Life Skills Arcade Middle school Family and Consumer Sciences, grades 6 to 8

Lesson 2.19

Results the Reveal and the Investor Report

Unit
Unit 2: Me, My Goals, My Money
Topic
2.4 The Gilded Age Market
Grade
6 to 8 (written at grade 7; see Differentiation for the grade 6 support and grade 8 stretch)
Days
2 class periods of 40 minutes
Room
classroom with a board on Day 1 (the closing bell and the leaderboard); paper only on Day 2

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Standards

NYS module line

CTE theme line

NYS FACS learning standard

  • NYS FACS Learning Standard 3 (Intermediate)Key Idea: Students will understand and be able to manage personal resources of talent, time, energy, and money and make effective decisions in order to balance their obligations to work, family, and self.
    Performance Indicator: Students understand the resources available to them, make informed decisions about the use of those resources, and know some ways to expand resources.
    Performance Indicator: Students are able to budget their time and money.

CDOS

National FCS 3.0

Enduring understanding and essential question

Big idea: The market on the board was the real country with the prices rounded. What you did with paper dollars over eight rounds is what adults do with real money for fifty years, and the habits are the same: save first, spread it out, read the news slowly, do not borrow to buy what is already expensive, and do not sell because you are scared.
Essential question: Now that you know what happened next to every company on the board, what would you tell yourself in 1870?

Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

  1. (Low) Given the reveal, state for each of the seven companies what happened next and the lesson of each, and state what the bank and Monopoly stand for.
  2. (Mid) Given their own ledger and journal, analyze three of their decisions (what, why, what happened) and compute their starting total, closing total at 1936 prices, and percent return for the Investor Report.
  3. (High) Given their personal budget from Lesson 2.9 and what the market taught them, revise the budget with a savings line and defend the revision in the report.

Vocabulary

Tier 2 (general academic): reveal, represent, revise, defend
Tier 3 (FACS): closing bell, leaderboard, dividend, bankruptcy, trust, monopoly, deposit insurance, savings line. See the unit vocabulary list for the Spanish column.

Materials and setup

  • Handout 02.14 - The Gilded Age Market Kit.md (teacher): page 2 for the closing prices, page 3 for the closing bell dispatch, page 5 for the answer key, which is the reveal
  • Handout 02.19 - Paper Ledger.md (student): the Close column, the closing holdings table, the closing numbers box
  • Handout 02.19 - Investor Report Template.md, one per student
  • Each student's budget from Lesson 2.9, pulled from the FACS folder: Handout 02.09 - Budget Builder and Scenario Cards.md, page 3, whose summary lines table (income, needs, savings, wants, total spending, balance) copies straight into the report's "Before" column
  • Investor Journal, the decision grid from 2.17, and the Return Math handout from 2.18, all in the folder
  • Project 02 - The Gilded Age Market Investor Report and Personal Budget.md and Rubric 02 - Investor Report and Personal Budget.md, handed out in Lesson 2.14 and reread today
  • Three ledger paths to read as a class, by investor number only: the three example paths printed in the Paper Ledger's teacher key (never sold; sold in the crash and sat in the bank; sold in the crash and bought at the bottom), or three real ledgers from this class that match them
  • Slides: Slides 02.19 - Results the Reveal and the Investor Report
  • Setup notes: the market is frozen at Round 8 from the end of Lesson 2.18. Before Day 1, write "Closing bell, 1936" and the closing prices on the board (RAIL 30, OIL 60, GAS 30, ELEC 40, STEEL 60, AUTO 60, RADIO 12) and cover them. The ledgers were collected at the end of 2.18. Before Day 1, work out each student's closing total at the 1936 prices (about a minute a ledger), write the sorted leaderboard by investor number on the board and cover it with the prices, and hand the ledgers back at the door. In Step 1 students fill the Close column and check their total against the board. Check that nothing on the board carries a name. Day 2 is a writing day: the report is written from the journal and the ledger.

