Great Product to Introduce Financial Literacy
Community Review for $martPath
My Take
I used this as an introduction to financial literacy. It does not go deep enough, but was a good place to start. Each lesson with the videos and activities only take about 20 minutes. It can really only be done as a large group but the activities do allow for student participation; choosing how much to budget, what things can be taken out to improve savings, making decisions about what a character chooses to do in order to save money. I currently do not have any ELL students, but I think it would also be a good introduction for students who are not familiar with these terms. I gave it a two for supports, because there isn't a way to change things but because it is so straight forward and you do it as whole group, supports can be made by the teacher, such as reading activities aloud. If you're looking for a place to start, a fun activity at the end of the year this a good place to start.
How I Use It
I teach students with learning disabilities, 8th grade. I used this during math class to introduce some financial literacy terminology with my students. I used the MS lessons which also incorporated some history. The videos are a little cheesy, but it kept my student's attention. We had good discussions about saving and budgeting during the videos. There are no resources to extend the lessons, but I found several activities that went along well with the concepts taught in the videos. We did the pre-test as well as the post-test. Kids did not have a real understanding of credit so this was a good stepping off point.