Lesson 4 Reflection

Our fourth lesson was about Mexico's economics. The lesson started with a short pretest where students matched a picture or short definition to the correct vocabulary term.  After this, students were introduced to the new vocabulary words.    The poster was covered up with papers, so students would be able to focus in on one term at a time, while also having the opportunity to reveal the next word.  Each word and definition, after being read by us, would be read together as a group to further their comprehension.  After going over the first half of the vocabulary, they participated in a group activity with an interactive T-chart about goods and services.  

    Students were randomly given cards that had either a good or a service, and they had to figure out and glue them under the right category.  For our brain break, students were told a sentence that was about a surplus or scarcity, and they would tap their shoulders (if surplus) or pat their knees (if scarcity).  After this, we went over the rest of the vocabulary words.  These terms were natural, capital, and human resources.  We did a short activity with these words where students were divided into three groups and were responsible for one type of resource.  They were shown a picture, and they had to figure out if the resource belonged to them or not.  After asking each group, the correct one would receive the card.  

    We then had students analyze a primary resource that showed a map of Mexio.  The map had different resources and where they were located.  Students were partnered up and given three minutes to write down as many resources as they can find.  After the time was up, we discussed all of the different resources that they were able to find.

   We then moved into our read aloud "The Aztecs History Detectives" by Phillip Ardagh.  Before reading, students were asked to look for the type of currency the Aztecs used.  After reading, all students correctly identified their currency as cocoa beans.  We paid students for their government job they did during our civics lesson with beans.  These beans were then used for them to pay for materials needed to make maracas.  They all received 30 beans and had to use our poster of prices to pay using their currency.  We had both goods and services offered in the market.  They were making two maracas and had to buy double of the materials, while also planning out how to use the rest of their money.  Lastly, we ended our lesson with a short matching posttest to see students understanding of the content.