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Engaging Students in Supply and Demand Vocabulary: Reflections from the Classroom

Last week, I taught a lesson on the essential vocabulary in AP Microeconomics Unit 2: Supply and Demand. Vocabulary is foundational in economics, as students need a strong grasp of key terms to fully understand and analyze concepts. My approach for this lesson was to build vocabulary familiarity through a range of scaffolded activities, aiming to keep students engaged while ensuring comprehension.


The Lesson Plan and Activities


The lesson began with a collaborative brainstorming session where students helped list out key supply and demand terms. After introducing each term briefly, I guided students into a group matching activity, where they paired terms with definitions. This transitioned smoothly into a paired “half-crossword” exercise, where students took turns describing terms to each other—a fun way to reinforce understanding through peer explanation. Finally, we rounded off the lesson with a multiple-choice quiz (MCQ) to apply what they had learned.


To conclude, I introduced the “blob tree” as a self-assessment tool, where students chose a character on the tree that represented how confident they felt about the concepts of supply and demand. This visual check-in provided valuable insight into their understanding and confidence with the material.


What Went Well


Overall, the activities unfolded effectively, each one building on the previous in a scaffolded progression. Starting with matching terms, then describing them, and finally testing comprehension with the MCQ, students were engaged and active participants in their learning. The whiteboard became an essential visual aid for illustrating terms like “demand curve” and “quantity demanded,” which helped clarify some of the more challenging distinctions for students.


Circulating around the room also allowed me to observe areas of struggle. For example, some students found it difficult to distinguish between related terms like “demand” and “demand curve,” which led to an impromptu class discussion that further clarified these points. The final “blob tree” activity was especially helpful in gauging individual students’ confidence levels, helping me identify those who were solid on the material versus those who might need a bit more support.


Reflections for Improvement

While the lesson was successful in many ways, there were a couple of areas where I could improve:


Time Management with the MCQ: With only 10 minutes left, students didn’t have enough time to finish the quiz. This led to some staying into recess, and a few even wanted it graded right away. Next time, I’d approach this differently—perhaps completing a few questions together and assigning the rest as homework to give them more time and avoid cutting into their break.


More Strategic Pairing: During the half-crossword activity, I paired students randomly, but in hindsight, pairing higher-performing students with those who might benefit from a bit more support could have been beneficial. Some students struggled, while others breezed through the material. By pairing students more strategically, I could encourage more effective peer learning and support.


Looking Ahead


This lesson reinforced for me the importance of a balanced, dynamic approach when introducing vocabulary. Building from recognition to application, using varied activities, and allowing students to reflect on their learning with the blob tree made for an interactive and insightful session. Going forward, I’ll take these reflections on timing and pairing into my future lessons to better structure student learning.

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