Out of the Dust

1. Out of the Dust Objective: Students will summarize the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, including economic weakness, unemployment, failed banks and businesses, and migration from rural areas. Billie Jo is 14 years old, living with her mother and father on a farm in Oklahoma during the Great Depression. Her mother and unborn child are killed in a tragic accident from a Fire. Billy Jo fears that they're both turning into the dust that has covered everything. After trying to carry on without support, she runs away only to discover that her future lies back home. Author: Karen Hesse Out of the Dust New York, Scholastic Press 2007 Tara Sy

2. Dust Bowl Ballads • Activity • Billie Jo enjoyed playing the piano. • Several songs were wrote and recorded from her era and place. Find these songs and play them from the Dust Bowl site at the Library of Congress. • After exploring the different songs, create a brochure that would promote a concert with one or two of the song’s lyrics from that era. Also, include primary pictures of that era to support what the songs and people represented during the Dust Bowl era.

3. A Way of Life. • Activity • Analyze pictures from the Great Depression era. Imagine what the children must have been feeling at that time in their life. Then compare your life to that in today’s world. What was their life like back then? What was it like to live in the drought that created the dust bowl? How would your life have been different if you lived during the Great Depression? • After reflecting on these questions, write a simulated letter to a child who would have lived in that time period. What do you see in the pictures that you want to write to them about? Are there other questions or situations you may want to ask the child?

4. Domino Effect? • Activity • Analyze the three pictures. Create a detailed timeline using the pictures to help figure out what happened first, second, and third. Explain each event briefly on your timeline. • Finish with a small summary of how these events were all related to the tough times during the Great Depression. Failed Banks Stock Market Crash Drought

5. Standards • South Carolina Standard 5-4: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the economic boom-and-bust in America in the 1920s and 1930s, its resultant political instability, and the subsequent worldwide response • Indicator 5-4.2: Summarize the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. Including economic weakness, unemployment, failed banks and businesses, and migration from rural areas.

6. Resources • Out of the Dust http://lccn.loc.gov/2011649515 • Dust Bowl Ballads http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/displayPhoto.pl?path=/afc/afcts/images/p009&topImages=0001r.jpg&topLinks=0001u.tif&displayProfile=4&dir=ammem&itemLink=h?ammem/toddbib:@field(DOCID+@lit(p009)) • Four Families http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa2000000789/PP/ • Squatters along highway http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1998017871/PP/ • Home of the Dust Bowl refugee http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa2000000920/PP/ • Stock Market Crash http://lccn.loc.gov/2011649515 • Failed Banks http://lccn.loc.gov/2011649515 • Drought http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa2000001785/PP/ • Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/index.html • Out of the Dust http://www.carolhurst.com/titles/outofthedust.html • Reviewed by Marqueitta Stover