January+Focus+On+Poverty

Acquisition Activities For All Classroom Disciplines

=Home = Write the word Home on the whiteboard or ActivBoard. Create a cluster or web diagram with words, emotions, or ideas that students associate with "home." Underneath or beside the web diagram, have students list activities that people do at home. Have students think about all of the things that they do at home to get ready for school in the mornings. Challenge them to think about what it would be like to do those activities in a homeless shelter in front of people you didn't know. Or to get ready in a car that your family lives in. How do you think it would affect someone's concentration if they were in these situations? Write the word Poverty on the whiteboard or ActivBoard. Create a cluster or web diagram with words, emotions, or ideas associated with this term. What are the characteristics of poverty? Can you tell if someone is poor, and if so, how do you? Discuss the fact that poverty can be easily concealed and you might not always know when someone is struggling financially.

=Ticket Out The Door = What is the connection between the two terms we introduced? Bono, the lead singer of the band U2, asked "Do we have the will to make poverty history?" What do you think he meant by that question? How would you answer the question? //adapted from UN Works Poverty in America//

=Anticipation Guide for Poverty In America =

You can also find out how much your students already know about poverty in America by giving them this quick, five question anticipation guide to complete. Have them put down their answers in the left-hand column, then after discussion or individual or group research on-line, have them put the correct answers in the right-hand columns. [|Poverty Anticipation Guide.doc] [|Poverty Anticipation Guide Answers.][|doc] =A Day In The Life = This is an interesting opening activity from UN CyberSchoolBus allowing students to visualize the impact of poverty around the world. With a simple role play, this activity has students moving around and settling into the three income groups representative of the world's population. The instructions are easy to follow, but the message is powerful. Check it out. UNCyberSchoolBus Acquisition Activity

As a follow-up to the "Day in the Life" classroom activity, students can work in groups, read the personal scenarios of several children from around the world, then decide, hour by hour, what their lives might be like. Handout is available by clicking on the following link. [|A Day In The Life.pdf]

=Lessons On Poverty = Click here to see other lessons dealing with poverty.