TMATE Lesson Plan

Part 1
(A) Lesson Title: Credit Scores
(B) Standards: TEKS 130.180 (c) (6) The student applies mathematical process standards
to demonstrate an understanding of the various types of credit. The student
is expected to:(H) explain ways a negative credit report can affect a
consumer's financial options.

ELPS (3) (E) share information in cooperative learning interactions

CCRS: D Academic Behaviors 2 Use study habits necessary to manage

academic pursuits and requirements. c. Use the appropriate level of detail
necessary to complete an assigned task.

(C) Learning Students will create a poster highlighting the ways a poor credit score can
Objective: affect an individual’s buying power, scoring 80 out of 100 on the rubric.

(D) Prior Learning: New content to students and encompasses knowledge learned in Algebra I
(1) Mathematical process standards. The student uses mathematical
processes to acquire and demonstrate mathematical understanding.

(E) Materials: Computing Device (laptop or tablet), calculator, post-it notes, marker, pen/pencil,
note cards, whiteboard, magnets, scissors, printer, magazines, poster board.

Lesson Cycle
(F) Focus (Hook):
How is the teacher introducing the learning topic? Involving the learner in a relevant way? Connecting to
prior & future learning?
A post-it note will be placed at each student’s desk before they arrive for class. It will have a poor credit score
interest rate and an excellent score interest rate, along with a loan term of 60 months. Price field will be left
blank.

Teacher: When you walked in today, you may have noticed a post-it note on your desk. I want you think about
your dream car. It can be any car but must be new and I want you to use your (electronic device) to do a quick
search for the price of the vehicle. On the post-it note, write down the Year, Model, and price of the vehicle in
the blanks. Once you have the price, use the interest rate, loan term, and interest rate formula provided on the
post it note. An example is on the whiteboard on how to calculate interest rate. Identify which loan you would
choose. You will have 3 minutes to complete and raise your hand when you are done so I can collect your card.
Let’s do it!

Teacher will walk around and assist anyone with pricing and collecting post-it notes once completed. Place
post-it notes in a jar.

Teacher: Good job, I am going to randomly select a couple example notes out of the jar, and let’s verify the loan
amounts.

Teacher will calculate if the loan amount is correct on the post it notes. Confirm with the students why the
selected the loan for understanding. Review the dream cars with the class.

Ask the following questions for further tie in:

Why do you think people have a high or low interest rates?
Would a high interest rate prevent you from buying a specific car?
Who receives the interest payments?
Do banks give out loans to anyone? What tool can they use to verify your risk?

Teacher: I really enjoyed seeing what your dream cars were. In today’s lesson we are going to learn what factors
determine a credit score and what activities affect a credit score. At the end of today’s lesson, you will be able
explain how a good or bad credit score an affect what an individual can afford. Here is today’s learning
objective: Students will create a poster highlighting the ways a poor credit score can affect an individual’s
buying power, scoring 80 out of 100 on the rubric.

What is the student doing?

Students will be using technology to research for pricing of a car. Students will be responding to questions and
will be assessed for prior knowledge of calculating interest rates by using their skills obtain in Algebra I

(G) Instructional Delivery (Teacher Input):

How is the teacher delivering content related to the central focus and objective? What are the key teaching
points, key vocabulary, and elements of the content? How is the teacher relating content to the learners’
world? What varied instructional strategies are being used? Is the instruction learner centered?
Students are seated at their own desk.

Teacher will pass out PowerPoint slides of today’s lesson and exclude information for students to fill in while
following along.

Teacher: Now that we have examined how a credit score can affect how much a loan will be, let’s explore how a
credit score is generated. I have provided you a printout of the slides but be sure to fill in the blanks as some
information has been excluded.

Teacher will start by providing a definition of credit score and identifying and defining the 5 factors of credit
score and what percentage of the score they comprise of:

 Payment History: Determine by how often you make and miss on time payments. The lower the
missed payments the better How often are payments usually due? What happens if you miss a
payment?

