Intermediate Financial Literacy Modules: Teacher Toolkit

How can understanding key financial concepts help make strong decisions over time?

Module Title

Simple vs. compound interest

Balancing your budget. Tips and tricks that you shouldn't miss.

Is it free, or is there a fee?

Is the value increasing or decreasing?

A guide to foreign currency

WHAT?

These modules support student learning of F1. Money and Finances by building the knowledge and skills students need to make informed and responsible financial decisions.

WHOM?

Financial Literacy Modules

Money and Finances

F1 demonstrate the knowledge and skills needed to make informed financial decisions

HOW?

Please note all prompts and information included in this Teacher Toolkit are suggestions only. Educators are always encouraged to evaluate the specific needs of their learners and use their professional judgement.

1. Get Ready…

Before you begin teaching, consider the following prompts to prepare yourself. Some suggested answers have been included as samples.

  • What materials will you need for these learning modules?
  • What pre-conversations will you need to have with your students?
  • What vocabulary will your students learn in each module?

Note: these modules can be completed independent from one another but may require prior understanding of certain topics covered in previous modules.

  • What pre-teaching needs to happen to prepare your students for this content?
  • Is there any pre-reading that you need to do to facilitate this content?
  • Will students work independently, in partners, in small groups, or is this a full class activity?

2. Get Set…

Before you begin teaching, consider the following prompts to prepare your learners. Some suggested answers have been included as samples.

  • What are the learning goals and success criteria for these modules?

Module Learning Goals

Simple vs. compound interest
  • explain how interest rates can impact savings, investments, and the cost of borrowing to pay for goods and services over time
  • compare interest rates and fees for different accounts and loans offered by various financial institutions, and determine the best option for different scenarios
  • compare the effects that different interest rates, lengths of borrowing time, ways in which interest is calculated, and amounts of down payments have on the overall costs associated with purchasing goods or services, using appropriate tools

Balancing your budget. Tips and tricks that you shouldn't miss.
  • create, track, and adjust sample budgets designed to meet longer-term financial goals for various scenarios
  • identify different ways to maintain a balanced budget, and use appropriate tools to track all income and spending, for several different scenarios
  • modify budgets displayed in various ways to reflect specific changes in circumstances, and provide a rationale for the modifications
  • apply, to the best of their ability, a variety of social-emotional learning skills to support their use of the mathematical processes and their learning in connection with the expectations in the other five strands of the mathematics curriculum

Is it free, or is there a fee?
  • compare interest rates and fees for different accounts and loans offered by various financial institutions, and determine the best option for different scenarios
  • compare various ways for consumers to get more value for their money when spending, including taking advantage of sales and customer loyalty and incentive programs, and determine the best choice for different scenarios
  • compare interest rates, annual fees, and rewards and other incentives offered by various credit card companies and consumer contracts to determine the best value and the best choice for different scenarios

Is the value increasing or decreasing?
  • determine the growth of simple and compound interest at various rates using digital tools, and explain the impact interest has on long-term financial planning
  • identify financial situations that involve appreciation and depreciation, and use associated graphs to answer related questions
  • compare the effects that different interest rates, lengths of borrowing time, ways in which interest is calculated, and amounts of down payments have on the overall costs associated with purchasing goods or services, using appropriate tools

A Guide to Foreign Currency
  • identify and compare exchange rates, and convert foreign currencies to Canadian dollars and vice versa
  • describe some advantages and disadvantages of various methods of payment that can be used when dealing with multiple currencies and exchange rates

  • You may choose to co-create the success criteria with your students or develop your own.
  • How will you activate and/or assess your students’ prior knowledge ahead of these modules?
  • How will you draw your students’ attention to the learning outcome for this module?

3. Go!

Module Content Self Check Reflection/Consolidation

Simple vs. compound interest

Students will learn about the difference between simple and compound interest by exploring how much interest would be earned in different scenarios.

Students will have an opportunity to check their understanding by answering a series of multiple choice questions.

Students will demonstrate their learning about interest by analysing different options in a scenario.

Balancing your budget. Tips and tricks that you shouldn't miss.

Students will learn about creating a budget by learning about the different kinds of financial goals.

Students will have an opportunity to check their understanding by completing a series of true and false questions.

Students will demonstrate their learning about budgets by giving advice.

Is it free, or is there a fee?

Students will learn about incentives through exploring the benefits and drawbacks of different types.

Students will have an opportunity to check their understanding by sorting examples of costs and incentives.

Students will demonstrate their learning about incentives by analyzing programs offered by different businesses.

Is the value increasing or decreasing?

Students will learn about types of investments though exploring the benefits and drawbacks of each type.

Students will have an opportunity to check their understanding by exploring simple and compound interest calculators.

Students will demonstrate their learning about interest by giving advice.

A Guide to Foreign Currency

Students will learn exchange rates through reflecting on the benefits and drawbacks of spending in different currencies.

Students will have an opportunity to check their understanding by matching currencies with their acronyms.

Students will demonstrate their learning about types of credit by giving advice.
  • While students are working through this module, you can make yourself available to:

Resources

As an extension of learning, extra information, or supplementary activities, please refer to the following resources:

Assessment Opportunities

While these modules do not contain built-in assessment opportunities, the reflection tasks can easily be adapted to act as demonstrations of learning.

Consider

  • Extending the final task by changing the format, adding additional questions, and providing an exemplar or clear instructions about output
  • Aligning the final task to the associated curriculum expectation
  • Referring to the Achievement Chart to create your rubric

Additional Tips

  • Create a learning goal
    • Clearly identify what students are expected to know and are able to do in language that students can readily understand. This represents the knowledge and skills that the students must successfully demonstrate to achieve the overall expectation.
  • Use triangulation of assessments
    • Reference example chart/checklist for what to look for during observations, conversations, conferences, etc.
Student Name Demonstrates
(add specific expectation here)		 Demonstrates
(add specific expectation here)		 Demonstrates
(add specific expectation here)

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