Education Standards
2. ACA: Homelessness-High School Lesson (doc)
3. Student Handout: Launch
4. Jared's Story (Video - MS/HS Version)
5. Jared's Story (Transcript - MS/HS Version)
6. Homeless Youth in Washington State (pptx)
7. Analysis Organizer
8. WA State Health Assessment: Homelessness
9. Office of Homeless Youth | Washington Department of Commerce
Animating Civic Action: High School Lesson - Homelessness
Overview
In this Animating Civic Action lesson, from the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and Washington State Governor's Office of the Education Ombuds, students listen to the story of Jared, a student experiencing homelessness. Students are asked to examine what it means to be homeless, to identify how homelessness affects people and to and to consider ways they can act to take action against homeless n their school community.
About Animating Civic Action
Animating Civic Action lessons are created to support civic engagement K-12. These lessons introduce real stories of individuals in our Washington community who have experienced challenges to civic participation. These lessons incorporate multimedia approaches and provide opportunities to connect civic education with social-emotional learning. These lessons are standards aligned and grade level appropriate.
Lesson Overview
Enduring Understanding
We build greater awareness of our biases, and the role language plays in those biases.
Supporting Questions
Students consider these questions - finding and using evidence to support the Enduring Understanding.
- How can we identify biases we hold about homelessness?
- How can we utilize language to create a clearer description and greater understanding of homeless youth?
Learning Targets
- Students will read and watch Jared’s story and reflect on the power of language, understanding that words used to describe people have powerful impacts.
- Students will study and analyze the official definition of “homeless youth” and gather information from other texts in order to participate in a guided discussion to reflect on what they learned and begin to develop action steps to create a plan for how they will share their understanding with others.
- Kids will draft a letter, PSA, Brochure, or other product to help their community develop a greater understanding of Homeless Youth.
Student Launch
Hooking students into the content of the inquiry.
Distribute the Student Handout: Launch to students.
- Guide students in answering the prompts on the handout individually and with partners.
- There is no “correct” answer. Encourage the students to explain their thinking to each other, but this activity involves emotions, which can hold some risks as students may not want to share their answers with each other. Accept student responses however, they feel like responding (in pairs or with partners).
Focused Inquiry
A focused inquiry is a one-to-two-day lesson that will have students engaging in the C3 Framework’s Inquiry Arc.
In this focused inquiry, students view the Homeless Youth Animation – Jared’s Story video to develop a greater understanding of the power of language, an understanding of others' lived experiences, and drive themselves to action.
Compelling Question
How can we use language and data to bring positive awareness to the issue of Homeless Youth?
Standards
- C4.9-10.3 Describe the impact and the appropriate roles of personal interests and perspectives on the application of civic virtues, democratic principles, constitutional rights, and human rights.
- SSS3.9-12.2 Apply a range of deliberative and democratic strategies and procedures to make decisions and take action in their classrooms, school, or out-of-school civic context.
Learning Goals
- Students will read and watch Jared’s story and reflect on the power of language — understanding that words used to describe people have powerful impacts.
- Students will study and analyze the official definition of “homeless youth” — gathering information from other texts in order to participate in a guided discussion to reflect on their learning and to plan action steps on sharing their understanding with others.
- Kids will draft a letter, PSA, brochure, or other product to help their community develop a greater understanding of Homeless Youth.
Staging the Question
Put up a piece of large white paper, and divide it into two columns.
- Begin by writing the word Homeless in the first column and have students list what words come to mind.
- Next, write Homeless Youth in the second column and repeat the question.
Have students examine and debrief on the words and the feelings and their takeaways. Which words have a positive connotation and which words have a negative connotation? How does our understanding of the homeless youth situation influence the words we generated?
Supporting Question 1
What do we understand about homeless youth through the language people use?
Formative Performance Task 1
Students will watch a video animation of Jared’s story and identify language used by others to describe homeless people vs the descriptive language used by the homeless themselves. The students will create a t-chart to record their observations and then reflect on the supporting question to debrief.
Notes to teacher:
- Ask students to take out a piece of paper and draw a t-chart. The left column will be “positive” words found in the video and the right column will be “negative” words found in the video. Play the video at least one time and ask students to record their findings. Students should turn and talk when the video is done to compare words found in their columns.
- Students will then debrief their findings and the teacher will record those on a Master T-Chart which will remain visible for the remainder of the lesson.
- Note: teachers can make the transcript available to students as well; turn on the closed captioning to aid comprehension of Jared’s story.
- Debrief the supporting question as a class.
