Business Insider has a page that features a ton of different charts and graphs on wealth inequality. It would work great in conjunction with an activity on Occupy Wall Street. The graphs start off showing how unemployment is at an all-time high (since 1940), then they look at CEO pay and corporate profits.

The graph I have included here compares corporate profits and CEO pay rates to production worker income and minimum wage. It makes a clear statement against the argument that a rising tide lifts all ships. Corporate profits and CEO pay have risen tremendously since 1990, but the trickle down of jobs and middle class income has not materialized.

Another interesting chart (far down the page) is one that compares wealth inequality in the US to that of other countries. We currently rank 93rd, behind China, Iran and Russia. Even further down is some information about how banks are using the money they are borrowing from the government at virtually 0% interest to buy treasury bills, profiting from free loans with zero risk.

These charts could be used in a wide array of activities on business, wealth and poverty, globalization, and worker’s rights. The page as a whole is probably too much, but a few carefully chosen graphs or charts would make a great addition to a reading or discussion activity.

Thanks Khalid!

If I were teaching a class on business, I would absolutely include information on this protest. In my experience, it may come as a surprise to some students that the majority of Americans are not rich. This would fit in well with activities on the distribution of wealth. One of the groups involved in the protest, We Are the 99%, offers a powerful collection of photos and narratives by the poorer 99% of Americans. This would work well with graphs illustrating the fact that, while the wealthiest 1% have seen their real income more than double in the past few decades, the rest of America has seen little to no growth. And, of course, this problem is not uniquely American. Students could be invited to present information on the distribution of wealth in their countries, or in other countries that they research. It could also be fruitful to combine these with activities looking at the distribution of wealth between countries. Whatever the angle, articles on this protest would be a great addition to a unit on business, government or wealth and poverty.

I think this game is an engaging way for students to learn about many of the issues that poor families struggle with. I would certainly consider using it in a unit on poverty and wealth. It doesn’t take very long, and could serve either as an introductory or review activity. It also touches on a number of other issues, including education, health and nutrition.

This website could also be used in critical thinking exercises, as students could parse out the different motivations behind the site, and look at the different ways these issues have been covered in mainstream and progressive media outlets.

There are two issues facing our nation–high unemployment and undocumented people in the workforce–that many Americans believe are related.

Missing from the debate on both issues is an honest recognition that the food we all eat – at home, in restaurants and workplace cafeterias (including those in the Capitol) – comes to us from the labor of undocumented farm workers.

If I were doing this in class, I might also bring in materials (like this or this) on the lives of undocumented workers in the slaughterhouse industry, inviting students to look further look at the food chain we currently rely on.

Pollution has been defined as a resource in the wrong place. That’s also a pretty good description of the company’s profits. The great plumes of money that have been bursting out of the company’s accounts every year are not BP’s to give away. They consist, in part or in whole, of the externalised costs the company has failed to pay, and which the rest of society must carry.

Does this sound familiar? In the ten years preceding the crash, the banks posted and disposed of stupendous profits. When their risky ventures failed, they discovered that they hadn’t made sufficient provision against future costs, and had to go begging from the state. They had classified their annual surplus as profit and given it to their investors and staff long before it was safe to do so.

I also like this line, about the fact that (while clearly not being a Marshallese company) the rig is registered in the Marshall Islands.

Flags of convenience signify more than the place of registration: they’re an unmistakable sign that responsibilities are being offloaded.

A lot of students aren’t aware of the underlying assumptions in traditional economics, how corporations are allowed to externalize costs and avoid liability. Business is always a popular topic, and an introduction to alternative economic points-of-view (like these) can be really engaging for students.

And for more on the Gulf oil spill, be sure to check out this list of resources by Larry Ferlazzo. As usual, it’s quite comprehensive and includes a lot of good stuff.

• Reading Circle Peer Evaluation Sheet
• Financial Crisis Timeline Activity
• Financial Crisis Lesson Handout
• Financial Crisis Readings

On Tuesday, we did the first reading circle. I was pleased to see that it went well. I had done this with a global issues class I taught in Hawaii, but at that school reading circles were a common part of the curriculum. Here, none of my students had done them before. Still, they did a great job preparing their articles and had active discussions. I was a little worried about this because, in whole-class activities, there are a few people who tend to dominate. Fortunately, things seemed very balanced in the groups, with quiet students becoming more talkative.

After they did the reading circles, I handed out the peer evaluation sheet. I don’t know if I’ll bother doing this in the future, as the feedback has been extremely positive and thus not particularly useful, but I wanted to give it a try. Plus, I like letting students know that I want their opinions.

For the remainder of Tuesday’s class, I briefly introduced the final project. I didn’t give them any handouts, but I wanted to get them started thinking about possible issues and actions. For their project, I’m going to have them choose an issue, do some research, and then take an action related to the issue. Their project (in the form of either a paper or a presentation) will be to share what they learned about the issue, and their experience with their action. I will introduce it more formally next week.

On Thursday, my mentee taught her first class of the term. For a topic, she chose the global economic crisis. She did a great job. Last week, she had asked students if they were interested in learning about the financial crisis and, to my surprise, they were. I didn’t think that an ESL activity about the financial crisis would go over well.

She started by splitting the students into pairs and giving them one event from a timeline. They were asked to summarize the event in their own words, and then place it on the timeline that was drawn on the board. Students were then asked to take turns explaining their part of the timeline, while the teacher answered questions and helped with vocabulary.

She next gave students a handout which included some vocabulary words and discussion questions. She went through the vocabulary words, then had students watch a video clip explaining how the crisis happened. They watched it twice. After, the students discussed one of the questions from the handout in a small group. Each group then shared a brief summary of their discussion with the class.

The last thing she did was lead a short class discussion about the nature of sources, explaining the difference between subjective and objective and discussing their relative advantages and disadvantages. She also gave the students some readings offering additional information.

Watching someone else teach my class was a very interesting experience. First of all, I was able to see my students from a different perspective. One thing I realized is that I need to be firmer with them. With adults, I tend to shy away from telling them what they must do, preferring instead to frame things as suggestions. For example, instead of telling students to be quiet, I usually just start talking and wait a few moments for them to realize on their own. Part of my job as a teacher, though, is to be more authoritative, pushing students to do things that are good for their language acquisition, even when they may not want to do them.

I also appreciate the opportunity to see someone who has a different approach than I do. For example, I would never have done the timeline activity at the top of the class. I almost never do activities where students get up and move around. Seeing that it can work, and how it adds variety to a lesson, I hope I can start using this type of idea in the future.