Tania´s Final Project
TOPIC: Social Justice and Civic Awareness on Homelessness
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SUBJECT: English
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GRADES: Bachillerato 1 & 2
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SUPPORTING MATERIALS:
PowerPoint, YouTube
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MEDIUM: Interactive powerpoint
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OVERVIEW
My final project draws on my desire to teach civic mindedness and social awareness to the young people in my classes. I’ve worked to make topics varied - gender and race representation in the US Midterm Elections, the effect of climate change on California wildfires and the impact on human life, how to positively impact the environment by changing eating styles to be more globally sustainable, for example. So for my final project, I wanted to keep in the style of introducing social justice issues to the students. Therefore, I decided to do a homelessness topic in English class with my segundo de Bachillerato students.
The objectives of the lesson were as follows:
1. The experience would help broaden their understanding of the definition of homelessness beyond tropes and stereotypes, particularly as the school is in a wealthy area of Madrid.
2. Be able to articulate the definitions of hidden and complete homelessness.
3. To understand the idea of limited choices as representative of structural constraints for young people in challenging socioeconomic conditions.
I wanted to make the presentation interactive and engaging, so I modeled it after a choose-your-own adventure style text, in which students imagined themselves in the shoes of a teenager who faced poor socio-economic conditions that led her to experience homelessness. By choose-your-own-adventure style, I presented each part of the girl’s story with options that the students could choose themselves, that shaped the outcome of the story and allowed them to feel the frustration and stresses of having limited options as a homeless teen. This presentation could also work as a Prezi for schools with reliable internet access.
Lesson Plan 1:
50 minute class
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5 minutes: To make sure we started from the same background, I first went over homelessness, making sure to broaden their understanding beyond just “man sleeping on a park bench,” and instead introducing ideas like couch-surfing and living in a car. I did so by soliciting their ideas on where homeless people live.
5 minutes: After some statistics about homelessness, I used my background in child welfare to explain how many young people face homelessness after they age out from care. I explained why children in foster care face higher rates of homelessness by connecting the statistics to personal anecdotes from my experience doing research on young people with experience in the foster care system, paying attention to mention the concept of aging-out.
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40 minutes: After that, we began the choose-your-own-adventure text, where students read each slide out loud. By having each student read a slide out loud in turn, it ensured that even quiet students had a chance to speak. As each student read out the slide, I allowed the students about 30 seconds to discuss the merits of each option, explaining options as needed. (This can be hard to visualize, so I encourage you to look at the final project PDF linked below to understand how the options flowed).
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Lesson Plan 1: Option 2
If the class needs an extended, more thorough overview of homelessness, I have also created a more detailed overview of homelessness than can be used before the activity. The PDF is located below, alongside the final project.
15 minutes: First prompt students to imagine where homeless people live and then review responses. Then review deeper definition of homelessness. Have students work in pairs to brainstorm why young people become homeless. Then, challenge them to imagine why homeless people can't just "get a job" to fix their socioeconomic position.
20 minutes: The lesson also has students put themselves in the shoes of a homeless youth, brainstorming the emotional and physical experience of being homeless. Review responses after.
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15 minutes: Complete the reading attached below that I adapted from a true account of homelessness. Have students read out loud one at a time to practice speaking.
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See the full final project here:
Lesson Plan 2: 50 minutes
10 minutes: Debrief the activity from last class. Prompt natural reactions from students on their emotions going through their options - frustrated, upset at the choices of the main characters, for example.
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15 minutes: I found my students had a lot of questions about why the protagonist chose the choices she made. I found it very useful to go through the slides the students were frustrated at and explain more context. For example, why did the character go back to stay with a man who was a bad influence? I used the question to discuss the connections between homelessness and domestic violence, and how the threat of homelessness means that people may stay in abusive living situations.
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15 minutes: Once initial reactions are articulated, I used guiding questions to prompt further reactions from young people. Guiding questions include asking what situations might prompt young people to be homeless and making a list, for example. (See full list of guiding questions below in the PDF).
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10 minutes: Use the final minutes of class to watch the news clip video linked in Works Cited below to give students a visual narrative of what homelessness looks like in teens. Ask students to recap each child´s situation after the video to check comprehension.
If the class has a lower language level and needs an extended lesson on homelessness, I also created the following:
Reading on life on a shelter:
Results:
I made the choices purposefully challenging and limited, both to be true to the situations of poverty and family hardship that many teens face, but also because the frustration would prompt debate between students. I found this was the case - students grew passionate about debating the options that Sara had as she faced a difficult family life, limited housing options, and faced being a high-school dropout. I took the time after each slide to explain more about the options the character had based on my child welfare background. The challenges depicted in the slides can be adapted depending on the maturity level of the students. You may also find it helpful to include a content warning as the material can be challenging for certain students who may identify with that background.
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This lesson plan was conducted independent of the teacher as I am expected to lead the majority of my classes independently, although they may find it helpful to interject with commentary at the discussion after completion. To evaluate the success of the activity, students should be able to successfully articulate the nuances of why a young person may have no choice but to make a decision that seems at face value, bad, in response to challenging social and economic situations.
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Works Cited & Helpful Resources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3mBA4ji2So
I used this news clip to help show real examples of homeless teens to the classes as needed, depending on where they were in their ability to understand how youth came to be homeless.
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https://www.covenanthouse.org/homeless-teen-issues/statistics
I used this website for statistics on homeless teens in the United States.
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https://www.childtrends.org/indicators/foster-care
Statistics from the research organization (my former workplace) that includes basic statistics about young people in foster care.
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A more qualitative understanding of the experiences of young people in foster care. Can be helpful for those without a background on aging out or extended care.
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