A CLOSER LOOK: UNEMPLOYMENT

OVERVIEW:
Headlines abound on the topic of unemployment. All too often, we hear stories of unemployment, layoffs, and downsizing. In this lesson, students learn about unemployment after reading, listening to or watching a NewsHour story about new unemployment numbers. After conducting research, students will create a publication focusing on varied aspects of unemployment, create class presentations, and respond to classmates' publications by writing a letter to the editor.

Subject Area:
HIGH SCHOOL Math, Language Arts, Economics

Correlations to National Standards

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Students will perform the following:

• Gather data using a variety of sources
• Draw a scatter plot and find linear regression and correlation
• Organize/classify information
• Create a graphical representation to best describe a set of data
• Understand and discuss the importance of graphs
• Translate between written and graphical data
• Create a publication
• Research and discuss unemployment
• Understand that some unemployment is unavoidable

Assessment of student understanding of objectives can be accomplished through class discussion, evaluation of publications and letters, and follow up questions.

BUILDING BACKGROUND:
The purpose of the Building Background Activities is to give students background knowledge of basic concepts and vocabulary necessary to understand the lesson activities, to motivate their interest and engage them in the lesson topic, and to encourage them to make connections between what they already know about the topic and new ideas.
Activity One:

1. Place students in small groups.
2. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the average unemployment rate for the year 2001 was 4.8%. Pose this question to the students: "What does this statement mean?" Students can find a definition on NewsHour Extra.
3. Through research students should realize that persons are classified as unemployed if they are 16 or over and do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior 4 weeks, and are currently available for work. All others--those who have no job and are not looking for one--are counted as "not in the labor force." Many who do not participate in the labor force are going to school or are retired. Family responsibilities keep others out of the labor force. Still others have a physical or mental disability that prevents them from participating in labor force activities.
4. To calculate the unemployment rate, the number of unemployed persons (as defined above) is divided by the total labor force. Samples of these values can be found at the following site:http://www.bls.gov/cps/home.htm. Towards the bottom on the right is a map. Ask students to locate their state on the site under "Regional Resources". Here they can find actual values for the number of unemployed and the number in the labor force. Ask students to divide the number of unemployed by the work force to find the unemployment rate.
5. Students will apply these ideas and definitions when creating their unemployment publication.

Activity Two:
1. Ask students to read, watch or listen to the NewsHour story.
2. As a homework assignment, ask students to write a response to the article. Address items such as these: What feelings did you experience while reading the article? What impact does the article have on you? Your family? Your community?
3. Next, as a class create a list of vocabulary words from the article. Divide up the word list among groups. Find, record, and share definitions.

Activity Three:

1. Ask student groups to define the term statistics in their own words. Allow student groups to volunteer their definitions. Provide students with a definition from their textbook or dictionary. For example, "facts or data of a numerical kind, assembled, classified, and tabulated so as to present significant information about a given subject". Discuss how this definition compares to theirs. Then discuss ways in which they are a statistic.
2. Next, ask the class to brainstorm ways in which statistics are interpreted. Create a list on the chalkboard or overhead. Students should suggest items such as: measures of central tendency (i.e. mean, median, mode), frequency distributions, charts, graphs, plots and so on. Review meanings and definitions of items with class.
3. Then, using the following site:http://www.bls.gov/cps/home.htm, ask students to locate the average monthly unemployment rate for their region. Using the data found, ask students to interpret some part of the data, using statistical analysis. For example, students may find and compare the mean unemployment rates for month of December over the past 10 years. Student may use graphing calculators or other method to carry out the analysis.
4. As a class discuss the results. What information was obtained from the analysis? How can this information be used? Students will apply this information when creating their publication.

PRIMARY LESSON ACTIVITY:
The purpose of this activity is to provide students the opportunity to create graphs using current data while also gaining an understanding of unemployment and its effects. Students will use the Internet and personal interviews to research a specific aspect related to unemployment, and then create a 1-3 page publication that includes 2 types of graphs, statistical analysis, a news story, and a human interest story.

1. Divide the students into small groups. Explain that the goal of the assignment is to gather current data on a specific aspect of unemployment and organize and summarize it in three ways.
a) Creating 2 graphs of different types that help to summarize the information collected. Begin by discussing different types of graphs. Students should identify types including scatter plot, bar graph, line graph, pie graph or others. A review of graphing types, how they are created and how they are interpreted may be necessary. Next, discuss as a class what every graph should include. Students should determine that each graph should have a title, labels, even intervals, units of measure and a key. Why are these features necessary? What types of statistical analysis can be helpful in predicting trends? The following Web sites provide information on graphs and graphing:
http://www.uri.edu/artsci/newecn/Classes/Art/
INT1/Eco/D_A/Out.Graphs.html
http://www.cs.iupui.edu/~aharris/mmcc/mod6/abss8.html

b) Writing a news story based on the information. Students summarize the unemployment information they collected in part A. Articles should include terminology from Activity Two above as well as any statistical analysis that may help justify conclusions made. Students may use the Online News Hour Extra article as a guideline.

c) Writing a human-interest piece based on interview(s). If possible, ask students to interview someone who is or has been unemployed. If a person who is or has been unemployed is not available, ask students to interview someone currently employed and discuss with them their fears of unemployment and/or plans in the event of becoming unemployed. Prior to the interview, student groups should create a list of questions. Then, using the information collected, ask students to write a human-interest piece for their publication that focuses on the human side of unemployment.