Formative Performance Task 2
Students will study and analyze the official definition of “homeless youth” and learn about other factors affecting homeless youth in Washington State. Students will reflect on the state of homeless youth in Washington and quickly research resources for homeless youth in their area.
Notes to teacher:
- Display (or assign on your district LMS) the Homeless Youth in Washington State slideshow and guide students through the first four slides of content (intro slide, definition slide, homeless statistics slide, youth shelters slide).
- Ask students to generate at least two questions they have about homeless youth. These questions might center around definitions, statistics, causes, support, etc.
- Direct students to slide 5, where they will perform a brief search to find information on homeless youth, shelters, or other services in their area. District McKinney-Vento liaisons may be helpful to curate information ahead of time for your students. Debrief as a class: what did you find? What surprised you? What are you still wondering?
- Ask students to go back to their t-charts and revisit the language they detected in his story. How does the official definition help us understand Jared’s situation?
- Show students the sentence frame, “I used to think…and now I know….” Ask students to use the sentence frame and independently create their frame.
- Display the sentence frames and do a gallery walk (or a different way of sharing out) to share their learning.
Formative Performance Task 3
Students will read two documents to build knowledge about homelessness in Washington State and more specifically youth homelessness in Washington State (Washington State Health Assessment, Office of Homeless Youth, and KUOW article).
Notes to teacher:
- As students read, they should take notes on the Analysis Organizer.
- Note: the Washington State Health Assessment is from 2018; check the Washington State Department of Health website to see if an updated report is available.
Featured Source(s) and Resources
- Homeless Youth - Jared’s story: transcript and animation | Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI)
- Slideshow: Homeless Youth in Washington State: What is the state of homeless youth in Washington? | Leslie Heffernan
- Washington State Health Assessment: Homelessness and Inadequate Housing | Washington State Department of Health
- Office of Homeless Youth | Washington Department of Commerce
- Article: Child homelessness has doubled in Washington state in the last decade | Kate Walters KUOW News and Information
- Analysis Organizer | OSPI
- McKinney-Vento Act (Homeless Children and Youth Assistance) | OSPI
Argument
After students analyze various sources to answer the supporting question and discuss their thinking with the class, they will write a brief response to the compelling question, How can we use language and data to bring positive awareness to the issue of Homeless Youth? Responses should include a claim, evidence, and reasoning and cite specific information from sources, including a connection to a key idea.
Taking Informed Action
Students will draft a letter, PSA, brochure, or other product to help their community develop a greater understanding of homeless youth.
Notes to teacher:
- Ask students to review their work and watch the video once again. Debrief as a class: what powerful words and data can be used to communicate the situation of homeless youth in Washington State?
- Ask students to brainstorm effective methods of communicating their findings to others. Examples could be a PSA, brochure, letter-writing campaign, poster, or other product to promote an understanding of this issue that faces so many kids in our communities.
- Students should utilize the information they’ve learned in the previous lessons, including the use of language when we discuss homelessness, the definition of homeless youth, and an action plan for sharing the information they’ve learned.
Attribution and License
Attribution
This lesson for Animating Civic Action lesson was developed by Leslie Heffernan, Central Valley School District, Washington.
Jared’s Story animation developed by Peter Rand, Good Point Creative for the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Animating Civic Action lessons support civic engagement K–12. These lessons introduce real stories of individuals in our Washington community who have experienced challenges to civic participation.
The Animating Civic Action Project was conceived and developed by:
- Danielle Eidenberg, Senior Education Ombuds, Governor’s Office of the Education Ombuds
- Zac Murphy, Director of Multimedia and Information Strategy, Communications and Digital Media, Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI)
- Jerry Price, Associate Director, Social Studies Content, OSPI
Support for the Animating Civic Action project was provided by:
- Content media creation, filming, and editing: Zac Murphy, Director of Multimedia and Information Strategy, Communications and Digital Media, OSPI
- Media editing: Stephanie Rexus Video Media Strategist, Communication and Digital Media. OSPI
- Lesson formatting and publishing: Barbara Soots, Open Educational Resources and Instructional Materials Program Manager, OSPI
We express our sincere gratitude to all the story contributors to the Animating Civic Action effort. Without their support and willingness to share their experiences, this resource would not be possible.
Animating Civics Action is a partnership between the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Washington State Governor's Office of the Education Ombuds.
License
Except where otherwise noted, this Animating Civic Action Lesson, copyright Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, is available under a Creative Commons Attribution License
Jared's Story video, copyright Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, is availble under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License
All logos and trademarks are property of their respective owners. Sections used under fair use doctrine (17 U.S.C. § 107) are marked.
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