Discussing issues related to credit

  • Age group:
    Students ages 10 to 11
  • When:
    April and May
  • Time required:
    5 hours 45 minutes

Area of learning:

  • Environment and consumption

Financial skills

  • Understanding credit
  • Using an account at a financial institution

Activity summary

After studying various payment methods, students take part in an interactive story that introduces them to guidelines and the consequences of using credit. They then produce their own guide for people who use credit.

Competencies

Table of disciplinary and non-disciplinary competencies

Disciplinary competencies taught

Discipline Competencies Learning progression
English
  • Writing a variety of texts
  • Reading a variety of texts
  • Use all the reading- and writing-related concepts discussed in class
Mathematics
  • Using mathematical concepts to reason
  • Associate a percentage with a decimal number
  • Convert decimal numbers into percentages, and vice versa
  • Use a calculator

Non-disciplinary competencies

  • Cooperation

Preparation

Students are introduced to various payment methods and become aware of credit-related issues.

Task 1 objective

At the end of this task, students will be able to identify the pros and cons of various payment methods.

Instructions

  1. Ask the students to name payment methods that they know, and talk about the benefits and disadvantages of each.
  2. Hand out the worksheet Pros and Cons of Payment Methods.
  3. Watch the short video and ask the students to complete the worksheet afterward.
  4. Go around the room and correct the worksheet with the class.

Teacher's notes

None

Task 2 objective

At the end of this task, students will understand credit card payments and related issues in greater detail.

Instructions

  • Time required
    45 minutes
  • Teaching materials
    Credit Cards
    (PDF, 329 KB)
  1. Ask students how much they know about using credit cards.
  2. Write their statements on the board.
  3. Display the Credit Cards worksheet on the board and read it with the class.
  4. Summarize the worksheet with the students, asking them to express what they learned about using credit.

Teacher's notes

  • When we borrow money to pay for purchases, we are charged interest rates that can vary depending on the type of credit used. To elaborate, you can explain to the students that along with credit cards, borrowers can obtain several kinds of loans, including car loans, mortgages and personal loans. Each type of loan has its own fees, but unlike credit cards, monthly loan repayments are set in advance and remain the same until the loan is fully repaid.

Execution

To learn how credit works, students read an interactive story in which they play the leading roles.

All the documents you need to carry out this activity are in the right-hand column under Useful links.

Task 1: Read an interactive story about credit

Task 1 objective

At the end of this task, students will understand credit-related issues thanks to an interactive story in which they must make calculations involving money.

Instructions

  1. Form teams of 2 students, then give each team a copy of the worksheet Lessons Learned and a pencil.
  2. Each team watches Sylvia's Experience.
  3. Each team reads the story’s simulated scenario and makes a choice when prompted to do so.
  4. As they read, students must write on the worksheet the amounts of Sylvia's purchases and other information, as requested.
  5. When they have finished reading, the students write what they took away from Sylvia's experience.
  6. Go around the room and ask the students to describe what they took away from this experience.

Teacher's notes

  • It's fine for students to use calculators in conjunction with this activity.

Evaluation

Students produce a guide for credit users.

Task 1: Reflect on the use of credit

Task 1 objective

At the end of this task, students will be able to explain how they feel about the use of credit and incurring debt.

Instructions

  1. Form teams of 4 students.
  2. Ask each team to prepare some brief guidelines for people who use credit.
  3. Ask the students to make up a name for an imaginary lending institution and write it on the first page of their guidelines.
  4. On the inside right-hand page, the students should write common sense guidelines to follow when using credit.
  5. Each team then presents its guide to the rest of the class.

Teacher's notes

  • Each team uses a blank sheet of paper folded in half.
  • To avoid redundancy in student texts, suggest several themes such as guidelines to follow, conditions for using credit, interest rates, warnings, debt, etc. The guides produced by the teams can then be compiled in 1 booklet and the class can vote to decide what company name appears on its cover.