 Amount Owed or Credit Utilization: Based on how much money owned compared to how much credit
you have. Example: You have $1,000 in credit but owe $250, Your Credit Utilization is 25%. You want
to have as low of a Credit Utilization % as possible.
Is it better to have high or low Credit utilization percentage?

 Credit History: The average time your credit accounts have been opened. Calculated in Years and
Months. Add the length of time of every account and divide by the total amount of accounts. Your
goal is to have as high of an average as possible.
Does closing and opening accounts affect Credit History? Is it wise to sign up for a store credit card to
use it only once?

 Credit Mix: How Many different credit accounts you have. Do you have all car loans? Or Do you have
 mix of car, house, student loans, etc. Your goal is to have a higher mix, the lower.
What if you just have credit cards, does it affect the credit mix? Why do you think you need a mix of
credit?

 Hard Inquires: When applying for credit, a creditor will check your credit score which creates a hard
inquiry. Each request will typically stay on your account for 2 years. You goal is to have the least
amount of inquires as possible.
How do you avoid inquires? Would request numerous banks for loan to buy one item?

Teacher will then describe the credit score range numbers, the names: Very poor, poor, fair, good, and
excellent.

Teacher: Okay now in your notes, I want you to write down what percentage of American’s credit scores do you
think fall into each range.

Teacher will call on a few students to provide their estimations. Afterwards, teacher will give the correct
percentages for students to write down. Teacher will ask by a show of hands who was with in 5% points of the
correct breakdown for each score. Answers: Very Poor 5%, Poor 21% Fair 13% Good 38% Excellent 23%

Teacher: Great Job! It can be kind of eye opening to see that many Americans have a poor or very poor credit
score. Now let’s talk about ways you can improve your credit score. Based on the 5 factors from earlier, take a
minute to write down ways you think you can improve your credit score.

Teacher will call on the students to provide their answers and write them down on the whiteboard. Will have a
discussion what improvement is fits in which factor category.

Teacher: Now let’s think back to our first activity and think about the interest rates that were related to each
credit score.

Possible Questions: Why would someone with a poor credit score have a higher interest rate compared to some
with a good to excellent score? What is the outcome of a higher interest rate?

What is the student doing?

Students will be taking notes by filling the blinks on the power point slides, verbally answering questions from
the teacher, taking an educated guess for the percentages of Americans in each credit score range and
brainstorming ways to improve a credit score.

(H) Guided Practice:

How are the students practicing the skill/knowledge they just learned? How is the teacher providing
individual and whole-class feedback? Is the practice directly related to the standards, objectives, and
content? Does this activity allow students to model the behavior/skills being evaluated in the Independent
practice?

Teacher: Since we have discussed what comprises a credit score, I am going to place you into groups of 4 and
provided your group with a set of colored notecards. Each team will have their own color of notecards (blue,
green, red, white, yellow, and green). Each card will Reference one of the 5 Factors of a credit score and will
have a numerical amount associated with it. You will also receive a poster board with the 5 Credit Score Ranges
listed

Example of the Poster Board:

Very Poor Poor Fair Good Excellent

Each team will get a set of the below cards:

Payment History: 0 Missed, 1 Missed, 2-3 Missed, 4-5 Missed, 5 + Missed
Credit Utilization: 0-10 %, 11-25 %, 26-50 %, 51-75 %, 76+%
Average Length of Open Accounts: 0-1 Year, 2-4 years, 5-8 years, 9-15 years, 15 + years
Credit Mix: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5+
Hard Inquiries: 0, 1-2, 3-5, 6-9, 10+

Example Cards:

Credit Utilization
Hard Inquires
0 – 10 %
6-10

Teacher: From the data on the cards, your team will need to determine which notecard is best suited for each
Credit Score Range. For example, If I only had 1 Missed Payment this would be considered Good. However, If I
missed 4-5 payments then it would be considered Poor. Once determined, you will place the card on your
poster board under the correct Credit Score Range

After you are done, stay with your group and select a volunteer who will transfer your magnetic cards to the
white board once everyone is completed. (The white board will be set up just like the poster board, just larger
so that every team’s cards will fit)

You will have 3 minutes to determine the order of your cards on your own poster board.

