Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Two Steps Forward, Three Steps Back: Money Hungry and the Cycle of Poverty”

Raspberry’s “money hungry” nature and her obsession with money are rooted in her traumatic experience of poverty. In this interactive activity, students will learn how the deck is stacked against certain individuals, thus making it harder to break the cycle of poverty and trauma.

When Money Hungry begins, it’s been quite some time since Raspberry and Momma have been unhoused. And yet, Raspberry’s obsession with money and feeling of financial insecurity persists.

Raspberry senses that, at any moment, she and Momma could be plunged back into poverty. That is partly due to Momma’s and her background, their experiences, and certain choices they’ve made—all of which have stacked the deck against them, meaning that they are prone to sliding back down the slippery slope of misfortune and finding themselves trapped within a cycle of poverty once again.

In this group exercise, you will create a visual representation that shows how Momma and Raspberry, as well as other characters in the novel (Mai, Zora, and Ja’nae), are either socially advantaged or socially disadvantaged.