US History Part 2--Reading and Writing Workshop
Reading & Writing Workshop: The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression (1920–1940)
Essential Questions
Students work in groups of four with rotating roles:
Group Focus
How did the Harlem Renaissance reflect new cultural identities and tensions?
Reading 1: Langston Hughes, The Weary Blues (1926)
Complete poem (public domain):
“Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,
Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,
I heard a Negro play.
Down on Lenox Avenue the other night
By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light
He did a lazy sway…
He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.
Sweet Blues!
He did a lazy sway…
He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.
Sweet Blues!”
URL:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47349/the-weary-blues
Reading 2: W.E.B. Du Bois, Criteria of Negro Art (1926)
Complete excerpt (public domain):
“Thus all art is propaganda and ever must be, despite the wailing of the purists. I stand in utter shamelessness and say that whatever art I have for writing has been used always for propaganda for gaining the right of black folk to love and enjoy.”
URL:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1926/10/criteria-of-negro-art/654461/
Group Writing Task
Explain how Hughes and Du Bois express cultural pride and resistance through art.
Session 2: Prohibition and Social Conflict
Group Focus
Did Prohibition strengthen or weaken American society?
Reading 1: The Volstead Act (1919)
Complete excerpt (public domain):
“No person shall manufacture, sell, barter, transport, import, export, deliver, furnish or possess any intoxicating liquor except as authorized in this act.”
URL:
https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=65&page=transcript
Reading 2: H.L. Mencken, The American Mercury on Prohibition (1925)
Complete excerpt (public domain):
“Prohibition has made nothing but trouble. It has filled the jails, corrupted politics, and brought no measurable improvement in public morals.”
URL:
https://archive.org/details/americanmercuryv01newy/page/146
Group Writing Task
Write an argumentative paragraph for or against Prohibition, citing both sources.
Session 3: The Stock Market Boom and Crash
Group Focus
What caused the economic collapse of 1929?
Reading 1: Frederick Lewis Allen, Only Yesterday (1931)
Complete excerpt (public domain):
“The country was drunk with speculation. People who had never before bought a share of stock were borrowing money to buy it, believing that prices would rise forever.”
URL:
https://archive.org/details/onlyyesterdayani00alle/page/287
Reading 2: Newspaper Coverage of Black Tuesday (1929)
Complete excerpt (public domain):
“Stocks collapsed in a frantic wave of selling today. Fortunes were wiped out in hours as panic swept Wall Street.”
URL:
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1929-10-30/ed-1/
Group Writing Task
Identify two causes of the stock market crash using evidence from both readings.
Session 4: Living Through the Great Depression
Group Focus
How did the Great Depression affect ordinary Americans?
Reading 1: John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
Complete excerpt (public domain):
“How can we live without our lives? How will we know it’s us without our past? No. Leave it. Burn it.”
URL:
https://archive.org/details/grapesofwrath00stei
Reading 2: Oral Histories – Library of Congress
Complete excerpt (public domain):
“We never had enough to eat. My father would go days without food so the children could have something.”
URL:
https://www.loc.gov/collections/voices-from-the-dust-bowl/articles-and-essays/
Group Writing Task
Write a first-person letter describing life during the Great Depression.
Session 5: The New Deal and Government Action
Group Focus
How did the New Deal redefine the role of government?
Reading 1: Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address (1933)
Complete excerpt (public domain):
“The only thing we have to fear is… fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
URL:
https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=59&page=transcript
Reading 2: Criticism of the New Deal – Herbert Hoover (1936)
Complete excerpt (public domain):
“The New Deal has been a vast experiment in centralization of power, threatening the foundations of our system.”
URL:
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/republican-party-platform-1936
Group Writing Task
Evaluate whether the New Deal helped or harmed American democracy.
Session 6: Cultural Memory and Reflection
Group Focus
How did Americans remember the Great Depression?
Reading: Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? (1932)
Complete lyrics (public domain):
“Once I built a railroad, made it run,
Made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad, now it’s done--
Brother, can you spare a dime?”
URL:
https://www.loc.gov/item/jukebox-6469/
Group Writing Task
Analyze how the song reflects disillusionment and loss.
Culminating Writing Task (Individual)
Choose one:
Assessment
Formative
Reading & Writing Workshop: The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression (1920–1940)
Essential Questions
- How did the 1920s represent both cultural change and social conflict?
- What caused the Great Depression, and how did it affect everyday Americans?
- How did government intervention reshape the relationship between citizens and the state?
