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Poverty in America YouTube: https://youtu.be/RE-VlC9Ck28 The Facts….

Federal Poverty Level

A measure of income issued every year by the Department of Health and Human Services. Federal poverty levels are used to determine your eligibility for certain programs and benefits, including savings on Marketplace health insurance, and Medicaid and CHIP coverage. The 2016 federal poverty level (FPL) income numbers below are used to calculate eligibility for Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

Family Size Gross (Pre-tax) Income 2 people $16, 020 3 people $21,060 4 people $24,300

Federal Poverty Level 1. Does it seem high or low to you? In other words, would you think that a person living in poverty would have more or less money than the amount defined by the federal government? ______

Cost of Living Calculations

2. Think of your group as a family that lives in a household together. (The size of your group will be the size of your household.) Make a list of what your basic needs are. Calculate the monthly costs of basic needs for your group’s family. Write them on the sheet where you have listed the items. Add up the monthly costs, and then multiply by 12 to find out the amount of money a family would need in order to survive in your community.

Basic Needs Per Month Cost in Katy/ Houston

Size of Family: Total Cost of Basic Needs per month in your area: Total Cost of Basic Needs per year in your area: Federal Poverty Level: Federal Minimum Wage: per hour: annual income: Minimum wage required for worker in your area to meet basic needs:

Compare your group’s cost of basic needs in your community with the FPL’s poverty level for 2011. What do you notice? ______Minimum Wage 3. Calculate the annual income of someone who works full time (40 hours a week) at a minimum-wage job. How does this annual income compare with the federal poverty rate? How does it compare with the cost of basic needs in your community? ______

Making Ends Meet 4. Look back at your household’s expenses. Try making ends meet in two ways. First, what can you cut from your list? For example, could you live in a smaller apartment? Could you do without health insurance? Could you buy less expensive food? As you make the cuts, think about how your life would be without the items that you had considered basic needs. List some of the effects these cuts would have on your quality of life.

Basic Needs Per Month Cost in Katy/ Houston

5. “Individuals are responsible for living in poverty. They have no one to blame but themselves.” Think about it for a few moments, then go stand on the place on the line that shows how strongly you agree or disagree with the statement. Discuss the following questions with the people near you on the line: Has your position changed? If so, what has caused it to change? If not, why not? Then return to your seat and write a response to someone who says that anyone who works hard can rise from poverty. Why We Feel Shame and How to Conquer It Margaret Paul, PhD.

Huffington Post

Have you tried unsuccessfully to heal your shame? Discover how shame and control are intricately tied together; and that when you give up your attachment to control, you will find your shame disappearing.

Many people on a healing path have found it extremely challenging to heal their shame. Yet, when you understand the purpose of shame, you will be able to move beyond it.

Shame is the feeling that there is something basically wrong with you. The feeling of guilt is about doing something wrong, whereas shame is about being wrong at the core. The feeling of shame comes from the belief that, “I am basically flawed, inadequate, wrong, bad, unimportant, undeserving or not good enough.”

At some early point in our lives, most of us absorbed this false belief that causes the feeling of shame. As a result of not feeling seen, loved, valued and understood, we developed the belief that we were not being loved because there was something wrong with us. While some children were told outright that they were not okay — that they were stupid, bad or undeserving — other children concluded that there was something wrong with them by the way they were being treated.

Once we establish our core shame belief, we become addicted to it because it serves us in two primary ways:

1. It gives us a feeling of control over other people’s feelings and behavior.

As long as we believe that we are the cause of others rejecting behavior, then we can believe that there is something we can do about it. It gives us a sense of power to believe that others are rejecting us, or behaving in unloving ways, because of our inadequacy. If it is our fault then maybe we can do something about it by changing ourselves, by doing things “right.” We hang on to the belief that our inadequacy is causing others behavior because we don’t want to accept others free will to feel and behave however they want. We don’t want to accept our helplessness over others feelings and behavior.

2. It protects us from other feelings that we are afraid to feel, and gives us a sense of control over our own feelings. As bad as shame feels, many people prefer it to the feelings that shame may be covering up: loneliness, heartbreak, grief, sadness, sorrow or helplessness over others. Just as anger may be a cover-up for these difficult feelings, so is shame. Shame is totally different than loneliness or heartbreak or helplessness over others.

Shame is a feeling that we are causing by our own false beliefs, but loneliness, heartbreak, grief, sadness, sorrow or helplessness over others are existential feelings — feelings that are a natural result of life. We feel heartbreak and grief over losing someone we love. We feel loneliness when we want to connect with someone or play with someone, and there is no one around or no one open to connection, love or play. Many people would rather feel an awful feeling that they are causing, than feel the authentic painful feelings of life.

