TEXT ASSISTED EFFECT ANALYSIS ESSAY: THE EFFECTS OF A GLOBAL RECESSION

YOU NEED TO ACCESS THE FOLLOWING TEXT OFF THE BBC WEBSITE: “MY GRANDFATHER KILLED HIMSELF IN THE ’29 CRASH” 

TEACHER’S NOTES

THE HUMAN INTEREST STORY WE SHALL USE TO SET THE BALL ROLLING IS: “My grandfather killed himself in the 29 crash” and comes off the bbc website.

FIRST OF ALL, introduce the Wall Street crash of 1929 and ask the students what they know about it. Films have been made about this topic – one by Charlie Chaplin- and books have been written about it. Do they know any of them? Ask them what effects the crash had on small businesses, companies (they went bust or bankrupt), banks (there were bank failures) and finally society (there were social upheavals and regime change). Last of all; ask them if they can see any of this taking place now. Let them give you examples. There are plenty: Northern Rock in Britain, Fanny May, Freddy Mac, The Lehman Brothers, AIG and the like…Talk about what they have been reading in the papers about all this and what their concerns are.

NOW DISTRIBUTE THE TEXTS. Read the title and the subtitle of the text and ask them what they think pushed this man to take his own life. Put their ideas on the board.

NEXT, ask them to read the text and make a note of the effects of a recession on the individual. As they are reading the text, they will think of other effects as well; ask them to make a note of them too. They will come up with something like this:

- Unemployment

- Depression

- Hopelessness

- The inability to create a safe and better future for children

- Deteriorating family relations

- Changes in personality

- Coldness about intimacy

- Anxiety about money

- Being on the lookout for bargains

- A feeling of deep dissatisfaction

- Bad temper

BEFORE THEY WRITE, ask them to look at the points and think about how they would organize their developments. Ask them if they can divide these points into two groups according to any criteria.

ONE IDEA IS AS FOLLOWS:

DEVELOPMENTAL PARAGRAPH ONE

On a practical level,…( unemployment, the inability to create a safe and better future for children, anxiety about money, deteriorating family relations..)

DEVELOPMENTAL PARAGRAPH TWO

On a more personal level,……(a feeling of deep dissatisfaction, depression , hopelessness, changes in personality, bad temper, suicide)

Now tell them to look at the points they have included in each paragraph and ask them to put them in a logical order; a sort of chain would look good.

LAST OF ALL, ask them what they would put in the introduction and what they would put in the conclusion. They need to introduce a recession in the former, and have a thesis statement concerning the effects. In the latter, they can discuss the welfare state which should, ideally, provide support and counseling.

YOUR WORK IS NOW OVER UNTIL YOU GET HOME

HAVE FUN