CURRICULUM SYLLABUS
Curriculum Area:
Social Studies
Course Title: Economics
Grade Levels: 11-12
Course Textbook:
Holt Economics, 1999 Holt, Reinhart and Winston
Course Description:
Economics is a semester course that explores the fundamental laws of scarcity, opportunity cost,
supply and demand, productivity and efficiency as they apply to individual and collective human
behavior. Macroeconomic concepts such as inflation, unemployment, and monetary and fiscal
policy will also be discussed. Course content will be applied in a variety of ways including
simulations and the development of a personal finance plan.
Course Goals and Expectations:
Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:
1. Design a strategy for earning, spending, saving and investing financial resources.
2. Evaluate ways to resolve conflicts resulting from differences between business interests
and community values.
3. Describe the use of economic indicators and assess their accuracy.
4. Distinguish between monetary and fiscal policy and explain how each might be applied to
problems such as unemployment and inflation.
5. Evaluate government programs on the basis of their intended and unintended results.
6. Use case studies to exemplify how supply and demand, prices, incentives and profits
determine what is produced and distributed in a competitive market.
7. Describe relationships between a domestic economy and the international economic
system.
8. Evaluate the United States and other economic systems on their ability to achieve broad
social goals such as freedom, efficiency, equity, security and development.
9. Describe relationships among various economic institutions that comprise economic
systems such as households, banks, business firms, government agencies and labor
unions.
10. Explain how specialization, interdependence and economic development are related.
11. Describe the effect of currency exchange, tariffs, quotas and product standards on world
trade and domestic economic activity.
12. Locate information pertaining to specific history topics in-depth using a variety of sources
and electronic technologies.
13. Use traditional and electronic means to organize and interpret information pertaining to a
specific history topic.
14. Develop generalizations pertaining to a specific history topic by interpreting information
from a variety of sources.
Course Requirements and Major Assignments
Economics Vocabulary Terms
Students will be responsible for the following Vocabulary Terms each semester:
Read
Chapter
Mark A. Van Hecke
Anchor Bay High School
Complete Vocabulary Words
Pages
Topic
Revised January 2007
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1
Scarcity
Opportunity Cost
P. 3,8 and 11
Production Possibilities Chart p. 13
Study Questions
2
Economic Systems
P. 23
Study Questions
3
Demand
P. 51,56 and 63
Study Questions
4
Supply
P.73, 79 and 86
Study Questions
5
Price
P. 103 and 108
Study Questions
9
Personal Finance
P. 195, 200, 204, 214
Study Questions
10
Macroeconomics
P. 229 and 236
Study Questions
11
Inflation and Unemployment
P. 251, 257, 264
Study Questions
14
Monetary Policy
P. 332
Study Questions
15
Fiscal Policy
P. 349, 355, 362
Study Questions
Mark A. Van Hecke
Anchor Bay High School
Revised January 2007
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Grading and Assessments
The Units that will be covered in the Economics course include:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Scarcity and Opportunity Cost
Economic Systems
Supply and Demand
Personal Finance
Macroeconomics
Monetary and Fiscal Policy
To successfully complete each unit, students will be required to complete the following
Assessments:
Assessment
Description
Frequency
%
Grade
Set Activity
Beginning of class activity.
Some writing, calculating
Average
6 per Unit
30%
Vocabulary Quiz
Based on Unit Vocabulary
Words
1
10%
Check Up Quizzes
Usually follow Set Activities
Average
6 per Unit
20%
Presentation Quiz
Emphasis of interpretation
of pictures, graphs, tables,
charts
1
10%
Unit Test
End of Unit Assessment
1
20%
1-2
Assignments
Per Week
30%
Vocabulary Words and
Concepts
Vocabulary Reinforcement
Study Questions
Social Studies Writing
Homework
Homework:
Homework for Economics Spring 2007 will include the following:
Vocabulary Words and Concepts
Students will define Unit vocabulary words in chapter reading assignments and use in a
sentence.
Vocabulary Reinforcement
Students will use assigned vocabulary words in a variety of content-related sentences and
formats to acquire familiarity with the content.
Study Questions
Short, constructed response answers to content questions
Social Studies Writing
Thematic writing assignments using a variety of social science process skills.
Mark A. Van Hecke
Anchor Bay High School
Revised January 2007
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