Take It To The Bank

Financial advice comes at you from every direction in America. Books continue to top the NY Times bestseller list, guaranteeing successful financial independence. Saturday afternoon infomercials will give you a 5-step plan to early retirement for 5 easy payments. Mailboxes fill up with credit card offers, each one unique it its own way. Elementary students even experience simulated mini economies, teaching the values of saving, or entrepreneurship.

Lutheran Non Formal School Teachers - from back to front:
Evans, Meshach, Hibraham, Loice

Banks find themselves intertwined in all of these aspects of American culture. So much is banking a part of everyday life, that several common idioms use banking as a means to illustrate a point. Take it to the bank doesn’t mean actually depositing a hard earned paycheck, but rather you can count on it, just as you can count on banks to keep your money safe.  It’s common knowledge banks typically operate 9-5, and this fact finds its way into sports. The banks are open late doesn’t mean tellers are standing by at 2:00AM, but rather the prime time basketball game just had a remarkable shot use the backboard.

Well, as Tim prepared to teach the next lesson in 7^th grade English titled, “Banking Advice,” he hoped to draw on student’s prior knowledge to develop vocabulary and reading comprehension. He led a pre-work activity consisting of brainstorming a concept web around banks. Perhaps concepts such as interest rates, checking accounts, debit cards, CDs, Roth IRAs etc. come to mind. After pulling teeth for almost 10 minutes, to use a dental idiom, the class had come up with only two concepts: money and safe. Those are certainly fundamental concepts around banking, but the contrast to America clearly stared back at Tim from the chalkboard and blank faces of the students. 

This story reminds us of the important roles reading for enjoyment and life experience play in vocabulary acquisition.  Tim passed his own bank debit card around to illustrate a microchip, and this hands on manipulative reflected in the students’ homework. Each student scored differently, but every single one correctly defined microchip.