Blog Post 3
Introduction: This is a unit my CT and I discussed to teach this semester at Riverside University High School in the graduation-required senior Economics course. My CT taught a similar unit in the past, and he showed me his own version of a DBQ (Document Based Question) that worked well with students but focused on the tax costs of our criminal justice system, so I wanted to provide a set of texts that focuses on the societal and individual costs of crime and the economic decision-making process that goes into participating in illegal activity. The students in these classes are all between 16 and 18, about 60% black, 20% latino, 10% asian and 10% white. Students live within 6 miles of the school, but I have not found any major areas that they come from. 95% of Riverside students are on free or reduced lunch, so from that I would gather many are lower SES. I only know this anecdotally, but many of my students come from single parent households or live with multiple generations in one ho...