Increase Students' Background Knowledge About The Great Depression

Whether you are doing a unit study of the Great Depression or are reading a novel or book related to it, your students can benefit greatly by reading What Was the Great Depression? by Janet Pascal and completing this workbook study guide.

The text What Was the Great Depression? written by Janet B. Pascal is written on about a 4th grade level and provides a thorough yet compact summary of information about the Great Depression, in about 100 pages of easy-to-read text plus illustrations and photos. This book is ideal for a study of the Great Depression in lower grades and a great way to cover essential background information for novel studies in higher grades.

Note: This product, Literature Lessons: What Was the Great Depression? is written as a workbook and study guide to go along with the text.  When you order this pdf downloadable product, you are given the option of adding one copy of Janet Pascal's paperback book to go along with it. If you want more than one copy, you can order them separately here. 

This workbook is recommended for use in grades 6-12, though advanced students in lower grades may be able to handle the assignments.

The reading assignments are broken down into roughly two-chapter segments. Each segment has vocabulary work, fill in the blanks, multiple choice, critical thinking, writing skills, and a review puzzle.

The goals of this workbook are to help students understand what they read, think about what they read, and remember the important facts about the Great Depression.

This book and workbook can be used as a stand-alone study of the Great Depression, especially in the lower grades or for low level students in the upper grades.

In the upper grades, this book and workbook would be an excellent extra project to assign students who are reading another book about the Great Depression (such as The Grapes of Wrath or Out of the Dust, for example). The reading level of the text is about on a 4th grade level, so older students should be able to easily read the text. The point in doing this book in the upper grades would be to give students a concise non-fiction account of the Great Depression as background knowledge. This also will help fulfill related non-fiction reading for the CCSS.

• The Vocabulary section is intended to familiarize students with words from the text that they may not know.
• The Fill in the Blanks section is intended to encourage close reading and reinforce important facts.
• The Multiple Choice section is intended as a self-quiz, so students can see what they have retained from their reading, as well as another review of important ideas.
• The Critical Thinking section is intended to make students think about what they have read and to encourage higher level thinking skills.
• The Writing Skills section is also intended to make students think more about what they have read as well as to practice important writing skills.
• The Crossword Review puzzles for each section is, again, meant to reinforce important names or ideas from the text.
• At the end of the reading of the book, there are some Whole Book Review materials to help students remember important people, places, events, and ideas about the Great Depression.

Along the way, in the unit of study, we’ve tried to educate students with some good life lessons as well–practical and helpful tips, things to think about, and so on.