Major Concepts:

1. Franklin D. Roosevelt's Administration changed the role of government in solving the nation's problems, and Roosevelt skillfully made the Presidency the focus of American public life.

2. The New Deal programs improved the lives of individual Americans during the Great Depression and transformed the role of the federal government in national life for half a century.

Objectives: The student will be able to:

1. Analyze the programs of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration during the first and second New Deals in terms of the change that occurred in the roles of government and the growth of the Presidency's importance in American public life.

2. Document the statement that the New Deal programs improved the lives of individual Americans during the Great Depression.

3. Present evidence that the effects of the New Deal persisted for more than half a century, both in the roles that the federal government continued to play in national life and in the lives of individual Americans.

Suggested lesson/activities:

DAY ONE
1. If possible, work in conjunction with the English/Language Arts teachers to have students read or view The Grapes of Wrath.

2. Project a series of photographs depicting life during the Depression in rural and urban areas. Lead class discussion to develop a list of characteristic conditions displayed and a list of possible things that might ease the people's problems.

3. Find poems or excerpts from interviews discussing the Great Depression. (Many are available through the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.) Lead a short class discussion around the question: "What do these readings tell us about individual Americans' responses to the economic hardships brought by the Great Depression?"

4. Distribute the major content and concepts and objectives for the lesson, and indicate that students are to use the next several days to develop a portfolio that (a) accurately portrays the New Deals of the Roosevelt Administration, (b) presents evidence indicating the improvement of the lives of individual Americans during the Roosevelt Administration, and (c) demonstrates the ways that the New Deals transformed the role of the federal government in American life.

5. Distribute the Procedure for Roosevelt Administration Portfolio and New Deal Checklist.

6. Use the remainder of the first day's lesson to construct the scoring rubric for the Portfolio with the students.

   DAY TWO

7. Group the students into pairs. Distribute the "Roosevelt's First Inaugural" activity sheets. Students will include their responses in their portfolios.

   DAY THREE

8. Locate the document-based question (DBQ) "Comparing Conservative Hoover and Liberal Roosevelt" from Educational Testing Service, Princeton, NJ. Have students write a concise response to the question asked. (This is a teacher-directed independent activity.) Students will include the written response in their portfolios.

9. Some students may wish to create a portfolio project based upon their interpretation of political cartoons. If so, they could complete the "Using Political Cartoons" activity found in the CROSSROADS Resources for Unit X, Lesson One.