Spark

Lesson 2: Build Knowledge: Poverty and Inequality in the 1960s

50 min

California CCSS: Focus Standards

California CCSS: Supporting Standards

ELD Standards

Student Lesson

Lesson 2: Build Knowledge: Poverty and Inequality in the 1960s

Student Learning Objectives

Content

Students will review a video and an informational article to analyze how poverty and economic inequality impacted Americans in the 1960s and beyond.

Language

Students will summarize ideas from an informational text and use these summaries to develop original ideas.

Foundations

Students will explore the relationship between two vocabulary words and connect these words to informational texts.

Essential Question

How do relationships and communities shape a person’s sense of belonging and identity?

Connections to

Knowledge-Building:

Students will use what they learn about economic inequality in the United States as a foundation to examine deeper ideas of how class divides affect belonging.

Enduring Understanding:

Social systems of the 1960s created class divides that impacted people’s senses of belonging.

Future Lessons:

In Lesson 3, students will learn more about how poverty and inequality impacted the youth subcultures featured in the anchor text.

Unit Performance Task:

Examining the broader social context that makes a main character feel like an “outsider” will help students understand the many ways that “outsider” status can affect people.

Lesson Pacing

Lesson Flow	Purpose of Learning Experience
Launch5 Minutes	Students will explore the setting of the anchor text by reviewing photos of Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the 1960s and learning how class divides impacted Tulsa.
Learning in Action40 Minutes	Part A: Build Knowledge of the 1960s (RI.7.7, L.7.4.a) Students will watch a video summarizing the intent of Johnson’s “War on Poverty” and discuss how it connects to their knowledge of the decade from Lesson 1 and how it impacts their understanding of class divides. Part B: Analyze Data about Inequality (RI.7.7) Students will read and summarize data from an informational article and make inferences about the challenges of addressing poverty and poverty’s impact on belonging. They will share their findings with their peers using the Give One, Get One routine.
Look Back5 Minutes	Students will reflect on what they learned about belonging and inequality.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary Addressed in Lesson

inequality: uneven distribution of resources and opportunities among groups of people
poverty: the state of lacking access to basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter