****ALL COMMON CORE ALIGNED***
The Personal Finance unit is often described as having the biggest impact on students’ real-world understanding. Often, these lessons are the first time students have been asked to consider their relationship with money, their knowledge of how much goods and services cost, and their own values.
 
In this lesson, students will examine Income in order to understand how their career salaries will be put to use in the real world. 
It is imperative to give students ample time to examine their current knowledge, research financial terms and concepts, and continuously compare their learning to their prior knowledge.
Students will come with a wide variety of financial literacy and knowledge, depending on how open their parents/guardians are with their family’s financial information. Some students will require more time and energy to discover information while others may already be familiar.
Allow students time and space to ask and answer questions of the topics and themselves.
Sensitivity to the wide variety of students’ financial situations should also be stressed, especially during open discussions. Your expectations of respect and/or confidentiality should be made clear at the beginning of the unit, so that students use these assignments to truly and honestly explore their relationship to money in order to develop responsible ideas and practices for their futures.
To be clear, students will be asked to brainstorm questions they have about finances but will NOT be asked to discuss income with their families. Nor will students be required to disclose personal financial information to the class or teacher.