Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Part A: Activating prior knowledge

60 minutes

Part B: The truth behind the statistics

40 minutes

Part C: Case studies

10 minutes

Reflection

Part A: Activating prior knowledge

Step 1.

To develop student interest, present a quick news report about the concept of poverty:

Report finds more than 3 million Australians are living in poverty (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1LoUBhHMfg)

This news story introduces the bleak reality of poverty in Australia, discussing the fact that 1 in 8 adults are receiving an income below the poverty line, 18% of children under 15 live below the poverty line and for older Australians, if they haven't secured their own home they will be struggling to survive with spiralling costs.

Step 2.

Once students have viewed the news report, ask students to respond to the following question using a Think, pair, share routine (available on the Student Worksheet):

Does poverty have a significant impact on the health and well-being of individuals in Australia?

You can then engage the class in a brief discussion around their ideas.

Part B: The truth behind the statistics

Step 1.

Students are encouraged to view this infographic

Once you have dissected the relevant data, invite your students to view a short video and then facilitate a class discussion:

APW case study bushfires and COVID https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBhJaPWsHHo

Both these resources begin to paint the picture of the real impact of poverty in Australia. The infographic is direct and provides relevant statistics for the students. The Channel 7 and Bushfire and Poverty videos provide additional insight into the human impact on the everyday Australian.

Note: The statistics may be alarming and quite confronting for some students. Ensure you take the time to pause, reflect and dissect what these statistics mean and might look like for people living below the poverty line.

Specific facts to reflect on:

1 in 8 Australians live below the poverty line
1 in 6 children live below the poverty line
3.31 million people live below the poverty line
The poverty line for a single adult is $489 a week
The Federal Government can reduce poverty by boosting growth in jobs, increasing JobSeeker Payment and Rent Assistance, as well as investing in social housing to ensure everyone has a safe place to call home.

Before moving on to the next step, provide your students with some time to discuss how this information is making them feel. You might notice that some students may have become activated or triggered by the information they are receiving. Ensure you give everyone the opportunity to ask questions, discuss their concerns and whether they might need additional debriefing moving forward.

Step 2.

Once students have viewed the youtube clip and the infographic, ask your class to complete the Think, puzzle, explore on the Student Worksheet. This visible thinking routine will encourage students to start asking questions about poverty and how to find solutions with various perspectives and experiences in mind.

Step 3.

Open up the NCOSS map website and bring the class’s attention to a map of NSW and a breakdown of data relating to economic disadvantage. Ask your students to prepare a summary of information using the space provided on the Student Worksheet.

This website provides students with an opportunity to visually gain a snapshot of the different population groups across NSW and dissect the economic disadvantage by gender, age, employment status, housing tenure and household types.

Give students some time to research the various subheadings and explore information that evokes interest and is related to the topic.

Note: Keep in mind that there may be students that either live or know someone that lives in areas that face high rates of economic disadvantage. While discussing the task ensure that you give students a moment to reflect on any emotional response before moving on to other tasks.

Be prepared that students might ask questions such as:

What can we do to reduce poverty?
"Support Anti-Poverty Week, raise awareness through suggestion solutions on the Anti-Poverty Week website which we can look at as a class."
Will these statistics continue to rise?
"Potentially, if we do not take action now."
What are people or the government doing to stop this?

Step 4.

Once students have formulated their opinions into a succinct summary, ask your class to respond with an agree or disagree statement using the Tug of War visible thinking routine. This routine allows students to examine the information and make a judgment on its value by placing it on the continuum. They are invited to work either as an affirmative or negative group member which gives students the opportunity to work as a dynamic while they dissect the statement.

The statement is:

The Australian Government is providing significant support to reduce the impact of poverty on the Australian population.

To begin the Tug of War routine the teacher will draw a line on the whiteboard and ask students to form either an agree or disagree group. Each group is given a number of statistics/readings and will be asked to place them using sticky tape or blue tack on their side of the continuum line on the whiteboard. If a student thinks strongly that the statistic supports their point of view (agree or disagree) it would be placed to the outside end of the side of either group. Equally, if a student has less conviction in regards to a statistic and is more unsure, they will be asked to place the statistic toward the middle of the continuum.

For example:

Statistics to use: Poverty and Inequality Partnership causes and solutions - Poverty and Inequality

Part C: Case studies

Step 1.

Students will be invited to embark on an investigation into the real impact of poverty on an individual's life through a choice of case studies. Each of the case studies offers clear evidence of the impact of poverty and these could be pre-printed or laminated to allow ease of access to students. In addition, students are invited to view The Feed which offers an example of ‘Dave’ who highlights the challenges of trying to survive on the Newstart allowance, which could also be used in this activity. Teachers will need to access the ‘Poverty and Inequality Partnership - People Behind the Statistics’ page (http://povertyandinequality.acoss.org.au/category/stories/). Here you will find case studies for Australians living in poverty for students to focus on.

Step 2.

Break the class into six groups and assign one case study per group.

Direct groups to point 4 of the Student Worksheet and invite them to use this activity to guide their case study analysis. Activities include:

Reading through the case study together
Describing at least one form of impact that poverty is having on the health and wellbeing of the individual
Explaining three barriers the subject is or has faced, which have led them into or kept them living in poverty
Suggest solutions to reduce the impact of poverty.

Step 3.

Then, each group should have access to a safe Internet browsing network/skills to locate one Australian (preferably local) agency, group or other community resources that might be able to assist the subject to address their barriers or difficulties. These could be resources such as mental health assistance, income or rental support. Examples could be but are not limited to: The Smith Family, Mission Australia, ACOSS, Rent assistance - Australian Government.

Remind students to consider the Online Search Strategies when conducting research online.

Step 4.

The process of suggesting strategies begins to empower students to make decisions that could change the future of those suffering from the impact of poverty. The readings below provide an insight into NSW Government and Independent organisations that have initiated policies and strategies to tackle Poverty in NSW. Students are asked to imagine they are government officers charged with coming up with a program to assist people just like the person in your case study. Students should devise a strategy with at least 3 to 5 ideas for support and assistance to help your subject, in order to break their cycle of poverty and to promote economic and social participation.

Students are encouraged to consider the handouts provided which are suggested by independent sources Poverty and Inequality partnership solutions to poverty in Australia.

Reflection

Invite students to complete the Connect Extend Challenge thinking routine on the Student Worksheet. Students are then invited to share in class their reflections with the teacher collating the feedback on the whiteboard under the three headings Connect Extend Challenge. This will help to share their thinking amongst their peers and clarify understanding across the class.

Differentiated learning

Extension –

Option 1: Considering Anti Poverty-Week promotions. Here students are encouraged to design their own campaign which aims to educate individuals about the issues with poverty in Australia and provide strategies to raise awareness within communities.
Option 2: Considering the United Nations Ending Poverty website. Using digital technologies, students are invited to design an engaging and informative learning resource to discuss the current world issues relating to poverty and review global strategies to eradicate extreme poverty.

Provisions for Learning Support –

Teachers need to simplify and structure the content for research tasks, in particular, many of the visible learning strategies provide good structure but can be modified to suit individual student needs.
Teachers need to allocate individual students to groups when involving group work to allow for peer and teacher support for students with individual needs. Providing specific roles within groups and selecting students to assist students within the group to support could all be processes implemented.
Instructions for activities need to be specifically simplified and structured to suit the needs of individual students.

Teacher reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

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

Poverty and Inequality in Australia - People Behind the Statistics

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