HW 4.3: Understanding Global Poverty

What Does It All Mean?

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Learning Outcome Pedagogical Intent Student Position

Candidates provide support and advocacy for ELLs and their families and understand the history families bring. They work in partnerships with families and communities to create positive learning environments.

Assessment: 25 pts.

Due: Session 5

Teachers can improve their classroom practices as they learn more about how poverty and culture affect student learning so they can better connect with families to support students in learning. 

Students have studied about stereotypes held by many educators regarding the students they teach and also what teachers believe about people living in poverty.  Now they will watch a video that explains how the world has changed over the last 200 years. 

Instructions

  1. Read the paragraph labeled "200 years that changed the world" which follow the instructions and explains the video.
  2. Then engage in the Glossary Assignment. The terms used in the video with definitions are explained in the Glossary. 
  3. After reading the paragraph and completing Glossary Assignment,  watch a five minute video from Gapminder (click on the link here or below to access the video), explaining how much the world has changed in the last two hundred years.  Click on the arrow on the video screen and listen and watch the presentation.
  4. Write a summary of what you learned from engaging with the glossary, the video, and the article.
  5. OPTIONAL: Following is a link to health statistics in Utah  (Other states provide similar reports and public information, if you are interested in a different state simply type the state name and health statistics into the your internet browser and links will come up). If you are interested you might look at the statistics in your area about health, vacines, death rates, etc. 
  6. Now consider your own students and immigrants in your school or community. Because America has many immigrants from many parts of the world, make a list of the countries from where the immigarants you are aware of (particularly your own students) and consider their position in American society. How do you think their homes and families potentially differ from middle class American families? How might you as a teacher or your school provide support to families and students from other countries? Which words in the glossary help you to understand international families better?  Bring this work with you to session 5.

    200 Years That Changed The World

    Lindgren, M. (August 18, 2010) Gapminder Foundation, www.gapminder.org/downloads/200-years (This links to the teacher's guide and this https://equitypress.org/-ozXI links to the video).

    Through analyzing income and life expectancy rates from the 1800’s until the present, a new understanding of the relation between resources and opportunity within the world can be attained. Many, from students to educators, often misunderstand or do not see a connection between the two sets of data, thus creating false ideas of the world around them. One such fallacy is the idea that a country with a low life expectancy rate must not harbor any population that can live to old age, which is a common misunderstanding. These assumptions are incorrect, and, as educators, it is important to understand and explain clearly the correct specifics relating to the data at hand. For this purpose, a glossary of terms is included to assist in clearly identifying and explaining the situations at hand. 

    Glossary Assignment

    Using the glossary, consider calculations behind ‘income per person’ and ‘life expectancy’. Address the numerous factors that can and do affect these statistics, and begin exploring why/how income and health relate. Gapminder provides an interactive chart that displays 200 years worth of statistics regarding income and life expectancy. Using the chart, an educator can spark various conversations within the classroom as they explain connected developments from the 1800’s to present day.  

    Glossary:  

    Absolute Poverty: Universal measurement of poverty when one cannot afford food 

    Absolute Poverty Line:  Living on $1.25 or less a day (as of 2005) 

    Agriculture Economy: Based on production and effectiveness of agriculture in a society, universally the most basic form of economy.  

    Death Rates: Number of deaths divided by population (age specific for life expectancy measurements) 

    Disaster Conditions: Factors that interrupt long term trends for health and income, ie: War, famine, genocide, epidemics, outbreaks, economic and financial crisis. Short term interruptions. 

    High Income: Population with income of $20,000 or more. Country receives  this status if the majority reside in this state. 

    Income per person: Same measurement as GDP per capita 

    Industry Economy: Based on other needs aside from food, such as clothing, housing, etc. Generally follows agriculture. 

    Industrialization: The shift from agriculture economies to industry, eventually leading to rise in average incomes and vice versa.  

    Life Expectancy: Average based on number of deaths within a population through all ages. Based on one year’s data. 

    Life Table: Table to assist in calculating life expectancy of a country, based on a theoretical population of 100,000 

    Low Income: Population making less than $2,000 income, Country receives this status if the majority reside in this state. 

    Middle Income: Population making between $2,000 and $20,000. Country receives this status if the majority reside in this state. 

    Relative Poverty: Specific measurement of poverty, when one lives below the standard of living that is culturally accepted and normal within a country 

    Service Economy: Based on the access to superfluous goods due to higher average income. Follows high income countries/populations.  

    Surveys: Data based on representative interviews of a population 

This content is provided to you freely by BYU Open Learning Network.

Access it online or download it at https://open.byu.edu/partnerships/hw_4.3.