Economy+Project


 * Artifact #9: Collaborative Lesson: The Economy **

Collaborative education and team teaching are the reality of our future classrooms. The middle school philosophy is intended to encourage heterogeneous groups of students to work cooperatively and to ensure teachers create an integrated or core curriculum (Brown, 2005). This interdisciplinary approach to school subjects allows students to understand how different approaches to knowledge are interconnected. When students discover that, for example, the research strategies they learn in the library can be useful to them in their math class, they have opened their minds to recognizing connections in all aspects of life. As such, it is important for future educators to develop team teaching and interdisciplinary skills. To do this, our group has created a series of mini-lessons in which students build on the skills they have learned in other lessons. As the adolescents learn about the economy, they begin to understand how history connects to health and how these topics connect to media studies, math, and the library. Our lessons are also connected by their experience-based learning philosophy. Through experience, open discussion and real-life applications, students engage in richer lessons that relate to each other and to their own lives. Through the following lessons, we hope to use an economic lens to demonstrate the value of connections to our students.

**__Lesson One: Comparing Economies: The Great Depression and the Current Recession__** Our discussion on the economy from a social sciences perspective will take place through a history unit. The unit will focus on several things: the Great Depression and its causes and effects, and today’s economic recession, and its causes, effects, and possible solutions. To start the unit, a brief lesson will be presented by the instructor in order to give the students an introduction to the Great Depression as an historical event. The instructor will give the context for the Great Depression, mentioning the stock market collapse, the additional stresses of the “Dust Bowl” drought in the Midwest, Roosevelt’s presidency and his “New Deal” programs, and the coming of World War II. The instructor will not delve deeply into these topics, because part of the unit will be students’ research into various connected topics. This initial lesson and discussion may also be a time where the instructor can bring up the current economic troubles for students to discuss. Students may spontaneously make connections between the stock market then and now, or make a connection between Roosevelt’s spending and what the present administration is doing to help the economy recover. If they do not bring up these discussion points, the teacher can moderate a short discussion on what the students know or do not know about today’s economy, what they would like to learn about, what their feelings are about the economy, or how the current economic situation has affected them. Although the students should choose topics covered in the discussion, the instructor should also guide this process. As Dewey points out, the teacher, with the increased knowledge and wisdom of his or her age, must guide the experiential learning so that the student may both grow and benefit from the educator’s prior experiences (Dewey 1938, p. 50).

The next few days will be comprised of a division into groups, based on differing student interests. These groups will be responsible for working cooperatively to research and create a presentation on a particular topic surrounding the economy, specifically on the Great Depression or today’s economic recession. Topics could include: the causes of the Great Depression, the social policies and programs created during the Great Depression and their effect, the causes of today’s economic collapse and its effects, or the possible solutions being presented by the various governmental entities (for example, is it better to spend, or save/pay down national debt/balance the budget). If the students have interest in related areas, such as media perception of either the Great Depression or of today’s economic situation, for example, they could also move in other directions. The instructor should encourage students to follow their interests. Once the students have completed their research and created their presentation, the groups will present their findings to the rest of the class. The instructor will allow for discussion and debate from the class regarding each group’s findings. Groups will be assessed based on the quality of research, the clarification of their own opinions, connections they make to their research and/or findings, and a small portion of the grade will be assessed based on cooperation and shared tasks among group members.

To wrap up the unit, the instructor may lead a discussion comparing the two economic collapses, various solution strategies, and how the government interacts with the economy and its troubles, by its policies and programs. The students will be able to take active roles in the discussion, with a special focus on their opinions of current government actions and policies as well as how the current climate affects their own lives. Possible topics could include trouble finding a job, friends or family members being laid off, or possible financial hardship affecting the possibility of college. Allowing the students this role will encourage dialogic learning and allow the students to engage in problem-posing learning, which Freire advocates (Freire, 2005, p. 232)

For this unit, we want to focus on making history relevant by comparing historical events to today’s events and strive to make current events applicable to our students’ lives by talking explicitly about their feelings on the economy and the effect the recession has had on their family. We will also allow students to work cooperatively in groups, as this is one of the key aspects of Middle School (Brown, 2005, p. 152). Additionally, by making connections between the past and present and connections between the “news” and what’s real to our students personally, we can evaluate how history is connected, and how it can be made real to their lives. We want our students to be involved in the discussion about the economy and what actions the government takes. Students should feel as though they are connected to the events in their country and should see that, although they may not be employed, they can still make an impact on the economy.

