Classroom Jobs Teach Students About Economics
This best practice was developed to meet the second grade economic standards. It begins by teaching the content and introducing vocabulary words: needs, wants, producers, consumers, goods, services, opportunity cost, save, spend, and donate. After the majority of the content has been addressed the students begin the interview and work process to practice what they have learned. We begin by working as a class to create various jobs in the classroom: pencil sharpener, line leaders, paper manager, janitor, teacher’s assistant and many many more. After the jobs are created the students must fill out a job application complete with their address and phone number. Each student meets with the teacher for an interview and the best application and interview receive the job. Continue this process until every student has a job.
Once everyone has a job, they can begin work immediately. They earn $1 for everyday they complete their job. At the end of every 3 weeks, the students can spend their money at the store for items they need and want. During this entire process they are practicing the concepts we discussed in the lessons prior.
Challenges or Obstacles:
- Not having parent support for items/extra clerk in the store
- Time do complete jobs
- Store day is out of the ordinary and you need to allow some students to be shopping while others are going on with the daily schedule.
Benefits and Successes:
- Actively applying content
- Students practice save, spend, and donate
- Students ‘own’ their actions and receive payment for their good citizenship
- Needs and Wants are re-enforced often throughout the unit.
- Unit ends, but learning does not
- Students are responsible for the classroom and develop a feeling of ownership
Additional Information:
Example of a job application
Submitted by: Brooke Nofer, Wes-Del Elementary School