Oral History: The Great Depression

Students attempt to learn about the culture of the 1930s by conducting personal interviews with people that lived during the Great Depression. After conducting their interviews, the students share their information with the entire class. As the class members are exposed to the interviews conducted by their peers, they attempt to identify common themes that apply to the economic, social and political realms of people’s lives during the Great Depression.

Standards
Social Studies
Grade 10

History, Benchmark F
The United States in the 20th Century
10. Analyze the causes and consequences of major political, economic and social developments of the 1930s with emphasis on:

a. The Great Depression.
b. The Dust Bowl.
c. The New Deal.

Objectives

• Students will interview a person living during the 1930s.

• Students will present information to the class.

Time Needed

1. It is advisable to announce this assignment prior to beginning the Great Depression/1930s unit, as students will need ample time to identify, contact and speak with their interview subjects.

2. Once the interviews are submitted, the students will need two or three class periods for the purpose of reading, listening to, viewing and discussing the interviews.

Procedure

1. Discuss with students the purpose and benefits of conducting personal interviews with people who lived during the Depression era.

2. Emphasize to the students that they will need to be polite but persistent “investigative reporters.” Sometimes interview subjects will not initially volunteer useful information. The student conducting the interview will need to guide the interview subject toward the subject matters that are of interest. A Great Depression Sample Questions handout is provided in this section.

3. It is recommended that students be made aware of this assignment when the study of the Great Depression begins so that they can identify an interview subject and set up an interview time. However, interviews should not be scheduled until at least some of the material from the unit has been covered in class. This will allow the students to be more aware of some of the issues relevant to the time period that they will discuss during the interviews.

4. A complete unit titled Speaking of History: Doing Oral History Projects is available at http://www.WesternReservePublicMedia.org/history.

5. Interviews can be captured by way of video or audio recordings or written answers. It is suggested that regardless of the format the interviewer is using, a written transcript be submitted as well. Offer students some form of an incentive to motivate them to record their interview on video. This format is likely to be the most engaging for the purpose of reviewing the interview.

6. Be aware of the fact that some students may not be able to identify a person to interview. It is suggested that prior to making this assignment, the teacher contact a local assisted living or care facility for the purpose of establishing potential interview contacts for students.

7. As an additional part of this assignment or for extra credit, the teacher may encourage students to look for a popular food or recipe from the Depression era. The item may come from the student’s interview source, a cookbook from this era or a reliable Internet source. Students may then prepare the food item for the class and share the recipe or other information.

Teacher Information

1. Students may use this Web site to find information on this topic.

2. They can also search the Web using the following themes:
   a. Frugality
   b. Food — simple, inexpensive meals
   c. Generosity/sharing with neighbors or even strangers
   d. Simple games and other forms of entertainment
   e. Odd jobs/part-time employment
   f. Evidence of subsistence farming/gardening

Materials

• The classroom should have a VHS/DVD player and a cassette tape recorder available.

• Once this assignment has been given and sample interviews are available, it may be advisable to provide an example to the class. Examples can be found at http://www.WesternReservePublicMedia.org/history/hotlist.htm. Once at this site, choose the Sample Sites link.

Evaluation

1. Students must keep a record of the themes that they identify during the presentation of the interviews conducted by their classmates.
2. The written version of the transcript should be evaluated on an individual basis. Each interview will generate different information; therefore, it is difficult to assign a point value for specific information.
3. After the class discussion of interview themes/trends, it would be appropriate to evaluate student comprehension by quizzing them on the identified trends. Require the students to support the existence of their identified trend by citing one or two examples from the interviews.
4. The following Interview Rubric could also be used to evaluate the interview process.

Interview Rubric