Created by the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources of the Collaborative for Educational Services America Comes of Age Title: “FDR and the Alphabet” Grade Level: 11 Subject Area Focus: Social Studies/History
Submitted by: Patricia Hogan and Amy Stamm School: Minnechaug Regional High School/ CES District: HampdenWilbraham/CES District
Curricular Project Summary: In this lesson students are asked to analyze Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s First Inaugural Address and to compare the promises made to his later work as president. Students will use a graphic organizer to list three of FDR’s promises in the speech and then use secondary resources to research whether he fulfilled those promises. This lesson is the first lesson within a miniunit in which students will analyze FDR’s First and Second New Deal policies and examine both his rhetorical strategies and his actions to understand how he conceptualized the nation and who he included within that vision.
Desired Results/Objectives Historical Problem/Question: How did Franklin Delano Roosevelt address problems caused by the Great Depression? MA History & Social Studies Standards: USII. 12 Analyze the important policies, institutions, and personalities of the New Deal era. Policies: A. Establishment of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Bureau B. Security and Exchange Commission C. Tennessee Valley Authority D. Social Security Act E. National Labor Relations Act F. Works Progress Administration G. Fair Labor Standards Act USII. 13 Explain how the Great Depression and the New Deal affected American Society. A. The increased importance of the federal government in establishing economic and social policies. Common Core Reading & Writing Standards: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: ● CCSS.ELALiteracy.RH.1112.8 ○ Integrate and evaluate an author’s premises, claims, and evidence by corroborating or challenging them with other information. ● CCSS.ELALiteracy.RH.1112.9 ○ Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.
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Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity: ● CCSS.ELALiteracy.RL.1112.4 ○ Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. ● CCSS.ELALiteracy.W.1112.7 ○ Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a selfgenerated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation. Transfer Goal: ● Students will be able to analyze a speech for tone, rhetoric, and claims, and compare claims or promises made in the speech with actions then taken. ● Students will be able to understand a speech within its historical context. Objectives: Students will know… ● The content of FDR’s First Inaugural Address. ● The relationship between FDR’s tone and promises made in his First Inaugural Address and actions taken by his administration. ● How FDR’s transforms his rhetoric/promises into actions Students will understand… ● Presidents use a variety of rhetorical tools to build national unity. ● How an inaugural address outlines the main objectives of a president’s term. Students will be able to… ● Analyze a speech for tone, figurative language, and claims. ● Compare the content of an inaugural speech with future presidential actions. ● Apply what they learned about FDR’s alphabet agencies to a presentday issue by creating a poster, essay, PowerPoint, cartoon, speech, or other presentation about an agency they would create if they were president.
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Assessment/Evidence Performance Tasks & Other Evidence of Performance: Preassessment: ● Based on previous lessons/work, students will comprise a list of socioeconomic issues caused by the Great Depression. Formative assessment: ● Students will use a graphic organizer to analyze FDR’s First Inaugural Speech, focusing on the social and economic issues addressed. Students will use the information they collect to complete their culminating activity addressing whether FDR fulfilled his inaugural promises and addressed issues the country faced during the Great Depression. ● Using the Library of Congress website and other Internet sources, students will research the Alphabet Agencies to determine which agencies were created in direct response to the issues FDR raised in his First Inaugural Speech. Students will then answer whether FDR fulfilled his inaugural promises through these agencies and will be asked to match particular agencies to FDR’s corresponding promises. Summative assessment: ● Students will create an informative poster outlining an agency they would create to address a current socioeconomic issue.
