Supply and Demand Substitute Lesson Plan

Use this 50 minutes substitute plan to teach supply and demand through one concrete decision. Students independently identify determinants, shift one curve, and predict price and quantity. The directions are written so a substitute who has never taught economics can run the period. Students work from the page, show their reasoning, and leave one product that is quick to check.

The classroom prompt

Analyze the market for restaurant meals after household incomes rise and restaurant rent increases. Treat meals as a normal good. Draw each event separately before considering both together.

Put the question where every student can see it and do not supply vocabulary before students commit to an answer. Their first explanation becomes the evidence you use during the debrief.

Materials and setup

Post or print this page and provide graph paper. The substitute only needs to keep the time blocks and collect the final response.

Open the supply and demand sandbox if you want students to test the same idea on an interactive model after the paper task. A projected version is enough; students do not need accounts for this lesson.

Run the lesson

Answer key and teacher moves

• Higher income shifts demand for a normal good right, raising equilibrium price and quantity.
• Higher restaurant rent raises input cost and shifts supply left, raising price and lowering quantity.
• Together, both shifts raise equilibrium price; equilibrium quantity is indeterminate.
• Students must not shift demand because the market price changes after the supply shift; that is a movement along demand.

Do not give credit for the correct direction alone. Ask students to name the changed determinant, identify the curve or quantity that changes, and connect the change to the final outcome. A complete explanation contains a cause, a model move, and a result.

What to collect

Collect three graphs with curve labels, old and new equilibria, and a sentence for each outcome.

Most likely misconception: Students combine the two shocks immediately and miss why one outcome is indeterminate.

Support and extension: Provide the determinant lists at the top of the handout. Extend by asking which relative shift would raise quantity.

A clean closing question

End with: What changed, what stayed fixed, and what evidence proves your conclusion? That sentence works as the final written check because it forces students to separate a cause from the movement it produces. Collect it, scan for the misconception above, and use the first three minutes of the next class to repair the pattern if needed.

This resource is ready to copy into a slide, handout, or LMS assignment. If you assign it for points, publish the success criteria before students begin: correct model, correct direction, and an explanation that links the two.