TOPIC/TITLE:
The Great Depression/Buying on credit does not pay.

QUESTION THIS LESSON WILL ANSWER:
What were some of the underlying factors that allowed for the Great Depression to occur?

PURPOSE/RATIONALE/GOALS OF THE DAY'S LESSON:
The purpose of this lesson is to discover what some of the main causes of the great depression were.  Many times teachers blame the Great Depression solely on the 1929 stock market crash; however, there are several other causes.  It is important for students to gain an understanding that in any historical time/event, there are several causes.
The goal for this lesson is for students to understand what made the Great Depression possible.

OBJECTIVES:
SWBAT:

• Identify and discuss several causes of the Great Depression;
• Compose a news article covering the Great Depression.

• Causes and effects of changes in business cycles;
• Weaknesses in key sectors of the economy in the late 1920's;
• United States government economic policies in the late 1920's;
• Causes and effects of the Stock Market Crash;
• The impact of the Depression on the American people;
• The impact of the New Deal economic policies; and
• The impact of the expanded role of the government in the economy since the 1930's.

• Enable learners to explain how the scarcity of productive resources (human, capital, technological, and natural) requires the development of economic systems to make decisions about how goods and services are to be produced and distributed;
• Help learners analyze the role that supply and demand, prices, incentives, and profits play in determining what is produced and distributed in a competitive market system and their relation to the Great Depression;
• Have learners look at the depression according to how rules and procedures deal with demand, supply, prices, the role of government, banks, labor and labor unions, savings and investments, and capital;
• Have learners to apply economic concepts to the Great Depression.

KEY CONCEPTS AND GENERALIZATIONS: (VOCAB)

• Assembly line---In many factories, an arrangement whereby each worker performs a specialized operation in assembling the work as it passes along, often on a slow moving conveyor belt or track.
• Bank Holiday---Any period during which banks are closed by government order, such as in a financial crisis.
• Black Tuesday---October 29, 1929, the day that the Stock Market "crashed."
• Buying on Margin---A person only paid a percentage of the stock's cost and borrowed the rest from the stockbroker, intending to pay him back when they sold the stock at a higher price.
• Depression---The period of severe economic decline that began in 1929 and lasted through most of the 1930's.
• Hoovervilles---The makeshift living areas, such as collections of tents or shacks, erected by the homeless during the Great Depression.
• Installment Plan---Enabled people to buy goods without having to put up much money at the time of purchase.
• Mass Production---The production of goods in large quantities, especially by machinery and the division of labor.
• Planned Obsolescence---A policy of making goods that last only a few months or years before they must be replaced.

METHODS AND ACTIVITY

ANTICIPATORY SET:

• The anticipatory set for this lesson will be a K-W-L chart to better understand what the students know.  Students will come into class and complete the K and W parts of the chart.  Since the students already know how to complete a K-W-L chart, there should be no problems as to how to complete the work.
• Allow 5-10 minutes for students to complete the chart.  Following this time, students will discuss their responses and a class list will be created for use at a later time.

• Place the depression pictures, one by one, on the overhead projector and carry a class discussion on what they see in the pictures.  Ask students to describe each picture.  Students need to take notes of any information gained during the discussion to use in the L portion of their K-W-L chart.
• Allow students time to analyze each picture before opening the class to discussion.

• Students are to complete their K-W-L charts.  Allow students 5-10 minutes to complete this task.  When this time expires, spend the last 5 minutes discussing what the students came up with.

• For homework, have students write a journal from the standpoint of a person who has lost everything in the stock market crash.  They should include reasons why the market crashed, how they were in the situation to lose everything, and what was life now that the country had been throw into a great depression.