Preparation: Teacher should load the PowerPoint and Handout onto a screen that students can see. If students will be annotating the documents online, teacher should share the links to the PowerPoint and handout. If the students are using pen and paper, teacher should print out enough copies of relevant documents in PowerPoint and handout so each group of three has copies of each.

Warm Up: (5 minutes)

As a warmup, students will be paired up with a partner. They will take 5 minutes to answer and discuss the following question before joining a large class discussion:

If you were Franklin Roosevelt in 1933 developing a plan to help people recover during the Great Depression, what type of people would you want to be part of your advisory team?

• Students might come up with ideas like the following: people with backgrounds in labor unions to address worker needs, people who proved to be Progressive Era reformers, people with government/political expertise and experience, and people who think “outside the box.”
• It will be interesting to see if the students come up with any qualities that define Frances Perkins.

To conclude the class discussion part of the warmup, tell students that today they will be introduced to one such figure Roosevelt kept by his side for 12 years, one of only 2 cabinet members to be selected for all 4 terms: Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins.

Activity: (30 minutes total)

Ask students if they have ever heard of Frances Perkins. Most students will not know who she was or what her legacy is (2 minutes). Read the class Slide 3 of the PowerPoint for some basic background on Frances Perkins.

Students will view the video from NBC’s News Center Maine as a class.  (appx 8 minutes including brief discussion)

• Think, pair, share: How did France Perkins’ background inform her work as an architect of the New Deal?

Divide into groups of three. All groups of three will be given the same three documents and the guiding questions for each document in a handout. Students will take 3 minutes to read and annotate each document before moving on to the next document based on the guiding questions. Consider modifying for more time if students need more time based on learning level.  (appx 10 minutes). This PowerPoint includes the documents.

Closing: (Final 10 minutes)

As a summary, the teacher will direct the Handout questions to the class for a group discussion. The questions should guide a discussion about Perkins’s background, influence, legacy, and impact. The questions are also reprinted below.

Document 1:

1. As Frances Perkins reflects on the cause of the passage of Social Security, why do you think she credits the great depression to its passage?
2. Do you think Social Security could have been passed in a different era? Why or why not?
3. Secretary Perkins always considered Social Security one of her most important accomplishments. Based on what you know about her, why do you think this was so important to her?

Document 2:

1. How do you think Perkins’s work during the Progressive Era impacted her vision for the New Deal?
2. Why do you think Perkins was FDR’s choice for the Secretary of Labor?
3. Of the reforms noted in this passage, what do you think was Secretary Perkins’s greatest legacy?

Document 3:

1. Why do you think the Carter administration chose to dedicate the Department of Labor building to Frances Perkins? In doing so, what values does Jimmy Carter convey?
2. What do you think President Carter meant by a “revolution of a change in habits”?
3. What do you make of her being called “the best man in the cabinet”? How do you think she took it in the 1930s? What do you think about it today?

Modifications:

• This lesson can be modified by adding more time for reading activities.
• To reduce the amount of reading, students can each read one document and share their findings with their group.
• The teacher might consider reading the documents out loud to help struggling readers.
• Students can consider other “female firsts” in the position of the cabinet like Madeleine Albright (Secretary of State), Janet Reno (Attorney General), Kamala Harris (Vice President), and Deb Haaland (Secretary of the Interior), Janet Yellen (Secretary of the Treasury) to name a few.
• As an extension, consider reading this article from NPR about the significance of incorporating Deb Haaland into the presidential cabinet as the Secretary of the Interior under the current administration. Is it important to include a Native American voice in this position?