Wow! Thursday already? What a quickly moving week. Hard to believe we're just over a week into the school year. In either case, today felt like a great day to really dig deep into our curriculum for the year. This is what we worked on:
- RAP: In 3rd period we started class with a "homework pass" simulation as a way to review and preview our learning about economics this year. The simulation forced us to think through how we make decisions with limited resourced - in this case a homework pass. This ultimately provided students with a way to preview a concept we'll discuss later in the unit - economic reasoning. 5th period and 7th period did not have a chance to participate in the simulation, but we found a way to accomplish a similar goal later in the lesson.
- What is economics? We then resumed our exploration into the definition of economics by reviewing each part of the total definition and discussing what key ideas, terms, or examples came to mind. Below are the pictures from our brainstorm, such a delight to see all your wonderful thinking!
- After discussing our thinking, we then returned to the textbook definition of economics and began thinking through the one missing element from most textbooks: any discussion of societal values and norms. To do this, we examined the cartoon "What is justice?" as a way to prompt thinking about justice, fairness, and power in society. IN the end, students came up with nuanced and new definitions of economics that incorporated the word "justice."