"The Black Blizzard": The Dust Bowl
- Rosie Jayde Uyola
- 5 hours ago
- 4 min read
Target: I can explain the causes and effects of the Dust Bowl by analyzing a description of a dust storm and a map of the migration to California.
Key Vocabulary
The Dust Bowl: An environmental disaster in the 1930s. A massive drought and poor farming methods turned the Great Plains (Midwest) into a desert of blowing dust.
Drought: A long period of time with no rain.
"Okies": A nickname for the thousands of farmers (many from Oklahoma) who lost their farms and moved to California looking for work.
The Grapes of Wrath: A famous book by John Steinbeck that told the tragic story of the "Okies" struggling to survive.
Part 1: Do Now (5 minutes)
Directions: Read the prompt below and write a 5-8 sentence response.
Prompt: Imagine you are eating dinner with your family. Suddenly, the sky turns pitch black in the middle of the day. A cloud of dirt the size of a mountain hits your house. Dirt comes through the cracks in the windows and covers your food, your bed, and your clothes. You cannot breathe without a mask. If this happened every day for a month, would you stay? If you left, where would you go? |
Sentence Starter: I would (stay/leave) because... Living in those conditions would make me feel...
Part 2: Analyzing the Sources
Directions: Analyze the two documents below and then answer the questions that follow.
Source 1: John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
Context: This novel describes the life of the Joad family, who were forced to leave their farm in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl.
Original Text | Simplified Text |
"The wind grew stronger... The dust from the ruined cornfields rose now out of the gray fields like a gray plume of smoke. The corn threshed the wind and made a dry, rushing sound. The finest dust did not settle back to earth now, but disappeared into the darkening sky... Men stood by their fences and looked at the ruined corn, drying fast now, only a little green showing through the film of dust. The men were silent and they did not move often. And the women came out of the houses to stand beside their men—to feel whether this time the men would break." | "The wind got stronger... The dust from the dead cornfields rose up like a giant cloud of gray smoke. The corn stalks hit the wind and made a dry, rushing sound. The dust did not fall back down; it filled the sky and blocked out the sun... The men stood by their fences and looked at their dead corn, which was drying out and covered in dust. The men were silent and stood still. The women came out of the houses to stand next to their husbands—to see if the men were going to give up and break down." |
Source 2: Photograph - "The Black Blizzard" (Texas, 1935)
Context: These storms were so huge they could bury entire houses and kill livestock.
Description: The photo shows a small wooden farmhouse on a flat plain. In the background, a terrifying, massive wall of black dust is rolling across the land. The dust cloud is thousands of feet high and looks like a tsunami made of dirt. It is about to swallow the house completely.
Analysis Questions
Directions: Answer the writing questions and the two Multiple Choice questions.
1. According to Source 1, how did the dust storms affect the crops ("the corn") and the mood of the farmers?
Sentence Starter: The dust storms ruined the corn by... The farmers felt silent and... because they realized their farms were...
2. Look at Source 2. Why did storms like this force families to become "Okies" and migrate to California?
Sentence Starter: Families had to leave because the storms were so big they could... It was impossible to live there because...
Regents-Style Multiple Choice
3. The conditions described in these documents (The Dust Bowl) were caused by a combination of:
(1) Heavy rains and flooding in the Mississippi River Valley
(2) Over-farming (poor land management) and severe drought
(3) The excessive use of pesticides by farmers
(4) The construction of the Transcontinental Railroad
4. What was the main result of the Dust Bowl for the people of the Great Plains?
(1) They became wealthy by selling the dust as fertilizer.
(2) The government paid them to stay on their land and plant trees.
(3) Thousands of families (Okies) migrated west to California to find work.
(4) They moved into the cities to work in munitions factories for WWII.
Part 3: Exit Ticket (5 minutes)
Directions: Answer the following prompt in a complete paragraph (5-8 sentences).
Prompt: Using evidence from both sources, explain the human tragedy of the Dust Bowl. How did nature (Source 2) destroy the livelihood of the farmers (Source 1), and what did they have to do to survive? |
Sentence Starter: The Dust Bowl was a tragedy for American farmers. As shown in Source 2, massive "Black Blizzards" destroyed the land by... In Source 1, John Steinbeck describes how the men stared at their "ruined corn" and felt... Because they could no longer farm, these families became "Okies" and had to... This shows that the environment can force people to...