Using Facts to Develop Conceptual Understanding Over Time

In the unit Choices and Opportunity Cost, students examine the essential questions, "How do we make thoughtful decisions?"  This conceptual question exists in the unit because it can be used to help students uncover the understanding that "All choices involve costs."

In our planning session at Van Arsdale, we discussed how students continue to uncover an essential question as they begin to learn more content.  Here's a picture of the graphic we were using in our discussion.

Through planning with the end in mind, students might be given the following performance task at the end of the unit:
Your goal is to create a diary that shares how a young person would evaluate three real-life decisions throughout the course of a week.  As you write about these decisions, you need to make sure that your use precise economic vocabulary in a way that shows your understanding of the words.  Your writing must also show that you can apply the skill of evaluating the choices in decisions. (Required vocabulary: choice, cost, opportunity cost, positive incentive, negative incentive, risk).

Preparing students for this assessment will require addressing the essential question.  First, you may talk about choices that a person makes.  Next, you may talk about choices that have many options and how economists determine that the next best choice is the opportunity cost.  Third, you may explore how some decisions are made based on different types of incentives...some that are positive and some that are negative.  Last, you may explore how some decisions mean that a person is thinking about risk.

As you go about building content knowledge with students, you have the opportunity to revisit the essential question.  By using this process, students can incorporate their new learning into their explanation of this essential question.  Over time, students might add this type of information to their notebooks.  (NOTE: It's assumed that teachers build the expectation that students use precise academic vocabulary.  It's also assumed that a teacher is modeling how to take new information and use it to add thinking to essential questions.)

This might be a page in the notebook where students come back to on a regular basis to add their thinking about the essential question.

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How do we make thoughtful decisions?

• Students learn about choices. Aug. 27 - When I make a decision I will think about what is important to me.  Sometimes I might decide that I enjoy spending my money on a video game instead of on a stuffed animal.  Sometimes I might decide to spend my time reading instead of playing with me sister.  It is what I want. 
• Students learn about opportunity cost. Aug. 30 - Sometimes I have to make a choice like what I want to do with my free time.  I could read, play with my sister, play with the dog, or play video games.  If I choose reading, then my next favorite thing is my opportunity cost.  My next favorite thing is playing with the dog so that's my opportunity cost.
• Students learn about positive and negative incentives. Sept. 3 - Sometimes people use incentives to make me act a certain way.  There are positive incentives and negative incentives.  When my mom says I am grounded if I don't clean my room, that is a negative incentive.  When my dad says I get ice cream if I clean my room, that is a positive incentive.  If my dad gives me an extra dollar for every dollar I put in the bank, that's a positive incentive.  If my mom threatens to take away my allowance if I don't save any in the bank, that's a negative incentive.
• Students learn about risk. Sept. 6 - When people make decisions, sometimes they think about risk.  For example, if Sal asks to borrow money for lunch I don't know if I would give it to him.  Sal still owes lunch money to my friend.  It is risky to let Sal borrow money.  If Lucy wants to borrow my skateboard, I might let her borrow it.  One time, I let her borrow my bike and she brought it back as soon as she was done.  It's not risky to let Lucy borrow my bike.