**__Lesson Two: Stock Markets, Old and New__** Our discussion of economics from the mathematics perspective will be a unit on the stock market. The main focus of the unit will be discovering the risks and benefits involved in buying and selling stocks through a stock market simulation. The simulation will last nine weeks, although this can be lengthened or shortened if necessary. After introducing these concepts, the simulation, a competition allowing students to create a hypothetical portfolio, will be described to the class. The competition aspect may lead to large investments by the students. As this is not wholly realistic, students will be encouraged to focus on learning basic investing principles, math skills, money management, and other economic concepts.

The lesson begins after the students self-select groups based on their interests. Asking the students to work in groups leads to teamwork, collaboration and group discussions. These discussions are to allow the students to talk more about what they are doing and why they are doing it and discuss their learning through hands on experience. However, since groups are not indispensable, the teacher and the students could discuss whether they would like to work individually or in groups. Giving students venues for input and discussion is good because it allows the students to experience the Freirian dialogic learning we are seeking (Freire, 2005).

Each group (or individual) will receive a set amount of money to invest. Out of this money, the students must invest a certain amount and keep the remainder in their "checking account." The students can invest in any number of stocks, although they may soon find that holding stock in many different companies can be a great deal of work and they may decide to sell some of the stock. Allowing the students to make these observations and learn from them encourages experiential learning.

Each group (or individual) will keep a journal of their activity. In the journal, they will record when they buy or sell a stock and also keep an up-to-date calculation of the portfolio's market value. The market value includes the stocks and the amount in the checking account. The journal will be checked by the instructor to ensure that students are not missing anything. The instructor can then begin class by asking the groups go through their portfolios to make sure they are keeping up. Also, reading the journals allows the teacher to give helpful tips during the class discussions that occur daily for the duration of the unit. The teacher needs to have open dialog with the students so that they can encourage the students to try things on their own. Having open dialog with the students also allows the teacher to give the instant feedback on questions the students may have.

The journal also allows an integration of writing and can be used by the student to write regular updates of what they have learned and explanations such as why they chose to buy or sell a particular stock. The students will monitor news and economic items related to the stocks they own and use their library research skills to observe their stocks. If something bad is reported about the company on the news, the students should write how this makes them feel about their choice of stock. Another potential writing prompt could be, “How did the stock market affect people’s spending during the Great Depression and in the current ‘Great Recession’?”

There are several things that the students may need help with throughout the simulation. If students have trouble picking stocks, the instructor will encourage them to pick stocks that they are interested in. For example, if a student just bought Nike shoes, they might like to research Nike stock. If a student's mother or father works for a certain computer manufacturer, the teacher could suggest that students purchase buy stocks from that company. This helps tie the unit to their everyday lives.

The teacher will keep an example portfolio in order to show students how to buy, sell and monitor their own stocks. However, the students will be encouraged to not replicate the instructor but to monitor in a way that seems most logical to them. They will share their ideas with the class in order to ensure a greater degree of learning. The portfolio will also show students how to document the stock's value and keep up with future stocks of their own.

At the end of the simulation, the students will sell all their stocks and add up their portfolio's value. The group with the largest portfolio is the winner. The class will have a discussion and write reflective papers that analyze what they learned. We chose this lesson for our interdisciplinary unit on the economy because the stock market is a crucial aspect of the economy. The lesson allows students to learn the complexities involved in the stock market. They will learn that bad investments carry heavy risk and good investments can lead to large gains. The learning needs to apply to their lives in order for it to be somewhat experiential, which is more beneficial to students (Dewey, 1938). Thus, this lesson is designed to allow the students to see how the economy can affect their everyday lives.

**__Lesson 3: Healthy Consumers: Budget and Nutrition__** The health of our youth is an ever-present concern for educators, medical professionals, parents, and youth themselves. News of an obesity epidemic among school aged children bombards various media outlets on a daily basis. We are left, as teachers and parents, to encourage students to be active and eat nutritious food. In a struggling economy, it is imperative that parents and kids are knowledgeable about healthy food and meal planning that is also cost-friendly.

