Oklahoma Social Studies USH.C.4.2.C
The Standard
- USH.C.4
- Analyze the cycles of economic boom and bust of the 1920s and 1930s on the transformation of the United States of America’s government and society.
- USH.C.4.2
- Analyze the prosperity of the Roaring Twenties and the collapse of the United States of America’s economy, leading to the Great Depression.
Identify causes contributing to an unstable economy including the overproduction of agriculture products, greater speculation in the stock market and buying on margin, and laissez faire policies.
Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies (2026) · USH.C.4.2
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Explain how falling farm prices, risky stock buying, and limited government oversight made the 1920s economy less stable. Trace what could happen when crop prices or stock values dropped.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can explain why growing more crops could leave a farmer earning less. They can show how borrowing to buy stocks made losses harder to cover, and how limited oversight allowed risky trading to spread.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may assume a bigger harvest always means more income. They may think buying on margin uses only the buyer's cash, or that limited oversight was the sole cause of the crash.
How to Assess It
- Ask students to write three sentences: How could a bumper wheat crop, a stock bought with borrowed money, and limited government oversight each weaken the economy?
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs 10 paper wheat cards priced at $2 each, then 20 priced at 50 cents; have them compare farm income.
Ask students to write: Why might a farmer earn less after growing more wheat?
Give groups cards showing a bumper harvest, falling crop prices, a borrowed stock purchase, and weak oversight; have them match each to an economic risk.
Use a brokerage loan example: buy a $100 share with $50 cash and $50 borrowed; calculate what is owed if its price falls to $40.
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