Caps for Sale: A Lesson on Economic Specialization and Interdependence

Purpose
The purpose of this lesson will be to highlight economic specialization and economic
interdependence. Also to review different economic terms including: capital resources,
goods, services, consumers and producers. This lesson will focus around the book by
Esphyr Slobodkina, Caps for Sale. The lesson will also be intertwined with language arts
and will include a picture walk as a reading strategy to help with making accurate
predictions about text.
Economics 3.7 The student will explain how producers in ancient Greece, Rome, and the
West African empire of Mali used natural resources, human resources, and capital
resources in the production of goods and services.
Economics 3.8 The student will recognize that because people and regions cannot
produce everything they want, they specialize in what they do best and trade for the
rest.
Reading 3.5 The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of fictional text and
poetry.
a) Set a purpose for reading.
b) Make connections between previous experiences and reading selections.
c) Make, confirm, or revise predictions.
d) Compare and contrast settings, characters, and events.

e) Identify the authors purpose.

f) Ask and answer questions about what is read.
g) Draw conclusions about text.
h) Identify the problem and solution.
i) Identify the main idea.
j) Identify supporting details.
k) Use reading strategies to monitor comprehension throughout the reading process.
l) Differentiate between fiction and nonfiction.
m) Read with fluency and accuracy.
Objectives
The students will be able to look up, define and explain the terms of economic
specialization and economic interdependence when given an index card to record
on with 100% accuracy.
The students will be able to make an accurate prediction about the story Caps for
Sale before the story is read after completing a picture walk with 90% accuracy.
The students will be able to identify examples of producers, consumers, goods
and economic specialization after I read the story Caps for Sale on the
corresponding worksheet with 95% accuracy.
Procedure

Introduction
This week you have been learning about a lot of different vocabulary words that
focus on economics, let's do a quick review.
Can anyone tell me what a consumer is?
Can someone tell me what a producer is?
How about resources, does anyone know the different types of resources
that we have?
Today we will be learning 2 big words! First, does anyone think they know what
economic specialization is?
(If someone knows that's great! Explain that we will be learning about that today.
If not don't give too much away but tell them that they are going to learn all
about it today!)
Explain the definition of economic specialization and discuss examples that may
be seen in everyday life with them.
Ask them about different specialists they may see like doctors, dentists,
hair stylists, mechanics etc.
Now, does anyone have an idea what it means to be economically interdependent?
(If someone knows great! If not explain to them what this means)
Ask them if they've ever looked at a clothing tag and seen made in.... Then
proceed to explain that we rely on different countries for different goods and
resources.
Lets take a look in our social studies book to find out more about these terms!
Have students read aloud with you on page 394 through the paragraph that
explains economic specialization, and then have them flip to page 411 to read

aloud with you the paragraph about economic interdependence.

** make sure to guide them to make connections to ancient Greece, Rome and Mali.**
Development
Pass out index cards as you begin to explain a short activity.
We still have many specialized jobs today! We also are very economically
interdependent on one another. Think of what you want to do when you grow up
and then write it on the index card in front of you.
When you are finished put your hand on your head and I'll come around to
give you tape to tape your card to your chest.
We are going to do a short activity to show how economically interdependent we
are on one another!
Lets start with _______ (Pick a student to begin with and hand him/her the end
to a ball of yarn.
Have the class help you make a connection to what the beginning person may need
help with and take the ball of yarn to the next occupation.
Once all of the connections are made students will be able to see how different
specialized occupations depend on one another and are intertwined.
Ask them if they can think of any other connections we could have made
Now lets read a story to review what we have just learned!
Summary
Instruct students to move to the carpet and hand out prediction sheets with
clipboards.

 Explain that you are going to do a picture walk through the book you are about to
read, and you want them to predict what it might be about. Have them write 1 to
2 sentences about what they think will happen in the book. Do not show them the
last page or any pages that may give the story away!! :)
Ask some of the students to share their predictions.
Begin reading the story and ask them to be mindful to watch out for different
examples of producers, consumers, goods, economic specialization and economic
interdependence as you read through the story.
Once finished with the story quickly run through and have a small discussion
about what examples could be found throughout the story.
Dismiss students back to their seat and give them the corresponding worksheet
to complete.
**Differentiation
An instructional assistant will be available to assist with students that have IEP's
during the lesson at any time.
Reading aloud as a class helps to make sure that everyone is on the same page and
helps those who struggle with reading because they can listen to other students
read.
If advanced learners finish the Caps for Sale worksheet early, they can think
back to the story and see if they can come up with examples of how the town may
have been economically interdependent on the peddler and how the peddler could
have been economically interdependent on the town.
The book caps for sale is based on the ancient Mali folktale "The Hatseller and

the Monkeys" it could be a possibility to have advanced students look at this

story to make connections and find differences between the two.
This lesson meets every learning modality. Visual learning is met with the activity
because students will be able to see the how interdependence works. Visual
learning is also met by doing a picture walk through the story. Auditory learning is
met through reading aloud and partaking in discussion. Kinisthetic learning is met
through the activity because the students are learning by doing.

Materials
Harcourt Horizons People and Communities
Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
Interdependence Worksheet
Index Cards
Yarn
Tape
Predictions Sheet
Caps for Sale Corresponding Worksheet

Evaluation Part A

The students will be evaluated on the objectives based on their responses during the
group discussions and answers on the worksheets provided. The worksheets will be
evaluated by the percentage of correct answers. Index cards will be assessed for the
correct definitions of economic interdependence and economic specialization as I walk
around the room to check, students will keep the index cards to add to a bag that
contains the other economic vocabulary words to use as a study tool.

Evaluation Part B
People always say that as a teacher you need to just roll with the punches and go
with the flow. I can say that after completing this lesson I have learned to do just that.
For the most part my lesson was extremely successful and I do believe that every child
was able to learn from it. I did not have as many issues with executing the lesson as I
did with planning it.
As a practicum student we are guests in someone else's classroom. With that
being said I had a very hard time getting my 3rd grade cooperating teacher to allow me
to plan and teach a lesson to her students all by myself. I had an awesome lesson planned
that began with a gallery walk and ended with an ancient Mali folktale. I was so excited
to teach it, until I met with my teacher one day before the lesson. She informed me
that she had read my lesson and loved it, but that she co-plans with another teacher so
it needed to match what the other teacher is. If I had a personal preference there
would have been no seat work or textbooks used. However she not only informed me I

had to use those thing, but she also changed the book I had picked to use. Obviously it is
her classroom and I do respect her even though our teaching styles are a little
different, so I went through and tweaked my lesson to suit her wishes.
The entire lesson took me about 1 hour and 15 minutes to teach. I think I did a
great job. Looking back I do wish I had some sort of typed notes to refer to. At times I
let my nerves get the better of me and had quite a few brain farts. Short notes would
have probably helped me stay on track. I think the discussions with the students were
very involved and enlightening. Almost every single student wanted to participate in one
way shape or form which was fantastic!