Module 5 Unit 1 Activity 2: Standards and Backwards Mapping

I currently teach high school economics, but because I’m teaching at a school in China that doesn’t have any clearly defined standards I will be using the District of Columbia Social Studies Standards for Pre-K through Grade 12. The full set of standards is available to view at the following link.

https://osse.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/osse/publication/attachments/DCPS-horiz-soc_studies.pdf

I will be using standard E1 from the elective economics course. This standard can be found on page 90 of the text and reads as follows;

Standard E1:  Students understand common economic terms and concepts and economic reasoning.

I chose this standard because it forms the basis for the rest of the economics course. This section contains all the key vocabulary and concepts that you will be building on for the rest of the year, so it is absolutely vital that you get this section right. If you don’t do a good job here the remainder of the year will be filled with suffering and despair.

With backwards mapping the first step is to identify the desired proficiencies for the unit. Standard E1 is helpfully broken down into three sub-skills and these do an excellent job of outlining what the students will need to be able to do by the end of the unit. The three sub-skills are as follows:

Student will be able to

1. Explain the causal relationship between scarcity and the need for choices.

2. Explain opportunity cost and marginal benefit and marginal cost.

3. Identify the difference between monetary and non-monetary incentives and how changes in incentives cause changes in behavior.

Scarcity and the need for choices is the very definition of economics. The word economics comes from the Greek for managing a household so the students must grasp that decisions have to be made in all aspects of their lives on how to spend their time and money.

In order to make informed economic decisions they need to understand the concept of opportunity cost, which is what you must give up in order to get something else that you want. Students will therefore need to become comfortable with marginal costs and benefits, and the idea that if the marginal benefit outweighs the marginal cost you should go ahead and buy the product or do the activity in mind. This type of reasoning underpins all economic decision making, from deciding whether to buy another candy bar to making multi-million dollar business decisions. Finally students need to grasp the concept of incentives and how they drive much of our actions and decision making in everyday life.

The second step in backwards planning is to decide on assessments to measure the students’ progress. I’ll match my assessments to each of the three sub-skills outlined above.

1.       Explain the causal relationship between scarcity and the need for choices.

After teaching them the basic concepts I could ask the students to peer-mentor and have them clearly explain the concepts to their partners. Alternatively they could give a presentation to the class in groups. I would have them work on a budget for the month, and then explain why they made the spending choices they did to the whole class. Another option would be to do a piece of written work or design a poster that explains these concepts.

2.       Explain opportunity cost and marginal benefit and marginal cost.

One assessment option here would be to give each student a hypothetical $1,000. They then have to choose 4 possible items to buy. Having done that they need to whittle these four options down to just two, and then make a final choice. They then need to clearly explain that the opportunity cost of the item they chose was the next best option from the final pair. Another assessment option would be to provide students with list of real life scenarios and ask them to identify and explain the opportunity cost in each. To assess for understanding of marginal benefit and marginal cost I could ask the students to plan their weekend, allocating a mix of study and leisure time. The students then have to explain and defend their choices using the concept of marginal benefit and marginal cost

3.     Identify the difference between monetary and non-monetary incentives and how changes in incentives cause changes in behavior.

As the verb here is simply to identify, the assessment could be as straightforward as giving them a quiz. The quiz might contain a list of incentives, and the students would have to label them monetary or non-monetary. They could then go on to identify possible changes in behavior that might result from each incentive.

The final step in backwards mapping is to plan activities that will help the students to meet the standard. The first sub-skill relates to scarcity and the need for choices. To help the students grasp these concepts I use an activity related to kidney dialysis. They have to imagine themselves in the position of doctors at a hospital. They have a limited number of dialysis machines available, but a long list of patients who need to use the machines. Of course the hours required to treat all the patients far outstrips the supply of machines, forcing the students to think carefully about how to allocate their scarce resources. The situation is complicated by the fact that some of the patients are young, some old, some parents, some not. I have found this activity to be very useful in cementing the idea of scarce resources in their heads and it also drills home the point that economic decisions are not always directly related to interest rates and GDP.

The second sub-skill deals with opportunity cost and I have found that an effective activity is to talk about the true cost of attending university. First, I ask the students to work in pairs and list all the costs they associate with going to college. They usually focus on tuition fees, accommodation and food costs, textbooks, and transportation. The next step is to whittle away the costs that are not related to going to college. We discuss why transport, accommodation and food costs shouldn’t be counted, as they would still have to pay these costs even if they weren’t attending university. Then I ask them to go back into their pairs and try to consider other costs that might not be so obvious. I give them as much or as little prompting as I feel is necessary to get them thinking about what you have to give up to go to college, which of course is four years of full time work and the wages that go with that. This tends to be a bit of a light bulb moment for the students, and I find that it effectively fixes the concept of opportunity costs in their minds.  

The third sub-skill requires the students to identify monetary and non-monetary incentives. For this section I use a job interview exercise. I split the class up into job seekers and potential employers. Each employer will be offering different perks and benefits, some of which will be monetary and some of which will not. The students then conduct the interviews and choose a job based on the benefits that appeal to them personally.  Once the interviews have concluded we compare notes. Why did they choose the job? Was it for monetary or non-monetary reasons? This forces the students to identify into which category each benefit falls. This activity also opens the discussion to changes in behavior, for example how the incentive of increased pocket money might result in them doing more chores at home.