The Grapes of Wrath Pre-Reading Activity

[Mr. Wells]

The Grapes of Wrath
Historical Perspectives Activity

As with most great American novels, The Grapes of Wrath was written amid a time of great tumult and change in American history. A deeper understanding of the text must include a basic understanding of the conditions a significant portion of Americans were facing in the 1930s. You should already have some background knowledge about the Great Depression, the precursors to -- and the beginning of -- World War II, and other important aspects of this time period. However, the graveness of the situation was made bleaker by the torrential conditions in what is commonly referred to as the Oklahoma Dust Bowl.

Activity:
Using the internet as your primary tool, you are to scour sources for information regarding the Oklahoma Dust Bowl. Important things to consider (and possible keywords) are:

1. Ecological aspects which lead to the Oklahoma Dust Bowl

2. The farmers, turned migrants, who lived in this region

3. The Federal Government’s reaction to the problem over the span of the 1930s

4. The California state legislature’s reaction to migrant American farmers

5. Specific weather conditions found – or not found – in the Oklahoma Dust Bowl

Take notes on any important, relevant information you find. Be sure to analyze the validity of the site: Mrs. Williams’s 3rd Grade project on the Dust Bowl is not a reliable source. Once you have gathered information, your next step is to gather pictures related to the Oklahoma Dust Bowl. You are to synthesize your information along with the pictures you acquire to create a PowerPoint presentation that you will subsequently paste as a new thread.

We will do this for all major texts throughout the remainder of the year. You are to use the MLA format for the works cited page: cite your sources on the final slide(s) of the PowerPoint.


The rubric for this assignment can be found here: rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=PrintRubric&rubric_id=1370624&

An example of a mid-range scoring PowerPoint can be viewed here : docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddjpgz9x_45fbssx2

Overall, this PowerPoint was fair. It gave good information, and the pictures helped the viewer get a better sense of the conditions involved with the Dust Bowl. However, the Works Cited slide was incorrectly formatted, there were several errors in grammar throughout the presentation, and the information could have been more thorough. This presentation earned the student a 75/100.

Due Date: 11/7/07 11/8/07 (due to lockdown)