Indiana Social Studies USH.4.3
The Standard
Analyze the causes of the Great Depression and its social, cultural, political, and economic impacts on all Americans.
2026 Indiana Academic Standards: K-12 Social Studies · Students are expected to trace and analyze chronological periods and examine the significant themes and concepts in U.S. History. Students develop historical thinking and research skills using primary and secondary sources to explore topical issues to understand the cause for changes in the nation over time.
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students explain how debt, risky stock buying, and bank failures helped cause the Great Depression. They trace how job loss changed family life, government, and popular culture. They compare how different groups experienced those changes.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can explain how a bank failure could lead to job loss. They can use a breadline photo and a New Deal poster to describe changes in daily life and government. They can explain why a city worker and a farm family might have faced different hardships.
Common Misconceptions
- Students often blame the stock market crash alone or think the Dust Bowl started the Depression. Some assume everyone faced the same hardship and overlook racial discrimination and the forced removal of Mexican Americans. Others think New Deal programs ended the Depression right away.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Explain how bank closures could lead to job loss. Then use a breadline photo and a New Deal poster to name one change in daily life and one change in government.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs slips showing installment buying, bank failures, layoffs, breadlines, and relief jobs; have them arrange a cause-and-effect timeline.
Show a breadline photo and a farm foreclosure notice; ask how hardship might differ for a city worker and a farm family.
Run a four-corner quiz using cards about layoffs, breadlines, protest songs, and New Deal laws; students choose an impact category and defend it.
Show a current FDIC insurance notice beside a 1930s bank-run photo; ask students why deposit insurance became law.
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Printable USH.4.3 Worksheet
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Related Standards
- IS.1.20
Analyze the causes of the Great Depression and explain how they affected Indiana society.
- USH.4.1
Identify new cultural and technological movements of the 1920s, and explain their impacts on Americans.
- USH.6.2
Analyze key economic, cultural, political, and social changes in post-World War II American life.
- WH.6.4
Identify the causes (i.e., social, political, militaristic, and economic) and key events of World War II, and analyze the impact this war had on the global comm...
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