Lesson Overview

Approximate Time Required: 5 minutes

Steps & Teacher Directions:

1. The teacher will hand out crossword puzzles to each student. Students may work by themselves or in pairs to solve the crossword puzzle. 

2. The teacher will have students share their answers to the crossword and clear up any confusion/answer any questions. 

3. Students should have five minutes to work on the puzzle. 

Approximate Time Required: 15 minutes

Steps & Teacher Directions:

1. The teacher will introduce the game “Four Corners”. 

   1. “I will put a statement on the board. You will take some time to think about if you agree or disagree. Then, you will need to think if you strongly agree or disagree, or just simply agree, or disagree. If you strongly agree, for example, not much will probably change your mind about this statement. If you just agree, you might be able to change your mind if you are given more facts.”

      1. You may need to show an example for each option to avoid confusion. Model for students if needed. 

   2. The teacher will show students that each corner of the room is labeled. Students will go to the corner that matches their opinion. In their groups, they will talk about why they agree or disagree. After about one minute, the teacher will have groups share out their reasoning. 

   3. The teacher will then ask if anyone changed their mind to switch corners.

      1.  Suggestion: keep each discussion timed- around two-three minutes before asking students if they changed their mind and want to move. 

2. This process will repeat until all questions have been answered. 

3. Note: Our slides start with an example question not content-linked so that students have a chance to practice the game format. 

Questions: 

1. Homelessness can only be solved by the government. 

2. Homeless people need to accept help. 

3. More shelters need to be built to help the homeless. 

4. If a homeless person asks you for money, you should give it to them. 

5. Homelessness is a crime. 

Approximate Time Required: 5-10 minutes

Steps & Teacher Directions:

1. 1. Present KWL Chart on the board

   2. Tell students: “We just talked about what we think we know about people that are homeless. Next, we are going to listen to some videos from real people to challenge what we think. People that are homeless face stigma. Some examples are the things we just talked about- like *example from activity*. Our goal today is to ‘break the stigma’ and use details from our listening to tell the truth about the housing crisis.”

      1. Example: “In other words, if someone came up to you and said, ‘Homeless people are lazy and don’t work hard’, what could you say back to them to make them change their view? We want to use our listening activity today to help create our argument. 

   3. You may have to adjust for activity answers- if students are already aware of the stigma, you can add something like “Some people say that people that are homeless are lazy and don’t work hard- from your answers, you already know that isn’t true. What we want to do today then is use these videos to support what we say when we challenge stigma.” 

   4. Have students share what they 100% know about people that are homeless, followed by what they want to learn from the videos- what will help them “break the stigma”?

      1. Examples: Why was the speaker homeless?

Approximate Time Required: 15 minutes

Steps & Teacher Directions:

1. Tell students: “Now you will get into groups of four to watch a video. Each group will have a different video, but each video has a speaker that will be talking about being homeless.”

   1. Either use A1, B1, C1, D1 or these grouping cards to group!

2. Give students the jigsaw graphic organizer and say, “While you are listening to the video, try to learn about the speaker and answer the questions you put in our KWL chart. You will want to write down what you learn because you will be put into another group later where all of you will share about your different speakers.” 

3. CCQ’s

4. Have students listen to the video in their groups and fill out their graphic organizer section.

5. After students  listen to their videos and fill their graphic organizer out, they will discuss the video and what they learned with their group. If needed, the video can be replayed to catch extra details. Students can be prompted to discuss how they could use details from the video to “break the stigma”. 

 Approximate Time Required: 20 minutes

     Steps & Teacher Directions:

1.  Students will go into their sharing groups and talk about what they learned in the video. They are encouraged to write down important details from their peers on their graphic organizer as they share. Students will then re-discuss how they can “break the stigma” using the information they have collected from authentic sources.

2. Have students share what they learned and record answers in the  “L” column of the KWL as students share. 

   1. The goal is for students to have collected details and evidence from the information provided in the lesson to be able to argue against someone who believes in the stigma. 

3.  If time allows, the teacher can ask for volunteers to share their claim and details from the conversation activity above.