And You Think You’ve Got It Tough!
A Web Quest Exploring

During the Great Depression era, children helped their families survive. Some cared for their younger siblings, allowing their parents to stand in line waiting for jobs or free food. Other children shined shoes in the bigger cities, or had newspaper routes, or sold apples. Those who lived in America’s "dust bowl" had to contend not only with the hard times brought on by the depression, but also with the stifling, fine, silt-like dust constantly blowing through every crack and crevice of their homes. Food that was placed on the table was soon covered with a thin layer of dust. Thousands of cattle and other farm animals suffocated in horrendous dust storms. Trains were literally stopped on their tracks. Dust pneumonia killed many people.

Click here to view Illinois State Standards met using this Web Quest.

After reading both novels, No Promises in the Wind and Out of the Dust, you will:

• Use the Internet to access the Great Depression and Dust Bowl era photographs and other research material available at the listed sites.
• View the photographs, and imagine some of the ways in which the Great Depression or Dust Bowl affected the lives of young people during that time.
• You have the option of either writing a free-verse poem (or poems), of at least 20 lines, relating how you might feel if you had grown up in Chicago or in one of the "dust bowl" states during the Great Depression
• Or write an essay (at least one typewritten page) about one or two of the photographs describing what you think might have happened just before or right after the photograph was taken.
• If you choose to write about a photograph, download the photograph to include with your essay.
• If working in groups, download a series of at least 5 photographs and create an original standard mural, using your group's original poems and/or essays following the guidelines listed above,
• Or your group can create a Power Point presentation of at least 5 photographs with original poems or essays.

What might happen if we suddenly found ourselves in an economic depression today? How would your families be able to cope? Would our welfare system be able to meet the demands of millions being out of work? What would happen to children in our present time period? Compare the streets of Chicago, as described in the novel, No Promises in the Wind, to how the streets in that city are today. Would it be more dangerous to strike out on your own today? Is there a possibility of another Dust Bowl era in the United States? What steps did the United States take to protect "dust bowl" states from such a disaster in the future?

Just suppose:

You come home from school and your parents tell you they have lost their jobs, effective today. What would your first thoughts be? Weeks go by and still they have no job. There's not enough money for three meals' worth of food, or prescription medicine, let alone the Nike shoes, Gap clothes, or latest CD. How do you think this would affect you? How would you cope?

Have you ever skipped a meal and then felt really hungry? How did your body feel? Imagine this feeling of being hungry every day. After each small meal, your hunger never goes completely away. What are your thoughts and feelings? Times are bad, Wal-Mart closes down and local supermarkets are open 2 days a week. The Stock Market has taken a terrific nosedive. How would this affect those who don’t own stocks or does it affect them?

What could you, as a student, do to help at home? Would you feel, as Josh does, in No Promises in the Wind, that your chances of survival would be better if you left home? Where would you go, how would you survive?

 

No Promises In the Wind, by Irene Hunt, is a historical novel with characters that show and tell the readers what it felt like to live during the Great Depression. It's difficult for many of us to realize how desperate and fragile life was for children in America during this time. Most of us could not imagine circumstances so terrible to force one to strike out on their own at 15 years of age with a 10-year-old brother to care for, as well. Josh, Joey, and Howie started out on an adventure that turned to tragedy almost as soon as it had begun. Josh and Joey immediately learned that life on the road was filled with harsh realities, more than they could have ever imagined.

Out of the Dust, by Karen Hesse, tells of survival in American's Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. The story is told in free-verse poetry of dated entries that span the winter of 1934 to the winter of 1935. The main character, Billie Jo Kelby, relates her Depression-era experiences in the Oklahoma panhandle. She reveals the grim domestic realities of living during the years of constant dust storms, including the documented dust storms of March and April in 1935. Hopes, like the crops, blow away in the night.

http://www.americanpresident.org/kotrain/courses/HH/HH_Issues_to_Ponder.htm

This site has a lot of background information on events that led up to the Great Depression, as well as other interesting information…Pay particular attention to item number 5, explaining the ideal meal plan of that era and the total cost. 

http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/jb/1929-1945

http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/depression/dustbowl.htm

Great photographs showing events and effects of the Great Depression and

Dust Bowl eras.  Excellent site that correlates well with the novel, Out of the Dust.

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/b?ammem/fsaall:LC-USF33-001968-M2:collection=fsa

http://enso.unl.edu/ndmc/impacts/dustbowl/1930s1.htm 

http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/drought/drght_home.html

**Helpful Hints**

The purpose of this Web Quest is to make students more aware of hardships American children and their families endured during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl era, as well as to encourage them to express their feelings in prose and verse.

This page created by Peggy Clayton.

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last updated 12/03/2002