Malaika Tandi Smith

Rodolofo Bret Tortolero

Julia Gorham Guthrie

EDRS 610

Spring 2011

The Great Depression

Our assignment was to use the questioning

strategy for reading as a method to develop

our students’ knowledge of

economics through the use of literature,

newspaper articles, poetry, photo images, and song lyrics. We

used the questioning strategy in the context of our content area –

social studies.

Our classroom is set in a suburban school next to

a large city. We are teaching an 11th grade,

4th period class composed of 28

students: 12 girls and 16 boys. Thirteen of our

students receive either free or reduced lunch, several students have

parents who have been laid off, and several

students have parents in the armed forces. There is one child who has a paraprofessional with him due to having a

physical disability. We are in the middle of a

unit on the Great Depression.

The Lesson Plan

Standards and Objectives

Features of the Classroom

Materials and ProceduresBackground to the LessonWarm-up

Motivator and Bridge

Developmental Activity

Summary and Closure

Review and Homework

Assessment

Adaptations

Conclusions

References

Content Area: US History Class descriptor – The class is an 11th grade, 4th period class that is

50 minutes long. There are 28 students, 12 girls, and 16 boys.  There are 13 students receiving free and reduced lunch. Quite a few parents have been laid off due to where this school is and there are a few family members in the armed services. There is one child who has a paraprofessional with him due to having a physical disability. It is day 20 of the first semester, and it is the 3rd lesson in a unit that will last 10 class periods. 

Lesson Topic: The Great Depression and the current economic crisis; Comparing and contrasting primary sources

Lesson Objective - How is an economy dependent on government, business, and consumers? Compare and contrast the Great Depression and the current economic crisis.

Goals for this class: Students will Express understanding of the multiple ways that the economy is

dependent upon the government; Express understanding of the ways that people are in turn

dependent upon economy, particularly in the area of unemployment.

What were the basic economic weaknesses in the American Economy in the late 1920 that led to the Great Depression and what weaknesses started the current economic crisis?

Features of the Classroom Situation

Lesson

DC Learning Standards (11th Grade History) – 11.7. Students analyze the causes and effects of the Great

Depression 11.7.1 Describe the weaknesses in key sectors of the economy in

the late 1920s 11.7.2 Describe the explanations of the principal causes of the

Great Depression. Common Core Learning Standards – Reading Informational Text:

Grades 11-12 Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their

development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text.

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a text

Common Core Learning Standards – History/Social Studies Grades 11-12 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and

secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.

Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.

Curriculum Standards Addressed

Lesson

Students will expand upon their knowledge of the connections between the government and the problems of unemployment.

Students will be able to independently use the listing strategy to generate a list of questions from the warm-up.

Students will be able to categorize their list of questions according to relevancy.

Students will use the question webs to expand upon the thinking strategy to develop a central question addressing the issue of the role of the government in the economy. Students will use peer support and their background knowledge of the materials to accomplish this objective.

Students will independently research answers to the question using the materials provided and they will independently write the answers to the central question on the poster board.

Students will successfully fulfill their role within the group, as assigned.

Students will use the discussion rules to successfully communicate with each other within the group and complete the strategies.

Cognitive Learning Objectives

Lesson

Students will demonstrate comprehension of the lesson’s objective and take independent initiative in achieving this objective.

Students will use the journaling activity to express understanding of the pain, frustration and disappointment felt by people living in the Depression and the current recession.

Students will express understanding of the specific ways that the Depression and the recession affects day to day life and the role that unemployment plays in daily life in the journal activity.

Students will express understanding of how these economic events disproportionately impact people of different ethnicities, women and families.

Students will process their feelings about these events and reorganize this information within their own schema.

Students will compare the feelings of the people who lived in the depression and the recession to recognize the value of the economy in day to day life.

Affective Learning Objectives

Lesson

For Entire Period: Computer Key vocabulary list provided to students as a

reference For Warm-up: Great Depression image

http://mises.org/images/3372/gd3.jpg - multimedia source

For Motivator/Bridge: Highlighters (Green, Pink, Yellow) For Developmental Activity: Poem distributed to students: Let American

Be America Again by Langston Hughes Images of the Depression located at

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/dust-bowl-migration/

Lyrics to a song distributed to students: I am Changing My Name to Fannie Mae by Tom Paxton

Recession photos, Surviving Hard Times (PHOTOS) located at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/28/recession-photos-survivin_n_333826.html?slidenumber=3

1. Warm-up: 5 minutes 2. Motivator/bridge: 10

minutes 3. Developmental activities:

20 minutes 4. Summary/closure: 10

minutes 5. Homework: 5 minutes

Procedures

More families Became Homeless in the Recession by Henri Cauvin located at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/12/AR2011011206298.html.

