Georgia SS5E1.c
The Standard
Describe how specialization can improve standards of living and productivity (e.g., how Henry Ford's use of the assembly line reduced the price of automobiles).
Georgia Standards of Excellence for Social Studies · Use the basic economic concepts of trade, opportunity cost, specialization, productivity, and price incentives to illustrate historical events.
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students explain how dividing work into repeated jobs can increase the number of goods made in a set time. They connect higher output and lower prices to improved living conditions.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students can compare one worker building a whole product with an assembly line that assigns separate tasks. They can explain how Ford produced more cars, lowered prices, and made cars affordable to more families.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think specialization means one worker completes the entire product alone. They may confuse productivity with working harder or making higher quality goods. They may also assume lower prices always mean lower worker pay.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: A factory assigns each worker one step and doubles its daily output. Explain how this change could affect productivity, price, and families.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Teams make paper airplanes twice, first individually and then with assigned assembly jobs, recording completed planes in three minutes.
Write three sentences explaining how an assembly line can affect output, prices, and a family's ability to buy a car.
Play a production relay where students match specialized jobs to products, then earn points for correctly predicting changes in output and price.
Observe roles in the school cafeteria, then explain how cooks, servers, and cashiers help serve more lunches in less time.
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Related Standards
- SS6E11.a
Explain how specialization makes trade possible between countries.
- SS6E2.a
Explain how specialization encourages trade between countries.
- SS4E1.c
Describe how specialization improves standards of living (e.g., differences in the economies in the North and South).
- SS7E5.a
Explain how specialization encourages trade between countries.
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