The New Deal

For Teachers:

Watch the videos “ The Tennessee Valley before TVA“, “TVA’s Impact on the Tennessee Valley” and listen to the audio clip “President Roosevelt’s Historic Speech“. Discuss the issues faced by the Tennessee Valley region that existed before The New Deal and the creation of TVA, and how the region was affected by them both.

After reviewing the lesson, give your students the chance to craft their own newspaper articles about the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority that highlight at least three changes TVA brought to the region. By using our online newspaper template, your class can create and print customized articles complete with historic photos and their own, unique headlines.

For more interesting activities and lessons, download the lesson plan: Out of the Darkness

For Students:

Here’s a chance for you to get creative. Pretend you’re a news reporter in the 1930s or ’40s gathering facts about an important topic related to the Tennessee Valley’s transformation. Then write a newspaper article about it that highlights at least three changes TVA will bring to the Tennessee Valley. You could write about what life was like for a family who had no electricity, or about a businessman who is getting more business because the new river navigation made it easier to receive goods to sell. You could even write about President Roosevelt’s program called The New Deal, and how people in the region were reacting to the creation of TVA. It’s up to you.

For your story’s details, use the information and videos from the website. You can even include quotes from the online interviews in the section Valley Stories: Reflections from the Past on the videos page.