nternet access (for individuals or groups)
- Notebook or journal
- "Dreams for the Future" Student Organizer
- "Debt/Savings" Student Organizer
PREP FOR TEACHERS
- Bookmark the Web sites used in the lesson on each computer in your classroom, or upload all links to an online bookmarking utility such as www.portaportal.com.
- Preview all of the video clips and Web sites used in the lesson to make certain that they are appropriate for your students, currently available, and accessible from your classroom.
- Download the video clips used in this lesson onto your hard drive or a portable storage device, or prepare to stream the clips from your classroom.
- Print out the "Financial Management Terms" Teacher Organizer, to copy the terms and definitions on the board.
- Print out the Student Organizers: "Dreams for the Future" and "Debt/Savings," and make enough copies so that each student has one copy of each organizer.
- When using media, provide students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION, a specific task to complete and/or information to identify during or after viewing of video segments, Web sites, or other multimedia elements.
INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITY: SETTING THE STAGE
- Open the discussion by asking if any of the students have saved money, or maintain a budget of any kind.
- Write the following terms and their definitions on the board: budget, income, expense, savings, and debt. (see "Financial Management Terms" Teacher Organizer)
- Discuss with the students what each term means, and how savings and debt are a result of different combinations of income and expenses.
- Discuss with the students any dreams they have for the future, and what investments they could make now to achieve those dreams. For instance, if one person would like to play in a band, they may need guitar lessons now to achieve that dream in the future. Ask the students to explain how they might save enough money to pay for the current expense necessary to achieve that dream.
- Pass out the "Dreams for the Future" Student Organizer to each student. Ask students to brainstorm four different dreams for the future, and the steps they need to take now to achieve that dream, along with the potential cost of the current steps.
- Now ask if any of the students have thought about living on their own. Make a list of some of the costs that students might have to consider if they were living on their own (for example: rent, food, transportation, laundry, phone and internet, entertainment).
- Explain to the class that they will be watching a short video where they will meet Eddie, a young person who is living on his own for the first time. Eddie has faced some challenges maintaining a budget and saving money.
- Provide students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION, asking them to think about the areas where Eddie could spend less money.
- Play the "Moving Out" segment for the class.
- Have a short discussion about the "Moving Out" segment that was viewed, stressing to students that Eddie had to re-work his budget in order to afford his dream: attending a four-year college. Review some of the ways Eddie adjusted his budget to spend less money.
- Ask students to discuss why attending a four-year college might help Eddie achieve his future goals.
- Hand out the "Debt/Savings" Student Organizer. Explain that this is a template to use for hypothetical budgets. The students will be filling them out based on their own expenses or projected expenses, but all the scenarios assume that the students are making $500 a month in income.
- Ask students to complete the column titled "Scenario 1: Debt" with as much expense as they would like in each category. They need to spend more than $500. If the students think of additional expenses beyond those listed on the organizer, they can add them below "Books/Magazines" on the chart.
- Students will then add up their expenses, and subtract them from the income figure of $500. The expenses should be higher than $500, so the total will be negative. This means the students have gone into debt and the debt figure should go in the "Debt" row.
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