HOME | ABOUT US | CONTACT

Home

Meet Meg

Presentations

Digital Handouts

Resources

Books by Meg

A Lesson About the Great Depression

Introduction

This lesson is based on a primary source document from the National Archives. A quick background to this document is taken from the original lesson found on the National Archive’s website

http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/depression-wwii.html

The document featured in this article, the typewritten draft, is housed at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, NY. (The library is administered by the National Archives and Records Administration.) Roosevelt misplaced his reading copy immediately following the speech; it remained missing for 43 years. Instead of bringing the reading copy back to the White House for Grace Tully to file, the President evidently left it in the House chamber, where he had given the address. A Senate clerk took charge of it, endorsed it "Dec 8, 1941, Read in joint session," and filed it. In March 1984 an archivist located the reading copy among the Records of the U.S. Senate, Record Group 46, located in the National Archives building, where it remains today.

This lesson was designed to be done in one or two class periods with students working in groups to analyze and collect information. The culminating product is a PowerPoint slide show with two slides coming from each group. Every student reads the short article before the lesson. The article will provide background information for each group. During the lessons students will be in five different groups. A laptop for each group would be helpful. A shared folder on the network would be a good place to save the slides so the producers can copy and paste them into the final presentation.

Adapted by Meg Ormiston 4/18/03

Subject(s) Social Science and Language Arts Grade level (s) High School

Learner Outcomes:

Social Science:

16.A.4a Analyze and report historical events to determine cause-and-effect relationships.

16.A.4b Compare competing historical interpretations of an event.

16.B.5a (W) Analyze worldwide consequences of isolated political events, including the events triggering the Napoleonic Wars and World Wars I and II.

Language Arts:

4.A.4a Apply listening skills as individuals and members of a group in a variety of settings (e.g., lectures, discussions, conversations, team projects, presentations, interviews).

4.A.4b Apply listening skills in practical settings (e.g., classroom note taking, interpersonal conflict situations, giving and receiving directions, evaluating persuasive messages).

4.A.4c Follow complex oral instructions.

4.A.4d Demonstrate understanding of the relationship of verbal and nonverbal messages within a context (e.g., contradictory, supportive, repetitive, substitutive).

4.B.4a Deliver planned informative and persuasive oral presentations using visual aids and contemporary technology as individuals and members of a group; demonstrate organization, clarity, vocabulary, credible and accurate supporting evidence.

Procedure:

Groups for this lesson:

 The Art Historians

 The Time liners

 The Speech Writers

 The Reporters

 The Producers

Art Historians

Your job is to collect images to help everyone understand the hardships of World War II.

1. Read the article about the speech.

2. View the posters and complete the worksheet. Use the pictures of the war posters and comments about each to select the most important images. Create two slides. Your slides from your group will feature the posters selected and captions about the images selected.

3. Posters can be found http://www.archives.gov/exhibit_hall/powers_of_persuasion/powers_of_persuasion_home.html

Tech note:

1. To copy an image off an Internet site click and hold your mouse over the photograph and select copy this image. Then go back to the Claris Works document to paste. Don't forget to give credit! Save your final product on a disk and bring it to the presentation computer. If you need help copying a picture from the Internet ask now!

2. The poster art will help make our final slide show look really nice. Work quickly and remember to give credit for each picture.

3. Keep an eye on the clock and stay on task!

Time liners

This group will create an illustrated timeline of important World War II events.

1. Read the article about the speech.

2. Use the timeline about World War II.

3. After reading the Time Line, select the 5 most important facts about the depression.

4. In PowerPoint complete two slides about the timeline.

5. After the 5 facts have been typed, search for a picture to illustrate the facts.

Resources:

Grolier’s or Time Magazine software may have information, as well as www.nara.gov and www.historychannel.com.

6. Keep an eye on the clock and stay on task!

Tech note:

To copy a photograph off an Internet site click and hold your mouse over the photograph and select copy this image. Then go back to the Claris works document to paste. Don't forget to give credit! Save your final product and bring it to the presentation computer.

Speech Writers

This group is responsible for analyzing the first typed draft of President Roosevelt's speech. Print a copy of the original speech found here:

http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/day-of-infamy/

1. Read the article about the speech.

2. Read the first typed draft of the speech.

3. As a group complete the document analysis worksheet. http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/lessons/analysis_worksheets/document.html For help with the definitions, try www.m-w.com/dictionary.htm.

4. For the slide show, select the key elements to share with the group. You will not be able to share the entire speech. Create two slides on the main points.

Written Document Analysis Worksheet

Define each of the following vocabulary terms as used in this speech:

1. Premeditated

2. Implications

3. Onslaught

4. Uttermost

5. Mincing

6. Dastardly

7. Infamy

2. Find examples in Roosevelt's address of these techniques for enhancing the effect of a speech:

Repetition

Alliteration

Emotionally charged words

Appeal to self-preservation

Assurance of moral superiority

3. To whom was this speech addressed? What appeals are made to each group?

4. Compare the handwritten changes with the original typed draft. Ask each student to select three changes from this draft of the speech and explain whether the changes strengthened or weakened the address, considering the audiences they have identified.

