Eroded Land, Eroded Lives: Agriculture and The Grapes of Wrath (lesson 1 of 10)

This description is of only the first lesson in the unit, to be taught before students read the novel; thus, its primary purpose is to put this novel in historical context. Toward that end, students will learn about the (unintentional) abuse of soil that allowed the Dust Bowl to be so devastating and extensive. They will also see photographs by Dorothea Lange and others depicting the wasted land and subsequent wasted dreams of thousands. See Supplemental Resources and Relevant Web Sites for material.

A lesson plan for grade 11 English Language Arts

By Annie Henry

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• understand the social and physical conditions that inspired Steinbeck’s novel.
• know some photographers of the 1930’s.
• understand the extent of the Dust Bowl.
• explore various options of parties involved in the migration to California, specifically the displaced “Okies,” the land owners, the bankers, the government.
• gain sense of empathy for the victims of that era.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

2 Hours

Materials/resources

• map of the United States
• photos of some wind-blown land

Technology resources

• slide projector
• slides

Pre-activities

The purpose of these pre-activities is to help students sense the helplessness the Dust Bowl created when it eliminated choices. They need know nothing about the novel in order to engage in these pre-activities. The pre-activities establish general attitudes, outlooks, responses; the activities apply those beliefs to the specifics in the novel. Students ponder the extent to which ideals in the abstract can and should apply to specific circumstances. (That issue permeates literature.)

• Ask students to list the amount of money they spend per week, then prioritize expenditures.
• Ask students to list and prioritize their possessions they would save in an emergency if they could take only what they could carry.
• Engage students in a discussion of how their lives were affected by Hurricanes Hugo, Fran, Floyd, icestorms, or other recent natural disasters. How long did it take for them to get help, and to get things back to normal?
• Discuss with students the various ways contemporary federal, state, and local governments aid people who are victims of natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes. (That discussion can later establish a contrast with the comparative lack of governmental response during the 1930’s.)

Activities

1. On U.S. map show states affected by Dust Bowl.
2. Show Route 66 and some pictures of “mom and pop” businesses that flourished prior to Interstate 40 superceding that highway.
3. Use the websites below to find first-person accounts, song, and articles on the dustbowl.
4. In small jigsaw groups, have students read one article from the websites below to explore the causes and effects of the Dust Bowl and the government’s initial inability to minister to the displaced people. In each jigsaw group, students should identify at least 3 causes of the dustbowl and the related effects. For example, depletion of the soil by cattle grazing, increase in size of ranches, lack of crop rotation, contour plowing, and soil nourishment created topsoil that could not withstand the natural force of the winds that began in 1929 and continued for a decade. Thus, the people in The Grapes of Wrath were victims of a natural phenomenon, of relatively primative agricultural methods, of economic depression, and of lack of governmental regulations that protect human rights.
5. In students’ original groups, each student should give the causes and effects found in their jigsaw group’s article. The original group should then compile the results from the five articles to make a list of the top ten causes and effects of the Dust Bowl.
6. For historical background, see Supplemental Resources and Web Sites listed below.

Assessment

• Part of the assessment is an on-going response journal to The Grapes of Wrath, in which students discuss not only the novel’s style and content, but also apply the themes to contemporary life and suggest measures to cope with such tragedies.
• Today’s assessment will be the beginning of their journal, in which they respond to the issues in the lesson and elaborate on the self-discovery generated in the pre-activities. They may focus on one issue such as the role of government in people’s lives; the line between invading someone’s privacy and photographing their plight in order to foster reform; the role of an individual in helping others.
• When they begin reading the novel, journal entries can include a response from the point of view of various characters, a comparison of styles in certain chapters, as in chapters 1 and 24. Journal entry variations are endless.

Supplemental information

Books:

• Since Yesterday, Frederick Lewis Allen
• The Glory and the Dream by William Manchester puts the Dust Bowl in its historical context.
• Down and Out in the Great Depression, edited by Robert S. McElvaine, contains photographs of and letters from displaced people to various government officials, including President Roosevelt.
• Hard Times: an Oral History of the Great Depression by Studs Terkel is a collection of interviews with those who were displaced because of the Dust Bowl and economic factors. It gives a rich, first-person insight into people’s plights and struggles to achieve employment and housing.
• Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse is a young adult novel about the Depression.

Perhaps the US history teacher could be a guest speaker. If the school has a horticulture department, perhaps that teacher could speak on various methods of land management. The Grapes of Wrath is an excellent novel on which to use an interdisciplinary approach.

Related websites

About the Dust Bowl
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/depression/dustbowl.htm

From the Dustbowl to the Sahel
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/DustBowl/

The American Experience: Surviving the Dust Bowl
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dustbowl/

The Migrant Experience
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/tsme.html

1930’s Dustbowl
http://www.ptsi.net/user/museum/dustbowl.html

Living in the Dustbowl Webquest
http://www.plainfield.k12.in.us/hschool/webq/webq109/#Introduction

Anne Marie Low’s Dust Bowl Diary
http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/hist409/dust/low.html

The Problem of Wind Erosion
http://www.weru.ksu.edu/new_weru/problem/problem.shtml

Photographs by Dorothea Lange and others of that time (See, for example, MIGRANT MOTHER, http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/aa/lange/power_2

Comments

I love John Steinbeck’s writing, and this novel in particular provides a way of letting students see the symbiotic relationship between literature and life. It also is an excellent novel to teach interdisciplinarily. The interchapters can be excerpted to apply to other works of literature.