Title of Lesson: The Impact of Poverty and Education

Grade Level: Middle School (6

th
-8
th
grade)
Objectives: Have students attempt to predict what the average income and poverty level is and
rationalize their guesses, allow the students to work as a group to come up with a budget using
the poverty line figures, create an opportunity for students to infer the problems poverty can
cause for students who are seeking an education.
Rationale: This lesson will meet the objectives by allowing the students to work on their
predicting and rationalizing skills, teamwork skills, and inference skills.
Materials Needed: Marker board and marker, budget sheet (one for each group), journals for
each student, writing utensils for each student, the following facts more than 1 in 5 (21.8 percent)
of the United States children were poor in 2012, a total of 16,073,000 children (CDC), $53,891
is the median income in the United States as of 2014 (money.cnn), and the following chart for
each of the students:
Poverty Thresholds for 2013 by Size of Family and Number of Related Children Under 18 Years


Size of family unit
Weighted
average
thresholds
Related children under 18 years
None One Two Three Four Five Six Seven
Eight or
more

One person (unrelated
individual).......

11,888
Under 65 years..............................

12,119

12,119
65 years and over...........................

11,173

11,173

Two people......................................

15,142
Householder under 65 years...........

15,679

15,600

16,057
Householder 65 years and
over........ 14,095 14,081 15,996

Three people....................................

18,552

18,222

18,751

18,769
Four people.....................................

23,834

24,028

24,421

23,624

23,707
Five people......................................

28,265

28,977

29,398

28,498

27,801

27,376
Six people........................................

31,925

33,329

33,461

32,771

32,110

31,128

30,545
Seven people...................................

36,384

38,349

38,588

37,763

37,187

36,115

34,865

33,493
Eight people....................................

40,484

42,890

43,269

42,490

41,807

40,839

39,610

38,331

38,006
Nine people or more..........................

48,065

51,594

51,844

51,154

50,575

49,625

48,317

47,134

46,842

45,037
Source: U.S. Census Bureau.


Discussion Questions: Why/How would a familys income level affect a childs education?
What other factors play a role in success in education?
Motivation/Introduction: Today we will be discussing the impact of poverty and education. In
previous classes, we have discussed budgeting, so today we will be incorporating our budgeting
skills, as well as other skills we have developed this year, to try and learn the impact on poverty
and education.
Transition: Clear off your desk of everything.
Procedure:
1. Ask the students how much they think the median annual spending is for a family in the
United States. Then ask them what they think the annual spending is of a family on the
poverty line is. Have the student write down their guesses to the answers on the budget
sheet. Ask the students what could affect this number (family size, location, additional
expenses).
2. Make a graph on the board and ask the students to tell you the numbers they guessed for
both figures. Make two line graphs for each of the figures and have the students discuss
the graph and come to a consensus as a class.
3. Tell the students what the median annual spending and spending at the poverty line is.
4. Break the students in to groups of four. Have the students pretend they are a family at the
poverty line and that they need to create a budget that they agree on. The categories on
the budget sheet should include food, insurance, rent, car payments, school supplies,
electric and water bills, and miscellaneous.
5. Have each group present their budgets. Allow the other groups to challenge or support
the group presenting.
Transition/Closure: Discuss the differences in the groups budgets. As a class, talk about the
challenges they had when making the budget and have them rank the importance of each
category. Challenge the students to think about additional emergency expenses could come up.
Ask the students if they have any ideas about how we can help lower the number of people living
below the line.
Evaluation: Have each of the students write a response to the activity and what they learned
about poverty and the challenges of poverty in the United States. Make sure the students know
that they need to try and infer what challenges students living in poverty could face in their
education. Collect and grade the students responses. Then have each student share a challenge
poverty would place on education with the class and discuss.