With various learning styles, students learn best when lesson incorporate multiple intelligences or multimodal components. One size does not fit all students. With a diverse student base, educators need to adjust lesson plans. Hence, all students will be given various opportunities to master unit concepts using multimodal approach. The key is to modify instruction when content or process becomes difficult. Insomuch, educators need diverse teaching strategies to accommodate various learning styles.
Multimodal Unit
Multimodal Curricular Unit
The following thematic unit is created for my social studies classes. The course directly addresses individual needs through adaptive and instructional software, high-interest literature, and direct instruction in reading skills. The course complements their regular English classes. Many of these students are minorities, ages 15-19, have part-time jobs or tasked with taking care of their families. As a result, some students who read far below their grade levels lack the necessary reading skills and comprehension to manage a personal budget.
Money drives our economy and as consumers, we need to become wise or efficient in managing one of our most valuable resources -- money. Money management involves ways, whereby we can get the most from our money. Some examples include the flow of money within our economy, investment strategies, and ways of purchasing goods and services. Students need to understand another aspect of money management, which is a budget.
Expected Outcome & Assessments
Students will gain hands-on experience by designing a budget that involves technical skills to create and use a spreadsheet to analyze variables, plus it allows students an opportunity to prepare a short- and long-term personal budget; make expenditure, revenue and savings forecasts; maintain proper records. This is real-word and practical application, in which students can apply now! By the end of this lesson, students will have learned components of a budget and their relationship within a budget by creating a computerized budget. As noted in the following lesson plan, assessments will be informal based on observation and participation, as well as formal with a narrative summary or entry in learning log.
Instruction & Materials
Duration of the lesson will cover approximately one week; however, this may be adjusted, based on the mastery level of key concepts and vocabulary. Many tools from Content Area Reading: Literacy and Learning Across the Curriculum has provided framework tools for students' success such as pre-reading, during, and post-reading activities/strategies that aid in reading comprehension. These activities/strategies serve to engage the student by activating schemata, by interacting with the text, and by making inferences based on the information learned. In addition to these tools, class instruction will be direct and guided, while materials (noted in the Appendix) will include software, vocabulary, handouts, spreadsheets, two print text resources (Your Financial Plan: Where it All Begins; Budgeting: Making the Most of Your Money), and two electronic resources (My Calculators; Making Wise Financial Decisions).
UNIT: PERSONAL BUDGET
1. Curricular Components
A. Grade: 9-12
B. Subject: Social Studies
C. Topic: Personal Budget
D. Florida State Standard(s) Addressed Social Studies: SS.912.E.1.In.p - Identify a budget plan that includes wages for a specific career, ongoing expenses, and a plan for purchasing a major item. SS.912.E.1.Su.p - Recognize a budget plan that includes wages and essential expenses, such as food and housing. SS.912.E.1.Pa.p - Recognize a plan (budget) to save and spend money.
E. Big Ideas: Economics SS.912.E.1 - Understand the fundamental concepts relevant to the development of a market economy. Create and use a spreadsheet to analyze variables (e.g., 12-month budget, loan rates, science and math experiments, and investment portfolios); Prepare a short- and long-term personal budget; make expenditure, revenue and savings forecasts; maintain proper records.
2. STATEMENT of OBJECTIVE: (Use Bloom's Taxonomy. Inform students of what they will learn and how they will demonstrate that learning: describes what student will do, not the teacher; must be measurable; must be realistic with respect to time/resources.) Students will be able to: (Bloom's) create (product) and analyze a budget on a computer (content) for personal financial management by (Student Behavior) utilizing a sample budget, money principles, and analysis framework within MS Excel computer software program (process).
3. STATEMENT of INTRODUCTION/ANTICIPATORY SET (Make connection with new material and previous knowledge; provide motivation and focus on new material. Must be concise and relates directly to objective; 3-7 mins only.):
Ask Class Question (Verbal) -- What does this statement mean to you?
How much you have to spend is less important than how you spend what you have.
Questioning strategies could be incorporated at this point to activate schemata or prior knowledge:
What is a budget? How many have a personal budget? Does anyone have a checking or savings account?
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