Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

Optional Preparation – Ground Rules For Classroom Discussion
10 minutes – Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge
25 minutes – Part B: Swap Card Questions
35 minutes – Part C: Finding And Analysing Health Data
10 minutes – Reflection

Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge

Step 1.

Begin the lesson by inviting students to participate in a THINK-PAIR-SHARE visible thinking routine to explore what they know, think and feel about homelessness. Ask students to access the Student Worksheet and encourage them to:

THINK - Spend a minute writing down everything that they know, think and feel about homelessness. Encourage all students to write down something in the table provided on the Student Worksheet. These ideas can be listed as words, dot points or more detailed sentences.
PAIR - Once everyone has had a chance to record some ideas individually, invite students to share what they have written down with a partner or in a small group.
SHARE - Invite students to contribute to a class discussion with all ideas being written on the board. This is a great opportunity to facilitate a discussion about stereotypes and media representation of what homelessness looks like.

Step 2.

Invite students to form groups of 3 or 4, provide them with a large piece of butcher's paper and ensure each student has a marker pen. Encourage them to work together to generate questions about homelessness, using the 5Ws 1H as a starting point.

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You may want to provide students with example questions, such as:

How many people are experiencing homelessness in Australia?
Where do people experiencing homelessness reside?
Who is at greatest risk of becoming homeless?

Step 3.

Allow students several minutes to generate a range of questions. Once complete, invite students to share one question with the class, selecting the one that they think is most important or interesting, and explaining why they have chosen this question.

Note: These questions can be revisited at the end of class, to help measure learning growth. If you are using this lesson as part of the complete unit, you can also refer to these questions and answers at the end of the unit to measure the impact/change in students' thinking/knowledge.

Part B: Swap Card Questions

Step 1.

Now distribute the Swap Stats Card to ensure each student has one each. Explain to the class that each stat card has a question and answer on it about homelessness in Australia. The aim of this activity is for students to investigate key facts about homelessness in Australia by asking and answering the question on their cards.

Step 2.

Invite students to find a partner, with one person taking on the role of asking the question and the other person taking on the role of answering the question. It is unlikely that students will know the correct answer to the question they are being asked but it is important that they have a go. The student asking the question can then reveal the true answer. Encourage students to discuss the question and answer before moving on to the next question.

Once each student in a pair has asked and answered their question invite them to move onto to a new partner and to repeat the process.

To ensure all students understand the process, allow time for students to do a scaffolded run through as a class with the teacher giving direct instructions as to what students need to do at each stage.

Step 3.

Allow 4-5 mins for students to roam the classroom and interact with as many different students and questions as possible. You may choose to use a classroom timer so that students are aware of how much time is left to complete the activity.

Step 4.

Once the allocated time is up, invite students to return to their seats and facilitate a class discussion using the following prompts:

What facts did you find surprising, alarming or concerning?
Which facts were specific to young people? How do these facts they make you feel?

If students need further prompts, select one or two stat cards relevant to the class and ask students what they think or feel about it.

End the discussion with an explanation that everyone will face social and emotional challenges in their life, with many stresses increasing in the teenage years and early adulthood. Emphasise the importance of students developing their own social and emotional skills to better cope with stress, and that of their friends and family when they go through difficult times. It is also important to look after one another and look out for one another, as we never really know what another person is going through.

Part C: Finding And Analysing Health Data

Step 1.

Explain to students that they will soon be watching the opening scene to the documentary Life After The Oasis. This documentary revisits characters and stories from the original 2008 documentary The Oasis, and shows how opportunities, experiences and structural issues have shaped the lives of these characters over the last ten years. Before you begin watching, remind students that the clip they are about to see features real people courageously sharing their stories.

Step 2.

Provide each student with a copy of the Student Worksheet and explain that they will be completing a See, Think, Feel, Wonder questions while watching the clip. Read through the prompt questions under each of the See, Think, Feel, Wonder headings and explain that this is an opportunity for students to reflect on the issue.

SEE - What do you SEE in this scene about homelessness?
THINK - What does this scene make you THINK about homelessness?
FEEL - How does this scene make you FEEL about homelessness?
WONDER - After watching this scene, what do you WONDER about homelessness? What questions does it leave you with?

Step 3.

Watch the opening scene from Life After The Oasis documentary.

Life After The Oasis (https://vimeo.com/347231056/5d854a4aba)

You may choose to watch the clip through once and then play it again while students complete their See, Think, Feel, Wonder charts.

Once complete, invite students to share their reflections of the clip with the class. Remind students of your discussion guidelines when listening to the reflections of their peers. You could also invite students to reflect on how the information presented in the clip relates to the facts they looked at earlier, as well as the questions they recorded on the butcher's paper.

Step 4.

Now that students have been introduced to the issue through statistics and a Life After The Oasis clip, explain to students that they will now build on their understanding of what homelessness looks like in Australia by accessing information from the Homelessness Australia website. Explain to students that Homelessness Australia is a self-funded organisation, run by volunteers, to advocate for the homelessness sector. They do not provide or manage accommodation for people experiencing homelessness; rather they work with other organisations to provide a unified voice when it comes to working to prevent and respond to the issue of homelessness.

Break the class into pairs or small groups. Invite students to access the Homelessness Australia website, and locate the factsheets for Homelessness In Australia and Homelessness And Young People. Alternatively, you may wish to provide them with printed copies.

Using the questions below (also available on the Student Worksheet) invite students to read through the factsheets and to work collaboratively to discuss and record their responses to these questions, using the spaces provided on the Student Worksheet. Alternatively, using digital platforms such as Google Docs and Padlet can be a great way to get students sharing and collaborating on their ideas.

Homelessness in Australia factsheet questions:

Briefly describe the definition of homelessness, as suggested by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Describe how many people are experiencing homelessness in Australia.
Compare and contrast the incidence of homelessness for those who identify as males and those who identify as females.
List the top 5 factors that can lead to homelessness.
Explain the impact that homelessness has on an individual, and at a national level.

Homelessness and Young People factsheet questions:

List some of the most common reasons why young people experience homelessness.
Identify the groups of young people who are at greatest risk of experiencing homelessness.
Explain why it is vital to combat youth homelessness. Refer to the fact sheet to support your answer.

Step 5.

Provide students an opportunity to share their responses either in small groups, as a class or via a digital platform.

Reflection

Step 1.

Invite students to return to the groups they were in for the 5Ws 1H activity, and to refer back to the what, when, where, who, why and how questions that they created together. Invite students to reflect on their initial questions and to consider the following:

What questions would they keep?
Which ones do they now know the answers to and if they do know the answers, what are they?
Which questions might they amend or edit and how would they change them?
Are there any new questions they would like to add?

Step 2.

Ask students to work independently to think about what they looked at in this lesson and to complete the following (also available on the Student Worksheet):

I used to think...
Now I think...

Differentiated Learning

Extension – Students could begin to find, compare and contrast data about homelessness across the states and territories, and across the stages of the lifespan. Relevant data cubes can be found here or as part of Life After The Oasis Mathematics Unit.

Provisions for Learning Support – Ensure that student groups are of mixed ability so that those requiring encouragement and clarification around the content covered can do so with their peers.

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

Life After The Oasis - Factors of Homelessness

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