If you are finding it difficult to move beyond shame, it may be because you are addicted to the feeling of control that your shame-based beliefs give you: Control over others’ feelings and behavior, and control over your own authentic feelings. As long as having the control is most important to you, you will not let go of your false core shame beliefs.

You can heal your shame when:

1. You are willing to accept that others feelings and behavior have nothing to do with you.

When you accept that others have free will to be open or closed, loving or unloving — that you are not the cause of their feelings and behavior, and you no longer take others behavior personally - you will have no need to control it. When you let go of your need to control others, and instead move into compassion for yourself and others, you will let go of your false beliefs about yourself that cause the feeling of shame.

2. You are willing to feel your authentic feelings, rather than cover them up with anger or shame. When you learn to nurture yourself by being present with caring and compassion for your own existential feelings, you will no longer have a need to protect against these feelings with blame or shame.

Control and shame are intricately tied together. When you give up your attachment to control, and instead choose compassion toward yourself and others, you will find your shame disappearing.

Expository Analysis: “Why We Feel Shame and How to Conquer It”

1. What event led to the writing of the article?

2. What is the main idea of the article?

3. Select several facts/arguments (3 if possible) which support the main idea.

4. Does the author provide enough factual material to support his ideas (quotes witnesses, provides statistics, states their sources of information? Was the author an eyewitness to events; or was the information obtained through a news service or source?

5. Is the reportage, in your opinion, true, balanced or biased? Explain.

6. Are different viewpoints presented? Is this article an editorial (author’s own ideas), is it informative, is it convincing, is it balanced?

