Teachers’ Guide

Lesson Plan: Economic Growth in New England
by Terence Martin*

Duration: two or three 45-minute class periods

Objectives:

• Students will be able to describe the general factors that lead to economic growth.
  
  
• Students will be able to reference at least four events that promoted economic growth in New England’s history.
  
  
• Students will be able to explain how economic growth can improve a region’s standard of living.
  
  
• Students will be able to reference at least three specific times in New England history where market innovations improved the general standard of living.

Procedure:

1. Opening: In order to get students thinking about economic growth, begin with a short brainstorming activity. Ask students to take a few minutes to individually jot down any factors they believe are needed for a business to truly prosper. After the two minutes are up, elicit responses and record them on the blackboard. Tell the class that the success of a business relies heavily on the overall health of its surrounding economy. State that the development of a healthy economy involves many different factors, including education, innovation, and stable banking practices. Explain to students that they will spend the next class period playing the game: Pursuit! On the trail of economic growth, which will help them understand the factors that lead to a robust economy. Inform students that the game asks them to investigate various stories about New England’s economic development over the past three hundred years. Tell the students that the question they should continually think about during the game is: What promotes economic growth and how does growth affect society?

2. Game Play: Before having the students play Pursuit!, go over the objectives of the lesson. Also, tell the students that during the game they need to write down, in their notebooks or on loose leaf paper, four events that led to economic growth for New England and three instances in which economic growth improved the standard of living for New Englanders. Arrange time for each student to play Pursuit!.

3. Class Discussion: Following game play, break the class into small groups. Instruct the groups to share what they recorded from the game. Remind students to refer back to the original question during the discussion: What promotes economic growth and how does growth affect society?

4. Report Out and Wrap Up: After the groups have had a chance to converse, involve the whole class in a discussion over the central question. Ask students to refer to specific information from the game. If possible, have the Timeline of Key Economic Events in New England projected and scroll to the specific events students mention. End the lesson by attempting to categorize, with the entire class, a set of general factors that lead to economic growth.

Extension Activity:
Have students imagine that they are the leader of a fictional island country in the Caribbean. Ask them to write a short essay on what policies they would institute in their country to promote economic growth.

 

* Terence Martin is a social studies teacher at the Dr. Philip O. Coakley Middle School in Norwood, Massachusetts. He wrote this lesson plan while participating in a teacher externship at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in 2007.