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Lesson 2

What was the mission of the Farm Security Administration for which photojournalists like Dorothea Lange worked? We will view a video and read an article to build knowledge about the Great Depression and understand how Dorothea Lange’s photograph Migrant Mother amplified some of the issues inherent in that period.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I determine the argument Lange and other Farm Security Administration photographers were trying to make with their photographs?

  • Can I explain how the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl affected the lives of Americans?

  • Can I gather and organize evidence to demonstrate my understanding of the historical and environmental context surrounding Migrant Mother?

  • Can I express an accurate understanding of the central ideas of a text?

  • Can I use a variety of strategies (e.g., context clues, word study, and vocabulary resources) to determine the meaning of words?

Texts

Core

  • Digital Access
    • Photographers of the Dust Bowl, Ken Burns, PBS, 2012
  • Unit Reader
    • “How Photography Defined the Great Depression,” Annette McDermott, A&E Television Networks, LLC., 2018
    • Migrant Mother: How a Photograph Defined the Great Depression: “Chapter 1: Snapping an Iconic Photo,” “Chapter 2: A Nation Fallen on Hard Times,” Don Nardo, Capstone, 2011

Materials

Tools

Reference Guides

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: View

We will view a PBS video clip by Ken Burns, Photographers of the Dust Bowl, and consider what we know and feel about the time period documented by the photos.

Step 1

Before viewing the video, consider its title, Photographers of the Dust Bowl, and respond to the following question in your Learning Log:

  1. What is something you know about the time period in which this video is set?

Step 2

View the video, using the following questions to guide your notes:

  1. At the start of the video, what does historical nonfiction writer Timothy Egan (who has also written a book about Edward Curtis) say were John Stryker’s desires for the photographs that would be developed and used by the Farm Security Administration?

  2. How do the photographic images that stand out to you represent John Stryker’s goal to "arouse sympathy among the public"?

  3. How do the images affect you as a viewer?

  4. What other photojournalists mentioned in the video (Walker Evans, Russell Lee, John Vachon, Marion Post Wolcott, Arthur Rothstein, Gordon Parks) might interest you for further study? What about their photographs do you find compelling or evocative?

Activity 2: Write

We will develop a summary for the video.

Step 1

A summary is a brief statement of the main points or events in the text. It is not just a recall of chronological events. Summaries require you to determine the main points in a text and evaluate which supporting details most strongly support the main points.

Use the Summarizing Text Tool to write a summary of the video. Write down the summary in your Learning Log.

The Summarizing Text Tool guides a reading and thinking process to help you make an effective summary of a text you are reading or viewing. Summaries should be short, concise, and include just enough information to help you remember or explain the main points of a text when you come back to it later. This tool allows you to list key details you might want to include in a summary, then select from your list as you write a summary of the text, drawing on the key details you identified.

Step 2

To use the tool, follow the following process:

  1. The heading of the tool provides a space to write down the theme or central idea of the text. You might fill this in last, or you might need to change it once you have completed more of the tool, and there is a space to write a revised theme or central idea at the bottom of the page.

  2. Use the central rows of the tool to note key details that stand out to you and that you might or might not eventually mention in your summary. There are spaces to write down key details or ideas as you come across them, and also spaces to write down answers to questions about who is involved, what events occur, or what ideas are discussed—often important things to include in a summary. Keep in mind that you might not fill in all of the spaces. You might consider other questions such as when, why, and how, as well.

  3. Use the final section, Summarize the Text, to combine and synthesize the most important details you have gathered above into a sentence or two that condenses or outlines what the text is about.

  4. Once you have completed this step, look back at the original theme or central idea you wrote at the top of the page and use the Central Idea or Theme section to make any changes based on how your thinking has developed through the process of summarizing the text.

Activity 3: Read – Discuss

We will read an excerpt from Migrant Mother: how a photograph defined the great depression and react to the text in pairs by answering some text-specific questions.

Access the excerpt from Migrant Mother: How a Photograph Defined the Great Depression by Don Nardo in the Unit Reader.

Read and annotate the excerpt and discuss with a partner the text-specific questions below. Be sure to cite evidence from the text to support your answers.

  1. What was the inner argument the author described with regard to the decision to stop at the pea-pickers camp?

  2. Why did Lange only photograph the migrant mother?

  3. Why were the six photographs of the migrant mother captured that day important?

  4. What factors in American society led families like that of the migrant mother to live in situations like the Pea Pickers Camp?

Be prepared to discuss your responses, observations, and claims with the whole class.

Activity 4: Read – Write

We will identify words that are not familiar and work collaboratively to determine the meaning of vocabulary in context.

Step 1

For this activity, you will again use a Vocabulary Journal, which you began to use in Section 1 and will maintain for the entire unit. You might use a Vocabulary in Context Tool for words you can decipher from the text; for others, you might use morphology to decipher the meaning, or a reference resource to check if your meaning is accurate. For some words, your teacher might present you with definitions.

Write down the words and definitions in your Vocabulary Journal. For each word, identify the vocabulary strategy (e.g., context, morphology, reference resource) you used to determine its meaning.

Step 2

Examine the following words from Chapter 1 of Migrant Mother: How a Photograph Defined the Great Depression:

  • migrant

  • influential

  • iconic

Some of these words might have enough context to determine their meaning; some of them might not have enough context. How will you know when to use context clues and when to try another strategy? Refer to the questions in the Vocabulary in Context Tool to assist you with determining each word’s meaning.

Write down the words and definitions in your Vocabulary Journal.

Step 3

For homework, access the text "How Photography Defined the Great Depression" by Annette McDermott, located in the Unit Reader.

Read and annotate the text, paying attention to details about the role of the Farm Security Administration and its photographers. Respond to the following question in your Learning Log:

  1. How do details from the text relate to or expand what you already have learned about the FSA and its photographers?

Write new or interesting words you encounter in your Vocabulary Journal.Write down at least one interesting or powerful sentence in your Mentor Sentence Journal.