Learning Plan Historical Problem/Question: How did Franklin Delano Roosevelt address problems caused by the Great Depression? Learning Activities: What does the teacher do? Do Now: The teacher will pass out paper to students and introduce the preassessment activity. When the students have completed their lists of issues the country faced during the Great Depression (based on previous classes), the teacher will facilitate a brief wholegroup discussion about these conditions and list the conditions on the board. Summer 2015: America Comes of Age
What does the student do? Do Now: Students will create a list of socioeconomic issues caused by the Great Depression. Once students have created their own lists, the class will come together and create a master list of Great Depression issues. L ibrary of Congress TPS at CES
Hook: The teacher posts the historical question and the iconic photograph of Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the way to FDR’s inauguration and asks students to consider this moment when FDR is about to step into the presidency. The teacher asks students to think about one way, if they were about to be the president, they might address a specific condition of the Great Depression. The teacher explains that FDR will address some of these concerns in his first inaugural address and then take actions, which the students will research over the course of the lesson. The teacher will pass out printed copies of FDR’s First Inaugural Address. The class will read together an excerpt from the address that corresponds to a film clip that the class will watch together. After viewing the film clip, the teacher will ask students to make general observations about the speech,which the class will then discuss as a whole. Presentation: The teacher will ask students to break into pairs for a close reading of FDR’s inaugural address. Practice and Application: The teacher will pass out graphic organizers for the students to use to analyze FDR’s speech. The teacher will give students instructions for referring to students’
Summer 2015: America Comes of Age
Hook: Students will refer to the list of Great Depression problems they generated and look at the photograph of Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the way to FDR’s inauguration. Students will pretend for a moment that they are about to be inaugurated as the president and come up with one way they might consider addressing one of the conditions resulting from the Great Depression. Considering the historical question posed by the teacher, students will watch an excerpt of FDR’s first inaugural address and make observations, ask questions, and draw inferences from the speech in a wholeclass discussion. This discussion is meant to prime students to fully analyze FDR’s speech using a graphic organizer. Presentation: In pairs students will read FDR’s full First Inaugural Speech, highlighting phrases that illustrate the tone FDR takes and metaphors he uses. Next, students will highlight promises FDR makes in the speech (these tasks could be further split up for students who need scaffolding and a more detailed explanation of tasks). Practice and Application: Students will complete a graphic organizer identifying the tone FDR uses in his first inaugural address, three promises he makes in the speech, and one metaphor he uses to
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highlighted sections to complete these graphic organizers. Once students have completed the graphic organizers referring to FDR’s inaugural address and the class has discussed their observations, the teacher will pass out FDR’s Alphabet Soup charts and explain to students that they will be conducting research on each of the agencies FDR created to address socioeconomic problems. The teacher will have students break into pairs and assign each pair two Alphabet Agencies to research. The teacher will provide research resources to students, including the Library of Congress, and will circulate among the pairs for assistance. When students have completed FDR’s Alphabet Agencies, the teacher will ask them to match three agencies to the three promises they identified in FDR’s inaugural address. After the class discussion, the class will watch The New Deal for Dummies: FDR’s Alphabet Agencies US History Review on YouTube to reinforce concepts. https://vimeo.com/95352843 Review and Assessment: When students have completed their graphic organizers and watched the video review of the New Deal, the teacher will bring the class Summer 2015: America Comes of Age
unite the country during this time of national crisis. Using a graphic organizer titled “FDR’s Alphabet Soup”, students will break into pairs and conduct research into two Alphabet Agencies FDR created to address various national problems. After the student pairs have conducted their research and summarized the work of their agencies, the class will come together to share their research findings. Students will take notes on the agencies they did not personally research. Students will summarize the work of each agency and work in pairs to match three of the agencies with the promises students identified in the first graphic organizer. After matching the agencies student’s researched with the promises FDR made in his inaugural address, the class will engage in a whole group discussion to see if students agree about the agencies. Students will present the evidence they found while researching the Alphabet Agencies in order to back up their claims about whether FDR fulfilled his promises. The the class will watch The New Deal for Dummies: FDR’s Alphabet Agencies US History Review on YouTube to reinforce the concepts covered in the class. https://vimeo.com/95352843 Review and Assessment: Using their two graphic organizers, students will construct a onepage essay, poster, PowerPoint presentation, poem, chart, or L ibrary of Congress TPS at CES
together and refer back to the historical question, How did Franklin Delano Roosevelt address problems caused by the Great Depression? The teacher will facilitate a class discussion around this question and record student points on the board. The teacher will make sure in the discussion that students demonstrate in the text where they found evidence to support their conclusions.
other project, in which they argue whether FDR fulfilled the promises he made in his first inaugural address. Students will have to provide evidence for their claims and be able to explain how FDR addressed the problems caused by the Great Depression. Students will participate in a class discussion focused on the historical question structuring the class. Students will answer how FDR addressed problems caused by the Great Depression. Students will provide textbased evidence for the points they make. Extension: As a summative assessment, students will apply what they learned about FDR’s New Deal to create a poster, essay, PowerPoint, or other form of presentation about an agency they would create to address a current socioeconomic or political problem. For a miniunit broaden the inquiry question to: What role should a government play in managing national resources both in times of crisis and in times of prosperity?
