What is a society?
I started with a discussion of what society is and what people do in a society. I led the conversation to point out that if everyone made their own clothes, took their own trash to the dumb, manufactured their own cars, and had to grow and harvest their own foods, raise cows, chickens, etc., it would be very costly and people wouldn't have time to do fun things because they would always be working on something. So, we each take on a job. One person makes cars for everyone. One person takes out everyone's trash. One person makes all the food. This way, everyone has a job so we all share the work. However, some jobs are ickier than others. Some job require more expertise and therefore, those people get a little extra money because of that.
This naturally leads into the question: What jobs do we need done in our classroom? By putting the responsibility on the students to create the jobs, it creates investment and dedication from the beginning. They've chosen what needs to be done. It also gets them thinking critically. Be sure to point out that kids will be absent and someone needs to take care of that. Some jobs might require two people. Delegating will make your life easier too. While you can't delegate your gradebook, you can delegate checking papers like I mentioned in my post A Whole New View on Math Practice. Really take a look at what things in the classroom you CAN delegate to your students and give them that responsibility. It takes a lot off your plate and gets them further invested in your microcosm. Avoid giving students anything that has sensitive information about other students. Checking papers isn't usually an issue because students in the same class tend to know where one another stand. However, always ask yourself if it is infringing on the student's educational time. If you're using your higher level students to check papers every day and they aren't getting enrichment time from you, that's a bad thing.
Once we had a list of jobs, we would write a description for each one and evaluate, informally, if the jobs were extremely out of balance or didn't make sense. Each job was assigned an A, B, or C and that was the pay grade. A was $40 per week, B was $35 per week, and C was $30 per week. The C grade jobs were a little lighter than the A grade jobs. Next, each student was assigned a job. All of my students had numbers and I kept a jar full of popsicle sticks with their numbers so I could pick a kid actually at random. I used numbers instead of names so I could reuse the popsicle sticks each year. Drawing at random, each kid would choose a job. The following week, the students with C level jobs would pick first. Basically, I would reverse the list. I kept an Excel document so that if I needed to see who was assigned to which job or if I needed to see which jobs kids had already had in the past.
Credits & Debits
Just like the jobs, the kids mostly generate the credits and debits, but the teacher is an equal member of the classroom society so, he/she can contribute ideas as well. As the teacher, you can usually use reasoning to guide the discussion. To the left are some examples of things my third grade class from my third year of teaching chose. From my experience, the kids are actually pretty harsh on themselves. This is one particular area where you have to re-evaluate these every week to make sure the fees and credits are extreme. As students earn credits and debits, make a note on their credit/debit sheets immediately. If you wait until the end of the day, you'll forget.
Managing Their Money
While I think all the parts of a classroom economy benefit students and reinforce standards-based skills as well as real-life and character-building skills, managing their credits and debits has a direct connection to math. I usually just kept a general eye on my students, maybe a little closer on kids who might have the tendency toward shadiness. At the end of the day, as part of the closing routine, students would balance their accounts for the day. At the end of the week, students would get paid and be able to buy things from my store. The store was comprised of random things from around my house and things I found in clearance bins at Office Max. Folders, game books, erasers, pencils, books, and other useful things as well as some fun things. It gave students who came from low income families an opportunity to buy things for themselves as well as siblings. This was a big confidence builder for a lot of students. I just put post-it notes on items as "price tags."
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| Credit/Debit Log: Students had to write how many 1s, 5s, & 10s they would get/lose. |
A Word on Black Markets
While your first reaction might be to quash black markets, you might want to think twice. Maybe you're thinking, "What do you mean 'black market'?" I had a student in my third grade class who saw the other kids needed a way of keeping their money safe, so she started making wallets out of duct tape. She made designs on them and made them in different colors and soon, she had a fat wad of cash. She was quite the little entrepreneur. On the other hand, I heard tell of a class where another young girl started requiring students to pay her protection money otherwise she "wouldn't be their friend." As long as the black market goods are within the guidelines of the classroom rules and promote positive, helping behaviors, I'd let the free market reign.