7. What do you think of the article and its point of view? Explain.

8. How is this article organized?

Introduction to Dick Gregory Civil Rights Activist & Comedian (1932- ) Activist/comedian Dick Gregory was arrested for civil disobedience several times, and his activism spurred him to run for mayor of Chicago in 1966 and for president in 1968. In the early 1970s Gregory abandoned comedy to focus on his political interests, which widened from race relations to include such issues as violence, world hunger, capital punishment, drug abuse and poor health care. In the following episode from his autobiography Nigger (1964), he narrates the story of a childhood experience that taught him the meaning of shame. Through his use of authentic dialogue and vivid details, he dramatically re-creates this experience for his readers. Shame I never learned hate at home, or shame. I had to go to school for that. I was about seven years old when I got my first big lesson. I was in love with a little girl named Helene Tucker, a light-complexioned little girl with pigtails and nice manners. She was always clean and she was smart in school. I think I went to school then mostly to look at her. I brushed my hair and even got me a little old handkerchief. It was a lady's handkerchief, but I didn't want Helene to see me wipe my nose on my hand. The pipes were frozen again, there was no water in the house, but I washed my socks and shirt every night. I'd get a pot, and go over to Mister Ben's grocery store, and stick my pot down into his soda machine and scoop out some chopped ice. By evening the ice melted to water for washing. I got sick a lot that winter because the fire would go out at night before the clothes were dry. In the morning I'd put them on, wet or dry, because they were the only clothes I had. Everybody's got a Helene Tucker, a symbol of everything you want. I loved her for her goodness, her cleanness, her popularity. She'd walk down my street and my brothers and sisters would yell, "Here comes Helene," and I'd rub my tennis sneakers on the back of my pants and wish my hair wasn't so nappy and the white folks' shirt fit me better. I'd run out on the street. If I knew my place and didn't come too close, she'd wink at me and say hello. That was a good feeling. Sometimes I'd follow her all the way home, and shovel the snow off her walk and try to make friends with her momma and her aunts. I'd drop money on her stoop late at night on my way back from shining shoes in the taverns. And she had a daddy, and he had a good job. He was a paperhanger. I guess I would have gotten over Helene by summertime, but something happened in that classroom that made her face hang in front of me for the next twenty-two years. When I played the drums in high school, it was for Helene, and when I broke track records in college, it was for Helene, and when I started standing behind microphones and heard applause, I wished Helene could hear it too. It wasn't until I was twenty-nine years old and married and making money that I finally got her out of my system. Helene was sitting in that classroom when I learned to be ashamed of myself. It was on a Thursday. I was sitting in the back of the room, in a seat with a chalk circle drawn around it. The idiot's seat, the troublemaker's seat. The teacher thought I was stupid. Couldn't spell, couldn't read, couldn't do arithmetic. Just stupid. Teachers were never interested in finding out that you couldn't concentrate because you were so hungry, because you hadn't had any breakfast. All you could think about was noontime; would it ever come? Maybe you could sneak into the cloakroom and steal a bite of some kid's lunch out of a coat pocket. A bite of something. Paste. You can't really make a meal of paste, or put it on bread for a sandwich, but sometimes I'd scoop a few spoonfuls out of the big paste jar in the back of the room. Pregnant people get strange tastes. I was pregnant with poverty. Pregnant with dirt and pregnant with smells that made people turn away. Pregnant with cold and pregnant with shoes that were never bought for me. Pregnant with five other people in my bed and no daddy in the next room, and pregnant with hunger. Paste doesn't taste too bad when you're hungry. The teacher thought I was a troublemaker. All she saw from the front of the room was a little black boy who squirmed in his idiot's seat and made noises and poked the kids around him. I guess she couldn't see a kid who made noises because he wanted someone to know he was there. It was on a Thursday, the day before the Negro payday. The eagle always flew on Friday. The teacher was asking each student how much his father would give to the Community Chest. On Friday night, each kid would get the money from his father, and on Monday he would bring it to the school. I decided I was going to buy a daddy right then. I had money in my pocket from shining shoes and selling papers, and whatever Helene Tucker pledged for her daddy I was going to top it. And I'd hand the money right in. I wasn't going to wait until Monday to buy me a daddy. I was shaking, scared to death. The teacher opened her book and started calling out names alphabetically: "Helene Tucker?" "My Daddy said he'd give two dollars and fifty cents." "That's very nice, Helene. Very, very nice indeed." That made me feel pretty good. It wouldn't take too much to top that. I had almost three dollars in dimes and quarters in my pocket. I stuck my hand in my pocket and held on to the money, waiting for her to call my name. But the teacher closed her book after she called everybody else in the class. I stood up and raised my hand. "What is it now?" "You forgot me?" She turned toward the blackboard. "I don't have time to be playing with you, Richard." "My daddy said he'd..." "Sit down, Richard, you're disturbing the class." "My daddy said he'd give...fifteen dollars." She turned around and looked mad. "We are collecting this money for you and your kind, Richard Gregory. If your daddy can give fifteen dollars you have no business being on relief." "I got it right now, I got it right now, my Daddy gave it to me to turn in today, my daddy said. .." "And furthermore," she said, looking right at me, her nostrils getting big 2 and her lips getting thin and her eyes opening wide, "We know you don't have a daddy." Helene Tucker turned around, her eyes full of tears. She felt sorry for me. Then I couldn't see her too well because I was crying, too. "Sit down, Richard." And I always thought the teacher kind of liked me. She always picked me to wash the blackboard on Friday, after school. That was a big thrill; it made me feel important. If I didn't wash it, come Monday the school might not function right. "Where are you going, Richard!" I walked out of school that day, and for a long time I didn't go back very often. There was shame there. Now there was shame everywhere. It seemed like the whole world had been inside that classroom, everyone had heard what the teacher had said, everyone had turned around and felt sorry for me. There was shame in going to the Worthy Boys Annual Christmas Dinner for you and your kind, because everybody knew what a worthy boy was. Why couldn't they just call it the Boys Annual Dinner-why'd they have to give it a name? There was shame in wearing the brown and orange and white plaid mackinaw' the welfare gave to three thousand boys. Why'd it have to be the same for everybody so when you walked down the street the people could see you were on relief? It was a nice warm mackinaw and it had a hood, and my momma beat me and called me a little rat when she found out I stuffed it in the bottom of a pail full of garbage way over on Cottage Street. There was shame in running over to Mister Ben's at the end of the day and asking for his rotten peaches, there was shame in asking Mrs. Simmons for a spoonful of sugar, there was shame in running out to meet the relief truck. I hated that truck, full of food for you and your kind. I ran into the house and hid when it came. And then I started to sneak through alleys, to take the long way home so the people going into White's Eat Shop wouldn't see me. Yeah, the whole world heard the teacher that day- we all know you don't have a Daddy.

“Shame” Annotation Guide Speaker- In whose shoes is the speaker or writer walking in? Is there an identifiable speaker? What other clues are there as to the speaker? Age? Gender? Social class? Emotional state? Occupation? Describe the character’s actions and dialogue. What do they reveal?

Occasion- Is the text a memory? Speech? Letter? Critique? Argument? About what event? Where? When? What is Gregory’s philosophy on mankind? Identify words, phrases, and sentences that help identify the occasion.