Pre-assessment

The Lesson 2.18 exit cards tell you who has a correct percent return in hand and who needs the worked-example card before writing. The journal count (how many of Entries 1 to 8 are complete) tells you who will struggle to find three decisions on Day 2; give those students their own ledger's trade log as the source, and one of the printed example paths if the ledger is thin.

Do now and hook (Time: 3 min, Day 1)

On the board (closing prices still covered): "Guess your final rank in this class (top third, middle, bottom third). Then one sentence: what one decision decided it."

Debrief: hands for each third. Then the hook: uncover the 1936 prices. "That is the closing bell. Nobody trades again on this board. In ten minutes I will tell you what happened next to every company you owned."

Procedure

StepTeacher willStudents willTime
Day 1, 1. The closing bell and the leaderboardRead the closing bell dispatch aloud (kit page 3): the market did not come back to 1929 for twenty five years but climbed a long way from the bottom; in 1933 the government closed every bank for a week, reopened the sound ones and created deposit insurance; in 1935 Parker Brothers began selling Monopoly. Students fill the Close column and the closing holdings table (shares times 1936 price, plus cash, plus the bank; no interest at the bell). Hand out the report template; the cover line and part 6 are filled today. Uncover the leaderboard you built from the collected ledgers, sorted by investor number; a student whose total does not match the board raises a hand and you check it together. Read the top five by investor number and stop. Show the class average total and the class average percent return. Say the two rules of the debrief before anyone speaks: nobody is named unless they name themselves, and nobody says "loser" about anyone. Then invite: "Who is willing to say what they did?"Fill the Close column and the closing table. Check the total against the board and raise a hand if it does not match. Write their closing total and rank on the report template cover.7 min
Day 1, 2. The revealSlides 5 to 11, one company per slide, from kit page 5. RAIL, Pennsylvania Railroad: survived every panic, paid dividends for more than a century, went bankrupt in 1970 after merging with the New York Central, the largest bankruptcy the country had seen; big and old is not the same as forever. OIL, Standard Oil: broken into 34 companies in 1911; the pieces became Exxon, Mobil, Chevron, Amoco and others; a company can be bigger than the government wants and still be a good business. GAS, Consolidated Gas: became Consolidated Edison, which still sends New York its gas and electric bills; boring and necessary pays every month. ELEC, General Electric: nearly died in 1893, then lit the country; one of the twelve original companies in the Dow Jones average of 1896 and in it for over a century; a new technology's stock can crash and still be right about the future. STEEL, US Steel: still makes steel; its share of the market shrank for a hundred years; enormous on the first day is not a guarantee. AUTO, General Motors: the largest company in the world by the 1950s, bankrupt in 2009, rescued and reorganized; the best company of one era is not the best of the next. RADIO, RCA: under $6 in 1921, over $100 in September 1929, under $3 in 1932; it took until the 1960s to matter again and it was bought and broken up in 1986; the hottest stock of a decade is usually the most expensive way to learn the word "bubble." Then slide 12, the rest of the story: the bank (about nine thousand banks failed between 1930 and 1933 and their depositors lost their money; deposit insurance, created in 1933, is why "the bank never fails" is true for you and was not for your great great grandparents) and Monopoly (Lizzie Magie patented The Landlord's Game in 1904 to teach that letting one person own everything hurts everyone else; Parker Brothers bought it in 1935 and sold it as Monopoly, a game about doing exactly that; the trust on the board in Round 2 is the thing her game was about).Fill the reveal table on the report template: company, what happened next, the lesson in their own words, and whether their Round 0 risk guess from the journal cover was right.12 min
