The New Deal: Evaluating the CWA and PWA – How Successful Were the Alphabet Agencies?

This fully resourced and engaging lesson is designed to help students evaluate how successful the New Deal was at putting Americans back to work through two key alphabet agencies — the Civil Works Administration (CWA) and the Public Works Administration (PWA). Through a blend of information slides, source analysis and interactive tasks, students explore the contrasting aims, methods and achievements of these two initiatives, developing a balanced understanding of Roosevelt’s approach to tackling unemployment.

The resource includes a nineteen-slide PowerPoint packed with information, discussion prompts and six structured activities that guide students through the topic step by step. The lesson begins with a snowballing starter to activate prior knowledge before moving into a class discussion of FDR’s Inauguration Speech and the wider aims of the New Deal. Students then examine an animated diagram showing how fear and low consumer confidence deepened the economic crisis, before analysing sources on the policy of ‘pump priming’ and the reasons some groups opposed it.

Later in the lesson, students assess the jobs created by the Civil Works Administration and decide whether they were genuine opportunities or examples of ‘boondoggles’. The final activity involves a Venn diagram card sort that helps students compare and contrast the CWA and PWA and reach their own judgement on which agency was most effective. A printable blank Venn diagram and a card sort sheet with twenty-four statements are also included for ease of use.

This lesson is ideal for GCSE History courses covering the USA 1919–41 (AQA, Edexcel, OCR and WJEC) and can also be adapted for KS3 classes as an engaging enquiry into how governments respond to economic crisis.

The aims and objectives of this lesson are:

Theme: How successful was the New Deal 1933 – 1939?
Know: What were the aims of the New Deal?
Understand: How did the CWA and the PWA helped the unemployed?
Evaluate: Which Alphabet Agency was more effective?

WILF – What Am I Looking For?
Identify & describe: What action did FDR take to end the Depression?
Explain: How did the CWA and the PWA helped the unemployed?
Analyse: How successful was the New Deal 1933 – 1939?

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Kind Regards

Roy