What Do You Put Stock Into?

West Virginia Content Standards and Objectives
21st Century Learning Skills

21C.S.5-8.2 Standard 2: Thinking and Reasoning Skills - The student will demonstrate the ability to explore and develop new ideas, to intentionally apply sound reasoning processes and to frame, analyze and solve complex problems using appropriate technology tools.

21C.S.5-8.3 Standard 3: Personal and Workplace Skills - The student will exhibit leadership, ethical behavior, respect for others; accept responsibility for personal actions considering the impact on others; take the initiative to plan and execute tasks; and interact productively as a member of a group.
Math:

M.S.6.1 Number and Operations: Through communication, representation, reasoning and proof, problem solving, and making connections within and beyond the field of mathematics, students will: - demonstrate understanding of numbers, ways of representing numbers, and relationships among numbers and number systems, - demonstrate meanings of operations and how they relate to one another, and - compute fluently and make reasonable estimates.

M.S.6.5 Data Analysis and Probability: Through communication, representation, reasoning and proof, problem solving and making connections within and beyond the field of mathematics, students will: - formulate questions that can be addressed with data and collect, organize, and display relevant data to answer them, - select and use appropriate statistical methods to analyze data.
21st Century Technology Tools:
21 C.S.5-8.1 Standard 1: Information and Communication Skills

21 C.O.5.8.1.TT.6 Students uses advanced features and utilities of spreadsheet software, (e.g. functions, formulas, filters, sorts, creates graphs and charts), to perform calculations and to organize, analyze and report data.

21 C.O. 5.8.1.TT.7 Student uses advanced features and utilities of presentation software (e.g. design templates, design layouts, animation and graphics, inserting pictures, objects, movies, sound, charts, hyperlinks, and graphs) to create an original product.

Length of Unit: 4 Weeks
Materials: laptops or tablets, one flash drive/student
Attention Getter: Play a sound byte of the bell ringing on Wall Street (nyse.com). Ask students if they recognize it. Discuss student responses.
Assess Prior Knowledge: Distribute KWL charts which are available for download at http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/. Ask students to write everything they know about buying stocks and what would they like to know. Collect. At end of unit, students will complete the chart by writing what they learned. Also, create a class KWL chart allowing each student to add one thing to the K and W columns. As the unit progresses, students may add to the class KWL chart.

Vocabulary:
Dow Jones Industrial Average Economy Investment
Wall Street versus Main Street Recession Stock
Stock Market Bear versus Bull Market

Using SMART Board, have terms listed. As you discuss terms with students, write what they know about the terms and save in a folder in SMART Notebook.
Students may go to Kid’s Economic Glossary at Scholastic.com for definitions of the terms. Students will copy and paste the terms and definitions into a document. Save to flash drive. Students will create a folder called, “Stock Market Unit” and save all subsequent work to the folder.
Throughout the unit, periodically discuss terms and add to the SMART Notebook file as students expand their knowledge and use of terms. Use as an ongoing informal assessment of application of learning.

Introduction to the Stock Market:
• On Smartboard, display NYSE.com and NASDAQ.com. Show students how to navigate through the list of companies in which a person can purchase stock. Point out the price/share and opening and closing prices. Students may ask to look at particular companies.
• Discuss the different types of companies for example, food industry, public utilities, etc.
• As a small group activity, have students discuss possible reasons for the price differences.

Phase I: Have students open NYSE.com and NASDAQ.com on laptops. Allow them time to look through the companies. Given a budget of $25.00 each, students will choose a company and determine how many shares he/she can buy. Students will calculate how much money it will require to purchase desired shares at the current price of the stock. Discuss how they may be able to buy two shares of a prime company with less risk or four shares of an unknown company but with a higher risk.
Students will also begin a spreadsheet with the following information and according to a checklist (attached at the end of this lesson plan):
• Name of Stock
• Date Purchased
• Price/share
• Total Shares Purchased
• Total Cost Invested

Predict: Have students predict what they think their stock will do over the next four weeks. Why? Students will type their prediction in a document and save to their file.