Materials and Sources Used What primary source(s) is/are being used? 1. Roosevelt, Franklin Delano. 1933. “First Inaugural Address.” in Ravitch, Diane (ed.). The American Reader: Words that Moved a Nation . NY: Harper CollinsPublishers. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/00650969/ Annotation: Iconic photograph of Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the way to FDR’s inauguration. The photograph of Herbert Hoover and FDR will act as a prompt to get students to imagine what it would be like to be on the way to one’s inauguration as president. Putting themselves in the place of the president will be a way to hook students into thinking about the job of the president by addressing a national crisis like the Great Depression. Summer 2015: America Comes of Age
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2. FDR’s first inaugural address, March 1933: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/froos1.asp Annotation: FDR’s first inaugural address states goals he hopes to accomplish, during his first term, to confront the problems of the Great Depression. 3. Photos depicting the Alphabet Agencies’ work: http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/ti meline/depwwii/newdeal/alphabet.html Annotation: The photographs and/or posters that illustrate the work of the Alphabet Agencies provide an added resource for students to be able to visualize the work of the agencies and the aesthetics of the New Deal era. 4. Primary and secondary sources about New Deal programs: http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/newdeal/ Annotation: New Deal Programs: Selected Library of Congress Resources was created to serve as a starting point for research using Library of Congress collections of New Deal program materials. While this guide is by no means comprehsnive, it provides an overview of special collections held by the Library of Congress and links to digitized materials and selcted resources relating to New Deal programs in the Librayr of Congress divisions. 5. Video of FDR’s first inaugural address, March 1933: http://www.cspan.org/video/?57921/presidentfranklindrooseveltinauguraladdress Annotation: The video excerpt of FDR’s inaugural address provides students with an illustration of the atmosphere and physical context in which the speech took place. Textdependent Questions: ● What tone does FDR take in his inaugural address. What specific phrases illustrate his tone? ● What promises does FDR make in his first inaugural address? ● What metaphor(s) does FDR use in describing the state of the nation in his inaugural address? What secondary sources are being used? ● Alphabet Agencies summaries http://www.ushistory.org/us/49e.asp Summer 2015: America Comes of Age
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● University of Washington, History 101: Survey of the History of the United States: New Deal Agencies http://faculty.washington.edu/qtaylor/Courses/101_USH/new_deal.htm ● New Deal review video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bMq9Ek6jnA What specific context do they provide the primary source(s) in this lesson? These sources above explain the specific agencies FDR’s administration set up to address the issues Americans were facing as a result of the Great Depression and will aid students by providing evidence of the actions his administration took to fulfill the promises he made in his inaugural address. The websites describing the Alphabet Agencies serve as a research resource for students to use when filling out the “FDR’s Alphabet Soup” chart and then matching agencies with specific promises FDR made during his inaugural speech. The crash course review of New Deal policies provides students with a review for the research they conducted in the class and a visual reinforcement of the historical period on which the class focused. What other curricular materials do you plan to use to support the lesson? ● Teachers’ source set from the Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/newdeal/pdf/teacher _guide.pdf Annotation: The teachers’ source set from the Library of Congress provides a New Deal timeline, primary sources, and other curricular material that we can draw upon when researching this lesson and building upon it with connected lessons about the New Deal. ● Graphic organizer to aid students in analyzing FDR’s first inaugural address. Attached Appendix. Annotation: The first graphic organizer will aid students in doing a textual analysis of FDR’s inaugural address by helping them to stay focused on textbased questions and organize their evidence. ● Chart to help students to research and summarize the role of FDR’s various Alphabet Agencies. Attached appendix. Annotation: The Alphabet Agency chart will help students to organize and summarize the role of each agency. Summer 2015: America Comes of Age
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After reading Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first inaugural speech, please make one prediction about an action he might take as president to address the conditions the country faces as a result of the Great Depression.
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Please list the issues people in the United States faced during the Great Depression.
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Please analyze Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first inaugural address by answering the following questions. What tone does FDR establish in this speech? Please list at least two phrases, descriptions, or statements that support your claim. 1. 2. Please list at least three promises that FDR makes in his inaugural address: 1. 2. 3. Please name one metaphor that FDR uses to talk about his (and Americans’) role in addressing the Depression. Summer 2015: America Comes of Age
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Student Handout
Name
FDR’s Alphabet Soup Program
Acronym
Summary of Agency
Agricultural Adjustment Act
Civilian Conservation Corps
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Federal Emergency Relief Administration
National Recovery Administration
Public Works Administration
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Securities and Exchange Commission
Federal Housing Administration
Tennessee Valley Authority
Works Progress Administration Social Security Act
Wagner Act
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