Financial Literacy

·      I think that Financial Literacy is an interesting topic, especially since it was not covered when I was in school. There are many benefits to teaching it to elementary students. One of these benefits is putting students in different situations so that they can learn about the economy and understand how important this topic is to them. I think its good to let students see things from another perspective where they can explore different economic situations that they may not have known about before. I think that many students do not fully grasp the concept of money, and many take it for granted, so I think its great that we are teaching students about it, making connections to their lives and their community so that they can fully understand it. I think its very beneficial for students to learn about financial literacy earlier in life. Like on of the teachers in the video, I wish I had financial literacy when I was young so that I could have made wiser decisions with my own finances. I think its very important to be financially competent and be aware of where your money is going when you buy something.

·      Financial literacy can be integrated into many different topics in all grades for Social Studies. The main topic is budgeting in everyday life, but it can be incorporated into other subjects. For example, students can look at basic human needs and how much living costs, or how much it would cost to start a recycling program in their community. Any topic that involves money (i.e. the Olympics example used by Zoe) can be used to integrate financial literacy into the lesson. Students need to be aware of how much money is valued in the world and they need to learn more about it any chance they can get. More examples of where/when to incorporate financial literacy into a Social Studies lesson can be found at this EduGains site. It gives examples of financial literacy in lessons for grade 4-12 and includes a PDF of each lesson plan.

Innovative Lesson Review

One of our assignments was to find a Social Studies lesson plan to review. The lesson plan had to be innovative, which was difficult to find. I searched through EduGains and Google to find a lesson plan that was relevant to the unit plan that I am working on, and also one that I considered as innovative. I finally found one that I liked, which had to do with refugees. 

View innovative lesson here. 

This lesson is innovative because it gets students to think critically and learn information on their own and while collaborating with their peers, rather than the information being taught directly by the teacher through worksheets and PowerPoint. It allows students to use the provided resources and find resources of their own to learn about citizenship and refugees in their community and in other parts of the world. It allows students to make connects to current events and understand what is happening in Canada with the Syrian refugees.This is a critical literacy lesson and can easily be adapted to many contexts involving immigration, refugees, displacement of people. It is a fantastic lesson, not only because it brings in 21st Century tools and networking, but it is engaging and has real world implications and it is current.

This lesson can be adapted from my Unit Plan because we are focusing on the question “what does it mean to be Canadian?” and since we are currently hosting refugees, we can adapt this lesson to incorporate how Canada is helping refugees. I would change some parts to become more relevant to our unit and talk more about immigrants as well as refugees, and perhaps focus more on how welcoming Canada is to everyone. This lesson also connects to one of our Big Ideas “The experiences of diverse communities in a challenging environment have contributed to a Canadian identity that is complex and ever changing.” Canada is diverse and the communities are welcoming new members in the form of refugees.

View Innovative Lesson Review here

Unit Plan Central Question and Culminating Task

I am working with 3 of my peers to create a unit plan. My group is looking at Strand A, Heritage and Identity: Communities in Canada, Past for grade 6. We are focusing on 3 Big Ideas:

• Shared goals, values, attitudes, and experiences from our collective Canadian identity.
• Stories of the past, told from different perspectives, continue to shape Canada today
• The experiences of diverse communities in a challenging environment have contributed to a Canadian identity that is complex and ever changing.

Our overarching question is “what does it mean to be Canadian?” We developed this question after the week 4 which focused on inquiry and we had to come up with questions for the inquiry presentation, which asked us “what it means to be Canadian”. This question stuck with us because it was challenging for us to come up with a definite answer. We thought it would be a good inquiry question for grade 6 students to research and look at their own identities as Canadians. We have two lines of inquiry which ask what it means to be Canadian today, and how has history contributed to our Canadian identity? Our culminating task will be a website welcoming people to Canada.

My group has decided to have our students create a website in groups to welcome people to Canada. This website will welcome and inform tourists, permanent visitors, and immigrants to Canada and will answer the overarching question of what it means to be Canadian. Throughout the unit, students will create an artifact at the end of every lesson and add it to their website. These artifacts will represent Canadian culture and history and will help to define Canadian identity. We have 12 lessons that will look at different aspects of Canadian history, culture, and life, and at the end of each lesson students have to produce an artifact in their group and add it to their Welcome to Canada website. We plan to separate students into Regional Groups so each group will focus on a different region of Canada and share it with the class. The Regional Groups are:

• Newfoundland
• Maritimes
• Quebec
• Ontario
• Manitoba and Saskatchewan
• Alberta
• British Columbia
• The Territories

Students will create all of these products throughout the unit, but will only choose 6 of the following to post on their website:

o   New Canadian citizen test

o   Map

o   Paragraph about Canadian symbol

o   Multiculturalism 

o   Filmed Skit

o   Data chart/budgeting (math)

o   Menu

o   Letter outlining personal impacts on an environmental issue

o   Create a self portrait

o   Google form

o   Culminating task - FAQ

By the end of the unit the students should have all of these artifacts that represent their region and will hopefully answer the question “what does it mean to be Canadian?”