Great Depression Worksheets

About this resource

Teaching the Great Depression and need pages students can actually work on? This is a complete set for grades 6-8 (and a good fit for 9). Students read the story two ways, a short read of 136 words and a full read in four parts, then analyze a Dust Bowl family letter and a radio talk paraphrase, both written for this file, order events on a timeline, match the New Deal alphabet programs (CCC, WPA, FDIC, TVA, SEC and the Social Security Act), fill in a cause and effect organizer and a who-thought-what chart, draw an eight-panel comic strip, answer short questions, write a claim-evidence-reasoning paragraph, take a twelve-item quiz, do three cut-and-paste sorts and finish with exit tickets. Answer keys give the letters and a sample for every open answer.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (44 sheets)

• 26 student pages in 15 kinds of page, each with a name line and one short instruction
• 76 scored items spread over 15 scored worksheets, every answer key built from the same option lists that print on the page
• Reading 1, a short read of 136 words with a main idea box and 3 checks; Reading 2, the full story in 4 parts (Boom and Crash, Hard Times, The New Deal, The End of the Depression) of 132 to 154 words each, with a main idea box, a why-it-mattered box and 2 checks each (11 checks in all)
• Topics: the 1920s boom, the stock market crash of October 1929, bank failures, overproduction, Hoovervilles, the Bonus Army of 1932, the Dust Bowl, Hoover and Roosevelt, Fireside Chats, the New Deal (CCC, WPA, FDIC, TVA, SEC, Social Security Act of 1935) and World War II production
• 2 source analysis pages with 6 questions in ruled boxes: Source A is an invented Dust Bowl family's letter written for this file, and Source B paraphrases the first Fireside Chat in modern words. Neither is a real quote, and each page says so
• 1 Before and After Check (5 questions, an answer box for each time) and 1 Before You Read page with 4 true-or-false items
• 1 Words to Know page: match 8 words (depression, stock market, unemployment, Hooverville, drought, veteran, relief, New Deal) to their meanings
• 1 timeline page: write the date for 6 events from 1928 to 1941
• 1 New Deal Alphabet Soup page: match 6 programs to what they did
• 1 cause and effect organizer with 4 causes, 1 who-thought-what chart for 4 groups, 1 comic strip spread across two sheets with 8 panels (a drawing box at least 2.5 inches tall and one speech line in each)
• 6 short-answer questions across two pages, 4 ruled lines each
• 2 claim-evidence-reasoning pages: an organizer and an 18-line paragraph page
• 12-item quiz across two pages; 4 exit tickets
• 24 cut-and-paste pieces on 3 sort mats: cause or effect and Hoover or Roosevelt (6 pieces each in a 3 by 2 grid) and a timeline sort (12 pieces in a 4 by 3 grid, three full-width paste boxes)
• 5 answer keys with a sample for every open answer; 1 tracker, 1 class grid, 1 team note, 1 family page
• 1 filled example (an invented student), 1 phrase bank (17 starters in 6 groups)
• A binder cover with type-in teacher and class fields, and a page of divider tabs (Readings, Sources, Sorts, Keys, Records) with a spine label to cut out
• Start Here and a how-to-read-a-page page

Built For The Student Holding The Page

A "My name" line, one short instruction with a small picture cue, a plain scalloped border and big ruled boxes. Nothing on a student page is written for an adult: the keys and records are on separate teacher pages. The cut pages have their pieces edge to edge, so there are only a few straight cuts. Clip art is kept to one small picture per page: a bank, a tent, a radio, a factory, coins, an envelope, a microphone, a calendar, a quill, a book, a question mark and a pencil. The file prints clean in black and white.

A Short Account, Not A Full Textbook

Each reading is a plain-words summary written for this file. It covers the 1920s boom, stocks bought on borrowed money, overproduction, the crash of October 1929, bank failures with no deposit insurance, about one worker in four without a job by 1933, Hoovervilles, the Bonus Army, the Dust Bowl, President Hoover and President Roosevelt, the Fireside Chats, the New Deal programs and the war production that finally ended the Depression. The pages use no long quotations: the two source pages are written for this file in modern words and say so. Check the readings against your own textbook; they are not tied to any standard. The only student in the file is an invented example, and it says so.

Type In, Or Print

The name line, every answer box, every check box and every ruled work box are type-in fields in any PDF reader: click one, type, then save. This is a fillable PDF; it is not a Google Slides or PowerPoint file.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

A set of Great Depression readings and practice pages with the record-keeping around it. It is not a timed test, a screener, a clinical tool, or a claim about any student's age or rate of progress. There is no IEP goal language or eligibility wording anywhere in the file, and no claim of alignment to any standard.

If You Want More

Industrial Revolution Worksheets | Inventions, Sort, Timeline 6th-8th Grade; Westward Expansion Worksheets | Sort, Match, Timeline 6th 7th 8th Grade; Constitutional Convention Worksheets | Readings Compromises Sort Grades 6-8.