Creating a Budget, Part I

• Preparation and Introduction

  Learning Progression

  In this lesson, learners will:

  1. Explore, critically examine, and discuss complex public safety issues and debates in Austin.
  2. Begin working on their budget project using the online Budget Party game, with a focus on public safety.
  3. Reflect on their learning.

  Scaffolding and Resources

  In previous lessons learners explored both individual and city budgets more generally and the Austin city budget more specifically. In this lesson learners will apply their knoweldge and understanding to creating their own budget, with an initial focus on public safety issues.

  Preparation Instructions and Facilitation Tips

  You can print out the worksheets and information packets or have your learners view and complete them online depending on your technology situation.

  Divide your learners into cooperative learning groups to complete the activities.

  Vocabulary

  • District
  • City Council
  • Uncommitted time
  • Community engagement

• Activities

  85 minutes

  Warm-Up Activity 1 - 15 minutes

  • Divide learners into their groups. Make sure that these are the same groups from Lesson 2.
  • Groups will examine the ten districts of the City of Austin. They will use devices to look up what district they live in, as well as what district their school is in and if they correlate. They will then look at their home district data to gain insight and make inferences about the status and needs of the district as well as the city council member that represents them.
  • Learners will begin to think critically about public safety issues and public safety issues in their home districts.

  Activity 2 - 40 minutes

  • Have learners remain in their groups
  • Learners will participate in a structured discussion regarding the Public Safety sector, specifically the police department, in which they will read the ongoing debates about funding and officer ratio.
  • Learners will answer question 1 before reading the assigned article. For questions 2-5, students will highlight and take notations of how the text evidence they highlighted supported the answer. Question 6 is again a personal opinion/summative question and students do not need textual evidence to answer it.
  • Assign half the groups to read article 1, and the other half to read article 2
  • After learners have read and prepared for the discussion in their groups, they will split into different small discussion groups. Try to have one representative from each original group in every small discussion group.
  • In the small group discussion, one learner will be designated the discussion moderator and be given some kind of talking object to help facilitate equity. Everyone will have to answer the first and last questions, and they can volunteer to answer questions 2-5 as they wish. They must be able to locate and reference textual evidence in each answer for questions 2-5.
  • As others speak, their peers should be taking notes and adding on to their own answers.
  • Have everyone turn in their discussion notes.
  • Once the discussion is over everyone will return to their original groups and share back their experiences and take aways from the discussion as they prepare to look at Austin’s public safety portion of the budget.

  Activity 3 - 30 minutes

  • Have everyone navigate to the Budget Party game website.
  • Groups will begin to craft the first portion of their final proposed budget—the public safety sector. They will use the knowledge they gained in the class discussion, the worksheets and materials from prior classes, the Budget Party Public Safety worksheet, and the Budget Party game's "Learn More" tool to craft and adjust the public safety section of their budget.
  • Groups will use the Budget Party worksheet to explain the reasoning for their decision, and how they forsee that it will impact the police force, their local district, and the city as a whole.

• Reflection and Assessment

  5 minutes

  Closing Activity and Reflection

  • Students will complete an index card exit slip talking about the budget decision they decided to make. They will either grab a RED (took away money), GREEN (gave more money), or WHITE (stayed about the same) index card to show their decision in regards to the police force in their budget. They will write THREE clear reasons for their decision on their index card, and place it on a “parking lot” poster with three corresponding columns as the exit.
  Next activity→Creating a Budget, Part II