Jennifer Greene’s story tells of Chief Charlo and a small band of Salish being forcibly removed from their home, the Bitterroot Valley, in 1891. To the Salish, home was not a structure, a town or even a specific site. Home was the land.
This activity was developed to facilitate awareness and understanding of diverse definitions of home as well as the many issues related to children and their homes.
Framework
In her story “Connected to Everything [1]” 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:
Suggested Time and Materials
Essential Questions
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
What is home like?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.
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?”
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 [3],” you may write a poem about home that creates a shape representing home.
Cinquain [4]– 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 [5]. Understands family life now and in the past, and family life in various places long ago
Standard 5 [6]. 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. [7] Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process
Family/Consumer Sciences (Grades 9-12)
Standard 6. [8] Understand how knowledge and skills related to living environments affect the well-being of individuals, families, and society
Links:
[1] http://www.tolerance.org/../../magazine/number-36-fall-2009/connected-everything
[2] http://www.tolerance.org/sites/default/files/general/tt_making_connections_09.pdf
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_poetry
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinquain
[5] http://www.mcrel.org/compendium/topicsDetail.asp?topicsID=835&subjectID=4
[6] http://www.mcrel.org/compendium/standardDetails.asp?subjectID=4&standardID=5
[7] http://www.mcrel.org/compendium/reference.asp?item=benchmark&BenchmarkID=1229&subjectID=7
[8] http://www.mcrel.org/compendium/standardDetails.asp?subjectID=29&standardID=6