As some readers know, I don’t have a television at home so all of my “leisure” screen time comes through the web in the forms of Netflix, Hulu, Google Play movies, and occasionally PBS Video. Last night I was browsing through PBS Video when I came across an American Experience episode that I often use parts of when teaching about the Great Depression.
Surviving the Dust Bowl is an hour-long documentary of the stories of people who survived the Dust Bowl. I have found that the first-person accounts and archival footage captivated some of my students. Toward the beginning of the video there is one story of a family that refused government aid that really speaks to the resolve of some of the Dust Bowl survivors.
Applications for Education
If your students read The Grapes of Wrath, Surviving the Dust Bowl is a good companion resource that tells “the rest of the story” so to speak. In fact, a six years ago an American Literature teacher and I teamed together and we did use The Grapes of Wrath and Surviving the Dust Bowl together.
