Guide
for practitioners - how to prepare a class
with Money Matters to Me
In this chapter we are going
to share some ideas with you
about how you can prepare a
class with using 'Money Matters
to Me'. If you take a look at
the chapter case
studies you can see that
there are many different ways
how you can use 'Money Matters
to Me'. We were able to identify
four main ways to use MMTM (Money
Matters to Me) and we will use
these as the basis for the structure
of this section.
In each of these scenarios we will provide you with
step-by-step guidance. You might also find that more
than one scenario is applicable for your teaching.
1) Using MMTM
to prepare a class on financial
literacy. You do not
have to be a financial literacy
tutor in order to hold a class
on financial literacy. In whichever
way you decide to carry out
a class on financial matters,
you will find 'Money Matters
to Me' a useful resource.
If you want
to structure your class around
a specific financial area,
you might find it helpful
to take a look at the section
'Money Matters'. This section
is divided into nine thematic
areas from 'What money is'
to 'Implications of finance'.
To find out more about the
contents of this section,
just take a look at 'About
Money Matters to Me'.
Once you have decided on your
topic, you can start thinking
about how you want to deliver
the subject. Two specific
ways of doing this are described
in the case studies. You could
prepare a web
quest or if you won't
have Internet access in your
classroom you might want to
use the downloadable resources
to prepare
handouts for your learners.
Another
way of introducing your learners
to a financial subject area
is to use one of the many
tools or workshops on 'Money
Matters to Me'. These tools
and workshops are a lighter,
fun experience and were especially
designed to attract the attention
of those learners who are
not very motivated to learn
about finance in the first
place. Click
here to find out which
different tools and workshops
are available.
If you
want to structure your class
around incidental events,
you might find it helpful
to take a look at the section
'Life Changes'. This section
of the site offers you many
different life scenarios and
recommends a route through
the site to guide you to helpful
information for these situations.
Again, you can work with these
scenarios in different ways:
you could just let your learners
explore the different scenarios,
ideally you can choose scenarios
that relate to your learners'
lives; also you can design
web
quests around the different
scenarios. Again, if you don't
have access to the Internet
in your classroom you could
prepare different handouts
for the various scenarios
and give them to your learners.
If you are thinking of a scenario that isn't covered
in this resource, you can develop one yourself as well.
Think about the situation, about the different challenges
that the person might face and which information would
be useful. Once you have done this you can use the scenario
in different ways as described above. 'Money Matters
to Me' is a growing resource: if you notice that an important
scenario is missing, please share your ideas with us
so we can implement them into the resource and make them
available to a wider audience of tutors.
2)
Using MMTM
to prepare a numeracy class.
If you are teaching numeracy
you might find that 'Money Matters
to Me' is a very useful resource.
Throughout the site there are
a number of
numeracy related activities
that support the development
of numeracy skills. Whilst developing
these skills 'Money Matters
to Me' allows you to do that
in an area that is of importance
to everybody's lives. For example
you can create activities around
supermarket shopping. Part of
supermarket
shopping is estimating how
much you will spend(using rounding up) and
to count the change that you
are given back. If you take
a look at the section 'Case
Studies' you can find one example
of how 'Money Matters to Me'
is used for a numeracy
class.
Probably the best way to start your preparation is to
identify the skills that you would like your learners
to develop. Once you have identified this, you can then
look for exercises that support these. If you can use
these exercises online in the classroom, it might be
more enjoyable for your learners than doing exercises
on a piece of paper.
3)
Using MMTM
to teach ICT.
You can use MMTM to demonstrate
the use of the Internet. MMTM
is an informational resource
that invites you to explore
the site and to find out more
about something important like
personal money matters. Money
matters to everyone but not
everyone likes to talk about
it. By using it as an example
of an Internet resource, you
touch the subject of money but
you don't focus on it exclusively.
Depending on how advanced your learners
are regarding the use of the Internet, you can start
by explaining
how you can use websites. You can show your learners
how they can type in an URL- address: www.moneymatterstome.co.uk,
how they get to different areas of the site if they
use the mouse and click on a link, how to scroll a page
up
and down, how they can download resources, etc.
Another
useful method might be to do
a web
quest. If you design a web
quest that includes a role play your learners can explore
the site playing a certain role.
Firstly, role plays often prove
to be very motivating, and secondly,
learners might be more open
to find out about more sensitive
subject areas such as 'Dealing
with debt' if they are just
taking on a role and don't have
to say that they might have
problems of that kind. A web
quest is supporting the development
of the essential skill to select
and analyse information from
the Web. This skill is essential
because there is a lot of information
available that is only useful
if the users learn to use it
for their own practical purposes.
4)
Using online
tools and workshops of 'Money
Matters to Me'
Tools and workshops are motivating
devices to introduce learners
to a specific thematic area.
Take a look at our list of tools
and workshops on 'Money
Matters to Me'.
These tools and workshops are
all designed for dealing with
financial matters but they give
an introduction to the subject
without dense information. You
might just want to point out
some of them to your learners
and later return to find out
how they are getting on with
them. You might find that your
learners get more interested
in one of these areas and will
start exploring the site further.
The tools and the workshops
were designed to build confidence
in learners, allowing them to
delve deeper into the more extensive
information available on the
site.
