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Preparation Phase

About 150 minutes

Goal: To arouse interest

Document:    “Looking for housing in Montréal” in either Word or PDF format

“It’s July 1 and I’m sleeping out of doors.
I’m not homeless.
Who am I?”


The students take a moment to reflect and formulate their hypotheses. The teacher writes their hypotheses on the board and asks them questions: Do you know someone who has had this experience? Do you think you could handle this situation? Can this situation occur in Montréal? Why or why not?

THE TEACHER PRESENTS THE EXISTING SITUATION
For several years now, the housing crisis has made
headlines every July. What explains this situation?
Why is it being called a crisis? Who is affected?
What are some of the possible solutions?




The task unfolds....

LOOKING FOR A ROOF OVER MY HEAD

Goals: To activate prior learning and create a cognitive conflict

To activate prior learning about budgeting
The teacher:
  • asks students to draw up a list of elements to be considered when preparing a budget: rent, utilities and services (electricity, heating, Internet, cable, telephone, etc.), food, transportation, clothing, entertainment, etc.
  • asks students to assess the approximate costs of these elements using several sources of information: hydro bills, phone bills, catalogues, newspaper clippings, etc. (or, as homework, students can ask their parents approximately how much each of these elements costs per month).
  • verifies the students’ answers.

Documents:  Hydro-Québec bill, Bell bill, catalogues, newspaper clippings, etc.




Outline of the role-playing game

- Each student is assigned a living situation (monthly salary and number of people in household).

Document:  Excel budget planning spreadsheet.

- Using the newspaper classifieds and a map of Montréal, students find an apartment and determine which borough it is in.
- Students share their choices with the class for verification and comments.

- The teacher helps the students identify the two main problems: apartments are expensive and Montréal has a housing shortage (some students will have chosen the same apartment; others will not have enough money to last through the month).
- The teacher specifies that rent should not exceed 30% of net income.
- The teacher asks students questions about their choice of apartment and neighbourhood:

- Are you moving to a new neighbourhood?
- Which living situations made it more difficult to find housing?
- The teacher provides students with a table of average rents by borough.  Use appropriate sections of this CMHC Report  (Click http://www.cmhc.ca/en/index.html to visit the CMHC site for more information.)


Maps of average household incomes in Montréal in 2001
available from Ville de Montreal site in the large pdf here.

Also try using interactive CBC map here,
based on 1996 census for comparison purposes.


Find out more!
What is a problem situation? What is a hypothesis? How can teachers prepare students to deal with problem situations?
[ICT SECTION COMING SOON.  For now you can also, refer to French original.]


PRESENTATION OF THE TASK AND WHAT IS TO BE LEARNED

The teacher presents the task to the students:

The students must create a comic strip, photo story, collage or caricature
to explain the housing crisis in Montréal and to propose solutions to this problem.

The teacher helps students complete this task by activating related prior learning.

What steps are required to complete this task?
1. Analyze the situation
2. Find possible solutions
3. Take a position