The Great Depression is an important topic in United States history. During this time many people felt the economic hardships, such as homelessness, unemployment, and hunger. If you’re a secondary U.S. History teacher, you might be wondering where to even start with teaching about the Great Depression. Using primary source documents is a great way to start! Primary source documents allow students to think more critically about events that have taken place. 

One way to use primary source documents in class is through an inquiry-based lesson. My Great Depression inquiry based lesson focused on the question, “Why wasn’t President Hoover re-elected in 1932?” 

This question engages students because it focuses on how President Hoover handled the Great Depression. 

I’ll go over my inquiry-based lesson and the supporting questions I used to scaffold student learning. 

If you want to use my lesson, check out my TPT store by clicking here. (Include link to Great Depression lesson)

Engage students from the start!

To begin the lesson, I show students an image as a warm-up. The image is of kids holding picket signs. One  picket sign says, “Why can’t you give my dad a job?”

Based on the image, students have to explain what they would say to these kids who are protesting unemployment. After students have been given a chance to write down their response, allow students to share their opinions with the class. 

To prepare students for the lesson, explain to them that the image was taken during the Great Depression. Then explain to students that the main focus question for this lesson is, “Why wasn’t President Hoover re-elected in 1932?”

Scaffolds

To scaffold the lesson, supporting questions are used. Each supporting question has primary source documents and a formative task. These tasks prepare students to answer the main focus question. 

The first supporting question is, “What was President Hoover’s response to the Great Depression?”

The second supporting question is, “What was the public’s attitude to President Hoover’s response to the Great Depression?”

The third supporting question is, “Why were voters attracted to Franklin D. Roosevelt?”

Once students read the primary sources for each supporting question, they complete formative tasks. 

The first formative task is: write 1 paragraph describing Herbert Hoover’s government policies during the Great Depression.

The second formative task is: write 1 paragraph explaining the public’s attitude towards Hoover’s response to the Great Depression.

The third formative task is: Write a summary supported by evidence to explain how Franklin D. Roosevelt attracted voters. 

Summative Assessment 

Once students complete the formative tasks, they will be able to complete the summative assessment. The summative assessment that I used for this inquiry based lesson was: Construct a 3-4 paragraph essay that answers the question: Why wasn’t President Hoover re-elected in 1932? 

To answer this question, students must use at least 3 pieces of evidence. The evidence that they use can come from the formative tasks that they completed prior to the summative assessment. 

This inquiry based lesson is a great way to engage students in learning about the Great Depression. 

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