"Great Depression No. 1", Regents US History Short Essays,

About this resource

What's inside this resource

Regents US History Short Essays, "Great Depression No. 1"

Why assign this? -- To develop historical document analysis skills like placing the document in its historical context and analyzing factors affecting its reliability.

The updated New York State Regents examination in United States History and Government, part II, is a short essay task designed to measure students’ ability to work with historic documents. It is a mature version of the “CRQ” found on the tenth grade Global Regents. Students are called upon to understand text, engage it with historical context, and assess a text’s reliability.

This product consists of Stimulus-Based Short-Essay Questions in the format of the new New York State Regents examination in Regents Examination in United States History and Government (Framework). A "set" consists of two pairs of documents..

Short essay tasks from Innovation are always primary sources. This means students get a more enriched and authentic experience examining the past as historians do.

This product is a complete part II as would be on a NYS Regents Examination in United States History and Government (Framework). That is, there are two pairs of documents with the accompanying prompts. The format is based on a prototype examination provided by the NYSED in June 2019.

SET 1: Students describe the historical context surrounding two documents and identify and explain the relationship between the events and/or ideas found in those documents (Cause/Effect or Similarity/Difference or Turning Point)

SET 2: Students describe the historical context surrounding two documents and (for one identified document) analyze and explain how audience, or purpose, or bias, or point of view affects the document’s use as a reliable source of evidence. Set 1 has one Short-Essay question based on a 5-point rubric Set 2 has one Short-Essay question based on a 5-point rubric.

A good strategy for ensuring students possess the skills to address this task is to be certain to assign one every month or so throughout the year, followed by a debriefing where the class can study their classmates’ work (anonymously) and develop strategies for improvement.

PDF document: Cover sheet, document set 1, document set 2, grading rubric

What's included

Cover sheet with name, date, and class lines
Set 1 task page with the Regents Part II directions and definitions of describe, historical context, identify, explain, and the three relationship types
Set 1 documents: an FSA-OWI Great Depression photograph (Library of Congress) and a Dust Bowl survivor's letter, each with full source citations
Set 2 task page with directions for the historical-context and source-reliability essay and definitions of analyze and reliability
Set 2 documents: 'The Bonus Army Invades Washington, D.C., 1932' eyewitness account plus a second document, each presented as source images
Scoring rubric translating the five response levels into 100-point scores (100/94 down through 55) with level descriptors

Resource types: Teacher Tools, Assessments

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

Describe the historical context surrounding paired Great Depression primary sources
Identify and explain a relationship between documents as cause and effect, similarity/difference, or a turning point
Analyze how audience, purpose, bias, or point of view affects a document's reliability as a source
Compose a two-to-three-paragraph short essay in the Regents Part II format under exam conditions

Teaching tips

The task pages reproduce the state exam's exact definitions, so students can rehearse the real command terms — describe, historical context, analyze, reliability — before test day
Use Set 1 for relationship writing and Set 2 for reliability analysis; the two sets isolate the two different Part II skills
The rubric page maps the five performance levels onto a 100-point scale, making it easy to return conventional grades while scoring against the state descriptors
The document citations (Library of Congress FSA collection, eyewitnesstohistory.com) let students trace each source, which supports a follow-up lesson on sourcing

Skills covered

Historical contextualization — students situate a Depression-era photograph, a Dust Bowl letter, and the Bonus Army march within their historical circumstances.
Document-relationship analysis — students argue whether paired documents show cause and effect, similarity or difference, or a turning point.
Source-reliability evaluation — Set 2 requires explaining how audience, purpose, bias, or point of view affects one document as a source.
Timed short-essay writing — both sets demand a structured two-to-three-paragraph essay in the state exam's format.

Good to know

Questions teachers ask about this resource

How closely does this follow the actual Regents exam format?

It reproduces a complete Part II as it appears on the New York State Regents Examination in United States History and Government (Framework): two pairs of documents, the exam's own task wording, and its printed definitions of terms like historical context and reliability. The contributor notes the format follows the NYSED's June 2019 prototype examination.

What primary sources do students work with?

Set 1 pairs a black-and-white Farm Security Administration photograph from the Library of Congress' American Memory Project with a letter from a Dust Bowl survivor. Set 2 opens with a 1932 eyewitness account of the Bonus Army's march on Washington, paired with a second period document.

How is the essay scored?

A rubric converts the state's five response levels into 100-point scores — a level-5 essay that develops both aspects thoroughly and analytically earns 100 or 94, down through descriptors for progressively thinner responses at 85, 76, 65, and 55.