Stocks and Shares Lesson Plan: Economics

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This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Stocks and Shares, and supports the standard of explaining the potential risks and rewards of investing in corporate stock. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Ask students:

• What do you already know about the stock market? 
• What do you want to know more about? 

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

• Read the description on the Stocks and Shares topic page.
• Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding. 
• Assign Related Reading. Have students read one of the following articles: “Real Life” or “Careers”. Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.
  

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS 

Assign Stocks and Shares Quiz, prompting students to apply essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4: DEEPEN and EXTEND

Students express what they learned about stocks and shares while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.

• Make-a-Movie: Produce a news report about a new company going public. In your report, describe the pros and cons of buying stock in the company.
• Make-a-Map: Create a concept map identifying and describing different factors that can impact the price of a share in a company.
• Creative Coding: Code a newscast announcing a company’s initial public offering (IPO). 

More to Explore

Related BrainPOP Topics: Deepen understanding of economic systems with these topics: Stock Market, Banking, and Supply and Demand.

Teacher Support Resources:

• Pause Point Overview: Video tutorial showing how Pause Points actively engage students to stop, think, and express ideas. 
• Learning Activities Modifications: Strategies to meet ELL and other instructional and student needs.
• Learning Activities Support: Resources for best practices using BrainPOP.