Students learn about the relocation of Japanese Americans during World War II. Through an analysis of Dorothea Lange's photographs, the "Pledge of Allegiance," and a U.S. government flyer from 1942, students discuss the complexities of U.S. history and politics.

In 1931, a severe drought hit the Southern and Midwestern plains. As crops died and winds picked up, dust storms began. As the "Dust Bowl" photograph shows, crops literally blew away in "black blizzards" as years of poor farming practices and over-cultivation combined with the lack of rain. By 1934, 75% of the United States was severely affected by this terrible drought.The one-two punch of economic depression and bad weather put many farmers out of business. In the early 1930s, thousands of Dust Bowl refugees ? mainly from Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Kansas, and New Mexico ? packed up their families and migrated west, hoping to find work. Entire families migrated together (such as the men shown in "Three generations of Texans now Drought Refugees") in search of a better life. Images such as "Midcontinent ? Family Standing on the Road with Car," "Drought Refugees," and "Untitled, ca. 1935 (Worn-Down Family in Front of Tent)" offer a glimpse into their experience on the road, and show that cars provided many families both transportation and shelter on the road. About 200,000 of the migrants headed for California. The state needed to figure out how to absorb the thousands of destitute people crossing its borders daily. One of their tactics was to document the plight of the refugees. In 1935, photographer Dorothea Lange joined the Rural Rehabilitation Division of the California State Emergency Relief Administration (SERA), a section of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. She was assigned the job of using her camera to document the growing number of homeless Dust Bowl refugees migrating to California. She worked with Paul S. Taylor, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who was researching conditions of rural poverty in order to make recommendations on how to improve the workers' conditions. The work by Taylor and Lange played an important role in helping to raise public awareness of the crisis. The reports they made for the government included both data and striking images that revealed the desperate conditions in which the migrants lived and confirmed the need for government intervention. Stark images such as "Home of Oklahoma Drought Refugees" resonated with the public, and portraits of drought refugees like "Ruby from Arkansas" and others shown in this topic humanized the migrants for more fortunate citizens. In March 1936, Lange took what became one of her most famous images, "Migrant Mother." This image of a 32-year-old woman became an icon for the suffering of ordinary people during Great Depression.

Students analyze Dorothea Lange's photographs and identify key themes in her work. They then create a thematic exhibition pairing Lange's work with work by artists who explore the same themes in other media.

Students will read an artist's statement by Dorothea Lange and write an artist's statement based on their own photographs.

Students will create a timeline outlining various groups' struggles for equal opportunity and create a 30-second radio or video public service announcement (PSA).

Students will analyze shapes and patterns in a photograph, hear stories about people who were forced to move to internment camps because of their ethnicity, and create drawings that tell a story about a young girl's life in an internment camp.

Students will read primary source documents about the U.S. internment of Japanese Americans following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and will examine various versions of a photograph by Dorothea Lange and explore how cropping can evoke different effects.

Students examine primary resources, photographs by Dorothea Lange, and a U.S. map to understand the migrant experience during the Great Depression.

Students define metaphor and discuss its use in writing and visually. Students develop a personal metaphor and use it to write about their own experience.

Students study how Dorothea Lange tells stories related to children. They practice telling their own written and visual stories in response to Lange's images.

Students examine two of Dorothea Lange's photographs in relation to the universal theme of a journey. They make connections between the photographs and poems about journey and write about a journey in their own lives.

Students pair Dorothea Lange's photographs with passages from John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath. Students create an oral group presentation and discuss the relationship between the images and text.

Students analyze one of Dorothea Lange's photographs and make connections to its historical context by creating a one-page written and visual response.

Students consider the function of social-documentary photography. They research Dorothea Lange's documentary projects, and create their own photo essay about a subject of interest to them.

Explore the definition of a portrait. Students discuss two of Dorothea Lange's portraits and create their own portraits of their classmates.

Make connections between Dorothea Lange's images and the history of the Dust Bowl, the Depression, World War II, and large-scale agriculture in the United States. Students learn about the role of photography in news stories and write their own news story.

A short history on the environmental impact of the Dust Bowl on farmers in the 1930s. Also included is a local history of Modesto's Airport District, written by Dr. Talitha Agan.

Students will research labor unions, keep a photographer's journal, and create a photograph of a worker faced with difficult conditions.

Students will analyze depictions of workers in a drawing and two photographs. They will conduct an interview with a family member and create original drawings about work.

Students keep journals in which they respond in writing to Dorothea Lange's photographs.