2. Each group's publication focuses on a different aspect of unemployment. Possible aspects to focus on include the following:
· Unemployment statistics based on occupation
· Unemployment statistics based on education level
· Unemployment statistics based on age
· Comparison of unemployment rates of U.S. v. other countries
· Historical perspective of unemployment rates.
· Impact of crisis (e.g., Sept 11) on unemployment
· Unemployment statistics for women v. men
· Unemployment statistics for blacks v. whites
· Unemployment statistics for other minorities
3. Students may use the following Web sites to begin research:
http://cne.gmu.edu/modules/dau/stat/regression
/linregsn/reg_4_bdy.html
http://www.dol.gov
http://www.bls.gov/cps/#data
4. If publication software is available, ask students to utilize it for their final works. If not, use word processing and/or other available software. Final publications should include a title and date and have a professional appearance.
5. After completion of the publications, ask student groups to provide a copy of their publication to NewsHour Extra.

EXTENSION ACTIVITIES
1. Ask students to watch the evening news, read the newspaper, or search the Internet for a story related to unemployment that has local impact. Samples of stories to watch for may include a plant that is closing or a company laying-off employees. They should address the question, "How does this story impact my life?" Students may then create a class bulletin board, mock news broadcast or Web site to share the information collected.
2. Ask students to look in the classified ads of the local paper. Tally and graph the number of jobs available by category. How would they describe the job market in their area based on the results?

STANDARDS
McRel K-12 National Standards www.mcrel.org

Math
· Selects and uses the best method of representing and describing a set of data (e.g., scatter plot, line graph, two-way table)
· Represents problem situations in and translates among oral, written, concrete, pictorial, and graphical forms
· Understands properties of graphs and the relationship between a graph and its corresponding expression (e.g., maximum and minimum points)
· Understands that mathematics provides a precise system to describe objects, events, and relationships and to construct logical arguments
· Understands the concept of correlation (e.g., the difference between a "true" correlation and a "believable" correlation; when two variables are correlated)
· Understands different methods of curve-fitting (e.g., median-fit line, regression line) and various applications (e.g., making predictions)
· Understands how outliers may affect various representations of data (e.g., a regression line might be strongly influenced by a few aberrant points, whereas the scatter plot for the same data might suggest that the aberrant points represent mistakes)

Economics
· Understands that many factors contribute to differing unemployment rates for various regions and groups (e.g., regional economic differences; differences in labor force immobility; differences in ages, races, sexes, work experiences, training and skills; discrimination)
· Knows that economists do not define full employment as 100 percent employment of the labor force because there is always some unavoidable unemployment due to people changing jobs (i.e., frictional employment) or entering the labor force for the first time
· Understands frictional, seasonal, structural, and cyclical unemployment and that different policies may be required to reduce each
· Understands that the standard measure of the unemployment rate is flawed (e.g., it does not include discouraged workers, it does not weigh part-time and full-time employment differently, it does not account for differences in the intensity with which people look for jobs)

Language Arts
· Uses appropriate research methodology (e.g., formulates questions and refines topics, develops a plan for research; organizes what is known about a topic; uses appropriate research methods, such as questionnaires, experiments, field studies; collects information to narrow and develop a topic and support a thesis)
· Uses a variety of print and electronic sources to gather information for research topics (e.g., news sources such as magazines, radio, television, newspapers; government publications; microfiche; telephone information services; databases; field studies; speeches; technical documents; periodicals; Internet)
· Uses a variety of primary sources to gather information for research topics
· Uses a range of strategies to interpret visual media (e.g., draws conclusions, makes generalizations, synthesizes materials viewed, refers to images or information in visual media to support point of view, deconstructs media to determine the main idea)
· Uses discussions with peers as a way of understanding information
· Uses appropriate strategies (e.g., organizational pattern, format, language, tone) to write personal and business correspondence (e.g., informal letters, memos, job application letters, resumes)
· Writes expository compositions

Potential research sites for this lesson plan include the following:

http://cne.gmu.edu/modules/dau/stat/regression
/linregsn/reg_4_bdy.html
http://www.dol.gov
http://www.bls.gov/cps/#data
http://www.cs.iupui.edu/~aharris/mmcc/mod6/abss8.html

Author Maureen Carroll, Ph.D. is the co-founder of Breeze Educational Resources.

To find out more about opportunities to contribute to this site, contact Leah Clapman at lclapman@newshour.org