Phase II:
For the next four weeks, students will check the price of the stocks each day and record it in their spreadsheets.
Throughout the unit, discuss what students are discovering about their stocks. What are the possible reasons for the gains or losses - natural disasters, major political events, etc? Were their predictions correct?
At the end of four weeks, students will create a line graph showing the gains/losses of his/her stock.

Phase III:
At the end of the unit, students will prepare a PowerPoint presentation summarizing the activity of their stock. Presentation will include:
• Name of stock
• Why he/she chose that stock
• Starting price and number of shares purchased
• Gains/losses over time
• Possible reasons for these gains/losses
• Would he/she would purchase the same stock again or choose another industry.
• Why or why not?
• Prediction of what the stock will continue to do over the next few months based on what was learned and observed.
• Students will also import their graphs from Excel into the Power Point.


Formal Assessment: Graded rubric on Power Point Presentation. Rubric attached with this lesson plan.

Conclusion:
Students will present their presentations to the rest of the class with parents and principal invited to attend.
Distribute students’ KWL Charts. Have them fill in the column labeled, “What I learned”. Students may also add to the class KWL chart.
Extension Activity:
Divide class into small groups. Each group will be an investment brokerage. Their “job” is to track the success or failure of recommended stocks over a two week period. At the end of the two week period, students will determine what each broker’s commission would be as a percentage of the money earned for their clients.

Stock Market Presentation
Scoring Rubric

Criterion Exceeds Standard
3 points Meets Standard
2 points Below Standard
1 point Total Score
Name of stock and description of the company Name and description of company including type of industry and importance to economy. Name and brief description of company. Name or description is missing.
Reasons for choosing the stock Explanation for choosing the stock is creative, connected to personal interests, relative to events in the news, etc. Explanation for choosing the stock is sufficient listed and discussed. Explanation is insufficiently listed or discussed.
Imported line graph from spreadsheet depicting activity of the stock Graph is easy to read, clearly shows activity of the stock, labeling and color/graphics have been added. Graph clearly shows activity of stock, includes labeling but no extra features added. Graph is not complete. Does not clearly show the activity of the stock or labeling is missing.
Discussion of possible reasons for gains/losses Discussion of possible reasons for gains/losses of stock are thorough and well though out. Includes global and political events, natural disasters, etc. Demonstrates an understanding of events relative to activity of the stock. Discussion of possible reasons for activity of stock make sense and include global and political events, natural disasters, etc. Possible reasons for gains/losses of stock are limited and have no real connection to real world events.
Why he/she would or would not choose same stock or industry. Reasoning for decision makes sense and connects to the data collected. Also connects to real world events. Reasoning for decision makes sense and connects to the data collected. Reasoning for decision does not make sense or it does not connect to the data collected.
Prediction of future activity of stock Reasoning for prediction makes sense and connects to the data collected. Also connects to real world events. Reasoning for prediction makes sense and connects to the data collected. Reasoning for prediction does not make sense or it does not connect to the data collected.
Technology features Uses 4 or more of the following: transitions, clipart, sound, background design, color and font features. Uses 3 of the following: transitions, clipart, sound, background design, color and font features.
Uses 2 or less of the following: transitions, clipart, sound, background design, color and font features.

Stock Market Spreadsheet
Checklist
Instructions: Complete the steps below. Put a checkmark in the box after you have completed each step.
1. In cells A1 – C1, type “Your Name’s Stock Portfolio”. Merge cells and center text.
2. In cells A2 – C2, type the name of your stock. Merge cells and center text.
3. In cells A3 – C3, type “Date Purchased” and the date. Merge cells and center text.
4. In cell A5, type and center the heading, “Date”.
5. In cell B5, type and center the heading, “Value of Stock”.
6. In cell C5, type and center the heading, “Losses/Gains”.
7. Begin filling in the information in the appropriate columns. For losses/ gains, use a + or – sign.
8. Save to your flash drive as “Stock Portfolio Spreadsheet”.