Audience- Who is the intended audience? Whose attention does the speaker seek to gain? Who is the writer speaking to? Is this an audience for blacks, whites, rich, or poor? Identify words, phrases, and sentences that helps us identify the audience.

Purpose- Think about the modes of writing and the purposes behind those modes. Authors write to entertain, to inform, to persuade, to critique, to complain, to explain, to reflect, to describe, sometimes to simply express a truth. What do you think is the purpose of this memoir excerpt? What does he want us to think about?

Subject- Identify topics that Gregory is trying to address in this memoir. Shame is one but are others? Identify words, phrases, and sentences that helps us identify the subjects. Tone- Tone is the attitude of the speaker towards his subject and audience. Who is the speaker? What is the subject? What is the speaker’s attitude towards his subject? What words contribute to the tone of the text?

Ask Questions: What questions do you have about the text? Ask at least 1 question. Make Connections: Make a note anytime you can connect what you are reading with something you already know or have experienced. A connection can be text to text, text to self, or text to world. Make at least 1 connection. Write a Summary: Summarize paragraphs in your own words. Summarize a minimum of 2 paragraphs. Mark Important Words: What diction (word choice) stands out? What effect does it have on the text? Identify 3 important words and explain their importance and effect.

Reading Comprehension and Critical Thinking

1. Where did the narrator learn shame? ______

2. What did the narrator do for Helene Tucker? How important was she in his life? ______

3. According to the narrator, why could he not do well in school? What did his teacher think? ______4. What event at school caused shame to control the narrator’s life for a long time? Summarize what happened. ______

5. What did the author dislike about the Worthy Boys Annual Christmas Dinner? ______6. Do you agree with the narrator’s comment that “everybody’s got a Helene Tucker?” What does Helene Tucker symbolize? Give an example of a Helene Tucker from your own experience. ______7. The teacher thought the narrator was a troublemaker. Was he really, or was there another reason for drawing attention to himself? ______8. Why did the teacher humiliate the narrator when he announced that his father would donate fifteen dollars? Do you think the teacher should have handled the situation differently? If so, how should she have reacted? ______9. The narrator states that he thought the teacher liked him because she always picked him to clean the blackboard on Friday. Why do you think she picked him? ______

10. Did the narrator do the right thing by not going back to the school often after the shame incident? What kept him away? Do you empathize or do you think the narrator was oversensitive? ______Introduction to Gary Soto Author and Poet (1952- ) Gary Soto was born in 1952 in Fresno, California. He bases much of his writing on issues and experiences he had growing up in the urban Mexican-American culture. He had a difficult childhood. His parents worked as farm laborers, and his father died when he was five years old. His mother struggled with poverty, and Soto and his siblings worked to help make ends meet. He worked as a farm worker and in factories. School was not a priority for Gary and his family. Still, Soto loved reading and read books by great authors like Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck. He was determined to go to college, and there he discovered poetry and decided to become a writer. Soto's advice to young writers "Look to your own lives. What are your life stories? Can you remember incidents from your childhood? Some of you will say your lives are boring, that nothing has happened, that everything interesting happens far away. Not so. Your lives are at work, too." -from A Fire in the Hands 15 Orange Facts 1. According to U.S. FDA standards, 1 cup of orange juice is allowed to contain 10 fruit fly eggs, but only 2 maggots. 2. In a tropical climate, oranges are green. In a temperate climate, oranges are orange. 3. Bobby Leach, the first man to survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, later died by slipping on an orange peel. 4. Orange juice is a cure for acid indigestion. The highly acidic juice turns alkaline in your stomach. 5. Marvel invented a new super hero, Captain Citrus, to sell more orange juice. 6. Navel oranges are named that because of the belly-button formation opposite the stem end. The bigger the navel in an orange, the sweeter it will be. 7. Oranges help humans to stay young. 8. After chocolate and vanilla, orange is the world’s favorite flavor. 10. Botanically speaking, fruit of orange tree belongs to the group of berries. 11. 85% of globally produced oranges are converted into orange juice. 12. Oranges are fourth most popular fruit and orange juice is the most popular juice in America. 13. There are over 35,000,000 orange trees in Spain. 14. Oranges are proved to help fight cancer. 15. In Jamaica, people clean their floors with an orange cut in half; mechanics there use oranges to clean away grease and oil. “Oranges” by Gary Soto Starting at the corners “Oranges” Poetry Analysis The first time I walked Of her mouth. I fingered 30 Literal Translation With a girl, I was twelve, A nickle in my pocket, 1. Read the poem once. Does is it read like a narrative or an Cold, and weighted down And when she lifted a chocolate experience?

