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Comparing & Contrasting Communities: Cumberland Homesteads, TN & Skyline Farms, AL

In this lesson plan, students will compare and contrast two Resettlement Administration Communities: Cumberland Homesteads, TN and Skyline Farms, AL. Students will analyze photographs taken by Farm Security Administration photographers of the communities in the 1930s in order to learn similarities and differences as well as understand how images can be used as propaganda.

Weblink address (URL):

Home Page- source

Standards & Objectives

Learning objectives:

The learner will:

Analyze a photograph of Cumberland Homesteads or Skyline Farms
Compare and contrast images of Cumberland Homesteads and Skyline Farms
Analyze a Resettlement Administration poster to understand how posters were used as propaganda
Understand how FSA photographs were used as propaganda

Essential and guiding questions:

What can you learn about life in Cumberland Homesteads and Skyline Farms from comparing, contrasting, and analyzing photographs of the communities, and how were photographs and posters used as propaganda in the 1930s?

Lesson Variations

Blooms taxonomy level:

Applying

Extension suggestions:

Plan a field trip to Cumberland Homesteads to tour the Tower Museum and the Homestead House Museum. Is the community what you expected it to be? Do you recognize anything from the photographs that can still be seen today? What is the current day community like? Did visiting the community help answer any of the questions you still had about Cumberland Homesteads? If you cannot plan a field trip, then have students pretend they are working for the government. Their job is to create a poster about Cumberland Homesteads or Skyline Farms. The poster should represent the community in a positive light, just as the government would have done. Choose appropriate images to go along with your poster. Also, make sure you have an appropriate title, like the poster, “A mule and a plow--Resettlement Administration--Small loans give farmers a new start.” Have each student present their poster to the class. Do you have a better understanding of why the government used posters and photographs as propaganda?

Helpful Hints

MATERIALS:

Primary Source Analysis Tool
Teacher's Guide, Analyzing Photographs & Prints
Worksheet (see p. 7)