-
level they will be asked to develop their own definitions to help list known facts. For
those beyond, they should also develop their own definitions and develop new cues
for the New Deal.

Anticipatory Set:

What key programs from the New Deal exist today?

How did FDRs New Deal impact the Depression?
How can we relate the economic crash of 1929 to the economic crisis of 2008?

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 Activating Prior Knowledge:

Written on the board as students walk in will be the following cues:

October 29, 1929
Social Security
FDIC
Alphabet Soup
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Economic Crash
The students will then be broken up into pairs of two and discuss what they already
know about the Great Depression, President Roosevelt, and the New Deal. Each
student must write down at least 5-7 facts they know. For those who are on the
approaching level, definitions of the listed terms will be given. For those who are on-
level they will be asked to develop their own definitions to help list known facts. For
those beyond, they should also develop their own definitions and develop new cues
for the New Deal.

Direct Instruction:

As a class, we will read the New York Times article Lesson From a Crisis: When
Trust Vanishes, Worry. We will then discuss the articles focusing on the following:
a. How does David Leonhardt use the story of Meyer Mishkin to illustrate the
connection between the Great Depression and todays economic uncertainty?
b. Underline and number the economic conditions and events that occurred between
October 1929 and 1933.
c. Circle all of the references to the economic conditions and events of the last 13
months.
d. How does the issue of trust relate to both past and present economic conditions?
e. Based on the evidence presented, do you think another Great Depression is
possible? Why or why not?

These questions will be displayed on the board so that the students can follow them
while we read the articles as a group.

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 Students may use laptops or iPads to read the article, a link will be sent to them via
Google Classroom. Printed copies will also be available.

Guided Practice:

Students will then work in groups of 2 or 3 to complete a Venn Diagram comparing

the similarities and differences of between past and present economic crises. Label the
diagram 1929 Stock Market Crash/Great Depression on one side, and Todays
Economic Crisis on the other. They may use information from the article to fill out
the Venn Diagram and prior knowledge.

Independent Practice:

Students will be given three articles that also compare and contrast past and present
economic crises. They must read one of the three and fill out another Venn Diagram
and develop their own cues for the article they read. The three New York Times
articles are:
-Partying Like Its 1929
-Depression You Say? Check Those Safety Nets
-A Pause to Recall the 1987 Crash

Closure (action/statement by teacher designed to bring lesson presentation to an appropriate close)

As a class, we will share and discuss what each group filled out in their Venn
Diagrams and write down common similarities and differences among the groups on
the board.

References:

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https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/a-tale-of-two-economies/
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20081
(http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/opinion/21krugman.html)
(http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/weekinreview/23duhigg.htm
(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/business/yourmoney/14mark.

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New Deal Cues:

October 29, 1929

Social Security
FDIC
Alphabet Soup
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Economic Crash
In pairs, please write down 5-7 facts that you know about the New Deal, Great Depression and President Roosevelt.

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