Emilia and I decided to team teach for our third lesson. The focus of this economics lesson was: people make choices because they cannot have everything they want. We began with a discussion about the importance of making sound economic choices, drawing on personal experiences. We then explained the concepts of opportunity cost, value, and scarcity. After the discussion, we had the students fill in a decision tree. They were asked to make a choice between getting a class pet and having a candy machine in their classroom. Together, the class came up with a list pros and cons for each choice and recorded them on the tree. At the end of the activity, the students voted on a decision. They decided, almost unanimously, in favor of a class pet.
One thing that I discovered I need to work on during these types of discussions is my use of language. For example, several times, I used the phrase “weighing” to talk about using the pros and cons to make decisions. Later, in our meeting with Jen (who came to observe this lesson), she pointed out that this conception of weight is most likely too advanced for first graders. I also used the words “pros and cons” and “good points and bad points” interchangeably. For first graders, explanations must be clear and consistent. Even though it may seem tedious to us, it is important to choose specific age-appropriate vocabulary to be repeated throughout the discussion (so as to really drill these words into the student’s heads). If too many words are used to describe one thing, students won’t know what to attend to, and consequently may not pick up on anything. One way to accomplish this goal would be scripting my lesson beforehand. Next time we teach, I plan on writing out a detailed script that focuses on fine tuning my language so that it is clear and consistent.
We then moved on to the main part of our lesson. During our planning, Emilia and I decided that the best way for students to learn how people make economic choices was to actually have them make choices for themselves. We thought that an interactive hands-on activity would be the best way to accomplish our learning objectives and keep students engaged in our lesson. Therefore, we created a choice game. We split the class into seven groups of three and gave each student “money” to spend on an assortment of items (squares of paper with pictures and costs). The students were told to take turns selecting items that they wanted to “buy” and then glue these items and their corresponding dollar amounts to a piece of construction paper. The gluing process was to reinforce the fact that once choices are made, they are final. The goal of the activity was to have students carefully evaluate their choices, using the decision making process to think about the pros and cons of each choice.
Although we thought our lesson was carefully planned, it certainly did not go the way we expected. However, Emilia and I felt that this was still a valuable lesson, because we really learned a lot. We understand that we still have so much to learn about being teachers. One of the best ways for this leaning to occur is through experiences, both good and bad.
Emilia and I learned about when to give directions. During our lesson, we had given the directions for the activity prior to passing out the materials. Even though Emilia had explained the directions clearly and carefully, because there were so many directions, some students had trouble remembering them all by the time they actually got their own materials. Emilia and I realized later that it would have been a better idea to have grouped students, passed out their materials, and then gone through the directions with the students. This way, they could have been performing tasks as they were explained and modeled, eliminating any confusion.
Emilia and I tried to prevent arguments about who goes first in the game by creating colored cards. The students were told to pick a color, and later, a chart was revealed that indicated who was to go first, second, and third based on color. Even though we thought this would eliminate conflicts, some students were still angry and upset that they had chosen the color that was assigned to go last.
We also learned a lot about managing groups. Seven groups of kids was way too many to manage! Even three of us (Emilia, the classroom teacher, and I) circulating the room to monitor the activity was not enough. We could not always there to supervise behavior, answer questions, or clarify directions. Even though some groups were able to work diligently on their own, others were more dysfunctional. In our meeting with Jen after the lesson, Emilia suggested that this problem could have been solved by possibly creating only two groups instead of seven. To keep students engaged, we could have had the rest of the class serve as a discussion panel while students were making their choices.
Emilia and I also learned more about forming groups. During our planning, we tried to create groups so that there would be at least one successful student paired with one student who may need extra help. We though that this would help with discipline problems and following directions. However, we quickly discovered that this put the more successful students in a compromising position. Grouping is something that I definitely need more experience with before I can come to any conclusions. In addition, it really depends on the students. The key is knowing your students and then doing trail and error with groups to see who really clicks and works well together.
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