Lesson Plan: Costs and Benefits of Decisions

Subjects:

Social Studies (Economics, Civics/ Government)

Lesson Duration:

45 minutes

Essential Questions:

• How do positive and negative incentives influence decisions?
• What are ways in which people benefit from and are challenged by working together?

Lesson Objectives:

Students will:

• Identify positive and negative incentives (benefits and costs) that influence our decisions.
• Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text.

Materials:

• Retro Report video “Labor Union Activism Is on the Rise, Recalling the Great Depression” (Transcript)
• Student Activity handout
• Click Clack Moo: Cows that Type and/ or Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type | Story Time Read Aloud | Shon’s Stories (YouTube, 5:13)

Procedure:

1. Open lesson by asking students to raise their hands if they have ever played “Would you rather….?”. Ask for a volunteer to explain to the class how the game is played.
2. Ask students the following questions and allow time for a few students to share answers, including why they made the choice they did.
   1. Would you rather clean your bedroom for free or for $3.00?
   2. Would you rather have extra recess or take a quiz?
   3. Would you rather take out the garbage or play your favorite game?
3. Explain to the class that most chose the options that benefitted them because their choices included a positive incentive or benefit (receiving $3.00, extra recess, and playing a game) rather than the choices that included a negative incentive or cost (not receiving $3.00, taking a quiz, and taking out the garbage).
4. Tell students you are going to read a story about the costs and benefits of actions made by the characters in the story. Show them a copy of “Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type” and direct them to listen to the choices of the farmer and the choices of the animals. Read the story.
5. Give students the activity handout.
   1. Re-read “Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type” or listen to the story, as needed.
6. Work as a class to review the first box of the activity. For example:
   Character: Farmer
   Incentives (Benefit and Cost) of Choice:
   Choice: Whether to buy electric blankets for the cows or not.
   Is the choice a benefit or cost? The choice is a cost because the farmer would have to spend a lot of money to buy electric blankets for all of the cows. The farmer decided not to buy electric blankets for the cows.
   Decision: The farmer decided not to buy electric blankets for the cows.
7. Allow time for students to work in pairs or individually to complete the activity, or complete it as a class. Answer students’ questions as needed.
8. Ask for volunteers to share answers once students complete the activity.
9. Ask students: When Farmer Brown exclaimed “Hens on strike!” What did he mean by “strike”? Allow time for answers.
10. Explain to students that a strike is when a group of workers refuse to work until working conditions change. For example, the cows wanted electric blankets before they agreed to give Farmer Brown milk. The reason the cows got what they wanted was because they worked together with the other animals to stop giving Farmer Brown something he wanted from them. The animals could be considered a union because they united together to get what they wanted.
11. Share with students that many people they interact with belong to unions. For example, teachers and bus drivers. They may have parents or family members that belong to unions.
12. Explain to students that in December 2021, workers at a Starbucks in Buffalo, N.Y., voted to unionize. It was the first Starbucks store in the United States to unionize.
13. Ask students why companies may see unions as a cost instead of a benefit. Allow time for answers.
14. Transition: Write on the board or display: “In the 1920s, the great American word was prosperity. Now the ‘30s have begun, and there is a new word: depression.” Explain to students that they will be watching a video and that this is a line from the video. Ask students to consider the quote, the title of the video, and what they just learned about incentives to guess what they might see in the video. Allow time for student answers. You may need to review the words prosperity and depression in this context.
15. Play the video and have students fill out the corresponding section of the student activity handout.
16. After the video, go over student responses, particularly allowing time for students to bring up questions they may have.
17. Have students work with a partner to read a couple of quotes from the video. Do they show reasons Starbucks employees may want to form a union (benefits) or reasons Starbucks employees may not want to form a union (costs)?
18. Students (in pairs or small groups) will then do the same thing with excerpts from the article Starbucks Workers Have Unionized at Record Speed; Many Fear Retaliation Now | NPR.
19. Exit ticket: One takeaway and How well do you feel you understood today’s lesson?😀 🙂 🫤 🙁
20. Collect the activity sheets and assess for student understanding. Follow up with students as needed.

Extension Activity:

1. Group students and share the article with each group: Los Angeles School Workers Will Go On A 3-Day Strike, Shutting Down the Nation’s Second-Largest District. Here’s What They Want | CNN. Ask students to identify the cost to the school district if it does not agree to requests being made by the union.

About the Author:

Colleen Gray is a licensed K-6 educator and taught fifth grade Social Studies for six years. She currently produces professional development webinars, in-person training, and teacher resources as the education director for a non-profit supporting K-12 economics and personal finance educators. Colleen holds a Master’s degree in teaching.

Standards

College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies:

• D2.Eco.2.3-5. Identify positive and negative incentives that influence the decisions people make.
• D2.Eco.2.6-8. Evaluate alternative approaches or solutions to current economic issues in terms of benefits and costs for different groups and society as a whole.
• D2.Civ.6.3-5. Describe ways in which people benefit from and are challenged by working together, including through government, workplaces, voluntary organizations, and families.
• D2.Civ.10.6-8. Explain the relevance of personal interests and perspectives, civic virtues, and democratic principles when people address issues and problems in government and civil society.

Common Core Literacy Standards:

• CC.5.R.L.3 Key Ideas and Details: Compare and contrast two or more characters, setting, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).
• CC.6.R.L.1 Key Ideas and Details: Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
• CC.7.R.L.1 Key Ideas and Details: Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
• CC.8.R.L.1 Key Ideas and Details: Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.