Esperanza Rising Lesson Plan

Okies and the Dust Bowl

Kind of Activity:

Mixed Media

Objective:

To get a better understanding of why the Okies and others were willing to come to California and accept lower pay for the jobs the Mexicans and others were doing.

Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.6.4

Structure:

The purpose of this activity is to help students get a better understanding of why the workers from Oklahoma arrived to California in the 1930s, and a more complex understanding of the dynamics of organized labor at this time.

There are three major groups of laborers in the novel: the non-striking workers, including Esperanza; the organized, striking workers, including Marta; and the migrants from...