Final Thoughts
"The day someone quits school he is condemning himself to a
future of poverty. --Jaime Escalante, educator
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens
can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever
has.
--Margaret Mead, anthropologist
Objective: To inspire students to think critically about two
symptoms of poverty: hunger and homelessness.
Materials: Paper and pen for each student. If making advocacy
posters at the lend of lesson, make sure to have butcher paper,
poster board, markers, and/or paint ready.
Time: (45 min 1.5 hours) This lesson should take 45 min (not
including optional activities). If you choose to teach it in two
sessions, you may want to break after the discussion of hunger on
slide 16.
(1 min) Tell students that today youre going to talk about what
poverty looks like. Ask, What does poverty mean? Explain that
poverty means not having enough food, shelter, and clothing to feel
safe and secure. Two main symptoms of poverty are hunger and
homelessness.
TEKS:
Language ArtsGr. 6: Learn the meaning and properly use a variety
of grade level words (e.g., words from literature, social studies,
science, math).Gr. 7: Identify the literal meanings and shades of
meaning of words. Determine word meaning through definition or
explanation context clues.Gr. 8: Determine word meaning through
definition or explanation context clues. Respond appropriately to
group members' questions and contributions.
Social StudiesGr. 6: Describe roles and responsibilities of
citizens in selected contemporary societies including the United
States.Identify different points of view about an issue or
topic.Gr. 7: Support a point of view on a social studies issue or
event.Gr. 8: Support a point of view on a social studies issue or
event. *Refer to the students Blue Sky clouds. Remind them how they
thought about their passions. Discuss how philanthropy is all about
using knowledge and passion and action to create change in their
communities.**Ask students to work with a partner. Students should
look at the pictures and decide which are the faces of homeless
people.
Record the number of the faces on a piece of scratch paper.
Have students share their choices. (Answer All faces are faces
of homeless people.)
4. Ask students what they have learned from the this exercise.
(Answer: You may not be able to recognize a homeless person by his
or her appearance alone.)*(2 min) One symptom of poverty is
homelessness. Ask what the word homeless means.
Optional: (3 min) Pair students. Ask each pair to define of the
word homeless. Ask a few pairs to share their definitions with the
group.Teacher may want to record a class definition on the
board.*(1 min) Definition from Merriam-Websters Collegiate
Dictionary*(10 min) Human Thermometer Teachers may want to use a
long piece of red string/cord to represent the thermometer. (You
may want to model this quickly before beginning.)
At the front of the classroom, have one student stand in one
corner to represent strongly agree and one student in the other
corner to represent strongly disagree. The students should hold the
string between them.
Explain to the class that the string is like a thermometer that
takes the temperature of how students feel about statements that
you will read.
Choose two volunteers. Ask the students to stand at the front of
the room in the middle of the thermometer.
Then read a statement. Ask the volunteers to place themselves on
the thermometer (continuum) in the spot that represents how much
they agree or disagree with the statement.
Have each student explain why they are standing in the place
that they are.
Here are the four statements:
Homelessness is not a big problem in America.
You can tell people are homeless by looking at them.
Nicks parents do not have their own home, but Nicks family moves
around and stays with different friends. Nicks family is
homeless.
Britney sleeps in a city shelter with her mother each night, so
she is not homeless.
Choose two new volunteers and read the next statement.
*(1 min) As of Sept 2010, student enrollment in AISD is 85,561.
(3000/85,561=.035) Therefore, this statistic refers to 3.5% of
students in AISD.*(5 min) Select a student to read the voice.
Transition to next slide: Tell students that homelessness is one
symptom of poverty, and now we are going to talk about another
symptom of povertyhunger.
(Optional extension activity) Teachers, you may want to have
students write a letter to local congressmen/women asking for more
funding to support existing shelters and funding to build more
temporary shelters. The Foundation for the Homeless in Austin
reports that in 2010 Homeless shelters across Central Texas are at
capacity. More and more families with young children are being
forced to live out of their cars.
Students can find out who to write to by entering their address
(or the schools) at the following link:
http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/mnuAddress.aspx *(3 min)
Pair students. Ask each pair to define of the word hunger.
Ask a few pairs to share their definitions with the group.
(Optional) Teacher may want to record a class definition on the
board.
(Hunger is the most commonly used term to describe the social
condition of people who frequently experience, or live with the
threat of experiencing, the physical sensation of hunger.)*(2 min)
Read the dictionary definition. Then tell students, Now were going
to hear a fact about hunger and the voice of a young person who is
hungry. Ask for two volunteers. One student will read the Fact and
one student will read the Voice.*(10 min) There are two different
versions of this activity. Pick the one that suits your classroom
best:
(Optional)Version 1: Post four signs in the corners of your
classroom Strongly Agree Agree Disagree and Strongly Disagree. (An
attachment with these signs was sent with this PowerPoint.)
Tell students, I will read a statement. After I read the
statement, move to the corner of the room that matches how you
feel. Once students have moved, ask a few students who are in
different corners, why they are standing where they are.
Version 2: Put students in small groups. Give each group a set
of four cards that say Strongly Agree Agree Disagree and Strongly
Disagree. (These cards were sent as an attachment with this
PowerPoint.) After the teacher reads the statement, students have
30 seconds to decide with their groups which card to hold up. Ask
students why they have chosen the card that they chose. Hunger is a
big problem in America.
