Analyzing Children's Letters to Mrs. Roosevelt

Students will analyze letters that children wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt during the Great Depression.

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

By Angie Panel Holthausen

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Learning outcomes

Students will read letters children wrote to Mrs. Roosevelt.

Analyzing the documents, the students will identify facts from the letters, make inferences about the writer, and evaluate possible responses.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

1 Hours

Materials/resources

• A photocopied class set of the 19 letters avalaible (see web site below).
• Approximately 12 copies of reflection questions per class.

Technology resources

none

Pre-activities

For teachers: Visit the web site below to look at the letters and read the related information. I recommend that you print the letters but not the replies. Print each of the letters and photocopy them together in a packet. You might want to number each letter before you copy it.

See the attachment below that has suggested questions. Copy about 12 for each class (they will answer the questions in groups of three or four).

For students: Students should already have studied Hoover’s presidency, the causes of the Great Depression, and the election of FDR.

Activities

1. Give each student a packet of the letters. Explain what they are, and tell students they will be analyzing a few letters in particular in groups. Divide students into groups of three or four. Assign each group a different set of letters (Group A takes letters 1-3, Group B, 4-6, etc.). Some groups might analyze the same set of letters, but that’s okay.
2. Hand out the questions. Tell students to answer them as a group, making sure to put everyone’s name on the paper. In addition, tell them to choose one of the three letters to read to the class and to pick a spokesperson who will read it. Give them 10-15 minutes to complete this task.
3. When they are done, have each group read a letter and explain how they answered some of the questions. There will usually be some debate about what Mrs. Roosevelt’s answer should have been.
4. Finally, ask:

5. At the end of the lesson, explain how Mrs. Roosevelt did respond to these letters and other ones which were similar.

Assessment

You may determine a group grade based on the answers to the questions which each group submitted. I generally don’t grade this assignment; it maintains the student’s interest well, and the concept load is light, so I usually don’t feel the need to check their comprehension.

Supplemental information

I received some original letters to Mrs. Roosevelt from Sue Liner at Orange High School. Using those, I developed the questions which are in the attachment. Upon discovering the web site that had some transcribed letters, I borrowed some questions from it for the discussion. You can find them here. I extend a warm thank you to these fine teachers!

Related websites

Dear Mrs. Roosevelt Web Site

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