For junior high students, the instructor will begin the lesson by giving an overview of the current state of our economy. The instructor will ask students what they already know about the economy, what they see on news stations, the Internet or television. Based on their responses, the teacher will mention things that are relative to their age level, their parents, and home life such as rising gas prices, increasing costs of healthcare, traveling costs, and living on a budget. Students will be asked questions such as, “How often do you notice or hear your parents talking about gas prices?” and “Who uses coupons at the grocery store?” Based upon their answers, students will be asked to think of ways they can save money and also be healthy. Some responses could be riding a bike, going for walks to get the mail, or getting a job raking leaves to help their parents. Student should also be mindful of the sacrifice people had to make for food in the past, as in the Great Depression, and how we still must think conscientiously about the foods we buy today. The teacher will explain to students that almost everyone is affected by the slumping economy, so it is important to save money wherever possible but to remain healthy while doing so. Students will then be introduced to the group project on healthy consumer shopping. They will first be divided into groups of two or three. The students will be given a grocery list involving the different food groups on the Food Guide Pyramid. The students may also need to research healthy food and meal options from the Food Guide Pyramid in the library or online prior to going to the grocery store. As students go to a grocery store with their grocery list, they also must adhere to a certain budget. Their objective will be to select food from the various food groups that could be made into a meal for their family while remaining nutritious and on budget. The food they select is up to them but they must remember to try to select the healthiest available option. For example, they may search for a dairy product and compare Prairie Farms Fat Free Cottage Cheese with Prairie Farms Regular Cottage Cheese. The fat-free may be slightly more expensive, but the calories and fat are lower. The students will need to decide if that is a wise purchase, depending on what other food items they want to buy. They should also be aware of gimmicks in purchasing food. Some food may be labeled “Low Fat” yet be high in calories. Students may choose to select a more expensive, healthier food item with their allotted budget. They are required to fulfill all food groups in a balanced way to make up their meal.

The concepts for this project are for the students to relate the importance of looking for bargains while buying healthy products within their budget. They will also learn how quickly money can be spent on food and healthy food to make a meal. They will need an adult chaperone to take them to the store, a calculator, pencil, and their budget worksheet. They will also need to be generally sound in computing numbers, which will help with their math skills. The grocery stores will also need to be contacted to inform them of the class activity and to get permission for students to check prices.

The students will have one week to complete the project. During the next class time, each group will discuss the meal for which they are buying food, and how they included all food groups and also stayed within their budget. Sample discussion questions for the group may be: //Did you hunt for bargains? How did the generic brands differ from name brands regarding nutritional value? Were you surprised at how expensive buying food for a meal can be? Will you eat differently in the future at your home to save money? What are some ways you found you can eat well on a budget?//

As a follow-up after the discussion, the students will turn in their budgets and food selections for participation points and will be graded on how nutritional and money-saving the items are. They will also complete a short answer assignment in which they will discuss what they have learned about saving money and how it has changed what they eat or do not eat. The instructor will finally ask them how this project changed their view on the economy and if they feel differently about being a healthy consumer. They will be graded on their self-reflecting responses and critical thinking.

In reference to our unit on the Economy, this lesson will dovetail with other lessons in helping students apply their everyday experiences to the world as they know it (Dewey, 1938). They will focus on relating our history to the present economy and also use their math skills to budget effectively. This progressive approach will allow students to focus on the ever-changing world as the future is unknown (Dewey, 1938). Little memorization is possible as critical thinking is essential to become an active learner and a participant in each lesson (Freire, 2005). Sensitivity towards students with varying socio-economic backgrounds is also imperative. It is important to stress openness and respect among one another and to work cooperatively for the greater good of the group project (Freire, 2005). This project will get the “learning” outside of the classroom and will truly allow students to gain a clearer concept on positively affecting the economy and their health (Crow & Pounder, 2000).

**__Lesson Four: Media Studies__** The social studies lesson will focus on the media and its relation to the economy. The objective is to encourage adolescent students to begin to look at society in a different light through ways in which the media affects the economy. Students today are extremely reliant on the media so we want to motivate students to think about the media’s purpose to inform and educate citizens, and how it can influence the decisions that people make that ultimately have an impact on the economy.

We will begin by discussing what the economy is and what is classified as media. The lesson is designed to help the students become more aware of the media’s impact. We will first describe the project to the students and discuss a series of topics to begin their brainstorming. The classroom will then self-divide into three groups and each will be its own national television news station. Each station has an audience of 50 million viewers and what the station reports can influence how the public thinks. Students will be asked to report on issues that are directly related to, or can impact, the economy and include their own opinions on such topics. Students will choose their own stories, but examples will be provided. Potential topics include: unemployment rate in relation to the recession, public health/medical concerns, changes in the buying and selling of goods and services, food consumption, current increase in gas prices, the economic recession, cost of public transportation, and latest technology innovations. Each report should be 1-2 pages in length, and, after two weeks, students will present to their classmates in a mock news program. While each group is presenting, the other groups will take notes. Their objective is to find errors or bias, as well as identify possible effects of the news program and its potential to impact the economy at large. Some stories will overlap and after the programs, we will discuss the inconsistencies in reported information from the each network.

