WNYX--
BROADCASTING
NOW!!


TEACHER'S PAGE

This lesson was created for Sam Bruzzese's Applications Software (EDPT 200) class, a prerequisite course that will fulfill by Bachelor of Education degree for McGill University.  

This lesson is designed to encourage students to learn about what life was like for those individuals who lived through the Great Depression.  Hopefully, students will come to develop a better appreciation of both the hardships that were endured during the Depression, and the spirit of hope and resiliance that allowed Americans to make it through one of the bleakest periods in history. 

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LEARNERS

This lesson is anchored in grades 9-10 American history, but also involves language arts and, to a certain extent, communications.  This lesson can be easily extended to grades beyond 9 and 10, the only difference being the level of sophistication of the final product that should be expected by teacher.

Students need only a general knowledge of the Great Depression--what it was, when, how and why it happened--the rest of the information required to complete this webquest will be provided through various links.  They need, as well, to have a basic familiarity with the medium of radio.    

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CURRICULUM STANDARDS

As broadcasters for one day, students will understand life in 1934 in all of its many aspects--social, economic, political--and hopefully, they will come to develop a better appreciation of both the  hardships that were endured during the Depression, and the spirit of hope and  resiliance that allowed Americans to make it through one of bleakest periods in history.  In addition, students will 

• Recognize the relationships among the various parts of American cultural life.

• Develop a sense of creative production

• Develop skills in research, compilation and presentation within a given time frame.
  

• Develop a sense of teamwork.
  

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PROCESS

Students will divided into groups of eight, and then subdivided into pairs--each pair will deal with a different aspect of the radio broadcast: political/economic news, social news, entertainment, and miscellaneous.

Each group has 10 minutes to 'broadcast'--as in a real radio broadcast, this time allotment is strict--do not go over your given amount of time.

Before you begin you must check out a timeline of 1934 in order to be able to pick out the various news and events about which you wish to report.  Remember that you are only reporting on the events of one week--make sure that the various dates of your information and events fit into the timeline appropriately.

This is a large lesson, requiring at least one week of classroom time. In addition, it should be expected that students will complete the project on their own time, especially the actual taping of the broadcast.  This project is an interdisciplinary one, relying on aspects of humanities and language arts, and would work well as a project in either respect.    

Chances are, not every classroom will have the required equipment for taping the broadcast--or if they do, they will not have enough to accomodate each group.  All that is needed is a basic tape recorder with a microphone component--either internal or external--but if this cannot be found, the project does have a written component which will serve well enough.  It would be best (more interesting, more fun...) to find at least one recorder, however, and make it available to all students for in-class or home use on a sign-out basis. This sharing aspect will require students to be organized and teacher to be vigilant, in order for work to be completed on the required day.  Audio cassette tapes will also be required, one per group, presumably at the expense of the teacher. 

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RESOURCES NEEDED

• tape recorder with microphone (internal or external)
• 8 audio cassettes
  

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EVALUATION

	Beginning 1	Developing 2	Accomplished 3	Exemplary 4	Score
Reflects time period appropriately	Students have made little attempt to understand and include the various details appropriate to the time period.	Attempts have been made to reflect the time period appropriately.	Information is mostly accurate--for the most part reflecting the time period precisely.	Information is accurate, reflecting the time period appropriately in all respects.
Information is complete and varied	Information given is incomplete or sketchy, and does not reflect a wide variety of topics.	An attempt has been made to include cover topics as completely as possible and to reflect a wide variety of topics.	Except for a few instances, information provided by students in complete and varied.	Information provided by students is complete and reflects a wide variety of interesting topics.
Creativity	Little or no attempt has been made to make the project as interesting as possible--very little creative effort made.	An attempt has been made to make broadcast as interesting and creative as possible.  Needs work.	Students have made a good attempt at creativity--broadcast is, for the most part,interesting and effective.	Students have clearly had fun in this project--they have included interesting information and made use of sound effects, voices, etc. in a manner that is effective and interesting.
Factual Accuracy	Students have made little or no attempt to include factual information.	An attempt has been made to ensure that information presented is factual.  Needs work.	Except for a few instances, information is factual and accurate.	Facts presented are entirely accurate and precise.
Time	Students have made a poor use of their time.  They have gone over/under time limit; broadcast is not balanced--too much/too little time given to each segment.	An attempt has been made to ensure a good use of time, with some problems.  Needs work.	Generally speaking, students have made good use of time.	Students have made an excellent use of time.  Time limits respected--broadcast is well-balanced.

There is a great deal of room for creativity within this project, and what I hope is that students will have fun while learning at the same time.   I believe that if students enjoy this project it will be evident in the work they present.

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CONCLUSION

In creating a radio broadcast, students will hopefully have gotten a sense of what life was like for the American people as they endured the hard days of the Great Depression in 1934.  They will also learn how to research and compile information, to write interesting, as well as concise, reports and to organize your research and time. Finally, I hope that they will stretch their creative muscles and have fun!!

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CREDITS AND REFERENCES

Special thanks to Old Time Radio, and their link to Donna L. Halper's The History of Radio website in particular, that provided much of the background information concerning radio in 1934 used in this website.

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