Homeless in Nepal and Ecuador

My students played my homeless child game:

A) Listen to Cardboard Box City by the Levellers: what’s the song about?

Choose one of the following songs:

·         “Rosemary” by Lenny Kravitz

·         “Nobody’s Home” by Avril Lavigne

·         “Little Miss S.” by Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians

Listen to the song and follow the lyrics (you can find both on the internet).  Answer the following questions:

1.            How old do you think the girl in the song is?

2.            What do you know about her life from the song?

3.            What advice does the singer give her?

Talk to students who chose the other two songs and discuss the different stories.  Note down similarities and differences.

 

B) Cut up the following cards and place them face down on the desk.

 

FOUND AN OLD FOOTBALL- PLAYED FOR AN HOUR – WE WON!	SOMEONE DROPPED A CELL PHONE – SOLD IT TO A GUY FOR $25	SAT OUTSIDE A BAKERY- RICH TOURIST BOUGHT ME CHOCOLATE CAKE
FALL FACE DOWN IN MUD- EVERYONE LAUGHED	COLD – SLEPT IN DOG HOUE IN RICH NEIGHBORHOOD	WATCHED JEAN CLAUDE VAN DAMME MOVIE THROUGH WINDOW OF ELECTRONICS STORE
BIG KID JOE BEAT ME UP	GUARDS THREW ME OUT OF MALL – COLD	BIG KID JOE STOLE OLD LADY’S PURSE – SHE THOGUHT IT WAS ME – HAD TO RUN
FOUND FRENCH FRIES IN GARBAGE CAN	STOLE GLUE FROM STATIONERY STORE – SNIFFED FOR AN HOUR –FEELS GOOD	FELL ASLEEP IN PARK – SOMEONE STOLE MY SHOES
BEGGED IN FRONT OF CHURCH – GOT $6.32	DOG TREED ME FOR 2 HOURS	WAS LOOKING IN CAR WINDOW-FELT COP HIT ME ON HEAD WITH NIGHTSTICK
WON CONTEST WITH CAB DRIVER TO SEE WHO COULD PEE FURTHEST- HE BOUGHT ME A BURGER	SAW DRUNK SLEEPING IN PARK – STOLE HIS JACKET AND HAT	PASSED A SCHOOL – KIDS COMING OUT IN NICE CLOTHES – I HATE THEM
STOOD OUTSIDE RESTAURANT LOOKING IN – NEVER HAD ICE-CREAM BEFORE	STOLE A COLA FROM A STORE – OPENED CAP AND WON A FREE ONE	WON $4 FROM BIG KID JOE ‘CAUSE MY FOOTBALL TEAM BEAT HIS
FELL ASLEEP IN PARK – BIRD POO ON MY FACE	THIRSTY – FOUND ½ BOTTLE OF WATER IN GARBAGE – WIPED OFF LIPSTICK MARKS	STOLE BUSINESSMAN’S WALLET ON BUS - $75

 

With a partner, take turns choosing a card.  Decide if the event described is a happy one or an unhappy one from the point of view of a homeless child using the following scale:

 

 

-3            -2            -1            0             +1           +2           +3

 

Then add up your score.  Which child had a better day?

 

C)  Think of events that might happen in a day in the life of a homeless child.  You can use ideas from the cards above or invent your own.  Imagine the order in which they happened during the day.  Write each event next to the times below:

 

·         6:00am:

·         8:00am:

·         10:00am:

·         12:00pm:

·         2:00pm:

·         4:00pm:

·         5:00pm:

·         7:00pm:

·         10:00pm:

·         12:00am:

 

A)      Using the timetable you created above, write a story about a typical day in the life of a homeless child.  Write the story in the first person, for example “This morning I woke up under a bridge”.  Start by explaining where, when and why the character woke up, and end with where he or she goes to sleep.  Include details about the character’s family and/or friends in your narrative.

B)        Read your classmates’ stories.  Write in your journal how you felt after reading them.  Do you have any ideas for ways to help the homeless?

 

EXPLANATION OF METHODOLOGY

A) The lyrics to the songs can all be found online at http://www.lyrics.com/ or any other lyrics website.

·         “Rosemary” is about an abandoned child in bare feet and a tattered dress.  The singer tells her not to lose her faith in Christ.

·         “Nobody’s Home” is about a teenager living on the streets. The singer’s advice is “Open your eyes and look outside, find the reasons why you've been rejected, and now you can't find what you left behind. Be strong, be strong now.”

·         “Little Miss S.” is about a teenage drug addict who sleeps with a lot of different boys who don’t care about her.  The singer says “You got a lot of livin' to do without life” which means that she’s trying to make decisions too quickly without waiting for wisdom and experience to guide her.

A)      This task can lead to some interesting discussions.  Sniffing glue, for instance, is a terrible thing to do, but perhaps for a homeless child, it ranks as one of the best parts of the day.  The interesting part is deciding which values are universal and which only apply if one is well-fed and otherwise safe and cared for.

B)       This step is important in order to plan out the structure of the narrative.

C)       The length of the narrative can be set by the teacher.  Writing in the first person helps to make the story more poignant.  Impose any additional requirements of grammar and vocabulary you wish, but in this case, the main aim is to stir the emotions of the reader.

D)      Students will find each others’ stories more or less impacting, so the aim in writing (step D) is to make the story as emotionally powerful as possible.  Humor is also an emotion and may serve to make the more tragic points of the story stand out.  The students can therefore document how each story made them feel in their journal.

Final note: bind the stories together as a book and "sell" them to the next level down to illustrate.  The money goes to Nepal or Un Techo Para Mi Pais in Ecuador