The United States Economy (Article)
Reading Tasks: Students will closely read what the text is saying and make inferences when necessary.
Students will determine central ideas and analyze how they are developed. Students will analyze how
and why this document was written and how the ideas are developed in writing. Students will analyze
the structure of the text and assess the point of view of the writer. Students will evaluate the
arguments and claims within the text.
Vocabulary Tasks: The meaning of the words in context of the passage will be discerned by students as
they read the various components of the declaration.
Discussion Tasks: Students will evaluate the arguments and claims within the text. Students will
analyze how and why the document was written and how the ideas are developed in writing.
Writing Tasks:
Essential Question(s):
Text Selection (Background):
Target Span: HS US or HS Econ
Reading Standards hit: R1, R2, R3, R4, R8
Writing Standards hit:
Directions/Introduction
As written, this lesson will guide students through multiple days of looking at a historical document. It is
meant to be a teachable model, but is freely available to be changed based on your students own
unique needs.
What should be understood however, is that with the Common Core State Standards covering literacy in
Social Studies, we need to give our students rich, complex texts in order to deepen their understanding
of our important content, as well as give them opportunities to practice literacy across the content
areas. If this is their first time, it may be rough, but students will get better at it the more practice they
have.
We chose to follow the advice of Mike Schmoker, who, in his book Focus: Elevating the Essentials to
Radically Improve Student Learning, recommends that any vocabulary which could hinder a student’s
understanding be taught in advance (Schmoker, 2011). The Core standards call for students to be able
to identify the meaning of words by the context in which they are used (National Governors Association,
2011), and by pre-teaching the vocabulary here, students still have to do this important step, even
though the vocabulary was taught in advance.
In trying to provide a research based model, for vocabulary we’re following Marzano. Marzano
identifies six steps to teaching vocabulary. We will be combining two steps (provide and restate) and
eliminating step 6 which is practicing with games (Marzano & Pickering, 2005). You may adapt the
lesson to include this step if you choose.
The recommended model for teaching each day is as follows:
Day 1: Provide Student Handout to students. Their document is complete and should be referred to
every day of the lesson. You would then do vocabulary instruction as a group (just the words for the day
from the teacher handout) and then follow the teacher directions within the document itself.
Day 2: Begin with vocabulary instructions, then follow the directions in the teacher Stage 2 handouts.
Day 3: Begin with vocabulary instruction, then follow the directions in the teacher Stage 3 handouts.
How you choose to assess this beyond what is provided here is up to you, but a discussion and activity
based around the focus question is included in Day 3.
Section/Stage 1 Teacher Page
Text Under Discussion
United States Economy, Aug. 13, 2009
Vocabulary
By DAVID LEONHARDT
The United States economy produced roughly $15 trillion worth of goods and
services in 2008, making it easily the largest in the world. China is next, at
about $12 trillion, according to one widely used estimate. Per person, the
American economy has the fourth largest output-- more than $45,000 for
every man, woman and child, on average --behind Luxembourg, Bermuda
and Liechtenstein, all havens for offshore banking.
In 2007, the American economy began to slow significantly, mostly because
of a real-estate slump and related financial problems. In December 2007, the
economy entered a recession, according to a committee of academic
economists, overseen by the National Bureau of Economic Research that is
widely considered the arbiter of recessions.
The committee defines a recession as a broad-based and protracted
downturn in economic activity, and its members typically wait many months
before announcing that a recession has ended. By nearly all accounts, the
recession continued into early 2009, making it the longest one in decades.
But at least one major player in the economy, the Federal Reserve Bank’s
policy-making committee, announced some good news in August 2009,
saying it believes the recession is ending. The announcement came almost
exactly two years after the Fed embarked on what was the biggest financial
rescue in American history. Though the central bank stopped well short of
declaring victory, policy makers issued an upbeat assessment.
Output
ASK STUDENTS: What can be inferred about
the American Economic system based on the
first paragraph?
Offshore
Banking
Arbiter
Recession
ASK STUDENTS: What is the purpose of the
2nd paragraph of this passage? Why was it
included, and what is it trying to say?
ASK STUDENTS: What reasons can they come
up with to explain why the recession has
lasted as long as it has.
Protracted
ASK STUDENTS: Why do economists use
vague terms such as, “protracted,” or
“believes the recession is ending.”
Embarked
ASK STUDENTS: According to paragraphs 3 &
4 what does the author want the reader to
believe in regards to the recession.
The bank cautioned that the recovery would be slow and that unemployment
was likely to remain high for another year.
Central Bank
The economy was last in recession in 2001. Contrary to widespread belief,
the terrorist attacks of 2001 did not cause the downturn that year. The
Directions for Teachers
ASK STUDENTS: Based on the title of the
article, what to you predict this article is going
to be about?
Dot-com Bubble
ASK STUDENTS: How students to give some
personal examples of how the recession has
effect them or N. Michigan.
Great
Moderation
ASK STUDENTS TO: who does the author infer
is responsible for the moderation of the
economy? Use text based facts to support
your position.
economy slowed as the dot-com bubble started leaking in early 2000 and
began to shrink in early 2001. The recession ended in November 2001.
