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Year 11
AQA

Roosevelt's New Deal

I can evaluate the impacts of President Roosevelt’s New Deal.

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New
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Year 11
AQA

Roosevelt's New Deal

I can evaluate the impacts of President Roosevelt’s New Deal.

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Share activities with pupils
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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. President Roosevelt promised that his New Deal would deliver 3 R’s: relief, recovery and reform.
  2. The New Deal involved increased government intervention in the economy.
  3. Many Americans were lifted out of poverty by the New Deal.
  4. The New Deal did not end unequal treatment of women nor African Americans in the USA.

Keywords

  • Relief - food, money or services provided to people in need is called relief

  • Federal government - the federal government is the national government of the USA

  • Alphabet Agencies - the Alphabet Agencies were organisations set up to manage the New Deal

  • Pension - a pension is money paid to a person once they are elderly and no longer work

  • Domestic servant - a domestic servant is a person who works in someone else's home, performing duties such as cooking and cleaning

Common misconception

The only focus of the New Deal was to create new jobs and reduce unemployment.

Relief and reform were also important aims of the New Deal. Major policies like the Emergency Banking Act and Social Security Act were more concerned with reform and relief, respectively, than job creation.


To help you plan your year 11 history lesson on: Roosevelt's New Deal, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

At the beginning of LC3, present students with a range of statistical date (i.e. bank closures, unemployment, GDP) from the New Deal period. In pairs, ask students to judge the overall success of the New Deal based on these statistics. Open up to a wider class discussion.
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Adult supervision recommended

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This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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Starter quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Write the missing word. When people are extremely poor and struggle to meet some of their basic needs, we can say they are living in .
Correct Answer: poverty, Poverty
Q2.
Which event triggered the Great Depression?
World War One
Correct answer: Wall Street Crash
World Disarmament Conference
World War Two
Q3.
Write the missing word. The rise of fun, fast and exciting popular entertainment meant the 1920s becoming known as the Twenties.
Correct Answer: Roaring, roaring
Q4.
Which political party did all US presidents belong to between 1921 and 1933?
Conservatives
Democrats
Labour
Correct answer: Republicans
Q5.
Why did US agriculture struggle in the 1920s?
Correct answer: foreign tariffs
limited access to technology
Correct answer: overproduction
shortage of workers
Q6.
Which statement is most accurate?
All groups of Americans suffered equally from the Great Depression.
All Americans suffered, but to different extents, during the Great Depression.
Correct answer: Most Americans suffered during the Great Depression but not all did.
Most Americans were not affected by the Great Depression.

Exit quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Match up each keyword with its correct definition.
Correct Answer:relief,food, money or services provided to people in need
tick

food, money or services provided to people in need

Correct Answer:pension,money paid to a person once they are elderly and no longer work
tick

money paid to a person once they are elderly and no longer work

Correct Answer:unemployment,the state of not having a job
tick

the state of not having a job

Q2.
How many Americans were employed by the Public Works Administration (PWA)?
40 000
400 000
Correct answer: 4 000 000
40 000 000
Q3.
Select the correct missing word. The Emergency Banking Act temporarily closed all banks and only allowed those judged to be to re-open.
Correct answer: reliable
relief
Republican
responsible
Q4.
What was the main focus of the Social Secuirty Act?
Correct answer: relief
recovery
reform
Q5.
The US unemployment rate was 17.2% in 1939. Based on this, which conclusion is most valid?
The New Deal failed to reduce the problem of unemployment.
Correct answer: The New Deal created some recovery but this was not complete.
The New Deal led to most Americans becoming poorer.
The New Deal led removed the problem of unemployment.
Q6.
Starting with the earliest, sort the following events into chronological order.
1 - World War One
2 - Wall Street Crash
3 - Roosevelt elected president
4 - Most Alphabet Agencies established
5 - Second New Deal, including social security, introduced

Additional material

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