1. POVERTY AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS IN THE OUTSIDERS Mrs. Bambino, English 8 North Syracuse Junior High School sbambino@nscsd.org

2. THE PROBLEM: Poverty is a major issue facing families and children in this country.

3. STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO: Identify examples of poverty as it effects characters in The Outsiders. State how poverty currently effects children and teenagers in the United States. Brainstorm reasons why poverty is a major issue in our country. What can be done to address the issue of children facing poverty? Remember to use the PPA steps: http://www2.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/ppae/ppae5a.html Use this worksheet to organize your answers today: outsiders poverty worksheet.doc

4. DID YOU KNOW…? 35.9 million people live below the poverty line in America, including 12.9 million children. Nearly one in four children live in households that struggle to put food on the table. That's 16.7 million children. The average poverty rate of Western democracies excluding the United States is 9.8%. The U.S. rate is thus 1.73 times greater than this average. Source: National Center for Children in Poverty, Columbia University, 2010

6. HOW DOES POVERTY RELATE TO CHARACTERS FROM THE OUTSIDERS? 1) List three examples from The Outsiders of a character experiencing poverty. 2) Choose one of your examples and briefly discuss how this character was effected by it.

7. HOW DOES POVERTY IMPACT CHILDREN AND TEENAGERS IN OUR COUNTRY? http://www.nccp.org/topics/childpoverty.html http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/19172/poverty_and_its_effects_on_children.html Type your discoveries into question three of your worksheet.

8. SMALL GROUP/CLASS DISCUSSION: Why is poverty such an issue in a country as rich as ours? http://www.nccp.org/faq.html#question8 Make notes about what you have learned under question four of your worksheet.

9. SMALL GROUP/CLASS DISCUSSION : What can be done to give children born into poverty a fighting chance to be successful? Make notes about what you have learned under question five of your worksheet.

10. EVALUATION: Students will be evaluated twice for this project. One class work grade will be given for today’s worksheet about poverty in the United States. Another project grade will be given for the Public Service Announcement teaching others about poverty in our country. We will use today’s worksheet to begin working on the PSA next class.