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We have watched quite a bit of the Ken Burns documentary, “The Dust Bowl,” so you should have a pretty good idea what life was like during the 30s in the Texas/Oklahoma region.

Your job now is to write a diary from the perspective of someone who is living in that place at that time. Use as many details as you can from the video to show that you paid attention and that you understand what life was like. We saw and talked about a lot of factors that impacted people’s lives.

You must write AT LEAST 5 entries on 5 different days (they should NOT ALL be consecutive days! Spread them out! You can have 2 or 3 in a row, but you need to cover 2 or 3 different weeks or months).

Each entry must be AT LEAST 1/2 page (single spaced, written standard size – ie not super huge writing) (more is fine, and will get you a better mark!)

You need to, without stating exactly, tell me what sex and age your character is. For example, don’t say, “I’m a 12 year old girl,” say something like, “other girls my age…” and then provide enough details so that I can guess how old you are. Maybe one of your best friends just turned 12, for example.

That same model applies to the following information, which needs to be found in your diary:

• You need to let me know who else is in your family/household.
• You need to talk about what you like to do, and whether you’re in school or working or whatever.
• You need to talk about the responsibilities/duties that your character has around the house/farm.
• Tell me what kinds of animals/crops are on your farm.
• You need to talk about what most days are like (outside, routine, etc.)
• You need to talk about what happens when the dust storms are really bad.
• You need to talk about what a day without a storm is like.

BE CREATIVE! HAVE FUN WITH IT (even though life can be pretty depressing for these people at times!) PLAN IT OUT (make some rough notes for yourself, figuring out what kinds of things you’ll cover in each entry.)

You may download these instructions for printing/reference here: Dirty30sDiary

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We’re soon going to start reading a novel that is set during The Great Depression of the 1930s in the U.S.A. I like to get a bit of context for the period/place where the story is set, so we’ll take a brief look at what was going on in that time & place, and get a sense of what it was like for people living then & there.

Your job will be to write a formal letter, using the format described in files you can find by visiting this link. Your letter will be written from the perspective of either a farmer who is about to start a new life in Oklahoma or the surrounding areas in the late 1920s, heading into the depression of the 30s, or one of his immediate family members.

As you’ll see in some videos today, initially, things were looking very promising for the area as there was a bit of an agricultural boom going on, with the U.S. government encouraging people to start a new life and set up a farm in the area. There were, however, some doubts and concerns about the long-term viability and sustainability of the area, and those ultimately proved to be worthwhile, as things deteriorated into the great Dust Bowl of the 1930s (we’ll look at that tomorrow or subsequent days.)

As someone who has been promised great things by moving to the area, you should express your excitement, but some apprehension as well. What makes things look so good? What might go wrong? How does your character feel about the move?

This letter should be written the way your character would speak (as a middle aged man? His wife? His son/daughter?) so try to put yourself in that role and think about how that person would think and speak.

You will be graded on:

• historical accuracy (show me that you paid attention to the videos and discussion by including facts/details about the time & place – TAKE NOTES
• how well you write “in character.” Can I get a sense of who this person is & what he/she thinks by reading your letter?
• creativity & quality of your letter (put some effort into it!)
• letter format (look back at how these letters are supposed to be formatted. Learn from your mistakes on the first letter!)
• spelling/grammar. We’ve been practicing fixing these mistakes, so you should know what to avoid. Let’s assume that the writer of the letter is educated and knows how to write fairly well. Use capital letters, proper sentence construction, rules of grammar, and all of the fun stuff you’ve been working to correct lately.

View letter format & an example of a letter here

Videos viewed today:

1) Go to this link to SIGN IN

Use the login information below. You can copy/paste the username & password (which are the same.)

Student username: student23038
Student password: student23038

You should do the activities provided, either on paper or on your computer (download the file below and then fill it out.):

week-in-rap-march-6-2015-activities

If you need help, you can go to Interactive Lyrics in the menu bar:

If you click on the lyrics that are blue, you can get more information about that event/story:

A box will pop up and will provide more information.

At the bottom of each box there’s a “Learn More” link that will take you to a news article about the event/story.

Once you get the work done, you either hand in the paper or email your finished file to misterjrobson then add the at symbol, and gmail.com. Bam!

EditMar6