Economics and Geography Lessons
Uncle Jed's Barbershop
MCPS Status of Book as of 4/4/96:
Approved as Library Book for Grades K-5
Title: Uncle Jed's Barbershop by Margaree King Mitchell with
illustrations by James Ransome (Scholastic Inc., New York, NY, 1994)
Lesson Developed by Patricia King Robeson
Literature Annotation: This beautifully illustrated story is narrated by a young girl. It takes place in the early 1900s. Uncle Jed is saving his money to buy his own barbershop; but when his niece, Sarah Jean, needs an operation, he gives her parents his savings for her operation. Hard times happen again during the Great Depression, and he loses $3,000 when his bank closes. Uncle Jed always believed in dreams, and he continues working until he has enough money to own his own barbershop.
Grade Level: 2-5
Duration: 2 to 3 class periods
Economic Concepts:
Geography Themes: Relationships: Humans and Environments, Movement
MSPAP Outcomes and Indicators:
Economic Outcome: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the historical development and current status of economic principles, institutions, and processes needed to be effective citizens, consumers, and workers in American society.
Indicators:
- Describes the relationship between economic wants and needs.
- Make decisions about available goods and services and understand the consequences of those decisions.
- Identify economic resources located within a community.
Geography Outcome: Students will develop an understanding of geographic concepts and processes as needed to examine the role of culture, technology, and the environment in the location and distribution of human activities.
Indicators:
- Explain the relationship between the physical setting of a community and its ability to satisfy the wants and needs of its people.
- Describe how transportation and communication networks link communities.
Objectives: Students will be able to:
- Use illustrations from the book to identify the needs and wants of Sarah Jean's family.
- Describe how the family used the physical environment to meet its needs.
- Identify the human, natural and capital resource's Uncle Jed needed to operate his traveling barber business and, later, his own shop, to provide his services to earn an income to satisfy his needs and wants.
- Explain that when Uncle Jed made a choice to give his savings for Sarah Jean's operation, he incurred an opportunity cost because his resources were scarce.
- Use the Decision Tree to show opportunity cost as the single most valuable opportunity given up when a choice is made.
- Describe how Uncle Jed's business linked the communities.
- Compare and contrast the physical setting of communities long ago and today.
Vocabulary: opportunity cost, sharecropper, Great Depression
Materials:
- Book: Uncle Jed's Barbershop
- Three copies of the "Decision Tree" for each group of four students
- Problem card for each group
Teacher Background: Knowledge of African American history and of the Great Depression. Students need prior knowledge of how to use the Econ and Me "Decision Tree" to make decisions.
Lesson Development:
Review/Motivation:
- Instruct students to think for one minute about something that they always wanted, and how they earned it. Explain that this "something" does not include items they were given or bought for them. Allow one minute for the students to share their "want" story with a partner.
- Allow about two minutes for student volunteers to share their stories with the class. Ask the students to think about what they decided to give up in order to have something they wanted or needed. Explain to the students that they just identified their "opportunity cost." Write the words on the board and ask students to give you a definition which you can write on the board.
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- Explain that the story you are going to read to them takes place during the time when African American people were not allowed the same rights as white people. Explain that after you read the book, Uncle Jed's Barbershop, you want them to be able to give you a definition for "sharecropper" and tell something about the time called the Great Depression. Write the words on the board. Explain that they will also need to be able to explain how this story is about opportunity cost.
- Read the story.
Activities:
Read the story and discuss the following questions:
- How is the definition of opportunity cost related to Uncle Jed? (Uncle Jed gave his savings to his brother, Sarah Jean's father, so Sarah Jean could have an operation, and as a result of his good deed, Uncle Jed gave up the opportunity to open his barbershop. It was very difficult for Black people to get a bank loan, even before many banks failed during the Great Depression.)
- How did the Great Depression cause many people to become very poor? (Savings in banks were not safe because there was neither insurance nor laws protecting savings. Many people also lost their jobs when businesses failed.)
- When people could not pay for haircuts with money, what was their opportunity cost? (His customers paid with vegetables from the garden and eggs, and prepared meals for Uncle Jed so that they could continue to get a haircut. Their opportunity cost was that they lost the chance to use the food for themselves or to trade it for something else when they used it to pay Uncle Jed.)
- Look at the picture of Uncle Jed arriving at Sarah Jean's house? What wants and needs do you see? (Needs: house, chickens, horse, clothes, air; Wants: doll. Students may list the dog in either as a need or want but ask them to explain why.)
- Who were sharecroppers? How did they satisfy their needs? (Sharecroppers didn't own land but worked for people who did. They "shared" the crop or crops to have food for their family.)
- How did the family use the physical setting of the land to satisfy their needs and wants? (Sarah Jean's father cleared the land to plant crops, made room for chickens to feed and to graze a horse. Fruit on the table could have come from trees shown in the pictures.)
- What season of the year is it at the beginning of the story and explain how you know? (Fall because leaves are turning colors, people have on long-sleeved clothing, leaves are falling.)
- How do you know this story took place over time and not just during one season? (When Uncle Jed finally got his barbershop, Sarah Jean was there for opening day and she was grown up; or Uncle Jed needed a long time to save all the money he had lost during the Great Depression; or Uncle Jed is older than he was in the beginning of the story because now he has grey hair and is 79 years old.)
