The objective of this activity is for students to understand several of Smith’s concepts, each defining the basis of a free market economy. Four “stations” were set up; one in each corner of the classroom which had an 11×17″ poster with a different excerpt from Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations set in 48 point text.

I placed my economics students into teams of 4 students. Each team would visit all 4 stations and work together to summarize the key point of the excerpt into one or two sentences. Teams typed in their summaries into Google Docs which I reviewed with the entire class and chose the most accurate summaries. Smith’s language is difficult to interpret, and the team approach made it more accessible for the students. They liked the process of reviewing each other’s summary and finding out which team had the most accurate interpretation. You can do this procedure with any DBQ or set of primary sources.