Warm Up/Bell Ringer:

How did you feel when you came in this morning and realized that we were watching a movie?

How did watching a movie change your feelings about the day?

How do you think this experience can help you understand the experience of Americans during the Great Depression?

Our first question:

How did the Great Depression affect workers?

• During the worst years of the Depression (1933-1934) 25% of people were unemployed.

• Another 25%: pay cuts or part time work • It was not until 1941, when WWII was

underway, that unemployment officially fell back below 10%.

An early form of Social Security began Aug 14, 1935, to implement social insurance for the elderly who did not have enough money to support themselves.

The most famous demonstration during the Great Depression was held by the “Bonus Army.”

Desperate for $$$, WWI veterans requested financial bonuses that were scheduled to be given in 1945 to be paid instead in 1932.

The U.S. Army was called in to disperse them.

• Many people tried apple selling to avoid the shame of panhandling.

• In New York City alone, there were as many as 6,000 apple sellers

Between 1930 and 1935, nearly 750,000 farms were lost through bankruptcy or sheriff sales.

2/13/13 Bell Ringer/Warm Up:

Today’s bellringer will NOT be in your spiral. Please take out a piece of paper and write your name, date and period.

Objective: Students will explore the experience of Americans during the Great Depression.

Some Americans chose to invest large amounts of money in the Stock Market during the 1930s. These individuals lost substantial amounts of money, and many accumulated large debts. Some Americans lost everything during the Great Depression, even though they never invested any money in the stock market. Write a paragraph explaining how this could happen.

Our next question:

What did Americans do to escape reality during the great depression?

During the Great Depressio

n, a record 60-80 million Americans

went to the

movies every week.(35¢ )

Biggest blockbusters: 1933 King Kong, 1939 The Wizard of Oz and 1939 Gone with the Wind

At the start of the decade 12 million American households owned a radio, and by 1939 this total had exploded to more than 28 million

Families would gather around the radio to listen to radio dramas and news programs!

Clip

Our next question:

How did living conditions change?

Our next question:

How were children affected?

Scholars estimate that nearly 50% of children during the Great Depression did

not have adequate food, shelter, or medical care.

By the 1930s, thousands of schools were operating on reduced hours or were

closed down entirely.

Some three million children had left school, and at least 200,000 took to riding

the rails

Some people

(including Children)

who became

homeless would ride on railroad

cars because

they didn’t have

money to travel.

Our next question:

What other changes did Americans encounter?

Discrimination during the Great Depression against women was

common: they were seen as taking away jobs from men.

African-Americans were the hardest hit

during the Great Depression, and they were often the first to get

laid off

John D

illin

ger

Mach

ine G

un

Kelly

Baby F

ace

Nels

on

Pretty Boy Floyd

As businesses and farms closed during the Great Depression, an alarming number of Americans began turning to crime

And Bonnie and Clyde….

After the initial crash, there was a wave of suicides in the New York’s financial district.

It is said that the clerks of one hotel even started asking new guests if they needed a room for sleeping or jumping.

One American sheep farmer found that he would not make money off of his sheep during the depression.

Rather than watch his 3,000 sheep starve to death, he cut their throats and threw them in a canyon

The board game Monopoly, which first became available in 1935, became immensely popular perhaps because players could become rich—at least in their imagination.

The Great Depression changed the family in several ways:

Many couples delayed marriageDivorce rates droppedBirth rates dropped Some men also abandoned

their familiesA 1940 poll revealed that 1.5

million married women were abandoned by their husbands

Exit Ticket

Review: List 10 ways in which Americans were impacted by the Great Depression.

Warm Up/Bell Ringer2/14/13

Happy Valentines Day In your opinion…what was the

most difficult part of life for an Americans during the Great Depression? Why?

Bell Ringer/Warm Up

What OBSERVATIONS can you make about the photo?

What INFERENCES

can you make about the photo?

What PREDICTIONS

can you make about

today’s lesson based

on the photo?