Poster Board Colored Markers Sticky notes For

Closure/Homework Journals

Materials

Lesson

Background to LessonThis lesson is the third day of the unit on the Great Depression.

During the first two days of the lesson, students were introduced to the basics facts related to the Great Depression and the current recession, for example when they took place and their major causes. They should be familiar with terms like stock market crash, debt and relief. They should also have a context to understand the authors’ emotions in the reading materials.

On the previous day, the teacher modeled the listing and categorizing questioning strategies for the students. The teacher has also observed them working in small groups using these strategies. Also, the students were introduced to the question web reading strategy, as students should not be introduced to a strategy on the same day that they use the strategy (Brydebell, 2011). The question web is visually appealing and it is a good medium for the students to present information to each other. The teacher will model the question web for the benefit of students who need reinforcement or who may have missed the modeling the day before.

Finally, during the previous day, students were given information on their groups and roles, the expectations for the lesson, a key terms vocabulary list, and a summary of the materials needed for the day. They looked at the materials and they completed a brainstorming activity designed to connect the economy to people’s everyday lives. Their homework was to review this information and become familiar with it.

Lesson

Desks will be arranged and the students will be divided in the small group format prior to the beginning of class to avoid possible disruptions. The desk-groups will be spaciously arranged to accommodate students with disabilities and to allow all students to make transitions to the computer.

Groups are pre-assigned; the tables are arranged in groups of four. The names of the team members are listed on a piece of colored paper in the center of each group. The students’ roles were assigned to them on the previous day; their roles are also posted next to their name on the colored paper in the center of the groups.

During the introduction of the developmental activity, the teacher will review proper small group etiquette – how to work as a team, how to listen to each other, and how to break down the group’s assignment into manageable pieces.

Students will follow the guidelines for successful classroom discussion. These guidelines include the use of the accountable talk prompts that are posted in the classroom and the use of the rules for dealing with conflict.

Students who previously have demonstrated a need to take frequent breaks will have access to a break pass that allows them to take one, 3 minute break from the group when they feel the need to do so.

When the students arrive to class, they will be instructed to locate their team members, sit with their groups, and listen for instructions on the day’s warm-up and motivator.

Proactive Behavior Management

Lesson

The warm-up will build on the previous day’s use of the listing questioning strategy. The students are now asked to use the strategy on their own (Harvey and Goudvis, 2007, p. 112).

The teacher will project an image of the Great Depression on the board. Above the projection of the poster, the teacher will post the following instructions, “Think about what we know of the Great Depression. Think about what we have studied so far. Now study the picture and spend five minutes listing as many questions of which you can think.”

Warm-Up

Lesson

Motivator/BridgeThe teacher will introduce the lesson’s topic and objective

question, “How is an economy dependent on government, business, and consumers? Compare and contrast the Great Depression and the current economic crisis.” The topic and objective will be written on the overhead/board.

The students will categorize the questions according to their relevancy to the lesson’s topic. The students will highlight questions that are definitely relevant in green; they will highlight questions that are irrelevant in pink, and they will highlight questions that are possibly relevant in yellow.

The teacher will then revisit the concept of using a question web to expand upon thinking and model the strategy for the students. Also, the teacher will review the goals for the developmental activity; the students were given this information the previous day and were supposed to familiarize themselves with it for homework (Harvey and Goudvis, 2007, 121).

Lesson

Developmental Activities

Lesson

The goal for this activity is for students to create a question that will lead them to understand the people’s dependency on the government to create and protect jobs and the crisis that families face when family members are unemployed. Students will also demonstrate an understanding that these factors affected people from all backgrounds and ethnicities. Students will know that they have met the objectives of the lesson when they have created the question, developed answers to their question, and successfully written a journal entry according to the rubric. The goal is for the students to be able to connect the feelings from the poem – the anger, the frustration, the disappointment – into their day-to-day lives.

Three groups will look at the Great Depression resources, and four groups will look at the current recession resources. The teacher will model this procedure to the students and walk around to the groups to answer individual questions. The teacher will also remind the students of the positive group work strategies that are used for all group projects. Students will be reminded that this is an emotional issue and that they should use the rules for conflict resolution that are routinely used in the class. These strategies are further explained in the section on proactive classroom management.

