Virginia SOL USII.5.f
The Standard
analyzing the causes of the Great Depression and the impact of the Dust Bowl on the lives of Americans
Virginia Standards of Learning for History and Social Science
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students explain how stock speculation, bank failures, overproduction, debt, and reduced spending deepened the economic collapse. They trace how drought and poor farming practices destroyed Plains farms, displaced families, and caused poverty, migration, and health problems.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can build a cause and effect chain showing why the stock market crash was not the only cause of the Depression. They can use a photograph, map, or firsthand account to explain how the Dust Bowl changed work, housing, health, and migration.
Common Misconceptions
- Students often treat the stock market crash as the single cause and assume every American owned stocks. They may confuse the Dust Bowl with the Depression itself or believe drought alone created it. Some assume displaced families quickly found stable jobs in California.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Draw a three-step chain linking one economic cause to unemployment, then name two ways the Dust Bowl changed a family's life. Include one specific detail in each part.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give groups cause and effect cards, including bank failures, falling demand, farm loss, and migration, then have them build and defend two chains.
Show a Dust Bowl photograph and migration map, then ask, "What changed for this family, and what evidence supports your claim?"
Run a cause-and-effect matching game where teams pair event cards, explain each link aloud, and challenge one weak match.
Compare a 1930s family budget before and after crop prices fall, then have students choose expenses to cut and explain likely consequences.
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