Inquiry-mindedness - The Critical Thinking Consortium

TEACHER RESOURCE #6Critical challenge #2Redesign “Hungry Decisions” to reflects the decisions, options, and consequences thata person living in poverty might confront in your community.➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤Ask students to imagine what it would be like to live in poverty. What would they have to giveup? Suggestions might include a home, new clothes, cell phone, MP3 player, bank account, job,money, organized sports, movies, food, warm clothes, education, movies, going to restaurants.Suggest to students the idea that making decisions may look different to people who are poor andpeople who are not poor. Refer back to the initial activities with the jelly beans. Deciding how todivide the beans was different for the rich and poor groups.Explain to students that they are going to participate in an activity that puts them in the role of aperson in poverty who must make decisions that affect their family’s life. They will be either aman or a woman from a developing country. Have students work with a partner and instruct onemember of each pair to take the role of the man and the other, the woman.Show the students the Hungry Decisions activity on the following website: http://www.churchworldservice.org/decisions/index.htm.Explain that for each decision they make, there will be aconsequence will (for example, whether to have a child or to sell grain).For ELEMENTARY students, read the first page together and then allow students to proceedindependently with the activity. Encourage students to create a storyboard that records the eventsand consequences they experience.Following the activity, discuss with students the decisions they had to make. What were the mostdifficult decisions? What influenced the limited choices they had?Brainstorm with students the kinds of decisions people living in poverty in their local communitymight have to make. Guide students in developing a list of decisions that might face a personliving in poverty in their community.➤➤Provide pairs of students with a copy Hungry decisions in ourcommunity (Activity Sheet #6E) and instruct them to identifytwo decisions and the respective options and consequencesfor a local person in poverty. Remind students that theirchoice of options and consequences must be realistic andrespectful. Develop one example with the class.Hungry decisions in our communityOptions ConsequencesDilemma/decisionACTIVITY SHEET #6E➤➤Invite students to share their completed activity withanother group of students. Have the groups discusswhether the choices are realistic and respectful, andwhat it might feel like to have to face these harshrealities.Dilemma/decisionOptions ConsequencesTools for Thought 2008-09:3 59 © The Critical Thinking ConsortiumTools for Thought 2008–09:3 52 © The Critical Thinking Consortium