Lesson 5.12, two days (days 131 and 132). Slides 1 to 12 are Day 1. Slides 13 to 18 are Day 2. All prices marked [update].
Day 1. Do now
- Four sweatshirts are on the table.
- Write what you think each one cost. A, B, C, D.
- Then circle the one you would buy.
- Two minutes.
Teacher notes
take four guesses out loud and write the spread on the board. Then the hook: one of these cost four dollars more than another and will last three times as long, and nobody can tell which from here.
Image: four hooded sweatshirts hanging in a row with blank price tags.
Day 1. Four kinds of places
- Discount store
- Mall brand store
- Secondhand shop
- Online marketplace
- Same item. Four prices. Four different levels of quality.
Teacher notes
Image: four small icons in a row: a big-box aisle, a mall storefront, a thrift rack, a phone screen with a listing.
Day 1. Discount store and mall brand
- Discount store. Lowest tag price. Available today. Easy free returns.
- Risk: thinner fabric, fewer stitches per inch, single-needle seams, narrow size range.
- Mall brand. Better construction. Wider sizes. Free returns. You can try it on.
- Risk: you pay for the brand and the store, so the same quality costs more.
Day 1. Secondhand shop
- Best quality for the price. Often heavier fabric than a new discount item.
- Keeps a garment in use instead of in a landfill.
- You can inspect it in your hands before you pay.
- Risk: one size only. Sold as-is. No returns. May have a flaw or hidden wear.
- Risk: it will not be there tomorrow.
Teacher notes
Image: a rack of used sweatshirts with handwritten price tags.
Day 1. Online marketplace
- Widest choice. Often the lowest listed price.
- Risk: you cannot touch it.
- Risk: shipping and returns cost money.
- Risk: sizing is a guess from a chart.
- Risk: you wait. Sometimes weeks.
Teacher notes
hold up the shipping bag here but do not open it yet. Step 3 opens it.
Day 1. Quality check 1: seam strength
- Hold the fabric on both sides of a seam.
- Pull gently sideways.
- Look for gaps, loose thread, or the seam opening.
- Good: nothing moves, no thread shows.
Teacher notes
demonstrate on garment A for ten seconds. Pull gently. Say "gently" twice.
Image: two hands pulling a seam apart slightly, close up, with a small gap visible.
Day 1. Quality check 2: fabric weight
- Hold it up to the light against a white card.
- Heavier fabric blocks more light.
- Feel the weight in your hand.
- Good: for a sweatshirt, about 9 ounces or more is heavy.
Teacher notes
Image: a flashlight behind a thin fleece, light coming through, next to a heavy fleece blocking it.
Day 1. Quality check 3: stitch density
- Lay the ruler on a seam. Count the stitches in one inch.
- 8 per inch is low.
- 10 to 12 per inch holds.
- Count the seam that holds the garment together, not the decorative topstitching.
Teacher notes
this is the mistake every class makes. Show both seams on garment A and name the difference before the rotation starts.
Image: a ruler laid along a seam with individual stitches visible.
Day 1. Quality check 4: read the label
- Fiber content, with percentages
- Care instructions
- Country of manufacture
- Is there a brand label at all?
- No percentages means you do not know what you are buying.
Teacher notes
Image: a garment care label with fiber percentages and wash symbols.
Day 1. The hidden costs of buying online
- Listed price $9.99 [update]
- Plus shipping $______
- Plus sales tax $______
- What you actually paid $______
- If it does not fit: return shipping $______
- Days you waited: ______
- The five hidden costs: shipping, return shipping, a restocking or return fee, sizing risk, time.
Teacher notes
pass the shipping bag and the packing slip. Build the landed cost on the board from the real slip. Ask: the listing said $9.99. What did it cost to get one that fits?
Day 1. The reveal
- Garment A: $______ , ______________________
- Garment B: $______ , ______________________
- Garment C: $______ , ______________________
- Garment D: $______ , ______________________
- Compare to the guesses on the board.
Teacher notes
[Sal: fill in your four real prices and vendor types.] Ask which garment scored best on stitch density and whether that matched its price. Usually it did not.
Day 1. Exit card
- 3 quality checks you can now run on a garment
- 2 hidden costs of buying clothes online
- 1 question you still have about where to buy clothes
Teacher notes
two students read one line. Sort the cards. A big "needs more" pile means Day 2 opens with 90 seconds on stitch density.
Day 2. Do now
- Yesterday you counted stitches per inch.
- Which of the four sweatshirts would you buy for a little cousin who is about to grow two inches? Why?
- One sentence.
Teacher notes
take two answers. Hook: today the buyer is not you. You get a buyer, eight items, and ten minutes to make a recommendation you can defend.
Day 2. The task and the rules
- Your station gets one buyer card and one spec sheet of eight items.
- Your recommendation must name:
- one item, and the total your buyer pays including shipping and tax
- two quality checks that support the choice
- one hidden cost you accepted or avoided
- the second-best item, and why it lost
- Everybody at the station signs the poster.
Teacher notes
have them read the buyer card out loud at the station and underline the three limits: money, time, size.
Day 2. The poster template
- OUR BUYER IS:
- WE RECOMMEND ITEM:
- TOTAL THE BUYER PAYS: $______
- QUALITY REASON 1:
- QUALITY REASON 2:
- ONE HIDDEN COST WE ACCEPTED OR AVOIDED:
- SECOND BEST, AND WHY IT LOST:
Day 2. Sentence frames
- We recommend item ___ for ___ because ___.
- The total is $___ , under the buyer's limit of $___ .
- Item ___ has ___ stitches per inch and ___ seams, which means ___.
- We avoided the hidden cost of ___ by ___.
- Item ___ lost because ___.
Day 2. Defend it
- 90 seconds to present.
- 90 seconds of questions from the other two stations, plus one from me.
- Write your questions for the other stations before they present.
- My question may be the hard one.
Teacher notes
ask at least one station: your buyer needs it Monday, your item ships in 12 to 20 days, answer that.
Day 2. Closure
- The item I recommended was ______.
- If my buyer had twice the money, I would have said ______ instead, because ______.
- Turn in the handout and the poster.
Teacher notes
three students read. These lines come back out in Lesson 5.14 Day 2, where each student builds a comparison alone.