Over the last few decades, recessions have become less common than they
once were. Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, and others
have described this development as the "great moderation." While the
economy used to swing between expansion and contraction every few years,
there had been only two relatively brief recessions over the last 25 years
before the current downturn.
Perhaps the most important reason for the change is the new flexibility of
businesses. Executives can now track the ups and downs of their sales and
inventories more closely than they used to, thanks in large part to computers.
Better transportation, like FedEx, also helps companies to keep their
warehouses lean. So a company is less likely to find itself suddenly stuck
with too many workers and products -- and then have to make sharp
cutbacks.
Yet there are also now increasing worries that a boom in consumer
spending, helped along by more consumer debt, played a large role in lifting
economic growth -- and moderating its swings -- over the last generation. If
this is the case -- and if the end of the debt boom leads to slower consumer
spending, as seems to be happening -- economic growth may slow
significantly in coming years, even after the recession ends.
Despite the economic growth from 2001 to 2007, many families did not
receive large pay increases. Starting in the mid-1970s, compensation -- pay
and benefits -- for the typical worker began to grow more slowly than it had in
the 1950s and '60s. Over the last 30 years, there has been only one period,
from about 1996 to 2002, when hourly pay grew for most workers a lot faster
than inflation. The most recent expansion, which began in late 2001, will
likely end up being the first one on record in which median household
income did not reach a new inflation-adjusted record.
Expansion and
Contraction
Consumer
Spending
How is the information organized? (e.g. time,
topic, cause/effect, compare/contrast,
persuasion)
Consumer Debt
What is the gist/central idea of the last
paragraph?
Inflation
Median
Inflationadjusted
ASK THE STUDENT: At the beginning of this
article we analyzed your expectations based
on the title and date. Using your reading,
notes, and class discussion, did the article live
up to your expectations of what your initially
thoughts?
Stage 1 – Additional Information/Instructions/Performance Tasks
Student Page
Text Under Discussion
United States Economy, Aug. 13, 2009
Vocabulary
By DAVID LEONHARDT
The United States economy produced roughly $15 trillion worth of goods and
services in 2008, making it easily the largest in the world. China is next, at
about $12 trillion, according to one widely used estimate. Per person, the
American economy has the fourth largest output-- more than $45,000 for
every man, woman and child, on average --behind Luxembourg, Bermuda
and Liechtenstein, all havens for offshore banking.
In 2007, the American economy began to slow significantly, mostly because
of a real-estate slump and related financial problems. In December 2007, the
economy entered a recession, according to a committee of academic
economists, overseen by the National Bureau of Economic Research that is
widely considered the arbiter of recessions.
The committee defines a recession as a broad-based and protracted
downturn in economic activity, and its members typically wait many months
before announcing that a recession has ended. By nearly all accounts, the
recession continued into early 2009, making it the longest one in decades.
But at least one major player in the economy, the Federal Reserve Bank’s
policy-making committee, announced some good news in August 2009,
saying it believes the recession is ending. The announcement came almost
exactly two years after the Fed embarked on what was the biggest financial
rescue in American history. Though the central bank stopped well short of
declaring victory, policy makers issued an upbeat assessment.
Output
Offshore
Banking
Arbiter
Recession
Protracted
Embarked
The bank cautioned that the recovery would be slow and that unemployment
was likely to remain high for another year.
Central Bank
The economy was last in recession in 2001. Contrary to widespread belief,
the terrorist attacks of 2001 did not cause the downturn that year. The
My Thoughts/Notes
economy slowed as the dot-com bubble started leaking in early 2000 and
began to shrink in early 2001. The recession ended in November 2001.
Dot-com Bubble
Over the last few decades, recessions have become less common than they
once were. Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, and others
have described this development as the "great moderation." While the
economy used to swing between expansion and contraction every few years,
there had been only two relatively brief recessions over the last 25 years
before the current downturn.
Perhaps the most important reason for the change is the new flexibility of
businesses. Executives can now track the ups and downs of their sales and
inventories more closely than they used to, thanks in large part to computers.
Better transportation, like FedEx, also helps companies to keep their
warehouses lean. So a company is less likely to find itself suddenly stuck
with too many workers and products -- and then have to make sharp
cutbacks.
Yet there are also now increasing worries that a boom in consumer
spending, helped along by more consumer debt, played a large role in lifting
economic growth -- and moderating its swings -- over the last generation. If
this is the case -- and if the end of the debt boom leads to slower consumer
spending, as seems to be happening -- economic growth may slow
significantly in coming years, even after the recession ends.
Despite the economic growth from 2001 to 2007, many families did not
receive large pay increases. Starting in the mid-1970s, compensation -- pay
and benefits -- for the typical worker began to grow more slowly than it had in
the 1950s and '60s. Over the last 30 years, there has been only one period,
from about 1996 to 2002, when hourly pay grew for most workers a lot faster
than inflation. The most recent expansion, which began in late 2001, will
likely end up being the first one on record in which median household
income did not reach a new inflation-adjusted record.
Great
Moderation
Expansion and
Contraction
Consumer
Spending
Consumer Debt
Inflation
Median
Inflationadjusted