Lesson Plan: Should You Be Able to Shop On Your Own?

Essential Questions

• Is it fair for the actions of a few people to have consequences for many?
• Where and how can teens safely practice being independent?

Preview Text Features (15 minutes)

Have students open their magazines to page 4. Guide them to preview the text features by asking the following questions:

• Read the article’s title and subtitle (the text beneath the title). Make a prediction: Why might malls be banning teens from entering without an adult? Answers may vary. Students might guess (correctly) that teens have been misbehaving in malls and that the new rules are meant to keep them in check.
• Find the photos labeled “Malls: Then and Now,” and read their captions. What do they tell you about how the way malls view teens has changed? The photos and their captions tell you that malls used to try to attract teen shoppers and are now putting rules in place that could drive them away. 

Preview Vocabulary (10 minutes)

• Point out the vocabulary box. Read the words (chaperone, deter, socialized, flourished, consumers) 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 “Should You Be Able to Shop On Your Own?” will tell them why and how some malls are keeping teens from entering without an adult.
• 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’ll complete it after reading. Encourage them to briefly scan the questions and to keep them in mind as they read.

Read the article. (Higher- and lower-Lexile versions are available on the Story page at Action Online. Click Presentation View to access an audio read-aloud.) Then discuss the following close-reading and critical-thinking questions.

Close-Reading Questions (20 minutes)

• The author begins the article by asking readers to imagine being turned away from a mall. Why do you think she chose to begin this way? (author’s purpose) The author probably wants readers to think about how it would feel to be unable to enter a mall when they want to. Imagining that feeling of surprise or disappointment might grab readers’ attention and make them want to keep reading.
• What problem do business owners hope to solve with chaperone policies? (problem and solution) By putting chaperone policies into place, business owners hope to make sure teen shoppers are supervised at the times when they’re most likely to get rowdy. They hope this will cut down on fighting and other behaviors that might bother other shoppers.
• How might chaperone policies hurt businesses? (cause and effect) Chaperone policies might cause teen shoppers to spend less time at malls. Because many mall shoppers are teens, this could mean fewer sales for businesses.

Critical-Thinking Question (5 minutes)

• According to the article, some parents hope their teens will become more independent by spending time at the mall without adults. Do you think that’s a good reason for a mall not to have a chaperone policy? Why or why not? Answers may vary. Some students might say yes, because keeping teens and their parents happy builds customer loyalty. Others might say no, because people who still need to learn independence aren’t ready to shop on their own; they might make poor decisions and cause trouble. 

• 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 activity, available in higher- and lower-level versions. (Click here to view all your Skill Builders for this article.)
• Writing Prompt: Imagine that your family owns a shopping mall and has to decide whether to put a chaperone policy in place. Write a paragraph saying whether you think a chaperone policy is a good idea and why. Support your opinion with details from the article.