Card Sort: What Problems faced US Farmers in the 1920s?

This engaging and fully resourced activity is designed to help students evaluate the economic, social, and environmental problems facing American farmers between 1919 and 1939. It can also be used as a starter as baseline for students to assess how successfully the New Deal’s Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) dealt with those challenges — or in some cases, made them worse.

Perfect for GCSE and KS3 History, this activity works especially well within studies of the USA 1919–1941, the Great Depression, or the New Deal. It can be used as a stand-alone lesson, a starter or plenary, or as a companion to my related lesson, The New Deal: AAA, also available in The History Academy TES shop.

The resource includes three factor cards labelled economic, social and environmental, along with fourteen statement cards describing the issues that affected American farmers in the interwar years. Students are asked to categorise each statement, encouraging discussion and deeper understanding of how the Depression affected different aspects of rural life. Two optional extension tasks help stretch learning further: the first invites students to create a key to show which problems the AAA helped to solve or unintentionally created, while the second asks them to write an extended answer evaluating how successful the AAA was in addressing the problems of US farmers in the 1930s.

A supporting PowerPoint presentation is also included to help facilitate the activity. It provides useful background information, key discussion points, and visual material to support delivery and help bring the topic to life.

Learning Objectives:

Theme: The USA 1919–1939
Know: What problems faced American farmers between 1919 and 1939?
Understand: Which problems were caused by economic, social or environmental factors?
Evaluate: How successfully did the AAA solve the problems facing US farmers?

WILF – What Am I Looking For?
Can You Describe: The problems facing American farmers 1919–1939.
Can You Explain:Wwhether these problems were economic, social or environmental in nature.
Can You Evaluate: How effective the US government’s action was in supporting farmers through the AAA.

The card sort is supplied in Microsoft Word format and is fully editable, allowing you to adapt it to suit the needs of your students. It is ideal for use as a collaborative activity, revision exercise or assessment task. I have also uploaded it as PDF so it can be shared with students.

If you enjoy this resource, explore my other New Deal and Great Depression materials in The History Academy TES shop. You can also follow The History Academy on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook for the latest updates, teaching tips and new releases.

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Roy – The History Academy