Day 1, 3. Three ledger pathsPut up the three paths, by investor number only, from the Paper Ledger's teacher key or from this class. Path 1 never sold: bought in 1870, held through every panic, was worth $2,618 in 1928, $926 in 1932 (less than the day it started) and $1,926 at the bell. Path 2 sold everything in October 1929 at Round 7 prices and put it in the bank: $1,892 in the bank, $1,949 at the bell, and in real life about nine thousand banks failed between 1930 and 1933 and their depositors lost their money (kit page 5). Path 3 sold in the crash like Path 2, then in 1932 took the money out of the bank and bought OIL, STEEL, AUTO and ELEC at the bottom: $5,949 at the bell. Then the two paths nobody wants: sold at the bottom in 1932 and sat in the bank, $926; and borrowed on margin in 1928, $0 in 1929. Ask the class to read each one: what did this investor do, and what did it cost or earn? Then two or three volunteers from the top and the bottom say what they did in one sentence each. Close the step with the kit's closing question answered honestly: when you sold mattered more than that you sold; the bank looked safe and was not, in real life, until 1933; and the person who bought when everyone was selling made more than five times the gain of the one who held ($4,949 against $926). Over eight rounds, luck matters a lot; over fifty years, habits matter more.Read the three paths. Volunteer or listen. Write one sentence on the report cover: "The investors who did best mostly ___. The ones who did worst mostly ___."8 min
Day 1, 4. Investor Journal, Entry 9Prompt: what I did (nothing today; the market closed), why my closing total is what it is, what I know now that I did not know in 1870.Write Entry 9 with the closing total in dollars.6 min
Day 1, closureSee Closure.4 min
Day 2, do nowOn the board: "Open your journal and your ledger's trade log. Circle the three decisions you are proudest of, or least proud of. Write the entry numbers on the report template."Circle and list.3 min
Day 2, 5. Walk the templateStudents take out the report template from Day 1. Walk the seven parts in half a minute each, on the slide: 1. starting and closing total; 2. percent return, shown with the formula; 3. three decisions and why, with what happened; 4. what the crash taught me; 5. one thing I would do differently; 6. the reveal table (done yesterday); 7. my revised personal budget with a savings line. Then the rubric's five criteria, pointing at where each one lives on the template.Follow on the template. Ask questions.4 min
Day 2, 6. Write the report, parts 1 to 5Circulate. The journal, the ledger's trade log, the decision grid, and the Return Math handout are the sources; nothing is written from memory. Require the formula written out in part 2 and a ledger number (shares, a price, or a round) in each of the three decisions.Write parts 1 to 5.16 min
Day 2, 7. The revised budget with a savings linePull the Lesson 2.9 personal budget. Show the revision table on slide 19: the same income, the same needs, and a savings line moved to the top, before wants, with a number and a place (a savings account first, which since 1933 is insured; a spread of companies second, once the savings account has a cushion, because time smooths the crashes). Say the rule that connects the topic: pay the savings line first, then the wants. Circulate.Copy the 2.9 numbers into the revision table. Add or raise the savings line. Adjust the wants until it balances. Write two sentences: what changed and why the market made me change it.8 min
Day 2, 8. Peer read and submitPairs swap reports. The reader checks the peer read box on the back: the formula is written with 1,000 on the bottom, three decisions each have a ledger number, the budget balances. Two comments, one specific. Reports back, one fix, and in the folder with the journal, the ledger, the grid, and Return Math stapled behind. The Round 2 replay does not need the stapled journal or ledger back: the journal's replay section and the ledger's Section F are printed as their own sheets for Lesson 2.20.Read a partner's report. Check three boxes. Comment. Fix one thing. Submit.6 min
Day 2, closureSee Closure.3 min

Day 1 totals 40 minutes: 3 + 7 + 12 + 8 + 6 + 4. Day 2 totals 40 minutes: 3 + 4 + 16 + 8 + 6 + 3.

Questions to ask

Monitor understanding:

  • Which company on the board still sends New York a bill? Which one went bankrupt in 1970? Which one was broken up and made its owners richer?
  • Your closing total is $1,240. Your percent return is what, and how did you get it?
  • Where is the savings line on your revised budget: before or after the wants?