You can tell if a person is hungry just by looking at him or
her.
Dannys parents feed him two meals a day, but never three. Danny
is hungry.
Tara can eat three meals a day, but the only food her parents
give her is Frosted Flakes. Tara is not hungry.
*(1 min) Select a student to read the fact. *(5 min)
Select a student to read the voice.
(Optional) Next, ask students to put their heads down on the
desks for privacy. Then ask them to raise their hands if they have
ever known anyone like Latoya. Ask students to raise their
heads.
Ask if anyone has ever volunteered in a food pantry. If yes, ask
the student to describe it for the class.
(Teachers, you may want to share the difference between a food
bank and a food pantry. Food bank = where food is collected to
distribute to food pantries; Food pantry = where people come to
pick up food)*(5 min) Tell students to work with a partner to come
up with a definition of food insecurity. Share out. Ask, Is food
insecurity the same as hunger? Why or why not? (The answer is yes
and no. Both are correct. Another term you may hear for hunger is
food insecurity.)
Explain that there are different levels of hunger or food
insecurity. Ask students to describe what it might look like for
someone who has mild food insecurity, moderate food insecurity, and
severe food insecurity.
Optional Discussion: What are the impacts on health and/or body
shape of mild to moderate food insecurity? You can discuss
Diabetes, ADD, obesity (people who are hungry can be obese from
high-starch diets), fatigue, lack of concentration, hyperglycemia,
etc.*(2 min) Tell students that there are two ways to solve
problems: 1) Preventing (or stopping) an accident before it
happens; and 2) Putting a band-aid on to stop the bleeding after an
accident has happened. Both types of solutions are important and
necessary.
(10 min) Optional: Ask students for their ideas for how to help
people who are living in poverty. Try to categorize these solutions
in terms of preventive or band-aid solutions.
Tell students that policy makers such as mayors, governors,
members of congress, and even the president have suggested a range
of preventive and band-aid solutions to help people living in
poverty.
Some preventive solutions include: jobs training programs for
parents, more access to college education
Some band-aid solutions include: school lunch programs, drives
for coats and cans
(Optional extension activity) Read the following quote, "The day
someone quits school he is condemning himself to a future of
poverty. Jaime Escalante, Educator
Teachers, you may want to have students write a letter to local
congressmen/women asking to make higher education available to
EVERYONE. Students can find out who to write to by entering their
address (or the schools) at the following link:
http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/mnuAddress.aspx
*(3 min) Read the starfish story. You may want to choose three
student readers.
Reader one will read the words of the narrator that are in black
type.
Reader two will read the words of the man that are in red
type.
Reader three will read the words of the little girl that are in
green type.**Explain to students that they will be participating in
a drive this year to collect food for Capitol Area Food Bank and
coats for Coats for Kids. Both organizations serve our community in
Central Texas.
Tell students there are several steps in this collection
process:
First, today they have learned about the social issue of poverty
and their civic responsibility to take action.
Second, they will become advocates for improving the lives of
people living in poverty.
Third, they will take work for the common good, by collecting
canned food and coats.
Fourth, the collected items will be distributed through the
above nonprofits to the community.
Teachers, as you review these steps, there is a good opportunity
to focus on the philanthropy vocabulary words, such as: social
issues, civic responsibility, advocate, common good, nonprofit,
community.*Introduce The Drive. Tell students, A POD will arrive on
our campus in November. A POD is a portable storage device that
looks like a small trailer. It will be up to you to fill the POD
with cans and coats. The POD will be taken to The Capitol Area Food
Bank just before Thanksgiving.
**Hunger is Unacceptable is the motto of Capitol Area Food Bank.
Come up with a slogan that you can use to inspire other students on
your campus. Examples Coat our city with kindness and We CAN make a
difference.(Optional depending on the length of the class.) Make a
plan for getting the word out to the other students on your campus
about the drive. Ideas:Create a flyer to send home, in order to
inform parents of The Drive. Write an article for the school
newspaper or parent newsletter about The Drive. Make morning
announcements that include statistics about hunger and
homelessness,Make advocacy visits to other classes.Make posters and
other public service announcements to advertise The Drive. (Weave
facts about poverty, hunger, and homelessness into the
campaigns.)
*Sample poster idea
(Optional) Students can research poverty, homelessness, and
hunger statistics for their community. *You may want to post these
statistics while students are making advocacy posters.
Teacher note: Working poor is defined as living at or below 200%
of the federal poverty guidelines ($36,488 for a family of four).
(Source: Basic Needs Coalition, 2005). Other definitions include
people who worked, but who nevertheless, fell under the official
definition of poverty and people who were in poverty and had at
least one working family member.
*Optional: If time permits, allow students to color the starfish
pattern attached to this email. You may ask them to brainstorm five
ways to combat poverty in their community. Write one idea on each
arm of the starfish. (Examples: research health issues related to
hunger, make a public service announcement for the school, adopt a
family in the neighborhood, work at the soup kitchen, write local
politicians to support more nutritious lunches, collect coats and
cans)*