Each student’s role in his/her group will cohere with at least one of his/her demonstrated strengths. A student with demonstrated question writing skills will take responsibility for synthesizing the groups brainstorming into one answerable question (Brydebell, 2011). An identified strong reader will read the poems aloud to the group. Two students are responsible for presenting the question and answer web to the class, with the other team members providing a supporting role. Students will independently conduct their own research on-line and write responses on the web. Each student will write his/her name next to his/her answer for accountability. This type of collaboration provides students opportunities to socialize with each other and helps to support and inclusive classrooms (Snowman, McCown, and Biehler, 2009).

Resources

Developmental Activities

Let American Be America

Again

I am Changing My Name to Fannie Mae

More families Became

Homeless in the RecessionLesso

n

Resources

Lesson

The following directions will be given orally and displayed in the classroom:

Step 1: With your group, look at your list of highlighted questions. Look at the questions you highlighted in green and decide as a group which question to write in the center of your web. You may also combine elements from several questions to form one, new question. Your question should focus upon the ways that the economy is dependent upon the government and how people are in turn dependent upon economy. Draw upon what you remember from the first two classes and the pre-reading activity.

Step 2: The designated question writer will write the question in the middle of the poster board and place a circle around the question.

Step 3: The group reader will read the poem or lyrics. Everyone should take notes on sticky notes or directly on the paper.

Step 4: Everyone locate the visual images on-line and take notes. Your notes should show how you will use this information to answer your question.

Step 5: Using your notes, write answers to your questions on a line off the bubble. Place your name underneath what you wrote. You may also use a symbol or picture to demonstrate your answer. The goal is to build an answer to the question from the resources provided.

Step 6: The designated students will present the question and the answers to the class using the poster board as the guide.

Developmental Activities

Lesson

In a lesson guided by questioning, this lesson will conclude with students revisiting their initial questions before the readings. At the end of class, students will be charged with both responding to these initial questions and creating new ones from the information they gathered. The teacher will host a brief discussion that sets the stage for the conclusive journaling activity. Giving multiple venues for student interaction with material will help solidify comprehension as students make multiple, personal connections with the topic. The final informal discussion will be lead by the teacher and will introduce two hypothetical people to the classroom. The first person will be a single twenty year old man working at a Ford factory in Detroit before the Great Depression. Students will be asked to describe the changes and causes of those changes to this man’s life because of the Great Depression. The second case will be a CEO of a prominent Investment Bank before the Great Recession. If students have properly synthesized the class lesson, they will be able to see that the negative consequences of financial crises tend to fall on the working class, while the rich upper-class tends to be less affected. This final exercise will reinforce student understanding before they are tasked with presenting their individual understandings in their journal.

Summary/Closure

Lesson

Review and Homework Following the discussion, the teacher will have the students pull out their

journals. In continuing their exploration of the Great Depression, students will be assigned three questions to answer in their journal for homework. Students will begin their journaling during the last five minutes of class. The journal serves as both an assessment tool for the teacher and a reflection tool for the students. Finally, the journal questions will serve as the starting point for the next day’s discussion. In answering these questions, students will be forced to synthesize the material from the previous lessons while making predictions that will engage them in the remainder the unit’s content. 

What were the basic economic weaknesses in the American Economy in the late 1920 that led to the Great Depression and what weaknesses started the current economic crisis?

What could have been done to prevent the Great Depression? What could have been done to prevent the current recession?

What should be done now to prevent another similar catastrophe in the future?

Lesson

AssessmentThroughout the lesson, students will be formatively assessed

through verbal interaction with the instructor. A Socratic Method style of questioning will be used by the teacher to deconstruct student understandings and comprehension. The lesson’s components are provided in small steps, both orally and written; they are intended to be manageable goals within each component strategy to maintain student interest and motivation toward the lesson’s objective (Alvermann, Phelps, and Gillis, 2010). The students will not be under a time-limit for each step, but the teacher will be continuously checking in on the groups to ensure they are making adequate progress.

Daily, focused journal writing will be used to deepen student comprehension and provide an outlet of self reflection and assessment with the material. Reflective discussion will be used to assist the students in interpreting their answers to their guided questions, though journal writing will be used for final synthesis.

All journals will be informally assessed by the teacher, and may become the starting point for future class discussions. As this lesson is only the third in a sequence of ten, a summative assessment will not be given to students yet. The focus of this lesson will be formative as students are challenged to think critically and analytically about material with which they are becoming familiar. Journals will be assessed based on the following rubric:Lesso

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AssessmentCriteria 5 3

10

Structure Ideas (x2)All or almost all of the

entries have a connection to

structure.

