Budgeting Lesson
Introduction:
This is a video-enhanced lesson to help students better understand the process of developing a personal budget.
Content Area and Grade or Age Level of Students:
This lesson is designed for students, ages 18-22, with special needs in a community-based life skills program.
Objectives:
Standards Addressed:
Massachusetts Social Sciences / Economics:
Relative Advantage:
Use of video-enhanced instruction will increase student attention to material and will allow students who have a visual learning style to more effectively access the curriculum. Additionally, videos allow the the students to re-watch material for further clarification.
Timeline:
The initial lesson will take place over a week's time. Students will then spend a month gathering information about their expenses to form a baseline. In the following months, students can adapt their budgets to changing needs and growing awareness of their finances.
Materials:
Paper, Shoe boxes, Computers, Projector/Speakers, Calculators
(classroom is 1:1 class with 20 laptops, a SmartBoard, and a 2nd computer projector)
Grouping Strategies:
Large group instruction to introduce the concept and for periodic group discussions.
Small groups (2-4 students with 1-2 staff) to complete hands-on activities.
Individual students can access computer-based instruction/review materials at school, on their laptops, and also at home, using the Learning Management System.
Learning Activities:
Introduction: Watch video Wants vs. Needs which depicts 2 young men spending their paycheck, with one being more thoughtful about making sound financial decisions. Use Smart Notebook to create sorting activity of wants and needs. Group discussion about why it is important to have a firm understanding of what you need and what you just want.
Watch Needs and Wants which gives an overview of differentiating between wants and needs using and Animoto slideshow. Students will then work on their own laptops to create their own 30-second slideshows on Animoto giving their own list of wants and needs.
Over the next week, as the topic of Focus on Life Skills activity (a 5- to 10-minute daily targeted skill review on the Smartboard, with follow-up discussion) watch introductory videos which familiarize students with targeted vocabulary and concepts. These videos are listed on the video integration resource page.
Play "The Classroom Price is Right", using items in the pantry and/or in the classroom, where students are asked to estimate the price of common items. This game-show style activity will help to increase students' familiarity with prices, making it easier to develop accurate projections of expenses.
Play the "Savings Quest" simulation, to help students better comprehend that saving money over time, by focusing on the "needs" will allow them to be able to purchase items that are in the "wants" category.
Continue working on the comparative shopping activities, described in the spreadsheet lesson plan. These activities are designed to help students become more aware of the need to plan shopping trips, to research, and to track spending.
As a large group, watch How to Make a Shoe Box Budget. The next phase of the budgeting lesson is then described to the students:
Assessment:
Assessment is ongoing.
Data is recorded for price recognition/estimation (independence and accuracy).
Data related to the task analysis of the budgeting process is recorded by staff.
Video samples & work samples are collected.
Student interviews and self-assessment are used to evaluate student's understanding of the targeted concepts.
Adaptations for Learners with Special Needs:
This lesson is specifically designed for students with special needs.
For students with limited literacy skills, picture-symbols can be added to budgeting worksheets in order to increase comprehension.
Speech to text software can be used to help students input text into laptop.
Multiple opportunities for exposure to concepts are presented to all students.
Additional Resources:
Money and Stuff: http://www.moneyandstuff.info/savingsbudgeting.htm
Money Math: http://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/tools/tools_moneymath.htm
My Savings Quest: http://www.mysavingsquest.com/
Practical Money Skills: http://www.practicalmoneyskills.com/foreducators/
Thirteen Ed Online: http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/lessons/
This is a video-enhanced lesson to help students better understand the process of developing a personal budget.
Content Area and Grade or Age Level of Students:
This lesson is designed for students, ages 18-22, with special needs in a community-based life skills program.
Objectives:
- The students will identify the purpose of having a budget.
- The students will differentiate between wants and needs.
- The students will identify their own wants and needs.
- The students will identify different methods of creating a budget.
- The students will track personal expenses.
- The students will develop a personal budget.
Standards Addressed:
Massachusetts Social Sciences / Economics:
- E.1.10 Formulate a savings or financial investment plan for a future goal
- E.6.1 Explain the basic functions of money (e.g., medium of exchange, store of value, unit of account).
- 4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary describing political, social, or economic aspects of history/social studies
Relative Advantage:
Use of video-enhanced instruction will increase student attention to material and will allow students who have a visual learning style to more effectively access the curriculum. Additionally, videos allow the the students to re-watch material for further clarification.
Timeline:
The initial lesson will take place over a week's time. Students will then spend a month gathering information about their expenses to form a baseline. In the following months, students can adapt their budgets to changing needs and growing awareness of their finances.
Materials:
Paper, Shoe boxes, Computers, Projector/Speakers, Calculators
(classroom is 1:1 class with 20 laptops, a SmartBoard, and a 2nd computer projector)
Grouping Strategies:
Large group instruction to introduce the concept and for periodic group discussions.
Small groups (2-4 students with 1-2 staff) to complete hands-on activities.
Individual students can access computer-based instruction/review materials at school, on their laptops, and also at home, using the Learning Management System.
Learning Activities:
Introduction: Watch video Wants vs. Needs which depicts 2 young men spending their paycheck, with one being more thoughtful about making sound financial decisions. Use Smart Notebook to create sorting activity of wants and needs. Group discussion about why it is important to have a firm understanding of what you need and what you just want.
Watch Needs and Wants which gives an overview of differentiating between wants and needs using and Animoto slideshow. Students will then work on their own laptops to create their own 30-second slideshows on Animoto giving their own list of wants and needs.
Over the next week, as the topic of Focus on Life Skills activity (a 5- to 10-minute daily targeted skill review on the Smartboard, with follow-up discussion) watch introductory videos which familiarize students with targeted vocabulary and concepts. These videos are listed on the video integration resource page.
Play "The Classroom Price is Right", using items in the pantry and/or in the classroom, where students are asked to estimate the price of common items. This game-show style activity will help to increase students' familiarity with prices, making it easier to develop accurate projections of expenses.
Play the "Savings Quest" simulation, to help students better comprehend that saving money over time, by focusing on the "needs" will allow them to be able to purchase items that are in the "wants" category.
Continue working on the comparative shopping activities, described in the spreadsheet lesson plan. These activities are designed to help students become more aware of the need to plan shopping trips, to research, and to track spending.
As a large group, watch How to Make a Shoe Box Budget. The next phase of the budgeting lesson is then described to the students:
- Students then track expenses for a month.
- Students will meet 1:1 with a staff member to create a Shoe Box budget.
- Students will then follow their newly created "Shoe Box Budget" and will meet staff in small groups each week to record/review their expenses.
Assessment:
Assessment is ongoing.
Data is recorded for price recognition/estimation (independence and accuracy).
Data related to the task analysis of the budgeting process is recorded by staff.
Video samples & work samples are collected.
Student interviews and self-assessment are used to evaluate student's understanding of the targeted concepts.
Adaptations for Learners with Special Needs:
This lesson is specifically designed for students with special needs.
For students with limited literacy skills, picture-symbols can be added to budgeting worksheets in order to increase comprehension.
Speech to text software can be used to help students input text into laptop.
Multiple opportunities for exposure to concepts are presented to all students.
Additional Resources:
Money and Stuff: http://www.moneyandstuff.info/savingsbudgeting.htm
Money Math: http://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/tools/tools_moneymath.htm
My Savings Quest: http://www.mysavingsquest.com/
Practical Money Skills: http://www.practicalmoneyskills.com/foreducators/
Thirteen Ed Online: http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/lessons/