I have a demo lesson next Thursday. It for 10th grade economics and I can do any topic I want. I've only had reading and lecture based economics classes and I'm looking to jazz things up. I'm looking at a a few lessons, one on supply and demand at Andersonville Prison Camp during the Civil War and one on price/income elasticity and demand curves. The caveat here is that I want to do something interactive, but I have only 8 students in the class and only one 40-ish minute period to complete from start to finish. Any suggestions would be most welcome.
I like that. We did something like that in Spanish class, where we earned pesos for correct answers and then once a quarter we would have an auction. I could give every student $100 in Monopoly money and have students think of something (or bring in 10 random items from my apartment) to sell and guess how much it will sell for and then try to auction it off. I like that there are few enough students I feel comfortable using my own things. I just needed a poke in the lesson planning part of my brain that's been lying dormant.
Instead of stuff you own, you could get some cool crap from the dollar store...I recently saw styrofoam glider planes....
Here is a great lesson that you can change how you want: http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED458175.pdf Its about command, market, and traditional economies. The downside is that you will have to spend about $15 or less on some supplies. Its an activity that mimics production by having students string together beads based on given economic systems. The intent is to show how different systems are more successful/different than others. I did this when I was student teaching and it was a huge hit with my collaborating teachers. They liked it because it was interactive and the students really could explain what they learned after the lesson was over. You will have to do some editing of the basic plan to make it work because its designed to take longer( I did it in about 45minutes with my classes)
I like that lesson. It says that there should be 3 7-minute rounds, but I'm thinking it'll take closer to 10 with reading through the directions and transitioning between rounds. I may pre-cut the string so my small groups have a bit more time and skip the part with sorting the countries by economic structure part and focus on the table comparing the three systems. I'll play around with it and see what I can manage.
For a 40 minute lesson I would definitely focus solely on the three economic systems. I wouldn't cut the string for them because its part of the activity. I really hammed it up when I was doing this(middle schoolers) and we had a lot of fun. This was actually the first lesson I taught when I was student teaching at the middle school and it really cut down on my anxiety because the kids and I were having so much fun. If you go with this idea, I hope you find it works out as well for you as it did for me. I wouldn't hesitate to do this for a demo because you wouldn't have to lecture and its a pretty fun exercise that the kids really enjoyed.
I have all my supplies, either from the school or what I'm bringing in myself - I couldn't find beads that were all the correct color, se I'll have them use the pink ones instead of red (pink is a shade of red, so it works, right ) and are packets made up. I need to add some more detail to my lesson planning sheet and print it off. The principal of both the secular and religious schools will be there along with the 8th grade history teacher (not their regular teacher). No pressure, right? I food poisoned myself accidentally on Tuesday and am feeling incredibly bluh, but I intend to put on my teacher face, muddle through as best I can (switching from planning for 90 minutes to 40 is a weird shift to make), and hope for the best. Thanks so much for the inspiration - I hope it turns out well.
That lesson took me a lot of prep time. (separating beads mostly. Still have nightmares. ) But it is a lot of fun and the kids do learn something by the end. My favorite part was seeing the boys have to tell each other their bracelets were beautiful during the traditional economic systems. They were hesitant at first but still played along. Let me know how it goes. Good luck!
I think it went well. The students really got into it and the principal and overving teacher seemed to like it, too. I really liked being in front of a class again. There are things I would do differently next time, but it wasn't too bad for a lesson I'd never done, in a dubject I've never taught, with 8 students I'd never met before.