Most entries have a

connection to structure.

Few entries have a

connection to structure.

None of the entries have a

connection to structure.

Feelings and Thoughts

(x2)

Feelings and thoughts are

revealed in all or almost of

the entries.

Feelings and thoughts are

revealed in most entries.

Feelings and thoughts are

revealed in few of the

entries.

None of your feelings and

thoughts are revealed in any

of the entries.

FormatThe proper format has been

followed for all of the

entries.

The proper format has been

followed for most of the

entries.

The proper format has been

followed for few of the

entries.

The proper format has not

been followed for any of the

entries.

MechanicsAll or almost all of my

entries use correct spelling

and grammar.

Most of my entries use

correct spelling and

grammar.

Few of my entries use

correct spelling and

grammar.

None of my entries use

correct spelling and

grammar.

CompletionAll entries are present, in

order, and together.

All entries are present, but

are either not together or in

order.

All entries are not present,

but they are together or in

order.

All entries are not present,

nor are they together or in

order.

Lesson

AdaptationsTo accommodate any ELL, Special Education, and any other potentially struggling

or confused students, all instructions for all parts of the lesson will be provided in a visual/written format as well as read aloud. Visual context is beneficial to students who are in the beginning stages of reading and understanding the text (Grassi & Barker, 2010). Whenever possible, the teacher will briefly review lesson concepts and strategies that have already been covered. Finally, the teacher will frame the discussion in terms and concepts which will be accessible to all the learners in the classroom.

Materials will be assessed using the readability feature on Microsoft Word to accommodate all skill levels in the classroom. During reading, the teacher will focus attention on students who generally have the most difficulty with reading comprehension. A key terms vocabulary list will be provided for the students’ reference during the lesson. Scaffolding, modeling and enhancing prior knowledge will be strategies used to help bolster the comprehension of challenged students. Journal writing is an activity which does not require differentiation as it allows for each student's individual expression of their comprehension to be displayed. 

Several differentiation strategies are included within the strategy to make sure that all learners have the opportunity to think about and process the information. The strategy is modeled to the students by the teacher at the beginning of the class. The amount of text that the students will read is varied depending upon their reading levels. Emerging readers will read a shortened version of the Hughes poem. They will be instructed to read paragraphs 5, 6, 7 and 8 of the poem. Emerging readers using the recession era material will only read the poem. They will not read the Washington Post article. Group brainstorming is used to create the initial question. The small groups will have a mixture of performance levels, so that students with stronger background knowledge of the topic can assist students who may need reinforcement; strong readers will be paired with emerging readers. Furthermore, during readings and group work the teacher will be free to travel from group to group and provide necessary scaffolding and modeling to struggling groups or individual members. If particular group members remain reticent about their understanding, the teacher will employ a Socratic style of questioning in order to unearth understandings and potential misconceptions.

Lesson

ConclusionThe questioning strategy propels our students to deeper levels of comprehension

(Harvey and Goudvis, 2007, p. 109). In order to attain these deep levels, we have to effectively teach our students how to ask questions, and we have to provide them with the confidence to present the questions that are lingering in their minds before the class and the teacher.

A question’s effect is determined by when and where it is asked. Questions that are asked before reading are used to help readers focus on the information that is important in the text. We used the listing questioning strategy and categorization strategy to focus our students on the lesson’s topic and objective – the Great Depression and the economy’s dependency on the government, business, and consumers. Further, our goal was to use the warm-up and motivator to activate prior knowledge. By activating prior knowledge students are able to incorporate new information into their existing schema (Alvermann, Phelps, and Gillis, 2010, p. 204). We had the students activate this knowledge by formulating questions about a new picture using information they had already studied.

During the warm-up and motivator, we used the independent practice stage of direct instruction, as the teacher had already introduced, modeled, and observed guided practice of the listing and categorization strategies. The developmental activity continued the direct instruction, though the teacher began at the modeling stage. We had the teacher review the question web strategy as a means of scaffolding the lesson (Alvermann, Phelps, and Gillis, 2010, p. 199). The motivator and developmental activity were completed in a small group format. Small groups are optimal for implementing reading strategies because each student has a greater opportunity to participate and receive the support he or she needs (Brydebell, 2011). Our groups were pre-organized to provide a diverse mix of students; the groups were designed to have a balance of reading and academic skills, gender, and ethnic/ cultural backgrounds.

