The Great Depression Research Project

Information Literacy Standards

1.2 Knows Parts of a Book and Digital Resources
1.2.2 Identifies parts of a book: table of contents, publisher, page numbers, copyright date, and call number
1.2.5 Identifies online terms and their uses (e.g., home page, Web page, url, responsibility statement, search engine)
1.7 Uses Digital Resources to Access Information
1.7.3 Uses databases (e.g., cd-roms, online free and fee-based services) for school use
1.9 Uses a Developmentally Appropriate Research Process to Access Information
1.9.1 Identifies a problem or question that needs information
1.9.2 Uses presearch strategies such as brainstorming, mapping, and recalling of prior knowledge
1.9.3 Identifies and uses keywords to find specific information
1.9.4 Uses keywords and controlled vocabulary to develop search statements for use with databases, search engines, digital books, and other digital sources and formats
1.9.5 Formulates questions that define the scope of the investigation
1.9.6 Selects a topic, focuses the investigation, and gathers information in order to construct a meaningful final product
1.9.7 Uses Dewey call numbers to locate books in areas of interest or to explore topics in depth
1.9.8 Selects and reads familiar and unfamiliar material independently
1.9.9 Uses a variety of print and digital reference material (e.g., dictionary, almanac, thesaurus,
atlas, encyclopedia, and periodicals) to locate
information
1.9.10 Uses title, table of contents, chapter headings, and navigation elements to locate information in books and digital resources
1.9.11 Uses subheadings to locate information in nonfiction resources
1.9.12 Obtains information from illustrations, photographs, charts, graphs, maps, and tables
1.9.13 Uses scanning and skimming skills to locate relevant information
1.9.14 Continues to show growth in selection of sources and formats for educational and
personal use
1.9.15 Uses cross references (see, see also) to locate relevant information
1.9.16 Identifies bibliographic references
1.9.17 Uses bibliographies in books and digital resources to access information beyond the immediate
source and school library media collection
1.9.18 Uses a variety of print and digital information resources to facilitate research
1.9.19 Uses advanced and specialized reference books and digital resources
1.9.20 Identifies and uses computer icons and program menus to search for information (e.g., locates an index, navigates a subject tree, accesses a help screen)
1.9.21 Refines search strategies for research projects
1.9.22 Selects and uses a variety of appropriate media to access information for assignments
1.9.23 Records author, title, and other citation elements systematically while accessing information sources
2.3 Selects Relevant Information during the Research Process
2.3.1 Understands that notetaking is a tool forinformation processing (e.g., remembering, comparing, analyzing, and sequencing)
2.3.2 Selects and records relevant information, organizing notes in a format appropriate to the task
2.3.3 Restates facts and details to clarify and organize ideas for notetaking standard
8.1 Respects Copyright and Fair Use
8.1.1 Understands the purpose of an intellectual commons and fair use, and why plagiarism, violating copyright and other illegal or unethical uses of information and technology
are unacceptable
8.1.2 Cites sources in a standard format to give credit to authors and creators of information, ideas, art, media, and software
8.1.3 Cites sources in text, using a standard footnoting, parenthetical, or other citation system
8.1.4 Quotes or paraphrases information to avoid plagiarism
8.1.5 Builds a formal bibliography or source list, using an appropriate format
8.1.6 Understands the value of an intellectual commons, as well as the consequences of plagiarism, for self and society

Friday, January 23, 2009

Learn about the Great Depression

The Great Depression was a worldwide economic disaster that began with the Stock Market Crash of October 29, 1929 and lasted until the outbreak of World War II. Over a four year span, from 1929 to 1933, unemployment increased from 1.5 million to 15 million. Thirty percent of the banks failed. Jobless people sold apples, stood in breadlines and lined up at soup kitchens. "Hoovervilles" or shantytowns were set up in vacant city lots or on the edge of city dumps. Men and boys took to the road to find work. Perhaps the hardest hit were the farmers. After a series of droughts in areas of Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico and the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas, farmers found their crops destroyed and the topsoil layer had turned to dust. Foreclosures caused the farmers and their families to head west. Approximately sixty percent of the population migrated westward. With the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, our 32nd president, in 1933, the United States began to see positive change. His administration's New Deal brought change and relief to the depressed economy.

Picture from http://www.theclydebankstory.com/images/TCSA00241_m.jpg

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

The Great Depression Research Project

Topics for Research
People
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Herbert Hoover
John L. McCarty
Walter Sherman Giffor
Milo Reno
Walter W. Water
Charles Edward Coughlin
Huey Pierce Long
Francis E. Townsend
Hugh Hammond Bennett
Bam White
Rexford Guy Tugwell (Director of Resettlement Administration)
Arthur Wood

Photographers:
Dorothea Lange
Walker Evans
Ben Shahn
Arthur Siskind
Marian Post Wolcott
Pare Lorenz (film maker)

Events and Organizations
Black Tuesday (October 29, 1929)
Home Loan Bank Act
"Hoovervilles"
New Deal
Drought
Dust Bowl
Black Sunday (April 14, 1935)
Mass Exodus
Work Progress Administration
Resettlement Administration

Websites
American Memory
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsowhome.html

National Heritage Museum
Teenage Hoboes in the Great Depression
https://www.nationalheritagemuseum.org/Default.aspx?tabid=405

National Archives
http://www.nara.gov/

Learn California
http://www.learncalifornia.org/

Calisphere
http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/

Websites to help you prepare for your interview:
The Smithsonian Folklife and Oral History Interviewing Guide
by Marjorie Hunt from The Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Oral History

http://www.folklife.si.edu/explore/resources/interviewguide/interviewguide_home.html

Guidelines for Oral History Interviews-The History Channel

http://www.history.com/classroom/oralhistguidelines.pdf

The Great Depression Research Project

7th Grade Writing Standards

Information Literacy Standards

Friday, January 23, 2009

Learn about the Great Depression

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

The Great Depression Research Project