Standards Correlations

R.1, R.2, R.3, R.4, R.6, R.7, W.2, SL.1, L.4, L.6

Learning Objective

Students will read and summarize an article about the recent inflation spike. 

Key Skills

susummarizing, text features, vocabulary, author’s purpose, cause and effect, problem and solution, critical thinking, informational writing

Complexity Factors

Purpose: The text presents causes and effects of inflation. 

 

Structure: This article includes cause-and-effect structures.

 

Language: The language is conversational.

 

Knowledge Demands: The article  refers to percentages and to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Levels

Lexile: 600L-700L 

Guided Reading Level: T

DRA Level: 50

Lesson Plan: Why Does This Stuff Cost So Much?

Essential Questions

  • How do businesses decide what price to charge for the things they sell? 
  • What can individuals and families do to cut back on spending? 

Literature Connection

  • Nonfiction: More Than Money: How Economic Inequality Affects . . . Everything by Hadley Dyer 

1. Preparing to Read 

Activate Prior Knowledge (5 minutes)

Ask students whether they’ve noticed that many things cost more than they did last year. If students have noticed, ask them to give examples. Encourage them to think about the prices of items they might buy on a regular basis, such as bags of chips and packs of gum. Write students’ examples on the board.

Preview Text Features (10 minutes)

Guide students to locate the article. Then preview the text features by asking the following questions:

  • The article includes many images of items with price tags that have arrows on them. What message do all the price tags have in common? Every price tag has an arrow pointing upward and a percentage. They show that the price of each item has risen and by how much. 
  • Find the sidebar labeled “Inflation Case Study: Nike Air Force 1s” and read the text below the heading. What is the purpose of the sidebar? The sidebar’s purpose is to explain why the price of Nike Air Force 1s recently rose by $20.

Preview Vocabulary (10 minutes)

  • Point out the vocabulary box. Read the words (inflation, spike, splurged, demand, income) aloud and discuss their definitions..
  • Play the Vocabulary Slideshow.

Make a Plan for Reading 

Before students start to read, walk them through a reading plan:

  • Set a purpose for reading by telling students that the article “Why Does This Stuff Cost So Much?” will explain why prices have risen sharply in the past year.
  • Point out the Pause and Think boxes. Tell students they can check their understanding of what they’ve read by answering these questions.
  • Point out the activity at the end of the article and tell students they will complete it after reading. Encourage them to briefly scan the questions and to keep them in mind as they read.

2. Reading and Unpacking the Text

Guide students to read the article. Once they understand it well, discuss the following close-reading and critical-thinking questions.

Close-Reading Questions (15 minutes)

  • Why do you think the author starts the article by describing Bryson’s experience of saving up for a baseball bat? What does his story help you understand about inflation? (author’s purpose) Reading about Bryson’s experience helps you understand how inflation can affect an individual. By reading about Bryson, you can see how inflation might affect you too.
  • Based on the article, what happens to prices when demand is higher than supply? (cause and effect) When demand is higher than supply, prices go up.
  • Based on the article, what changes have some families made in order to save money? (problem and solution) Some families are buying secondhand clothing and switching to cheaper grocery stores.

Critical-Thinking Question (5 minutes)

  • Based on the article, what might cause a business to lower its prices? For instance, why might a store lower the price of a certain jacket from $100 to $80? (critical thinking) The article says that prices go up when a business has more demand than supply. You can guess that prices go down when a business has a lot of a certain product and not many people want to buy it.

3. Skill Building and Writing

  • Have students work in pairs to complete the Spotlight Skill activity at the end of the article.
  • Go further: Assign students to work independently on our Summarizing Skill Builder, available in higher- and lower-level versions. (Click here to view all your Skill Builders for this article.)
  • Writing prompt: No one likes it when prices go up. To make inflation easier on your family, write a list of five things you can do to save money. Think about items you can get for free, cheaper versions of things you usually buy, and things you can do without for a while.

Learn Anywhere Activity

An enrichment activity to extend the learning journey at home or in the classroom

Do the math!

The article says that prices rose by 8 percent in 2022. What might that mean for you and your family? Here are a few math problems to give you an idea. It’s OK to use a calculator if you need to!

  • Imagine that every day in 2021, you bought a bottle of iced tea and a bag of chips. That snack cost $4.00. What would it cost in 2022? (To get the answer, multiply 4.00 by 1.08.)
  • Let’s say your family spent $3,000 on groceries in 2021. What would those same groceries cost in 2022? (Again, multiply by 1.08.)
  • What if your family spent $250 a month on gasoline  in 2021? How much more would that gas cost each month in 2022? How much more would your family spend on gas in a year? 
  • Think of something you’ve spent money on recently. What did it cost? What would it cost next year if prices were to go up by 8 percent again? Share your answer with the class. 

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