Deepen learning:

  • The bank never lost a dollar in this game. In real life, about nine thousand of them failed between 1930 and 1933. What changed in 1933, and why does that matter for the savings line you are about to write?
  • RADIO went from 6 to 100 to 3. Someone in this room owned it. What would you have needed to know in 1928 to sell it at 100, and could anyone have known it?
  • Lizzie Magie made a game to warn people about monopolies, and it was sold as a game about building one. What does that tell you about who tells the story of money?
  • What is the one thing you would tell yourself in 1870?

Check for understanding

Day 1, Step 2: clipboard yes or no per student on "reveal table has all seven companies with what happened next." Day 2, Step 6: yes or no on "formula written in part 2" and "three decisions each have a ledger number." Day 2, Step 7: yes or no on "savings line present and the budget balances." A "got it" report reads, in part 3: "Entry 7: I sold 4 RADIO at 30 because I owed the broker $200 and had no cash. RADIO went to 3 in Round 8, so selling saved me $108, but I never bought anything at the bottom, so I missed AUTO going from 8 to 60."

Closure (Time: 4 min Day 1, 3 min Day 2)

Day 1: 3-2-1 exit card: 3 companies and what happened next, 2 things the investors who did best did, 1 thing you would tell yourself in 1870. Three students read the "1" aloud. Sort; anyone with fewer than three companies gets the reveal slides printed for Day 2.
Day 2: Investor Journal Entry 10, two lines: "My final percent return was ___. One sentence to my future self about money." Two students read the sentence aloud. The report is the summative check for Topic 2.4; there is no exit card sort, because the rubric does that work.

Differentiation and supports

  • ELL: the reveal slides have one picture each (a locomotive, an oil derrick, a gas street lamp, a light bulb, a steel bridge, a Model T, a radio set) next to the company name and the lesson in one short line; the report template is boxes with a sentence starter in each, in English and Spanish where the starter is short ("I started with ___ and ended with ___," "The crash taught me ___," "Next time I will ___"); the budget revision table is the same shape as the 2.9 budget; a student may write the report in their first language and give the numbers in English, with the translated version to be verified by a native speaker for scoring.
  • IEP and 504 (general): the report can be typed, dictated to a partner, or recorded as a voice note with the template numbers filled in on paper; extended time by finishing part 7 at the start of Lesson 2.20 (the Round 2 block gives a natural ten minutes); the three decisions can be two; the ledger's trade log replaces a lost journal; seat the student away from the board on Day 1 if rank is a stressor.
  • Grade 6 support: parts 3 and 5 use the sentence starters as the whole answer; the reveal table has the "what happened next" lines in a word bank to match; the budget revision is one change (add or raise the savings line) with the wants adjusted by the teacher's suggestion.
  • Grade 8 stretch: part 3 includes, for each decision, what a diversified investor would have done instead; part 7 splits the savings line into an emergency cushion and a long-term line, and names where each would go and why, using the reveal (an insured savings account for the cushion; a spread of companies for the long line); the student writes one paragraph on luck vs habit over eight rounds vs fifty years.
  • UDL checkpoint used: multiple means of action and expression (written, typed, dictated, or recorded report; boxes instead of an essay) and multiple means of engagement (the student's own ledger is the text, and the revised budget is about their own money).
  • No-kitchen or no-machine alternative: not needed; both days are paper and a board. If the projector is out, the reveal slides are read aloud from kit page 5 and the three paths are written on the board.

