Introduction
Topic of the week: The Great Depression
Essential Question: How would you feel if you were in a situation where your family lost a lot of money?
Hello 5th graders! This week, you will be learning interesting information and facts that are all related to The Great Depression through this WebQuest! Doesn't that sound sad? Yes! However, you are going to look at a lot of details that will help you guys go into depth about the causes and effects of this time period and how it affected people and their families. Plus, this is going to get you thinking about what you may do differently or how you would keep track of money that you have saved up over time. You guys are also going to be doing a lot of fun online activities that will help us remember the key facts about this topic!
Objective: I am learning about causes and outcomes of The Great Depression. I will know I have got it when I can read and listen to information about this topic and apply it to multiple review strategies.
Task
Speaking of doing interesting activities, here is what this week will look like:
-Concept map related to a cool introduction video
-Online timeline
-Computer collage
-Online interviews
-Online quiz/test
-Your own skit!
You are going to explore all of these activities online; there are also resources that go with them! The teacher will go through a couple of them with you, but the rest you will explore on your own! :-) These tasks are all about getting creative and showing how you can use technology to include your own ideas for the topic. Let's have some fun!
Process
Day 1: Engage
Introduction Video:
Let's Hear a Rap about the Great Depression!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFu7us6bNSQ
Timeline Activity:
http://mrnussbaum.com/timedir/
Day 2: Explore
Use the online link to read an article that will provide you with useful information about the topic:
http://depts.washington.edu/depress/everyday_life.shtml
Make your own collage!
You will use Microsoft Word for this activity
-work on your concept map if you finish early
Day 3: Explain
Going Deeper into people’s lives during the Great Depression
Teacher and students will listen to audio recordings:
https://www.stlouisfed.org/the-great-depression/online-resources/audio
-Finish and turn in concept maps
Interactive Interviews activity:
https://www.activehistory.co.uk/Miscellaneous/free_stuff/head2head/index.htm
Day 4: Evaluate Part 1
Independent Study of the Great Depression facts
Review “Jeopardy” Game:
https://www.superteachertools.us/jeopardyx/jeopardy-review-game.php?gamefile=527488#.WiGKNJVe49U
Part 2:
Students will complete an online quiz:
http://www.softschools.com/quizzes/history/great_depression/quiz6380.html
Evaluation
Students will review the Great Depression facts through the online review link
After the students do the "jeopardy" review game, they will take the online quiz
Students will review their quiz scores and raise their hands after they have completed the quiz in order for the teacher to record it and check that the students are good to go.
Once the students have done their review and the quiz, they will extend the topic.
Day 5: Extend
Recap & Additional Research
Overview for Great Depression:
http://www.american-historama.org/1929-1945-depression-ww2-era/great-depression-facts.htm
Create your own online skit as though you were part of the Great Depression era:
Online Skit Rubric:
|
|
Approaches 0-5 points |
Meets 6-10 points |
Exceeds 11-15 points |
|
Accuracy |
Information has minimal accuracy |
Information is mostly accurate |
Information is accurate and aligns with the Great Depression era |
|
Presentation |
The skit has no originality but attempts to present a theme |
The skit has some originality and a theme |
The skit is very original and presents a clear theme |
|
Set-up |
The set-up of the skit has minimal color and at least one character |
The set-up of the skit has at least two colors and at least two characters |
The set-up of the skit is very colorful and has a full set of characters, including the student |
|
Informative |
The skit attempts to share a few interesting facts |
The skit has at least three interesting facts with a theme |
The skit shares a lot of interesting facts that align with a good theme |
Conclusion
Congratulations!
You were great participants in investigating the Great Depression this week! I hope you enjoyed learning all of these facts and "talking" to people from that time in order to get their perspectives on how difficult that time period was. Also, well done with completing your quizzes and making your own skits with your own point of views as additions! :-)
For extra research or if you would like to do any other activities outside of class with this, here are some helpful links to give you ideas:
1) https://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/ushistory/greatdepression/
2) https://online.kidsdiscover.com/unit/great-depression
3) http://greatdepression.mrdonn.org/
Thank you students again for all of your hard work this week and I hope you are able to enjoy these additional resources as well and take full advantage of them! :-)
Credits
I would like to give credit to Grand Canyon University's EED 465 course for the ideas and layout of the WebQuest planning process :-)
I would also like to give credit to the additional organizations for their wonderful availability of resources:
1) BrainPop for their quizzes and extra links as helpful tools (i.e. creative games)
2) Superteachertools for their review ideas that are applicable to Social Studies overall
Teacher Page
SS Standards:
AZ Social Studies Standards (5th grade)
Strand 5: Economics
Concept 2: Microeconomics
PO 1. Explain how price incentives affect peoples’ behavior and choices, such as colonial decisions about what crops to grow and which products to produce.
PO 2. Describe how competition, markets, and prices influence peoples’ behavior.
PO 3. Identify how people earn income by selling their labor to businesses or governments.
The purpose of this WebQuest is to encourage students to explore different ways to find and absorb information about an important Social Studies topic.
The links that were given to the students allow them to have some guided practice as well as individual curiosity due to some extra available sections within those links.
These activities and resources will be very beneficial to the students and will fit well with their different learning styles.
Regarding differentiation, there is a good amount present within the guided links as well as the activities.
For example, the day where the teacher goes over with audio recordings with the students on the website fits the needs of audio learners.
Another way that differentiation is being utilized is present through the use of pictures and having the students create their own type of skit, which would highly benefit visual learners as well.
Overall, students' needs are being met because they are able to read information within these links without feeling overwhelmed; facts are broken down into summarized points to make it more concise. Plus, one of the review activities allows students to practice their matching skills with timeline events rather than just having them write it down on paper.
This will be a very fun, helpful, and creative unit for these 5th graders.