Activities will help students:
- Read
and understand a poem
- Write
a poem based on their feelings about their home
- Understand
why some families are homeless
- Empathize
with homeless children
Objectives
Activities will help students:
- Read
and understand a poem
- Write
a poem based on their feelings about their home
- Understand
why some families are homeless
- Empathize
with homeless children
Essential Questions
- What
does “home” mean to you?
- How
would it feel to have to move out of your home?
- What
are some reasons families are homeless?
- How
do people describe the insecurity around losing their homes?
Materials
Reading and Language
Arts/ELL
- What
do you think of when you think of your home? Make a list of words that come to
mind when you think of your home. (Note:
you may want to offer some examples about your own home first so that students
can have a guide) You might use description words, such as “wood floors,”
“pottery” or “green bedroom.”
- Next
make a list of feelings you have when you think of your home. Some examples
might be words, such as “comfy,” “warm” or “safe.”
- Generate
a list of special people or items that you think of when you think of home.
Some examples are “parents,” “grandparents,” “sister/brother” or “aunt/uncle.”
- (Note: Distribute the handout of the poem, “When
I Think of Home ” by Catlin L. Crawford and read it aloud for the students.
You may want to have pictures of some
of the vocabulary words used in the poem, such as “mulberry trees” and
“honeysuckle.”) In pairs, take turns reading the poem to each other, and
then discuss the questions: What do you like about this poem? What does it make
you think of? Share your ideas with the class.
- Now
use Crawford’s poem to write about your own home. Fill in the parts of the poem
that tell about your wonderful home by taking your list and putting the words
that sound right into the blank spaces on the right side of your handout. For
example, “When I think of ‘home’ I think
of my teddy bear.”
- Display
your new poems on the wall or on a bulletin board in your class.
Extension Project (optional)
With the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, a relevant book is Youme
Landowne’s Sélavi:That Is Life: A Haitian
Story of Hope. After reading the
story, answer these questions:
- What
does “sélavi” mean?
- Why
did the boy choose that as his name?
- What
did each of the children do with what they brought back from their busy
day?
- What
did the people mean when they said, “Alone we may be a single drop of
water, but together we can be a mighty river”?
- How
does the story of children your own age who are homeless make you feel?
What do you think you can do to help them?
APPLYING WHAT YOU’VE
LEARNED
Effective learners connect what they learn to their own
lives. Think about what you have learned in this lesson. Discuss the following
questions with a classmate or answer them in a journal.
- Are
homeless people lazy and that’s why they lose their homes?
- Why
do you think the general stereotype of homelessness is so negative?
- What
are reasons people lose their homes? Are any of these reasons out of their
control? Are any of these reasons unfair?
- When
you think about your own home now, what thoughts do you have?
Standards
Activities and embedded assessments address the following
standards (McREL 4th edition )
Civics
Standard 3. Understands the sources, purposes, and
functions of law, and the importance of the rule of law for the protection of
individual rights and the common good.
Economics
Standard 5. Understands unemployment, income and
income distribution in a market economy.
Historical
Understanding
Standard 2. Understands the historical perspective.
Language Arts
Standard 5. Uses the general skills and strategies of
the reading process.
Standard 6. Uses reading skills and strategies to
understand and interpret a variety of literary texts.
United States History
Standard 31. Understands economic, social and
cultural developments in the contemporary United States.
