Country Economic Organization

Country Economic Organization

Course(s)/Subject(s):Civics

Grade Level(s):8

Key Words: Comparative Economics, Technology, Geography, Government

Developer(s) Name: Brett Steiner

School: Washington Irving Middle School

Attached Files: cpworksts

Approximate Time Frame: 5-6 50 minute classes

Materials/Equipment Needed:ClarisWorks Software, Internet, Library Resources, Country Profile Worksheet, Computers, TV Monitor, Civics Textbook

Description of Lesson (includes context):In this lesson students will research the economic organization of another country. After completing the research students will create a slide show presentation for the class.

LESSON OUTLINE

1. What is the objective of this lesson?

FCPS POS Standards:
8.3Students will understand and explain the basic principles, structures and operation
of the United States economy as compared with other economies and demonstrate
informed economic decision making.

FCPS POS Indicators:
8.3.2.aCompare the means of production, distribution, and consumption of goods and
services in a traditional economy, a free market economy as described by Adam
Smith, a centraolly planned economy as described by Karl Marx, and a mixed
economy.

8.3.2.bCompare the United States economic system to other economic systems with
emphasis on government regulation of the economy, entrepreneurial opportunity,
productivity, and standards of living.

VA SOL(s) (including Computer/Technology):HSS 7.6; 7.8, C/T 8.1, C/T 8.4

Other: 8.5.1

EVIDENCE

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2. What will we examine as evidence of students' knowledge and/or skill?

Product(s):In this lesson, students will produce a slide show on their assigned country.
This slide show will compare and contrast their country's economic organization to the
economy of the United States.

Performance(s):Students will be responsible for gathering their information and completing their country profile worksheet. This worksheet will be reviewed by the teacher before the project date to insure students are on the right track. At the end of the lesson, students will then give an oral presentation and run their slide show.

Other:

DIRECTIONS

3. What exactly will the students and teacher do during the lesson?

Directions to students for proceeding with the lesson:
1. The students will be assigned a country to research.
2. The student will receive a country profile worksheet. This worksheet is a guide to help
them gather information on their country and format their slide show.
3. The students will then complete their country profile worksheet. They will complete
their research using the Internet and other media sources.
4. Allow 1-2 days to complete their research on their country profile worksheet.
5. After completing their research, students will begin to create a slide show presentation
in the computer lab. They will need another 2-3 days to complete their slide show.
6. Using ClarisWorks, the students will prepare at least 5 slides on their assigned country.
Slide 1 - Name of Country/Student's name
Slide 2 - Type of Government/Picture of leader(s)
Slide 3 - Economic data/Picture
Slide 4 - Comparison to the economy of the United States
7. Students will save pictures from the Internet and cut and paste these to their slide
show.
8. Save this slide show onto a disk.
9. Students will then give an oral presentation and run their slide show.

Directions to teacher/administrator using the lesson?
1. Review with the students the different types of political structures and economic
organization. This includes making sure students understand GDP, consumer price
index, unemployment rate, and the different type of economic systems. 2. After assigning each student a country hand out the country profile worksheet. 3.Go over whatresearch needs to be included in your slide show presentation. 4. Allow the class 1-3 days in both the computer lab and library to complete their
research.
5. After completing their research, demonstrate to the class on how to cut and
paste pictures from the Internet to a slide show program.
6. Give the class another 2-3 days in the computer lab to complete their slide show. 7. At the end, have the students save their slide show to a disk and present their
program to the class.

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APPROPRIATE ACCOMMODATIONS/MODIFICATIONS

4. What options in presentation(s) and/or response(s) are suggested in order to provide the opportunity for all students to demonstrate achievement of the benchmark(s) and indicator(s)?
5. As a class, discuss some of the information that was retrieved. With the ESL learners,
   ask the students to share their input of how this information relates to their
   country.
6. With the visual learners, demonstrate how to cut and paste pictures from the Internet to
   their slide show presentation by hooking up a computer to some type of multi-media
   monitor in the class.
7. In some cases, students can work as "teams" to help each other with their research.
8. Students can do a written report to replace their technology assessment, which
   should contain the same information as the country profile worksheet and slide show
   requirements.

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