After the news program, students will think critically about their research and work and discuss their thoughts. Potential discussion questions include: Do you think the media lies to people or distorts the information? Does the media affects how people act or respond to issues? Do the media have the ability to influence or limit people’s actions? In light of the recession, can/does the media make the economy better? Worse? Do you think that some people may control what content is put out?

Now students will discuss the impact of the media through a few lessons. This first exercise is designed to show students how much time average people spend immersed in media. They will write down how many hours per school week they spend engaged in each of these activities: 1.) watching television or movies, 2.) internet browsing, 3.) listening to music through the radio, ipod, or stereo, 4.) listening to news radio, and 5.) reading newspapers of magazines. Next, they will record how many hours they spent doing each of these activities on the weekend. They would keep the categories separate and multiply them by 38 (the approximate amount of weeks during the school year) for their totals. Students will then think about how much they engage in these activities when school is not in session. This figure for the week and weekend will be multiplied by 14 (the approximate number of weeks students spend out of school during the year) to complete the estimated amount of time that students spend immersed in media of some form throughout the year. They will take the total, but keep the data separate. We will give the students the statistics below, and as a large group we will discuss the wide range of things that these calculations suggest about a relationship with the media as adolescents. The purpose of this is to encourage students to think about how much of our society is engaged in the media and the potential influence that it has on our daily lives and the economy.

The instructor will tell students that the United States Census Bureau reported in December 2006 that adults and teens spent nearly five months (3,518 hours) that year watching television, surfing the Internet, reading daily newspapers and listening to personal music devices. Thinking in terms of cause and effect, given their calculations, and the number of hours reported from the US Census Bureau, we will ask students to list what these numbers and statistics suggest about our relation with the media. Students will create flow charts using media sources to identify ways in which the media entertains, educates, and informs us. The flow chart will ultimately serve to demonstrate the impact of the media on students’ every day lives.

To demonstrate the ties between media and the economy, the instructor will show a clip from CNN Headline News concerning the Domino’s Pizza franchise. In this video, employees from Domino’s were seen spitting on food and serving food products off of the floor. Students will discuss how this film clip affected people’s perceptions of Domino’s and will then be asked to draw on the skills they have learned in the Stock Market game to find the price of Domino’s stock before and after the news report aired. Students will analyze their findings and discuss how the news clip affected the economy of pizza.

In another lesson, students will view clip from Jim Cramer’s television show “Mad Money.” Each day, Cramer advises his followers to buy or sell different stocks. On March 11, 2008, Cramer told viewers to keep their money in Bear Sterns stock. A week later, the stock plummeted 80% and many people lost a lot of money. Students will discuss this example of media’s effect on the economy and people’s reliance on media figures such as Jim Cramer. We’ll consider the Great Depression from their history lesson and discuss ways in which early media affected the economy even then.

Since adolescents spend the vast majority of their time engaging in activities related to the media, it lends itself well to experiential education. Our long-term goal is to encourage adolescents to broaden the lens in which they view the economy and apply these lessons to their own daily lives.

**__Lesson Five: Research Strategies and Information Literacy__** As we have seen, the economy covers a great deal of material. For adolescents, negotiating that surfeit of information can be overwhelming. In this lesson, therefore, we will help them discover ways in which to navigate information sources and determine which type of resource best fits their needs.

Students coming into the library will be permitted to autonomously choose from four groups: books, computers, newspapers/journal articles and encyclopedias. At each station, there will be an assortment of the appropriate resource that students can use to discover economic information. Examples include __What is the Future of the U.S. Economy?__ by Susan C. Hunnicutt for the book station, or websites such as __www.whitehouse.gov__ for the computer station. In their groups, the students will investigate their sources in order to discover benefits and drawbacks of each source. Discussion questions will include such topics as: Is it easy to find current events? Is this source broad or more detailed? Who is the audience? Does the source address recent research? As students consider these questions, they will develop their own analyses of how each source addresses economic issues.

