GCSE
HISTORY B
Unit 2: Depression and the
New Deal: The USA, 1929 – 1941
Schemes of work
Schemes of work are suggestions and ideas about how you
might deliver GCSE History. You can use these suggestions,
adapt them to better suit your students or use your own
schemes of work.
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and advice.
This Scheme of work is part of your invaluable teaching and
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This Scheme of work offers a number of teaching suggestions for lessons to be planned around. It
should be used in conjunction with the content laid down in the Specification and the Resource list. It
is not prescriptive but could be used to inform a school/college’s approach and scheme of work. The
school/college’s scheme of work would take account of the ability of its students, its resources and
style of teaching and learning.
The teaching suggestions are indicative of a way of approaching the content. It does not necessarily
represent the way the content will be treated in the examination paper.
Key question
How serious were the effects of the Depression on the American people?
Outcomes
Teaching suggestions
To understand and explain:
• the effects of the Wall Street
Crash: economically, socially
and politically
• the attempts by Hoover to
deal with the Depression
• the reasons for Roosevelt’s
success in the 1932
Presidential Election.
Study statistics, written accounts and photos to chart the impact of
the Wall Street Crash on businesses.
To understand:
• some aspects of causation
and consequence
• some elements of source
evaluation
• the importance of analysing
different interpretations in the
study of an historical event.
Write a story about an imaginary family living in a Hooverville.
Describe how and where they are seeking work.
Investigate the extent to which businesses collapsed (for those
who have not studied Unit 3, some background work will be
necessary here).
Study the social impact of the Depression through photos, film,
written accounts.
Analyse the extent of the impact on American society.
Research the episode of the Bonus Marchers, 1931.
Research the background of Hoover before he became President.
Research how Hoover attempted to deal with the Depression; why
he was limited in his efforts.
Discuss the reasons why Hoover became unpopular as President,
eg how much of this was because of his apparently uncaring
manner?
Research the background of Roosevelt.
Analyse why he was elected in 1932 as President – what he
said; how he campaigned; his personality; Hoover’s apparent
disadvantages.
Look at different interpretations of the election.
Analyse the extent of his victory, and what this tells you about the
USA in late 1932.
2
GCSE HISTORY B UNIT 2: DEPRESSION AND THE NEW DEAL:
THE USA, 1929 – 1941
Key question
How did Roosevelt deal with the Depression?
Outcomes
Teaching suggestions
To understand and explain:
• Roosevelt’s initial policies
over the banking crisis
• how Roosevelt used Fireside
Chats
• the ways in which the New
Deal tried to help groups of
people
• the main Alphabet Agencies
• how Roosevelt helped
industry
• the Social Security Act of
1935.
Investigate how Roosevelt solved the banking crisis that he
inherited.
To understand:
• some aspects of causation
and consequence
• some elements of source
evaluation
• the importance of analysing
different interpretations in the
study of an historical event.
Look at cinema films set in the 1930s; read novels.
Research the impact of Roosevelt’s Fireside Chats.
Investigate the extent of America’s economic and social problems
in 1933.
Research what Roosevelt attempted to do to help groups of
people, eg this could be done under the headings of Relief,
Recovery and Reform. This would allow the matching up of the
Alphabet Agencies with the groups of people needing help. Don’t
worry too much about all the different agency titles – some overlap
in functions, some are temporary. Use this to explain how the New
Deal evolved in a somewhat haphazard fashion.
Study the government’s posters advertising the merits of the New
Deal policies.
Draw posters advertising particular initiatives.
Write diary entries for a family member before and after receiving
help from a New Deal initiative.
Study the impact of the TVA in depth; analyse its consequences
economically, socially and politically.
Research the details of the Social Security Act and analyse how
important it was in the 1930s.
3
Key question
How far was the New Deal successful in ending the Depression in the USA?
Outcomes
Teaching suggestions
To understand and explain:
• the effectiveness of the New
Deal and its limitations
• the reasons for criticism and
opposition to the New Deal
• the role of the Supreme Court
• the New Deal in the later
1930s
• the impact of the Second
World War on American
recovery, 1939 – 1941.
Study statistics on industrial recovery and unemployment patterns
to show the limitations of the recovery.
To understand:
• some aspects of causation
and consequence
• some elements of source
evaluation
• the importance of analysing
different interpretations in the
study of an historical event.
Research the role of some leading politicians who opposed the
New Deal for doing too much or not enough.
Construct a table to compare the two sets of views of those
opposing Roosevelt.
Study how the Supreme Court operates within the US
constitution.
Research the role of the Supreme Court in criticising aspects of
the New Deal and understand its arguments.
Study the role of political cartoons in this period to give
contrasting views on the New Deal.
Debate whether the main success of the New Deal was in
restoring confidence rather than what it actually achieved
economically and socially.
Discuss which groups in American society benefited more than
others.
Discuss the role of the media overall in promoting and in criticising
the New Deal.
Study why many Americans supported Isolationism as Western
Europe went to war in September 1939.
Research how US industry benefited from the war.
Study how the government allowed Lend-Lease whilst still
proclaiming that the USA was neutral.
Investigate the effects of aid to Western Europe on the US
economy and society.
Investigate and debate the extent to which the New Deal
promoted the economic recovery of the USA.
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February 2014
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