Classroom Activities
Opening Lesson
The opening lesson will seek to explain the theoretical concept of UBI to my students, and to help them make connections about why the policy of UBI is important to them. In my class, students start off each class with a daily writing prompt. Students then have 2 minutes to pair share their writing with their elbow partners, and we conclude the warm up with a 5-7 minute class discussion. For the opening lesson, the writing prompt will be, “Imagine that the government gave you $1000 a month with no strings attached. What would you do with that money? How would your life change? Would you still go out and find a job? Why or why not?” Journal entries and class discussions are regularly used as informal formative assessments, which helps inform me of my students’ thoughts, opinions, and knowledge about specific subject matter.
After discussing how some countries and municipalities are already experimenting with UBI (Finland, Kenya, Iran, Stockton, Alaska, etc.), how UBI was a central policy of Andrew Yang’s presidential platform, and whether we would classify the federal government’s $1,200 COVID-19 stimulus as UBI, we would watch a video “Universal Basic Income Explained- Free Money for Everybody?” by Kurzgesagt- In a Nutshell. In their video reflection, students would discuss information that was new or interesting to them, information that they agreed or disagreed with, and their rudimentary thoughts on whether UBI is a good policy to implement.
Research Paper
One of my students’ summative assessments will be an expository research paper examining Universal Basic Income, including its history, the rationales for and against, and pilot programs in the United States and abroad. This paper will be introduced during the second UBI class, so that students can start thinking about how they would like to structure their paper, and also be cognizant about how our activities in class are related to their summative assessment. We will go over the rubric as a class to make sure that our expectations are aligned, and for the students who believe they will benefit from it, I will pass out an outline showing how their summative assessment can be written (what information could go in each paragraph, sentence stems for their thesis and topic sentences, etc.).
Because the students’ projects are heavily premised in research, students will practice research and utilizing credible sources in class, organizing information, and citing to relevant information through in-text citations. When it comes to writing their papers, students will organize their information into a coherent report that takes into consideration proper grammar and mechanics, and will format their papers in MLA, complete with a Works Cited page.
Defined Roles Socratic Seminar
Another summative assessment I will be utilizing to gauge my students’ understanding of UBI is a Socratic Seminar with defined roles, where students will discuss the statement, “The United States should immediately implement a Universal Basic Income policy for its citizens,” where they will explore the advantages and disadvantages of employing a UBI policy in the United States.
In pairs or as individuals, students will pick certain interest groups or people with certain political views, such as organized labor, conservative voter in Mississippi, progressive voter in New York, welfare recipient, etc. Students can create their own personas and roles, and some of the roles will be left deliberately vague, which will allow students to interpret and research according to their worldview.
Students will prepare for this role by writing a short paper describing who they are, whether or not they feel that the United States should implement a UBI program, and at least 3 rationales to support their position. During the Socratic Seminar, each student will be expected to share at least two times, either through presenting an idea or elaborating off an idea that has already been shared.
Through these activities, it is my hope that my students will gain an appreciation for a new ideology for wealth distribution that they may not have considered before, and in the process, will improve their reading, research, organizational, writing, and speaking abilities.
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