Activities will help students:
- Read and interpret a poem
- Identify and explain imagery used in a poem
- Understand how much income is really required to make ends meet for the average American
- Empathize with families who lose their homes
Objectives
Activities will help students:
- Read
and interpret a poem
- Identify
and explain imagery used in a poem
- Understand
how much income is really required to make ends meet for the average
American
- Empathize
with families who lose their homes
Essential Questions
- Do
you think that everyone is entitled to a nice place to call home? Why or
why not?
- Have
you ever been dissatisfied about how much space you have to live in? Why
or why not?
- What
does it mean to get evicted? What is a foreclosure?
- What
do you think it would feel like to be uncertain about where you were going
to sleep each night? Or to have your family move in with another family?
Materials
Reading and Language
Arts/Civics/Economics
- There
are at least two ways to lose your home today. One is to be evicted and the
other is through foreclosure. What do you already know about this topic? What
is the purpose for studying this topic? Share your opinions with your
classmates.
- One
reason people get evicted is because they can’t pay their rent. With a partner,
discuss the question: Whose fault do you think it is when people can’t pay
their rent? Then silently read the poem by Robert Flanagan and answer the
questions at the bottom of the handout .
- Answers
aren’t always as simple as they appear. Using the “Calculating the Poverty Line ” complete the worksheet to see how much income is really needed to make
ends meet for the average family in your community.
- After
completing “Calculating the Poverty Line,” go back and reread Flanagan’s poem.
What new insight do you have about the poem now that you know the numbers? Does
this activity influence you in any way? How so? How does knowing the numbers
motivate you?
- With
your partner, jot down any facts or details that you have either observed or
heard relating to homelessness in
your area. What else would you like to know about homelessness in your
community? Use your questions to guide your own exploration. Explore the
problems, decisions and solutions. Document the process and report your
discoveries to the class.
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.