Reporters

This group will analyze Roosevelt’s speech.

1. Read the article about the speech.

2. Listen to the famous six-minute speech titled "A Date Which Will Live in Infamy" and completes the worksheet. For further clarification, a print copy of the speech is attached. The speech is found at the History Channel on-line, found at http://www.historychannel.com/speeches/ra_archive/speech_260.ram Listen to the speech once as a group. Return to your seats and complete the worksheet using the copy of the speech. Before you need to listen to the speech again, have your specific questions prepared before you listen. Worksheet http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/lessons/day_of_infamy/sound_analysis_worksheet.html

3. For the slide show create two slides about the speech. You may want to include a small clip of the speech found at WAV Format, Windows (528K)

SOUND RECORDING ANALYSIS WORKSHEET

Step 1. Pre-listening:

a. Whose voice will you hear on the recording? _________________

b. What is the date of the recording? __________________________

c. Where was the recording made? _______________________________

Step 2. Listening:

a. What special physical qualities of the recording exist, such as music, live broadcasting, narration, sound

effects, or background sounds? _____________________________________________

b. What is the tone or mood of the recording? __________________

________________________________________________________________

c. What can you tell about the speaker from his voice and delivery?

______________________________________________________

d. Does this speech have a greater or lesser effect on you in its spoken form than in its written form? Analyze

your reaction.

_________________________________________________________________

Step 3. Post-listening (or repeated listening):

a. List at least three changes between the first draft and the spoken address.

1. ________________________________________________________

2. ________________________________________________________

3. ________________________________________________________

b. How did these changes add or detract from the effect of this speech on Congress and the people of the

United States?

________________________________________________________________

c. How did President Roosevelt use his voice to add to the effect of his words? Consider pitch, volume, pace, and pauses.

________________________________________________________________

d. You are a member of Congress sitting in the Senate chamber. Before Roosevelt's speech, you were undecided whether to vote to continue U.S. isolation or to commit the country to war. On the back of this worksheet, write a letter to someone at home explaining how listening to this speech affected you.

Roosevelt's speech is also featured in the National Archives Online Exhibit Hall. http://www.archives.gov/exhibit_hall/american_originals/fdr.html

Producers

This group is in charge of pulling together the slide show.

1. Read the article about the speech.

2. As the other groups are collecting information you need to design the opening slides and plan for adding the groups slides as they are created. You will be using PowerPoint for this project.

3. On your opening slide, you need a title for the slide show, the class that worked on it, the date, and a few sentences about what the show includes.

4. Your group needs to monitor the other groups and assist them if they have technical problems.

5. You are the clock-watchers! We must have this done by the end of the period. Do your planning and layout work right away and collect information from groups as quickly as possible.

"A Date Which Will Live in Infamy"

The First Typed Draft

of Franklin D. Roosevelt's

War Address

Historical Background

(All groups read)

Early in the afternoon of December 7, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his chief foreign policy aide, Harry Hopkins, were interrupted by a telephone call from Secretary of War Henry Stimson and told that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. At about 5:00 p.m., following meetings with his military advisers, the President calmly and decisively dictated to his secretary, Grace Tully, a request to Congress for a declaration of war. He had composed the speech in his head after deciding on a brief, uncomplicated appeal to the people of the United States rather than a thorough recitation of Japanese perfidies, as Secretary of State Cordell Hull had urged.

President Roosevelt then revised the typed draft—marking it up, updating military information, and selecting alternative wordings that strengthened the tone of the speech. He made the most significant change in the critical first line, which originally read, "a date which will live in world history." Grace Tully then prepared the final reading copy, which Roosevelt subsequently altered in three more places.

On December 8, at 12:30 p.m., Roosevelt addressed a joint session of Congress and the Nation via radio. The Senate responded with a unanimous vote in support of war; only Montana pacifist Jeanette Rankin dissented in the House. At 4:00 p.m. that same afternoon, President Roosevelt signed the declaration of war.

(See photo above, citation number NWDNS-79-AR-82.)

Extensions:

Interview a person who heard President Roosevelt deliver the "Day of Infamy" address and to write an article about the experience. Students should ask the following questions of the interviewee for their articles:

a. How old were you and where were you at the time of the address?

b. What do you recall about your feelings toward U.S. involvement in the war before Pearl Harbor?

c. What were you doing when news of Pearl Harbor broke?

d. What was your reaction to the news of Pearl Harbor, and what, if anything, did you do upon hearing the news?

e. How did President Roosevelt sound making the speech?

f. What were your reactions to the speech in feelings and deeds?

Assessment:

Additional Resources:

Customize your own rubric using Rubistar http://rubistar.4teachers.org/templates.shtml#first

http://www.archives.gov/index.html Explore the National Archives.

http://www.loc.gov/ Visit the Library of Congress in-line.