Lesson 6: What Does Poverty Have To Do With Me?
Teacher Prep: Print & chop these cards & print/refer to page 19 of this document.
Learning Intention: To make connections between their own lives and other people’s experiences of poverty.
Success Criteria: To understand that everyday actions and circumstances have connections and impacts beyond what we can immediately see.
Success Criteria: To understand that everyday actions and circumstances have connections and impacts beyond what we can immediately see.
Initial discussion
Today we will be investigating and making connections between your lives and other people’s experiences of poverty.
Firstly, I want you to think about this question:
“What does poverty have to do with me?”
Think about how you may be connected to people or countries who they think are living in poverty.
As you are thinking about this, I will hand each of you a sticky note. On your sticky note you need to write your response and then stick it on the poster that is out the front. You do not need your name on this sticky note.
The Card Game
For this game, everyone will be given one card that has something on it, such as a word, phrase, statistic, country or person. For this task you are going to move around the classroom and see what your classmates have on their cards, and then try to form groups of four so that you will be able to tell a feasible story about how the four cards are connected. I will give you ten minutes to find your group and to create your story.
There will most likely be some confusion and uncertainty when you are trying to make ideas! I want you to try really hard to make some connections amongst yourselves, even if at first it seems unlikely! You will need to think about any possible connections and form a story to match it. Getting the connections 'right' is not the initial intention of this exercise, it is to find out some new stories and facts.
After Forming Groups:
Now that you have had the chance to discuss and create your story, one of your group members needs to tell your story to the class.
Now that we have heard all of the stories, I am going to put you into the groups of the intended connections and explain the interconnections between the cards.
Reflection:
I am now going to give you another sticky note (Different colour to the first one) and you need to record your ideas/response to the question “What does poverty have to do with me?”
Now that we have learnt a bit more about how we connect with poverty, what do you think we need to be more aware of/actions we need to focus on to positively impact on alleviating poverty?
- e.g. participating in the fair trade movement, being more aware about how tourism affects others, and addressing poverty and homelessness within Australia.
I am now going to give you another sticky note (Different colour to the first one) and you need to record your ideas/response to the question “What does poverty have to do with me?”
Now that we have learnt a bit more about how we connect with poverty, what do you think we need to be more aware of/actions we need to focus on to positively impact on alleviating poverty?
- e.g. participating in the fair trade movement, being more aware about how tourism affects others, and addressing poverty and homelessness within Australia.
Journal Entry 6: What does poverty have to do with me?
Write a paragraph describing how poverty relates to you and what things that you can do/be more aware of to help poverty.
Remember: this journal will form part of your assessment at the end of the unit. We are looking for honest, thoughtful reflections that show that you have been listening and thinking!