Candidates model and facilitate the use of digital tools and resources to engage students in authentic learning experiences.

The economy lesson plan was created by me for a lesson I taught this school year. The lesson is centered around grocery shopping, which is definitely an authentic learning experience. 

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This artifact demonstrates mastery of standard 2.3: candidates model and facilitate the use of digital tools and resources to engage students in authentic learning experiences. This is a lesson I used to begin the unit on economics. This lesson helps students to understand the cost of some everyday items, and it is a great way to begin a discussion on supply and demand. The lesson requires students to plan meals for themselves for one entire day. They will then "buy" all of the items they need for those meals through online grocery shopping. They are allocated a certain amount of money, and they can not spend over that amount. Having the students participate in planning meals, creating a shopping list for those meals, and then "buy" those items online is undoubtedly an authentic learning experience. 

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One thing I learned through teaching this lesson is that students really have no idea how much everyday items cost. My students were way off in their estimations of the prices of these items, and when they did the shopping they were shocked at how much certain things cost. This reinforced for me that many things are very abstract for them, and hard for them to relate to. It drove home the importance of authentic lessons, and ensuring that I am making my lessons relevant for them. One thing I would improve about this artifact is that I would include one of the student's shopping lists, and his or her estimation of what those items would cost.

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This lesson had an impact on student learning. The lesson helped make money, goods and services, and producers and consumers real for my students. This helped them to better understand these concepts, that otherwise would have remained abstract for them. This impact can be measured by a pre-assessment before the lesson and a post assessment after.