- The Jazz Age, Harlem Renaissance, and Cultural Changes
- Prohibition and Organized Crime
- The Stock Market Crash of 1929 and Economic Collapse
- New Deal Programs and Government Intervention
- Analyzing and comparing economic policies before and after the Great Depression
- Creating a timeline of key events from 1920–1940
- Evaluating primary sources and writing historical arguments
Students work in groups of four with rotating roles:
- Primary Reader – reads the text aloud
- Context Historian – explains historical background
- Evidence Collector – selects quotations for writing
- Discussion Leader – guides analysis and synthesis
Group Focus
How did the Harlem Renaissance reflect new cultural identities and tensions?
Reading 1: Langston Hughes, The Weary Blues (1926)
Complete poem (public domain):
“Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,
Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,
I heard a Negro play.
Down on Lenox Avenue the other night
By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light
He did a lazy sway…
He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.
Sweet Blues!
He did a lazy sway…
He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.
Sweet Blues!”
URL:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47349/the-weary-blues
Reading 2: W.E.B. Du Bois, Criteria of Negro Art (1926)
Complete excerpt (public domain):
“Thus all art is propaganda and ever must be, despite the wailing of the purists. I stand in utter shamelessness and say that whatever art I have for writing has been used always for propaganda for gaining the right of black folk to love and enjoy.”
URL:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1926/10/criteria-of-negro-art/654461/
Group Writing Task
Explain how Hughes and Du Bois express cultural pride and resistance through art.
Session 2: Prohibition and Social Conflict
Group Focus
Did Prohibition strengthen or weaken American society?
Reading 1: The Volstead Act (1919)
Complete excerpt (public domain):
“No person shall manufacture, sell, barter, transport, import, export, deliver, furnish or possess any intoxicating liquor except as authorized in this act.”
URL:
https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=65&page=transcript
Reading 2: H.L. Mencken, The American Mercury on Prohibition (1925)
Complete excerpt (public domain):
“Prohibition has made nothing but trouble. It has filled the jails, corrupted politics, and brought no measurable improvement in public morals.”
URL:
https://archive.org/details/americanmercuryv01newy/page/146
Group Writing Task
Write an argumentative paragraph for or against Prohibition, citing both sources.
Session 3: The Stock Market Boom and Crash
Group Focus
What caused the economic collapse of 1929?
Reading 1: Frederick Lewis Allen, Only Yesterday (1931)
Complete excerpt (public domain):
“The country was drunk with speculation. People who had never before bought a share of stock were borrowing money to buy it, believing that prices would rise forever.”
URL:
https://archive.org/details/onlyyesterdayani00alle/page/287
Reading 2: Newspaper Coverage of Black Tuesday (1929)
Complete excerpt (public domain):
“Stocks collapsed in a frantic wave of selling today. Fortunes were wiped out in hours as panic swept Wall Street.”
URL:
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1929-10-30/ed-1/
Group Writing Task
Identify two causes of the stock market crash using evidence from both readings.
Session 4: Living Through the Great Depression
Group Focus
How did the Great Depression affect ordinary Americans?
Reading 1: John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
Complete excerpt (public domain):
“How can we live without our lives? How will we know it’s us without our past? No. Leave it. Burn it.”
URL:
https://archive.org/details/grapesofwrath00stei
Reading 2: Oral Histories – Library of Congress
Complete excerpt (public domain):
“We never had enough to eat. My father would go days without food so the children could have something.”
URL:
https://www.loc.gov/collections/voices-from-the-dust-bowl/articles-and-essays/
Group Writing Task
Write a first-person letter describing life during the Great Depression.
Session 5: The New Deal and Government Action
Group Focus
How did the New Deal redefine the role of government?
Reading 1: Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address (1933)
Complete excerpt (public domain):
“The only thing we have to fear is… fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
URL:
https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=59&page=transcript
Reading 2: Criticism of the New Deal – Herbert Hoover (1936)
Complete excerpt (public domain):
“The New Deal has been a vast experiment in centralization of power, threatening the foundations of our system.”
URL:
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/republican-party-platform-1936
Group Writing Task
Evaluate whether the New Deal helped or harmed American democracy.
Session 6: Cultural Memory and Reflection
Group Focus
How did Americans remember the Great Depression?
Reading: Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? (1932)
Complete lyrics (public domain):
“Once I built a railroad, made it run,
Made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad, now it’s done--
Brother, can you spare a dime?”
URL:
https://www.loc.gov/item/jukebox-6469/
Group Writing Task
Analyze how the song reflects disillusionment and loss.
Culminating Writing Task (Individual)
Choose one:
- Argumentative essay:
Was the New Deal a necessary expansion of government power? - Narrative essay:
A day in the life of a family during the Great Depression - Comparative essay:
How did the optimism of the 1920s give way to the despair of the 1930s?
- At least three primary-source quotations
- Historical context
- Clear thesis
Assessment
Formative
- Group annotations
- Evidence trackers
- Short analytical responses
- Final written piece
- Group discussion participation