ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

Needs Assessment/Rational

Teaching With Technology ( TWT)
Instructional Need & Rationale
Faye Duncan, May-Port CG FACS Teacher

As a family and consumer sciences (FACS) teacher at May-Port CG High School teaching a family living class this semester, I have chosen to address and focus on State Standard 2.1: Demonstrate management of individual and family resources including food, clothing, shelter, health care, recreation, and transportation. This will be addressed within a unit on consumer management, following a unit on marriage.

Also, incorporated in this unit will be one language arts and one math standard that the school has identified as school wide target areas based on state testing results.

According to the Family and Consumer Sciences Education National Standards, “There is widespread agreement that essential preparation for success includes acquisition of problem-solving, decision-making, critical thinking, communication, literacy, and numerical skills in applied contexts.” The vision statement is: “Family and Consumer Sciences Education empowers individuals and families across the life span to manage the challenges of living and working in a diverse global society. Our unique focus is on families, work, and their interrelationships.”

According to Marshall and Skogrand , “Marriages are most fragile in the early years with 20 percent of divorces occurring in the first five years of marriage. Money is one of the topics couples fight about most often during these years, and it is also a contributing factor in many divorces.”

Juniors and seniors in high school often have money to spend but usually for whatever is wanted. This unit is going to be entitled “Reality Check”. Students will work with a partner, be assigned a scenario to create a budget, and research choices available to them for spending on food, clothing, shelter, health care, recreation, and transportation. Students will write a business letter of complaint language arts standard), make decisions, a budget, and create charts (math standard) using data.

In summary, the goal of this unit will be to involve students in a scenario learning situation using technology to research and create a product to support the choices made. This will involve communication between partners and higher order thinking skills, incorporating language arts and math standards. The goal is to prepare students for real life decisions that may be encountered as either a single or married person in being financially responsible.

Works Cited

Family and Consumer Sciences Education National Standards. National Association of State Administrators of Family and Consumer Sciences. 1998.

Marshall, James, and Linda Skogrand. “Newlywed Debt: The Anti-Dowry.” The Forum for Family and Consumer Issues March 2004.

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding)?
Students will understand how to manage resources and make good consumer decisions.
Goal(s):
Students will become informed consumers who can manage various resources and weigh considerations needed to make good decisions. Students will incorporate language arts skills needed for writing and math skills of data analysis.

Questions Answered

Essential questions:
1. How does someone get a good credit rating?
2. What do you need to consider to make a good consumer decision?
3. How might having or not having a financial plan affect my future?
Objectives:
Given a specific individual or family resource topic, a student will work cooperatively with two other students, to create and present a five minute power point presentation compiling information that would be important to know when making a budget. Given the resource of the Consumer Reports magazine students will research two products of their choice creating a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting how each was evaluated, using a minimum of ten examples. Given a specific scenario with a family description and gross income, the student working cooperatively with a partner, will prepare a pie chart illustrating the money management plan or budget that does not exceed recommended percentages for food. Given a list of legitimate consumer complaints the student will write a business letter of complaint following set language arts criteria.

Assessment

What quiz and test items (e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer) will provide evidence of understanding?
  A unit pre test and posttest with true and false, matching, and multiple choice will be given.

What academic prompts (e.g. open-ended questions or problems that require students to think critically and then to prepare a response / product / performance) will provide evidence of understanding?
  Students will be asked to keep a record of their personal income and expenses for one week. The posttest will include an open-ended question.

What performance tasks and projects (e.g. complex challenges that are authentic, mirror the real world and require a performance or product) will you include that will provide evidence of student understanding?
  Students will present a power point presentation of a resource topic. Students will create a pie chart of a budget for a given scenario. Students will write a business letter of complaint.

What other evidence (e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment) of understanding will you collect?
  Student’s evaluation of the budget they created and of one they did not create; Venn diagrams created by students for consumer products research in the Consumer Reports; student interaction during cooperative projects; and observations of student work on projects.

Instructional Strategies

The first objective is an inquiry-based strategy where students will organize and create (synthesis) while working cooperatively with other students. Each group will be part of a jigsaw strategy. In the second objective students will compare, contrast, and evaluate products (evaluation). The third objective is a problem based (scenario) learning strategy where students will work cooperatively with a partner to plan and construct (synthesis) a budget. The last objective students will prepare (synthesis) a business letter. The objectives of this unit allow for student input, individual tasks, cooperative projects, and creative expression, allowing the student to self direct their learning.