- On opening day for the barbershop, people came from all over the county. What the types of transportation did they use and how did transportation link the county together? (People walked or rode horses. They traveled these ways to share information and to locate goods or services they needed or wanted to buy.)
- How do you think Sarah Jean felt when she sat in Uncle Jed's barber chair? (Proud because Uncle Jed had a dream and believed he could make it come true; happy because even though he had made a sacrifice for her, he was able to have what he always wanted.) (Accept any reasonable answer for which a student can give a good explanation.)
Journal Writing Activity:
- Ask students to think about the community in the story and their own community. Instruct them to use a graphic organizer to show how Sarah Jean's community then and their community now are alike and different.
- After completing the graphic organizer, instruct them to write a paragraph to describe how the people in their community today satisfy wants and needs compared to the people in Uncle Jed's story.
Conclusion/Closure:
Give each student a blank sheet of paper and explain that they will use
information from the story and their journal paragraph to draw two pictures.
Have the students fold their paper in half to make two 8_" x 5_"
sheets and draw a line along the fold. On the left side draw a picture of Uncle
Jed's choice and opportunity cost; on the right side, draw a picture of the
"want" they identified in the first part of the lesson and their
opportunity cost. Have the students label and title their pictures.
Thoughtful Application:
- Divide students into groups of four and give each group a copy of the Decision Tree and a problem card containing the following problem. "What do I do after dinner? Your choices are: go to soccer team practice or work on your social studies project." When groups have completed their trees and made their choices, have them share their information with the class. Instruct them to label the alternative they did not choose as their opportunity cost.
- Ask the members of group to recall times when each had to make a difficult choice. After brainstorming, direct them to choose one of the situations described by the members of the group to diagram on the decision tree and share with the other groups.
- Instruct each group to choose a person or group of people they have learned about in social studies class, (for example, the early settlers.) (The choices will, of course, depend on your grade and curriculum.) For that person or group, identify a choice that was made and complete a decision tree to analyze the decision. Share completed decision trees and use them to create a "Decisions and Opportunity Cost" bulletin board.
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- Literature Log 1-1 entry: What is the one thing you would like to have more than anything else? Explain what it is and how you would achieve it.
- Introduce the story through a Picture Walk. Have the students to focus on the people and setting in the story to determine when the story occurred. Record all answers.
- Introduce a limited vocabulary to the story.
- sharecropper
Great Depression
dream (synonym: goal)
savings
operation
separate (adj.) - Students silently read the story.
- While the students are reading, they can write out questions or ideas about the story on the Post-it notes. During the discussion they can refer to the notes.
- Answer any questions after the students have read the story.
- Literature Log 1-2 entry: First, write about Uncle Jed's dream. What was it, and what did he do to make the dream happen? Did it ever happen? Begin with the entry starter of "Uncle Jed's dream was ..." (Take two minutes to write out your answer.)
- Literature Log 1-3 entry: Look at the questions and the ideas that you wrote on the Post-It notes. What are some of the things that you liked about the story? Use this entry starter: "In this story I liked..." (Take two minutes to write out your answer.)
- Literature Log 1-4 entry: What are some of the things that you did not understand or like about the story? If you are confused about something, you can use that for the entry. Possible entry starters are "I did not like...", "I did not understand...", or list your questions. (maximum of 10 min. on this)
- Read over the children's entries as they are making them into the Literature logs.
- Tell the students to keep their Post-It notes because they will be using them tomorrow.
- Introduce your Estimation Jar.
- Discuss what a dream or a goal is. Have the students look at how a goal can help a community. Establish a goal for your school or your community. Decide what to do to reach the goal. Establish a timeline on when certain things need to be done. Write out the goal, the procedures, and timeline; post it where the class can see it often. Use proactive terms.
- Send home note about collecting pennies for the project.
- Introduce the Computer Learning Station: Have the students practice their change making skills by using Change Maker as a learning station.
http://www.thesolutionsite.com/lesson/2005/lesson3.html
http://newdeal.feri.org/eleanor/index.htm
http://www.prenhall.com/divisions/esm/app/ph-elem/multicult/html/chap1.html
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PROJECT ONE: PROBLEM-SOLVING AND
CHILDREN'S LITERATURE The NCTM Curriculum
and Evaluation Standards stress the
importance of providing connections in mathematics. An integrated mathematics
curriculum connects mathematics topics to other mathematics, to other
subjects, and to the real world. According to David J. Whitin (1995), incorporating
children's literature into a mathematics lesson can help provide context for
children. That is, children can see how real people use mathematics in their
everyday lives. children's literature is also an excellent way to explore
multiculturalism. Two children's books with multicultural themes will be
highlighted. Each book can motivate real world mathematics problems. The
books also offer opportunities for interdisciplinary lessons. SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES FOR THE
ELEMENTARY CLASSROOM (GRADES 3 - 6) I. Uncle Jed's
Barbershop by Margaree King
Mitchell. Students read responsively from Uncle Jed's Barbershop in class. This excellent book tells the story of Uncle
Jed, the only African-American barber in his county. Uncle Jed and his family
live in the segregated South of the 1920s. Uncle Jed wants more than anything
to have his own barbershop. But each time he saves up enough money to open
his shop a tragedy occurs.
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