Workshop Leader's Guide

Learning, Earning and Investing
Half-Day Workshop
3 Hours

1. Introduction (10 minutes)
   • Introduce the workshop leader
   • Provide an overview of the workshop. Describe the schedule of the day's activities.
   • Ask the workshop participants to introduce themselves.
2. Why Is Saving and Investing Education Important? (30 minutes)
   • Explain that Americans today are more responsible than ever before for their financial futures.
   • Show the PowerPoint slides: Why Is Saving and Investing Education Important? This presentation features information on the increasing financial responsibilities of consumers, the financial fitness of families, problems facing some families and youth, and the importance of financial education. Many of the statistics are taken from the results of the Survey of Consumer Finances published in the Federal Reserve Bulletin, January 2003.
3. Overview of LEI Middle School and High School Books and Demonstration of Lesson 4, What Is a Stock? (45 minutes)
   • Show the PowerPoint slides: Features of LEI. This presentation provides an overview of the LEI materials including a Table of Contents for both the middle school and high school books.
   • Demonstrate an abbreviated version of Lesson 4, What Is a Stock? Follow the instructions in lesson procedures 1-8. Then display the PowerPoint slides for Lesson 4. These slides are the true or false mathematics and economics questions from Lesson 4, Visual 1.
   • Distribute Activity 2. Ask for three volunteers and assign them to the roles of Maria, Michael and Mom. Ask the volunteers to read the script in Activity 2 while the others follow along.
   • Finally, as a review, ask the questions posed in Activity 3.
4. Break (15 minutes)
5. Demonstration of Lesson 12, Building Wealth for the Long Term (40 minutes)
   • Explain that some people are concerned that stock market games and simulations may appear to stress short-term gains. A proper economic and financial education stresses investing for the long term.
   • Show the PowerPoint slides of Visuals 1 through 9 from Lesson 12. These slides illustrate three rules of long term saving and investing--start early, buy and hold, and diversify.
   • Place the Floor Markers from the lesson on the floor at the edges of the room as explained in procedure 8.
   • Display the PowerPoint slides of Visuals 10 and 11, and ask the participants to stand by the Floor Marker of their choice for each situation in Visual 11.
   • Display the PowerPoint slides of Visuals 12 and 13 to stress the idea of risk and reward and the importance of diversification.
   • Display the last slide, which is based on Activity 3, the Callan Periodic Table of Investment Returns. Use this table to illustrate how difficult it is to predict which types of companies are likely to be successful from year to year. The Callan Table stresses one more time the importance of diversification.
6. LEI Web Site (30 minutes)
   • Explain that another great source of teaching ideas is the LEI Web site.
   • If possible, you might wish to visit http://lei.ncee.net and illustrate the features of the Web site "live." Demonstrate some of the interactives such as the "Compound Interest Calculator," "Word Search," "Reading the Financial Pages," "The Chessboard of Financial Life" and "NCEE's Historical Stock Market Simulation."
   • You may also wish to show the PowerPoint slides: LEI Web Site. These slides present several key features including the online lessons, sample lessons and interactives.
7. Wrap-Up (10 minutes)
   • Review the key features of the workshop.
   • Distribute the evaluation form and allow time for the participants to complete it.
   • Discuss any follow-up programs you may have planned.