Inquiry Lesson Plan (with Four Ways of Thinking connection)

Teacher: Megan Galasieski

Content & Title:

Poverty in the
United States

Grade Level:
6th Grade

Standards:
Strand 3: Science in Personal and Social Perspectives
PO.1 Describe how natural events and human activities have positive and
negative impacts on environments.
Objectives (Explicit & Measurable):
Students will be able to compare and contrast different factors most commonly
associated with poverty in the United States.
Evidence of Mastery (Measurable Assessment: formative and summative):
Students will show mastery of this lesson by creating a mind map and sharing it with
their peers that shows circumstances and events that may contribute to poverty.
Sub-objectives, SWBAT (steps that lead to completion of objective; sequence from
simple to more complex):

Students will be able to brainstorm instances where they have found themselves
short of money.
Students will be able to think pair share their answers to the first inquiry
question, What factors can lead to poverty?
Students will be able to identify different factors of poverty and write down what
may contribute to each factor
Students will be able to create a mind map and discuss with their peers how
certain circumstances might affect future generations.

Lesson Summary and Justification: (summary gives detailed information about what
students are doing. Justification why is this lesson being taught)

Summary: In this lesson, not only will the students have an insight on what can lead
to poverty, but also see how these things might affect future generations and their
socioeconomic status.
Justification: This lesson is being taught so that students can develop a better sense
of empathy for people living in poverty and so they can have a better understanding
of the factors of poverty.

Background Knowledge: (What do students need to know prior to completing this

lesson)

For this lesson, specifically for the opening activity, students need to think about times
when they found themselves out of money for clothes and other necessities. They
should also have a prediction of what poverty means.

Misconception: (what possible misleading thoughts might students have?)

A misconception that students might have during this lesson is that poverty means
that people dont have enough food for a place to live. This lesson will explore the
education, geography, health, and family structures that can play a role in poverty.
Four Ways of Thinking connection: (Provide a complete explanation of how your
lesson plan connects to futures, system, strategic, or values thinking. Define the way of
thinking you selected and used in this lesson plan. Remember, this should be included
meaningfully in the lesson plan.)

This lesson plan connects to the use of systems thinking. Systems thinking is being
able to understand the connections between different components that make up an
entire system. In this case, students will be able to examine how individual systems
(education, geography, etc.) intertwine with the whole system of poverty.
Safety: (what safety rules and items need to be addressed?)

No safety rules need to be addressed for this lesson.

Inquiry Questions: (testable in the here and now.)
1. What factors can lead to poverty?
2. How can poverty affect future generations?
Key vocabulary: (list and define)
1. Poverty-A state of deprivation or lack of
the usual or socially acceptable amount of
money and material possessions.
2. Short-term- Occurring over a short period
of time.
3. Long-term- Occurring over a long period
of time.

Materials: (list item and possible

quantity)
1. Articles found from Teaching
2. Highlighters
3. Mind Map Template

Tolerance

Engage - In this section you should activate prior knowledge, hook student
attention, pose a question (IQ#1) based on your lesson objective that students
will seek to answer in Explore.

Teacher Will: (hook)

Students Will:

The teacher will grab the students

The students will listen to the teacher
attention by asking if they have ever found and reflect upon their experiences with
themselves short of money. Have you ever
handling money.
not had enough money to go to the mall or The students will brainstorm their
a school basketball game?
answers to the first IQ question.
The teacher will then explain how even
when you sometimes run out of money,
you have your parents or someone else by
your side to support you. People living in
poverty dont have that kind of back fall.
The teacher will then pose the first
question, What factors can lead to
poverty?
Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes
Explore - In this section students should take the lead and actively use materials
to discover information that will help them answer the question posed in
Engage. Teachers may choose to give steps to follow, especially for younger students,
but the goal is for students to discover some or all of the sub-objectives of the lesson.
Teacher Will: (pose IQ #1)

Students Will: (list all steps)

The teacher will divide the students into

four groups.
The teacher will distribute worksheets
provided by Teaching Tolerance to each
group. Titles of the worksheets include
education, health, geography, and family
structure.
The teacher will instruct the students to
brainstorm in their groups some shortterm and long-term effects that poverty
might have on their topic. They should
write those ideas down on their
worksheets.
With highlighters, the teacher will instruct
the students to highlight the factors they
wrote down that they feel are the most
important.

The students will participate in the

group activity by writing down some
short term and long term effects and
highlighting the ones they feel are the
most important.

Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes

Evaluate In this section every student demonstrates mastery of the lesson

objective (though perhaps not mastery of the elaborate content). Because this also
serves as a closing, students should also have a chance to summarize the big concepts
they learned outside of the assessment.
Teacher Will:
Students Will:
The teacher will explain to the students
Students will actively participate in the
that poverty is not all about not having
mind map activity and reflect on all the
health or because you live in a bad area.
factors they learned in this lesson.
Sometimes people experience long term Students will be able to complete the
poverty because of or more of the
mind map in partners if they choose to
factors that we discussed. For example, a
do so.
teenager could drop out of school and
work at a fast food restaurant to support
their families financial troubles.
The teacher will instruct the students to
create a mind map that illustrates similar
situations based on the factors they
explored in the previous activity. This will
test student mastery in the sense that
they already have an understanding of
all the factors that are associated with
poverty.
Closure: (revisit objective, IQs and make real world connections)
Close out the lesson by reviewing what our objective was for the day and ask the
students what they found most interesting in the lesson. Explain how they will
encounter people living in poverty in school and out in the real world, so its
important to be sympathetic and have an open mind when interacting with these
people.
**Best Practices List the Best Teaching Practices you will use to enhance
the learning outcomes. In each section where prompted, list the best
practice, how the practices will be used and the purpose.