The Shape of Home

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Framework

In her story “Connected to Everything” writer Jennifer Greene tells the tale of a family who lost their home when they were forced to leave their ancestral land and move to a reservation. Greene’s story also shows constructive ways to cope with loss.

Loss is a major theme in the lives of many children. Many students, particularly those who live in poverty or are from families under economic stress, can relate in a deep way to the theme of dispossession in Jennifer Greene’s story. This early-grades lesson plan gives students a chance to explore diverse concepts of “home”– and find ways to deal with loss and make their fellow students feel welcome at school.

Objectives

“The Shape of Home” is designed to help students:

• understand the many different kinds of homes created by people in different cultures;
• explore the various reasons/conditions why people become homeless, and
• use reading techniques to comprehend and explore text meaning.

Suggested Time and Materials

• 50 minutes to an hour.
• Handout #1: Reading: Making Connections

Essential Questions

• What defines home? What makes a place home?

• How is home different/similar from person to person?

• Why do people move?

• How do you cope with lost?

Glossary

reservation |ˌrezərˈvā sh ən|
(noun) An area of land set aside for occupation by North American Indians.

bitterroot |ˈbitərˌroōt; -ˌroŏt|
(noun) A plant with showy pinkish-white flowers on short stems.

moccasins |ˈmäkəsən|
(noun) A soft leather slipper or shoe, strictly one without a separate heel, originating among North American Indians.

dispossess |ˌdispəˈzes|
(verb) [ trans. ] Deprive (someone) of something that they own, typically land or property.

Procedures

1. Think about a definition for the word “home.” Individually, take a few minutes to think about “home” then jot down a definition. Now in pairs or a small group compare your definitions. What do you notice? Any surprises?


2. In pairs or a small group, use the following questions to guide developing a classroom definition of “home”:

   What is home like?
   What are some words that describe a home?
   What are some examples of home?
   What do we mean when we say that we “feel at home?”

   As a class, create a classroom definition of “home,” using the responses from each group. Write this definition on the board as the class develops and agrees on the definition. After agreeing on a definition, discuss your ideas about home.


3. Before reading the story, locate the setting of the story—the Bitterroot and Mission Valleys in northwest Montana—on a wall map. This story is about the Salish Tribe that was forced to move from their home in 1891. In small groups or as a class, talk about the illustration by Merisha Lemmer that accompanies the story. How does the illustration make you feel? What do you think of when viewing it? Read the story “Connected to Everything” by Jennifer Greene, completing the Handout on Reading: Making Connections.


4. In pairs or small groups, discuss: What do you think the Salish definition of home would be? Write your responses on the board. Use examples/quotes from the story to support your definition. Compare your earlier definition to the Salish definition. What conclusions can you draw from the comparison? Elaborate.


5. The name the Salish people use to describe themselves is Sqelixw (Sqe lee wh). The literal translation is “flesh of the land.” Their name portrays the close and affectionate relationship between the people and the land. The land literally took care of them by providing them with food, clothing, medicines, and shelter. This is why the Salish would define home as the land. Generations of family and friends lived on the same land always, according to their oral history.
   
   The story of the Salish leaving the Bitterroot is not simply a story of leaving home – it is a story of dispossession, of losing what is yours. Recall what Jennifer Greene wrote, “We lost our home, and to my kids, it feels like we’ve lost everything.” All of us have experienced losing something important – being dispossessed of something special, something irreplaceable. Share in a small group a time in your life when you felt dispossessed. Share a few examples as a class. Write, briefly, about a time when you felt dispossessed or experienced a lost.


6. Revisit the list of descriptive words and examples that you generated to create a class definition of “home.” Remember that home is not always a place – sometimes it is a person or a feeling. Expand the definition based on the new information you learned from the story. Display your new definition in the class on the wall.

Assessment

Why do people leave their homes? With a partner, your goal is to develop a two-page guide to help ease the transition when people move. Consider different reasons for people leaving their homes. Be sure to consider voluntary and involuntary reasons, too. Choose one issue (e.g., local issues, like economic change or poverty and global issues, like war) for the focus of your guide. A successful guide will include accurate information, show an awareness of the conditions that created the need to move and be reader friendly.

Extension Activities

1. Write a poem about home. You may use a poem structure model provided or choose your own:

Shape Poems – Following the tradition of the “concrete poem,” you may write a poem about home that creates a shape representing home.

Cinquain– You may write a poem about home that has five lines. The first line is one word – the title. The second line has two words that describe the title. The third line includes three words that depict action. The fourth line has four words that express feeling. And, the fifth line is one word that recalls the title.

2. Explore as a class how you can make your school more welcoming to someone who has recently lost his/her home (i.e., by a fire)—or suffered the loss of something important to them. Think of something you can do today (e.g., creating a class rule against name-calling, putting multilingual signs on the class walls, and so on) to create an environment where the classroom feels like home.

Standards

History (Grades K-4)

Standard 1. Understands family life now and in the past, and family life in various places long ago

Standard 5. Understands the causes and nature of movements of large groups of people into and within the United States, now and long ago 

Language Arts (Grades 3-5)

Standard 5. Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process

Family/Consumer Sciences (Grades 9-12)

Standard 6. Understand how knowledge and skills related to living environments affect the well-being of individuals, families, and society