TITLE: Research Lesson on the Dust Bowl

ENGLISH: Composition

GRADE LEVEL: 11th Grade

TEKS:

Chapter 110 English III 1 A, B, C 3 A, B, C. E 4 A ,C, D, F 8 D 9 A, B 10 A 11 E 13 A, B, C, D, E 19 A, B, C 20 A, B, D

OBJECTIVE:

The student will connect art (photographs) to the historical period and conjecture about conditions during this era in American history, sharing ideas in class discussion.

The student will research the actual historical period depicted in the photographs and share results in a formal project such as a research paper, oral report, or computer project, or in a fact-based, creative project such as a newspaper, magazine article, or annotated map.

MATERIALS:

• See images below

DISCUSSION:

1. What do the details in the photographs suggest about the time, the place, the people who are the subject matter?
2. What photographic techniques have been used by the photographers? Would color photography have made a difference?
3. What background details are included in the pictures? Consider light and shadow as well as camera angles -- what is significant in the composition?
4. What do the photographic details suggest about living conditions during this time period?
5. What does actual research tell us about the historical period? What brings the period alive for you -- the facts or pictures? What depth does the photography add?
6. These pictures perhaps represent the "worst of times" for many Americans. What does research suggest might have been the "best of times" for others in America? Can you connect the extremes of that time with the extremes of poverty and affluence in modern America?

VOCABULARY TERMS:

realism, Depression, Dust Bowl, FSA

PROCEDURE:

• Use the photographs included as a springboard for discussion about life in the time period depicted. Others are available online or from additional resources. Background-- the FSA, Farm Security Administration, documented this historical phenomenon of the Dust Bowl era through the systematic photography of such artists as Russell Lee and Dorothea Lange. This government project resulted in a large repository of images that depict the human suffering and human spirit; collections around the country are exhibited periodically.
• Discuss the photographs as art and realism. What photographic techniques make these stark photographs so effective? What do they reveal about the time? Do they make viewers want to know more about the era?
• Share information or allow students to do some research about the Dust Bowl era, perhaps focusing on the Panhandle area of Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Colorado and New Mexico were involved, to a lesser degree. California has been connected to the migrant workers, many of them "Okies" who left their home to search for employment along the highway and eventually in California. John Steinbeck's classic novel The Grapes of Wrath traces the journey of the Joad family, set in this time period.
• Some students may have stories from relatives who lived here in those times. They might want to tape interviews or borrow pictures to share in discussion. Research should reveal the drought as a common cause of the Dust Bowl, but students should also discover that agriculture's inadequate methods were also to blame for the catastrophe. They might find information on the migrant camps, the current agricultural practices, the droughts, the ballads of the time, family and children, the Depression. Some might also research to see the other side--life of the wealthy during this era. Various products effectively display and share information.

EVALUATION:

Rubric which addresses the accuracy of information, possible research skills, grammar and mechanics, appropriate handling of material.

RESOURCES:

Publications:
Curtis, James. Mind's Eye, Mind's Truth: FSA Photography Reconsidered. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989.
Steinbeck, John. The Harvest Gypsies. Berkeley: Heyday Books, 1936. Voices from the Dustbowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection. 1940-1941. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/tshome.html [collection of photos, video, audio, ballad texts, background on the time]

Internet Links:
The Dust Bowl, http://www.usd.edu/anth/epa/dust.html