NYCDOE: Passport to Social Studies - grade 1, unit 4

Note to Teachers: To help with remote and hybrid learning, digital materials for this unit are available on the NYCDOE TeachHub. Access these materials by following these instructions.

This is the fourth unit of the grade 1 Social Studies scope and sequence, titled: Community Economics. It was developed by a team of NYCDOE staff and teachers, in collaboration with scholars of the humanities and social sciences as well as museum curators. Students will immerse themselves in the topic by discussing focus questions, reading and analyzing a rich collection of diverse primary and secondary sources, examining artifacts, and interpreting images, such as: paintings, photographs, maps, and political cartoons.

This guide offers a multitude of perspectives on how people and families have economic needs and wants, but limited resources and people make economic choices as producers and consumers of goods and services.

Topics of representative lessons in this unit include: examining decision-making scenarios about spending and saving; defending their decisions to spend or save; exploring choices people make due to scarcity; understanding that an economy is made up of producers and consumers.

To evaluate student mastery of content knowledge, cognitive processes, and critical thinking skills, this unit includes formative assessments, and a performance-based assessment activity, which has students identifying needs in their school and/or school community; explore ways to meet those needs and create a good or service to provide for those needs; explaining how each satisfies community needs

Please note: the complete set of NYCDOE K-8: Passport to Social Studies Core Curriculum materials include a wide-range of trade books and primary documents, in addition to this unit of study. In order to support rigorous social studies instruction and student inquiry, we recommend that teachers integrate these resources into their daily instruction and assessments plans.

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