Assessment

ObjectiveStandards metLearning taskAssessment (formative or summative; tool)
1. State what happened next to each company and the lesson of each, plus the bank and MonopolyFCL 2. c) (taught across the topic); National FCS 3.3.4; CDOS 3a Managing InformationReveal table, Day 1 Step 2; Day 1 exit cardFormative; exit card sorted; the reveal table is part 6 of the report and is checked complete or not
2. Analyze three decisions and compute the returnIGLR 4. e); IGLR 2. d); FCL 2. f); Std 3 PI B; CIR 1. f)Report parts 1 to 5, Day 2 Step 6Summative; Rubric 02 criteria 2 (analysis and decision making), 3 (emotional control, from part 4 and the grid), and 4 (the report's math and reflection)
3. Revise the personal budget with a savings line and defend itIGLR 4. b); Std 3 PI C; National FCS 2.6.2Report part 7, Day 2 Step 7Summative; Rubric 02 criterion 5 (the revised budget)

Rubric 02 criterion 1 (trading participation and journal) is scored from the paper ledger's trade log and the journal count, collected with the report. The report and rubric are the formal check for Topic 2.4 and the Unit 2 project grade.

Homework

None. The report is finished in class. A student who needs more time finishes part 7 during the Round 2 block of Lesson 2.20.

Connections

Community: a bank or credit union education officer, or a parent who works in finance, can sit in on Day 1 for the reveal and take three questions; they see a class that can say what deposit insurance is and why it exists, and the class hears an adult say "I held when it fell." ELA: the report is a piece of evidence-based writing (claim, number, reason); the ELA teacher may accept it as a writing sample if the two classes agree. Social studies: the reveal is a one-page history of American business from 1870 to 1936; the social studies teacher may want the kit.

Sources

  • NYS Middle Level CTE FACS Content Module 01, Individual Growth and Life Readiness, lines 2. d), 4. b), and 4. e).
  • NYS Middle Level CTE Theme Module 03, Financial and Consumer Literacy, line 2. f); Theme Module 02, Communication and Interpersonal Relationships, line 1. f).
  • NYS FACS Standard 3, Intermediate, PI B and PI C; CDOS 3a Managing Information; National FCS 3.0 competencies 2.6.2 and 3.3.4, all per 02 Standards/STANDARDS CROSSWALK.md.
  • Handout 02.14 - The Gilded Age Market Kit.md: the closing prices (page 2), the closing bell dispatch (page 3) and the answer key (page 5), which is the whole reveal. Every date and figure in this lesson comes from the kit. The three ledger paths are built from the kit's price table and shown in the teacher key of Handout 02.19 - Paper Ledger.md.
  • My own materials: my earlier market simulation plan and student guide (the reveal table idea, the reflection questions that became the report's parts 3 to 5, the results and reflection essay days, and the four-criterion rubric).

Teacher notes

  • If Day 1 runs short, cut Step 3 to the three printed paths and skip the volunteers; the volunteers' stories come back in the report anyway. Never cut the reveal; it is the whole point of eight rounds of history.
  • If Day 2 runs short, the peer read becomes a self-check with the same three boxes, and part 7 finishes in Lesson 2.20's Round 2 block.
  • The leaderboard is the moment to be careful. Read the top five by investor number. Do not read the bottom. A student who is last knows it; the class does not need to. Anyone wiped out by a margin call in Round 7 shows a closing total of $0 and that is a real number on the board; say once that the report scores the reasoning, and move on.
  • The honest part of Step 3: on this price table, the investor who sold everything in October 1929 and sat in the bank finished a little ahead of the one who never sold, because 1936 prices had not come back to 1929. Do not hide it. The lesson is not "never sell." It is: selling at the bottom was the disaster, borrowing at the top was the disaster, and buying at the bottom was the best decision on the board. Then say the reveal's line about the bank: the seller's money was safe in the game and would not have been in real life until 1933.
  • My earlier plan ended with a one to two page reflection essay. The report template replaces it with seven boxed parts so the same thinking fits in one period and scores against a rubric. If a student wants to write the essay instead, the template's parts 3 to 5 are the outline.
  • The Round 2 replay during Lessons 2.20 to 2.22 runs on the same board after the reveal, with a fresh $1,000 and everyone knowing what is coming; see Project 02 for what changes (nothing in the rules, everything in what students know).