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8th grade · Social Studies · Unit 8 of 15

Depression & New Deal

The crash, the Dust Bowl and FDR

What your child practices

The causes of the crash and the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, how families coped, and Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal (begun as governor of New York) and its lasting programs.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 8.5; 8.5a; 8.5b; 8.5c · the causes and effects of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, and the New Deal

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. The stock market crash of 1929 began the Great Depression, and the Dust Bowl hit farmers on the Plains.
  2. FDR’s New Deal was a set of programs for relief, recovery and reform. As governor of New York, he had already set up a relief agency.
  3. Eleanor Roosevelt traveled the country and spoke up for the poor and for civil rights.

Example: The New Deal had three goals, all starting with R. What were they? Relief helped people in need right away. Recovery helped the economy grow again. Reform tried to prevent another depression. Answer: relief, recovery and reform

Depression & New Deal in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 8 of 15 in 8th grade Social Studies, after The Roaring Twenties and before World War II.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    The Works Progress Administration hired millions to…

    • fight overseas
    • sell stocks
    • build roads, bridges and schools and create art
    • close banks

  2. Question 2

    Shantytowns built by homeless people in the 1930s were called…

    • speakeasies
    • Hoovervilles
    • tenements
    • Levittowns

  3. Question 3

    The Dust Bowl was caused by…

    • a war
    • earthquakes
    • too much rain
    • drought plus farming methods that stripped away the grass holding the soil

  4. Question 4

    Eleanor Roosevelt traveled the country to…

    • lead the army
    • build canals
    • report on hardships and speak up for the poor and for civil rights
    • campaign against the New Deal

  5. Question 5

    The Civilian Conservation Corps gave young men jobs…

    • planting trees and building trails in parks and forests
    • in the army
    • in factories in Europe
    • in the stock market

  6. Question 6

    The Great Depression finally ended mainly because…

    • the Dust Bowl returned
    • the stock market closed
    • tariffs rose
    • spending for World War II created millions of jobs

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