With two oranges in my jacket. That cost a dime, 2. From whose point of view is December. Frost cracking 5 I didn’t say anything. this poem written in? How do you know? Beneath my steps, my breath I took the nickle from 35 3. Who are the characters? What Before me, then gone, My pocket, then an orange, happens in the poem? Where does it take place? As I walked toward And set them quietly on 4. What conflict is described in Her house, the one whose The counter. When I looked up, the poem? Is it internal or Porch light burned yellow 10 The lady’s eyes met mine, external? Night and day, in any weather. And held them, knowing 40 Annotate A dog barked at me, until Very well what it was all Read a second time. Annotate for personification, simile, metaphor, She came out pulling About. imagery, symbolism, syntax At her gloves, face bright (sentence structure, punctuation, and capitalization). With rouge. I smiled, 15 Outside, Figurative Interpretation Touched her shoulder, and led A few cars hissing past, 5. Why did Soto break this poem Her down the street, across Fog hanging like old 45 into just two stanzas?

A used car lot and a line Coats between the trees. 6. What is a theme in the poem?

Of newly planted trees, I took my girl’s hand 7. Soto uses a lot of striking imagery and sensory details. Until we were breathing 20 In mine for two blocks, Why? Before a drugstore. We Then released it to let 8. All the lines in "Oranges" are Entered, the tiny bell Her unwrap the chocolate. 50 pretty short. Why do you imagine Soto decided to use short lines to Bringing a saleslady I peeled my orange tell this story?

Down a narrow aisle of goods. That was so bright against 9. Discuss another way the sales I turned to the candies 25 The gray of December lady might have reacted to the boy’s action and explain how that Tiered like bleachers, That, from some distance, might have changed the outcome of the date. And asked what she wanted - Someone might have thought 55 10. What do the oranges and Light in her eyes, a smile I was making a fire in my hands. chocolate symbolize?

1. 6.

2. 7.

3. 8.

4. 9.

5. 10.

Venn Diagram List 2 similarities and 4 differences between the story “Shame” and the poem “Oranges”.

CCSD Puts Shiprock Principal on Paid Leave Noel Lyn Smith May 13, 2016 Farmington Daily Times FARMINGTON — The principal of Tsé Bit’a’í Middle School in Shiprock has been placed on paid administrative leave. Central Consolidated School District spokesman James Preminger confirmed that J. Kaibah Begay was placed on administrative leave Wednesday. She was placed on leave after the administration was notified that the school displayed a poster this week that listed more than 100 students who allegedly would not be promoted to the next grade level, Preminger said. The school has 483 students in sixth through eighth grades. Preminger said the poster was put up at approximately 12:30 p.m. Monday in a hallway near the school’s entrance. The administration was notified about the poster on Tuesday afternoon, and it was removed at approximately 2:30 p.m., he said. "The school told the administration. Once they told us, we had the poster taken down immediately," Preminger said. George Schumpelt, the CCSD human resources director, has been appointed the school's acting principal until May 27, which is the last day of school. Parents were notified about the poster in a Wednesday letter from Interim Superintendent Colleen Bowman. In the letter, Bowman called the poster an "ill-conceived attempt" to motivate students. She wrote that this type of action is not part of the district's curriculum or any student development program. She stated CCSD is "committed" to obtaining the facts and then taking the necessary corrective action. "These steps are to ensure that this will not happen again and that all school district personnel are familiar and knowledgeable of its academic policies and procedures," Bowman wrote. Preminger said Bowman apologized to students on Thursday and to parents during the school board's work session that evening. "The superintendent wants to build students' self-esteem, confidence and identity and have it be part of the learning environment," Preminger said. "We apologize to all students and parents that this happened." This is Begay's first year as principal at Tsé Bit’a’í. She previously served as principal at Newcomb Middle School. Begay could not be reached for comment this evening. Preminger said Dannell Yazzie, the school's Dean of Students, was also placed on paid administrative leave Wednesday, but an investigation found she was not involved with posting the poster. Yazzie returned to work Friday, according to Preminger. Later this month, the school will host two parent forums to address several issues, including the poster incident. Preminger said the first forum at 6 p.m. Wednesday will address the poster and solicit parent feedback. The second meeting at 6 pm May 26 will focus on the upcoming school year. Both will take place inside the school auditorium. Expository Analysis: “CCSD puts Shiprock principal on paid leave”