It's tempting to stay away from credit cards entirely, and it can also be tempting to charge large purchases on credit cards with the intention to pay them off later. But as a three-part lesson on credit and debt shows your high schoolers, building credit history is an integral part of gaining financial responsibility and independence, and proper use of a credit card is the first step.

Concepts

credit, credit cards, debt, spending money, consumer skills, financial literacy, personal finance, banking, loans

Show More Show Less

Additional Tags

math

Show More Show Less

Instructional Ideas

• Assign the pre-assessment as a homework assignment or warm-up activity before you begin the unit, encouraging learners to write their rationale for each question in order to demonstrate their prior knowledge of credit use
• Have class members work together in groups to answer the questions or work on the exercises
• Use in an economics class, social studies class, or math class for real-world examples

Classroom Considerations

• Unit was published in Canada, so some figures and resources are relevant to Canada rather than other countries

• This resource is only available on an unencrypted HTTP website.It should be fine for general use, but don’t use it to share any personally identifiable information

Pros

• Prompts individuals to think about the advantages and disadvantages of using credit for different purchases

Cons

• None

Common Core

RI.9-10.1 RI.11-12.1