After their group work, we will come together as a class in order to compare results. Students will discuss issues such as the drawbacks of using a journal article or newspaper. They’ll consider the benefit of using a computer versus a book and analyze what type of audience would best benefit from an encyclopedia. In order to ensure understanding, the librarian will offer scenarios (for example: you are concerned about losing your job and want to understand how the economy can affect your industry. Where would be the best place to look?) and students will confer. As there are not “right” answers to these questions, students will be free to disagree and argue for or against their resource. Students’ learning should be centered in their own experiences, language, and culture, (Peterson, 2003) so they will be encouraged to contribute their own opinions and experiences to the discussion. Ideally, the lesson will demonstrate that there is not a single perfect source – each can function more effectively in some situations and less effectively in others, although depending on student interests, the discussion has the potential to go in many directions.

This lesson serves a dual purpose –not only does it demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of various information sources, but it also prepares students to excel in their other lessons dealing with this topic. Students will discuss, for example, which resource would work best to research the New Deal and Great Depression for their concurrent history lesson. This source may be very different from the way they should locate information on current budget-friendly grocery products for their health and nutrition lesson. Furthermore, as they research, they’ll discover ways to find stock quotes and news for their stock market journals and observe media trends for their discussion on media and the economy. Thus, they’ll be learning not only how to more effectively use the library, but to develop skills that will help them in their other lessons and in the future.

Through this activity, students get a very real experience in making the economy relevant to their lives. Experience-based learning can help students learn and grow in the right directions (Dewey, 1938) and this experience provides an engaging, interactive way of learning research strategies. The interdisciplinarity of the lesson, where students discover a wide variety of facts while learning research skills, allows students with many different types of interests to become involved. Additionally, the level of collaboration allows the librarian to maintain his or her autonomy while still enabling professional interdependence with fellow teachers. This juxtaposition of interdependence and autonomy prevents the pitfalls that traditionally plague team teaching (Crow & Pounder, 2000) and is therefore, more rewarding to both the students and the teachers involved.

As in all lessons, it is important to have caution in certain aspects. Students should not be made to feel uncomfortable if they have little computer or research experience. If this issue is due to a socioeconomic or cultural difference, the variation should be discussed frankly, but sensitively, without singling one student out. Ignoring the cultural differences can result in a student’s negative self-image (Ward, 2005) so it is important to remain forthright and open. Additionally, we must guard against becoming caught up in the “correct” answer. The lesson here is in the experience so rather than expect the students to come to a consensus, we must recognize that the discussion and investigation alone is teaching them more than a textbook ever could. Likewise, we must allow students a certain amount of autonomy in selecting their groups and forming opinions on what type of resource is most effective. Through this self-selection and independence, students will feel more invested in the lesson and will therefore be able to better internalize the information.

**__Reflections on the Group Process__** During the critical collaboration project, we ran into many challenges associated with an online class, such as being dependent upon the Internet and e-mail. Without knowing each other’s respective backgrounds, it was difficult to choose a topic and to communicate effectively. However, we feel as though we were successful in valuing each other’s perspectives, setting and meeting deadlines, and challenging one another with our ideas in developing our lessons.

A main challenge with this online class is the inability to meet in person. There were times when we could not all be in the group session and we lacked any other way to meet in “real time.” We all have differing work and class schedules, so some deadlines were difficult to meet. It was also difficult to select a topic that relates to our variety of disciplines. We all come from different backgrounds, both educationally and personally. We have an undergraduate student in math education, two graduate students, and two educators already working in the field. As we worked to integrate it all, we were able to eventually see things from each other’s points of view and were able to work together successfully. Another challenge was not being able to meet with the professor and teaching assistants outside of the main session. We were also unable to seek outside help from a principal or other school staff as in a normal team-teaching situation. We were dependent upon technology, only meeting through Elluminate. When group members were “kicked off” by their network, communicating ideas became more difficult. Texting and e-mail communication was also taxing as text does not convey verbal tone.

We also found many ways in which we worked very well together, considering the difficulties of an online group project. Despite different backgrounds, we selected a topic and successfully critiqued each other and offered suggestions. We integrated our main topic into subject area lessons, despite little familiarity with some subject areas. We were accepting of different ideas and were willing to consider other perspectives. We also gave ourselves deadlines for rough drafts and final drafts since, in such a course with a heavy workload, it is necessary to be on time. Additionally, the online environment provided experience in using new technology, which is such a large part of the educational environment today. The assignment gave us an important experience to add to our educational repertoire. As Dewey points out, each experience builds on others, so this particular experience gave us more information with which to navigate future dealings with collaboration (Dewey, 1938, p. 35). We can now better understand what works and what does not, and understand how to apply that in our fields.