LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE

Your Name: Vanessa Rios

Title of Lesson: Distribution of Wealth
Grade: 6th
STANDARDS
AZCCRS: (6.W.7.)Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and refocusing
the inquiry when appropriate.
SS. Strand 5. Concept 1: PO1: Identify how limited resources and unlimited human wants cause some people to
choose some things and give up others.

LESSON SUMMARY/OVERVIEW
This lesson, students will be introduced to how wealth is distributed. The lesson will begin with the teacher writing
down eye opening facts on the board such as the wealthiest 1% of people in the world hold 40% of the wealth.
Different facts can vary as the teacher determines which facts are most impactful to the students. After these facts
are presented, the students will have time for think pair share in which they discuss their opinions on this. While in
pairs, students will then watch a video on gapminder and learn how to navigate the website. A worksheet will then
be given to them and they will conduct their research on the website. This not only integrates a technology standard
but also a historical one as well since they will be looking at several years and even decades on the gapminder
website. This is relevant for the unit of poverty because it shows that there is enough wealth for people to have lifes
necessities but it is just distributed extremely unevenly.

OBJECTIVES
Objective: SWBAT utilize Gap Minder as an educational tool to look at wealth distribution and complete a worksheet.

ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION
The worksheet must be filled out completely and have at least 8 out of the 10 answers correct.
PREREQUISITE KNOWLEDGE
In the beginning of the lesson students will be asked to think about the term disparity and several volunteers will
be called on to explain their definition of the word. Once disparity is defined, the students will then be asked to think
of a time in which they saw disparity, in the city, in their neighborhood, or anywhere else where different people
share a public space. After sharing, the students will be asked to keep this term in mind as they go into the lesson.
MATERIALS
Pencil, worksheet, whiteboard, marker, computer (tablet, notebook, etc.)
VOCABULARY/KEY WORDS
Disparity: A visible, great difference.
Wealth: High amount of money or assets.
Wants: Not necessary to live, things that are luxuries, or supplements.
Needs: Necessary to live such as water, food, and shelter.

TEACHING PROCEDURES
The lesson will begin with the teacher writing important facts on the disparity in the distribution of wealth. Students
will get a chance to read and think about these facts before the teacher clarifies the vocabulary terms such as
disparity, wealth, and answer any questions the students might have regarding the facts on the board. As stated
before, one of them can be the fact that the richest 1% own 40% of the wealth in the world. After presented with
these facts, have students talk in partners about their opinions as well as some experiences in which they might have
seen disparity (an example would be seeing a homeless person asking for money outside of a department store).

Once introduced to the topic, students will remain in pairs as the teacher passes out the worksheet for the activity
and begins to explain that they will be using a technological tool called Gapminder. Before the students are able to
access the website, the teacher will go over a brief tutorial on how to use the website and offer help if someone is
confused once the students get started on answering the questions on the worksheet. Students should be given
around 20 minutes to complete the worksheet and then the teacher will ask them to respond to the reflection question
the back of the paper. Students are to write their reflections separately as to not have their own opinion influenced
by their partner.
At the end of the lesson, the class will come back together for a discussion on their findings and their reflections.
RESOURCES
Gapminder. (n.d.). Retrieved April 10, 2015 from http://www.gapminder.org/
WAYS OF THINKING CONNECTION
During this lesson students will be able to reflect on the concept of wealth and the disparity seen between the rich
and the poor. This connects to values thinking, as they are asked to analyze the disparity of rich and poor and think
about what each member of the class might value over what the other one might value. In the United States, most of
us are in a good middle class, especially when compared to other countries that have millions of people in poverty.
This makes students reflect on what they have in their lives as well as to think in the shoes of being in the highest
1% and the lowest in extreme poverty.