We preferred to create an active classroom atmosphere that resembled Freire’s (2001) constructivist classroom. We wanted to avoid Freire’s described banking method where the students passively receive the information that is methodically dispensed by the teacher. Students were provided opportunities for physical movement and socialization to maintain student interest as well as to provide an opportunity for the students to develop their social skills (Snowman, McCown, and Biehler, 2009). Moreover, socialization increases student engagement through its necessary interaction. We modeled our lesson to create the constant communication and relation characteristic of Freire’s (2001) problem-posing method.

Lesson

The entire lesson incorporated powerful imagery that portrayed the impact of unemployment on the individual and the family. The goal was for students to connect government fiscal policy to unemployment rates to personal stories through the pictures, even if the text was challenging to them. The economy is a very powerful and emotional issue to families; it affects all aspects of our lives. Many of our students were receiving free and reduced lunch, and some students’ parents were laid off. We selected Langston Hughes as our representation of the Depression era poetry because of the strong emotions and imagery imbedded in his works. Also, he is one of the most prominent African American writers of the Depression/Renaissance era. In his poem, he provides not only African American perspectives, but perspectives from Native-Americans and all working class people who have lost jobs.

We concluded our lesson with journal writing to provide an opportunity for a formative assessment for the teacher and self assessment and reflective practice for the students. The journal provided an opportunity for the teacher to gage the students’ progress and comprehension in an informal setting. More importantly, however, the journal is another step towards making our student independent learners. Our goal to produce self-regulated learners means producing students that know their strengths and weaknesses and are able to set goals for themselves (Snowman, McCown, and Biehler, 2009, p. 277-285). Journal writing coupled with the questioning strategy provides an excellent medium for students to organize their thoughts and track their progress.

Self-regulated learners purposely and thoughtfully use their skills to maximize their learning and achieve specific goals (Snowman, McCown, and Biehler, 2009, p. 277-285). We will know that our students are learning when they are monitoring their own comprehensions by asking questions and searching for answers (Harvey and Goudvis, 2007, p. 109). Through direct instruction and modeling we have provided our students with the tools to become independent learners. Our further incorporation of powerful imagery, a constructivist atmosphere, and the questioning strategy allowed us to develop Dewey’s (2001) progressive classroom that gives students a purpose of their own in the pursuit of classroom learning goals. Scaffolding the instruction, we have gradually pushed our students to become confident independent learners. Lesso

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References

Lesson

Alvermann, D.E., Phelps, S.F., & Gillis, V.R. (2010). Content area reading and literacy: Succeeding in today’s diverse classrooms. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Brydebell, L. (2011, March 10). Interview with Lynn Brydebell [Online classroom document]. Retrieved from http://tychong.umuc.edu/tycho/EDRS/610/1102/9040/conference/launchconferencing.tycho

Cauvin, H. (2011). More families became homeless in recession. Retrieved on March 3, 2011 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/12/AR2011011206298.html

Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts

& Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects. (n.d.). In Common Core Standards retrieved from http://www.corestandards.org/

Dewey, J. (2001). Democracy and education: An introduction to the philosophy of education. In Schultz, F. (Ed.), Sources: Notable selections in education, (3rd ed., pp. 39-44). Guilford, CT: McGraw-Hill/Dushkin.

Freire, P. (2001). Pedagogy of the oppressed. In Schultz, F. (Ed.), Sources: Notable selections in education, (3rd ed., pp. 87-94). Guilford, CT: McGraw-Hill/Dushkin.

Grassi, E.A., and Barker, H.B. (2010). Culturally and linguistically diverse exceptional students. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publishing.

Harvey, S. & Goudvis, A. (2007). Ch.8 Questioning: The strategy that propels readers forward. In Strategies that work, (2nd, pp. 109-124). Portland, ME: Stenhouse publishers.

Hughes, Langston (2006). Let America be America again. Retrieved on March 3, 2011 from http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/langston_hughes

Library of Congress (2011). Dust Bowl Migration Primary Source Set. Retrieved on March 3, 2011 from http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/dust-bowl-migration/

Paxton, Tom. (2010). I am changing my name to fannie mae. Retrieved on March 3, 2011 from http://www.tompaxton.com/download.html#

[Photographs of the recession]. (2011). The Huffington Post. Retrieved on March 3, 2011 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/28/recession-photos-survivin_n_333826.html?slidenumber=3

Snowman, J., McCown, R., & Biehler, R. (2009). Psychology applied to teaching (12th ed). New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company.

U.S. History & Geography. (n.d.). In DC Public Schools retrieved from http://dcps.dc.gov/DCPS/In+the+Classroom/What+Students+Are+Learning/Learning+Standards+for+High+School+Subjects.