The Works Progress Administration and Congress: Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Intended Level: 11th Grade
Focus of Lesson:
Students will be able to cite several different projects the Works Progress Administration completed during the New Deal and evaluate the economic, cultural, and social wealth of continuing such programs as the WPA.
Students will be able to interpret, evaluate, and use primary sources on Specific WPA projects as the basis for their constructed arguments on the New Deal. Students will learn how to research primary sources from the Colorado Heritage and American Memory and place them in the political and economic context of the value of the New Deal programs, specifically the WPA to the depression economy. The alternative goal is to get the students into a research collection such as American Memory and discover the fun and excitement of historical research. I want them to find an online item or artifact of their choosing and get excited about their discovery.
Colorado State History Standards Assessed: (History Standards 9-12 Benchmarks)
History 2.2: Students know how to interpret and evaluate primary and secondary sources of historical information.
Benchmark 3: Evaluating data within the social, political, and economic context in which it was created, testing its credibility, and evaluating its bias.
History 4.2 Students understand how economic factors have influenced historical events.
Benchmark 3: Analyzing the relationship between economic factors and social and political policies throughout US History
Assessment:
One SOAPS analysis per person. One set of answered guided questions per person. One term paper per group.
Students will write an argumentative paper as their assessment. The thesis (stance) and conclusion will be written in groups, each group member will select one WPA resource to base their factual section on. The groups will reconvene to connect their essays and write the conclusion.
Time:
One 90 minute class period as follows, 80 minutes for introduction, group connection, and individual research. 10 minutes to reconvene and agree on essay introduction.
For homework, each student will write their own factual section
Use part the next 90 minute period to have the groups connect their essays and polish it into a finalized "congressional" report.
Materials:
A web ready computer lab with enough computers for each student. Access to my web page for instructions and criteria. Printout of guided questions for each specific resource section.
Possible Procedures:
The teacher should hand out the following storyline:
The time is April, 1937 and the nation just can't seem to spring out of the Great Depression. We are all grateful for FDR's last term in office, especially his "New Deal" and the first "100 days" but the hard times just aren't over yet. Some congressmen still remember the lame duck Hoover promising "Prosperity is just around the corner."
Some recent events have alarmed certain powerful Senators and House Reps as of late. We went along with FDR's sweeping reforms of last term ('32 to '36) but noticed a decidedly Democratic congress seemed to give the man from New York a blank check. Others like Huey Long and Father Charles Coughlin have noted Roosevelt's seemingly experimental and "off the cuff" style. Most recently, Roosevelt shocked us all by overstepping his executive bounds and attempting to pack the Supreme Court.
While the New Deal stagnates in 1937, Congress has decided to flex their power of "checks and balances" and really scrutinize these "alphabetical agencies" specifically the WPA (Works Progress Administration) under the administration of Harry L. Hopkins.
Congress wonders , $11 billion later, if "the only thing we have to fear is work itself." You and your 3 classmates have been selected as a special congressional committee to see if Hopkins' WPA is an asset to our nation worthy of further federal funding or a colossal waste of precious funds diverted towards some leftist Utopian welfare state.
Task:
As a 1937 specially appointed congressional committee, you and your 3 partners will need to create a written report deciding the fate of the fledgling WPA. You will need to decide if the WPA was a project worthy of government financial support or if you, as congress, want to stop funding. Your report will need to take a stance on the WPA and support your stance with specific examples and instances from the resources unit. Your group will report out to Congress (the class.)
Process:
1. Each group member must individually review the history of the WPA in your textbook, The Americans, p. 673.
2. Each group member is responsible for one of the subsections for under RESOURCES
3. Each Group member designs a SOAPS analysis of their subsection's primary source.
4. Your group takes a stance (from a 1937 perspective) either supporting or denying further funds to the WPA.
5. The group will collectively design a plausible thesis section and conclusion for your typewritten report. Each student will type their support section relaying their findings using specific primary sources found on Heritage and American memory tonight as homework.
6. You will have time tomorrow to reconvene as a group to finalize the voice and flow of your congressional report.
7. Time permitting, each group will report out to Congress (the class.)
Teacher would review the New Deal, alphabet agencies, and FDR's early presidency to refresh the class for the assignment. For the guided questions sheet, the teacher might need to review our Soaps + method as well as the kinds of primary sources (alpha is a document that alters the course of history, beta is a document created at the time of the event, gamma is a document created after the fact.) The teacher would then break the class into groups of 4, "congressional" groups, to write the term paper together.
In the computer lab, students should be given some group time to collectively establish their stance for or against the WPA programs. Then, individually, the groups should divide the guided resource sections among the individuals. Ample time should be allotted for individuals to explore their digital primary source, answer their set of guided questions, and a little time to peruse the digital collections at large. Students will need to compile their SOAPS and guided question answers during this individual session. There should be some time at the end of the period for the group to reconvene, agree on their report's stance, and report out on their progress. Students will need to compile their individual portion of the facts as homework.
The next class period should have small group time with a computer per group to synthesize their group paper for voice and flow. The end result will be the SOAPS per person, guided questions per person, and a group report to be shared with the class.
Resources:
Federal Writers' Project
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/wpahome.html
Click on Voices from the Thirties: An Introduction to the WPA Life Histories Collection and read the introduction. Then go to the sample interviews and answer your section's question on the guided reading using any of the sample interviews.
"Depression Era Photograph Project"
http://www.pueblolibrary.org/pld_search/photointro.asp
Go to Southeastern Colorado Photographs and browse all photographs and find the following photos: Hiway (sic) 96 bridge construction. WPA work crew at Santa Fe Avenue improvement project. Bessemer Community Center, and WPA cement plant building. Be sure to read the metadata and answer your section's questions on the guided reading.
By the People, For the People, Posters from the WPA
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaposters/wpahome.html
Read over introduction and click on Collection Highlights and then go to Health and Safety Pick any 4 posters and answer your section's questions on the guided reading.
Born in Slavery
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snhome.html
Read An Introduction to the WPA Slave Narratives and go to Voices and Faces from the Collection and answer the guided questions for your section on Sarah Frances Shaw Graves, Age 87
Sarah Gudger, Age 121 Charley Williams, Age 94 Tempie Cummins, Age Unknown
And Walter Rimm, Age 80
Support Materials: Guided questions handout, textbook for initial reference on New Deal and WPA, web access and URLs for resource materials. Rubric for "congressional" term paper.
John Robinson - Rocky Mountain High School
