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.

A lesson plan for grades 11–12 English Language Arts and Social Studies

By Annie Henry

Learn more

• About the Dust Bowl From the University of Illinois' Modern American Poetry project provides a historical timeline of the Dust Bowl from 1931-1939.
• The American Experience: Surviving the Dust Bowl While this site from PBS is a supplement to their film "Surviving the Dust Bowl" there are maps, a timeline, and brief biographies that can be used without viewing the film.
• Voices from the Dust Bowl The Library of Congress' American Memory Collection has a compilation of different perspectives of the Dust Bowl. Check out the Migrant Experience page for a detailed article about life as a migrant.
• 1930' Dust Bowl This excerpt from Paul Bonnifield's "The Dust Bowl: Men, Dirt, and Depression" describes how the Dust Bowl had an impact on farming.
• The Power of Dorthea Lange's Pictures From the Library of Congress' America's Story collection, this photo essay describes Lange's work and a timeline of her life.

Related pages

• The Declaration of Independence: In this interdisciplinary lesson, students will examine the role of the Declaration of Independence in the development of the American Revolution and as part of the American identity. They will also analyze the argumentative structure and write their own declaration.
• Along the Trail of Tears: A part of history is often forgotten when teaching younger students. This is the relocation of the Cherokee Indians when the white settlers wanted their property. The US Government moved whole groups of Indians under harsh conditions. This trip became known as the Trail of Tears. Using this as a background students will explore and experiment with persuasive writing as they try to express the position of Cherokee leaders.
• North Carolina Cherokee Indians: The Trail of Tears: In this two week unit, students will study the Cherokee by participating in literature circles, learning about Native American story telling, writing a letter to Andrew Jackson to protest against the Creek War, and more.

Related topics

• Learn more about American history, Dust Bowl, John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, United States, United States literature, history, language arts, and social studies.

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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, ice storms, 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 Dust Bowl.
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 Dust Bowl 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 the Learn More section in the sidebar.

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 by 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.

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 interdisciplinary. The interchapters can be excerpted to apply to other works of literature.