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The Tikkun Project
About this unit
An inquiry into poverty allows students to think critically about the diverse experiences, causes, and impacts experienced by many individuals in the community. In partnership with staff and clients from multiple local organizations, students learn about different strategies used in the city to help people dealing with the effects of poverty. By proposing a feasible and impactful action plan, students will contribute to creating a more equitable world. This challenge helps students develop empathy, understand social challenges, and gain confidence in their ability to make a positive difference.
critical challenge
Students will create and implement an action plan to address an important cause or impact of poverty in their community.
critical challenge Criteria
- • The action will have the greatest possible positive impact
• The action will be feasible for us to implement
• The action will be one whose impact can be measured
Unit Goals
Curriculum Connections
- What are the most important causes and impacts of poverty?
This line of inquiry challenges students to consider several representations of poverty — including inadequate housing and food insecurity — and to distinguish between root causes and impacts. Students develop and use criteria to assess the needs of individuals struggling with these impacts, whether that means an inadequate standard of shelter or the inability to reliably afford enough food. This line also creates opportunities for students to consider traditional texts connected to these impacts: the concept of temporary or precarious shelter (Sukkot, used in the Homelessness lesson) and the relationship between material sustenance and dignity/learning (Pirkei Avot 3:17, used in the Food Insecurity lesson).
What are the most effective actions we can do to reduce the impacts of poverty?
In this line of inquiry, students build foundational knowledge about how different strategies are used by community organizations to address the causes or impacts of poverty. Developing a comprehensive understanding of these strategies will help students make thoughtful decisions about their action plans.
What makes an effective plan?
In this line of inquiry, students consider multiple potential actions and identify the specific factors that will ensure that a plan is realistic for them to accomplish with the resources they have, that the action is effective, and measurable.
Lines of Inquiry
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