Part
One – Bainbridge College Social Skill Instructions
1. Form a side-by-side team (student names are hypothetical)…
(This means that we sit beside our partner, sharing a handout, and
using small voices
prepare to engage in shared work.) Today’s teams are
(hypothetically):
Team 1 -
Dave & Julia Team 2 - Jean &
John Team 3 - Margaret & Lance
2. Pickup one copy of each class handout …
before class to share with your partner. Everyone may take a second
copy after class, so that each of you retains his or her own copy of the
materials. See that everyone has his or her own name-card.
3. Fold your name-card in half and display (or wear it) …
so that Mr. Meyer can read YOUR name.
4. Engage in 3
minutes of paired reading with partner(s) ...
Step 1: Your team should begin by quickly scanning each evidence
card for 15 seconds.
Step 2: Note the questions to be answered
at the bottom of each evidence card.
Step 3: Take turns reading & listening to paragraphs on the
evidence cards.
Use
quiet voices to clarify what you do not understand.
There are thee handouts (or links below) called
Evidence
Cards 001, 002, and 003 .
Each Evidence Card has numbered paragraphs on it to help you keep track of
where the facts come from.
Step 4: To answer each question, write the title of the
paragraph (or the evidence card and paragraph numbers)
when
the information you discover seems to answer the questions.
5. Share
your discoveries …
Step 5: Stop reading and engage with the other teams.
Step 6: The class now has 3 minutes to share each team's discoveries
with the other teams about your reading.
When sharing, each team has one minute to talk, and the remaining two
minutes to listen.
Step 7:
Seek to achieve the overall group
goal below, and to meet class objectives in Part Two.
Step 8: Then repeat your 3 minutes of paired reading using Steps 1
to 4 above, and share again.
Overall group goal: See that every class member participates, and
masters the material and skills.
Part Two - Today’s Class Objectives
-
Gather and share evidence on antitrust activity with teammates and classmates.
As your read and discuss the evidence cards with your partner(s),
write the title of the paragraph, (or the evidence card # and paragraph #) each time the evidence card has information relating to class objectives
2A, 2B, 2C, and 2D below.
Click these Links
Evidence Cards
(Use evidence card links 001, 002, and 003 today
001 002 003 004 005 006 007 008 009 010 011 012 013 014 015 016 017 018 019 020
-
Equip (Help) each
class member with evidence and possible answers to
A. Who sought regulation of big business?
B. What was the government’s response to this political pressure?
C. Who benefited from government regulation of business?
D. Who lost as a result of anti-trust legislation?
- For class bonus points, create a memory device for which each person in class contributes the name of a well known company that's been taken to court on antitrust legislation, or that may be accused of unfair or unethical practices, and therefore subjected to political pressure.
Part
Three - Listen & Respond
to
Mr. Meyer’s Abstract - "The Wal-Mart Effect"
Introduction - Do
Wal-Mart Business Practices Strike You as Fair and Ethical?
Are Political Pressures Being Brought to Bear?
Mister Charles Fishman is a senior editor at Fast Company, a magazine. In 2005 he was awarded the prestigious Gerald Loeb Book Award, the highest award in business journalism, for writing a book called The Wal-Mart Effect. He appears regularly on National Public Radio, CNN, and Fox news. Here are some of his comments:
1.
Wal-Mart takes actions that affect supply chain prices it pays to
wholesalers and manufactures, and such actions may lower customer
prices.
"Wal-Mart, the most powerful company of the world," he says, "has become so
powerful that it reaches into executive suites and onto factory floors
and sets the terms for the ways companies do their business, and
exacts enormous efficiencies, but also shifts costs on to suppliers, forcing some to the brink of bankruptcy, and some beyond."
2. Note the good and bad… lowering prices for final customers, can force non-competitive industries to close their manufacturing or food growing businesses.
"...the best estimates indicate that Wal-Mart saved American consumers 30 billion in 2004, and expert analysis has shown that the company has significantly lowered the rate of inflation in the United States. No company is more reviled, and yet no company is also still revered."
3. Wal-Mart is not just a retailer anymore. Fishman argues that the company has become a kind of economic ecosystem, and anyone who wants to understand the forces shaping our world today must understand the hidden reach and transformative power that is the " Wal-Mart effect."
Economist Joseph Schumpeter called such processes a “Wave of Creative Destruction.”
"The number one employer in 37 of the 50 states, Wal-Mart claims that it is a leading creator of new jobs, but Fishman's careful analysis shows that, in fact, most of the company's jobs come at the expense of jobs at other retailers. So profound is the effect on local business when Wal-Mart moves into town, that one study has shown that the company may actually cause poverty."
What's your opinion?
Part
Four - Final Processing
(1)
Complete your own Quality Chart.
(2) Closure and next assignment
| A | Watch the video (in the Learning Resource Lab) - "Is Wal-Mart Good for America?" |
| B | Answer in three paragraphs -
Do
Wal-Mart Business Practices Strike You as Fair and Ethical? |
