Lesson 18: Why is the theater curtain still falling apart? Printable pages
Print the student pages or the educator pages for this case. Start with your grade band. The educator pages show every student page with sample answers and notes beside it.
Grades 6–8
Task: Make a source card for the district budget and write one question the theater crew could bring to the school board.
Students make: Source card plus a 2–3 sentence question.
One class period: 45 minutes. Full chapter: 79 minutes.
Educator pages
Open on screen Print this case Download PDF, 395 KBStudent pages
Open on screen Print this case Download fillable PDF, 434 KBGrades 9–10
Task: Correct a misleading social post that compares mismatched budget figures, then write a better comparison.
Students make: Correction post (80–120 words) plus worked calculation.
One class period: 50 minutes. Full chapter: 84 minutes.
Educator pages
Open on screen Print this case Download PDF, 433 KBStudent pages
Open on screen Print this case Download fillable PDF, 315 KBGrades 11–12
Task: Write a policy brief on how facilities requests should be prioritized in a district budget.
Students make: Policy brief, 450–550 words.
One class period: 60 minutes. Full chapter: 105 minutes.
Educator pages
Open on screen Print this case Download PDF, 454 KBStudent pages
Open on screen Print this case Download fillable PDF, 475 KBCollege and community
Task: Write a fact-check of the viral post for a local news site or a campus newspaper. Correct the comparison, show the math and say what the proposed budget can and cannot tell readers about the curtain.
Students make: Fact-check, 350–450 words, with a worked calculation.
One class period: 75 minutes. Full chapter: 106 minutes.
Educator pages
Open on screen Print this case Download PDF, 620 KBStudent pages
Open on screen Print this case Download fillable PDF, 480 KBCourse editions
These editions include this case. “Print this case” opens the educator edition on screen and your browser’s print dialog.
- Honors (set by your school) Open on screen Print this case
- Pre-AP English 1 and Pre-AP English 2 Open on screen Print this case
- Pre-IB (a school pathway, not an IB program) Open on screen Print this case
- IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) Open on screen Print this case
- AP English Language and Composition Open on screen Print this case
- AP United States Government and Politics Open on screen Print this case
- AP Seminar Open on screen Print this case
- IB Diploma Programme: Global politics Open on screen Print this case
Family page
One page to send home: a short summary of the case and three questions to talk about. Nobody needs to share personal stories to use it.
Family page Lesson 18: Why is the theater curtain still falling apart?
In this case, a group of friends reads a school district budget to find out why a torn theater curtain has not been fixed. Your student checked what the numbers mean and wrote a clear question for the school board.
Questions to talk about
- Where do you think a school’s money comes from?
- Why can it be misleading to compare a total with an amount per person?
- Who would you ask if something at school needed fixing?
Read the case together: noperowhy.pages.dev/cases/school-budget