Begin!

Teacher will walk from group to group and provide guidance, as necessary and answer questions.
Teacher: Alright time is up! Let’s place the cards on the whiteboard.

Since each team has their own color, we can easily determine which card belongs to each team. Instead of
placing the cards on the whiteboard as they solve, they will complete the task on their own posterboard first to
prevent teams from copying each other.

Answer Key
Very Poor: Payment History 5+, Credit Utilization 76+ %, Avg Length Open 0-1, Credit Mix 1 Inquiries: 10 +
Poor: Payment History 4-5, Credit Utilization 51-75 %, Avg Length Open 2-4, Credit Mix 2, Inquiries 6-9
Fair: Payment History 2-3, Credit Utilization 26-50 %, Avg Length Open 5-8, Credit Mix 3, Inquiries 3-5
Good: Payment History 1, Credit Utilization 11-25 % Avg Length Open 9-15, Credit Mix 4, Inquiries 1-2
Excellent: Payment History 0, Credit Utilization 0-10% Avg Length 15 +, Credit Mix 5+. Inquiries 0

Check for understanding by reviewing to cards on the whiteboard. Will go credit score by credit score and
explain the correct answers. If you a see a Credit Factor that is incorrect by most groups, we will need to go back
over that section in-depth.

What is the student doing?

Students will be working in groups. Discussing and brainstorming between group members. Recording answers
on note cards. Reviewing and answering final questions from the teacher.

(I) Independent Practice:

Does the activity described in this section directly relate to the Learning Objective? Does this activity
reinforce the learning of the lesson? Is the assessment authentic? How will this assessment be scored?
Remember that you must create the assessment, including full instructions, an answer key, rubric, and/or
grading guide.
Teacher: Alright everybody, now it time to demonstrate what you all have learned today. Taking a look at our
Learning Objective, it states students will create a digital poster highlighting the ways a poor credit score can
affect an individual’s buying power, scoring 80 out of 100 on the rubric. We have talked about the 5 factors of a
credit score, range of credit scores, and the influences of interest rates dependent upon a credit score.

You will stay in your group from the previous exercise and your group will be creating a poster which will be
displayed in the hallway. I am passing out the requirement checklist, and a rubric on how your poster will be
scored. Let’s go through the requirements.

1. Select any 2 large purchase items (Over $10K)

2. Include at least 1 picture for each item
3. Utilize the Average Interest Rate chart from today’s PowerPoint and calculate the loan amount
required for a person with Very poor, fair, and Excellent. Loan Term is 60 months.
4. Include the 5 Factors of a Credit Score and write a brief summary on what affects each factor.

You may use the stack of magazines or find photos on your device (laptop/iPad) and print out. You may also use
the any materials in the supplies box including permeant markers, scissors, glue, etc.
Be sure to reference your power point slides and the T-Chart on the white board.

Teacher will walk around answering questions and providing feedback on quality of posters.

What is the student doing?

Students will be communicating and working as a group to complete the activity based on the Learning
Objective.
(J) Closure:
Does the closure summarize the learning? Does it involve the learner? Does it connect to future learning?
Teacher- Great job today class! The posters awesome and thank you for the effort you put into them. Let’s
review what we have learned today.

To quickly utilize time, pairs will be created from the student’s project group of 4, and utilize Kagan Activity
Timed Pair Shared

The pairs will discuss the following questions in 30 second turns:

 What are the consequences of a poor credit score?
 Is it possible to improve a poor credit score?
 How will the information today help you when building your credit?

Teacher will walk around and listen to the pairs as they answer questions.

Teacher: Before you leave, I want you discuss amongst your pair what do you think is the most important factor
to improve in your credit score and if you thank this is important to Personal Finance. Also, when you go home
tonight, ask your parents if they pay attention to their credit scores and we’ll discuss tomorrow your findings.
Okay, be sure your and your partner hand in you most important factor to me when you are dismissed. Only 1
per pair is required.
What is the student doing?
Students will give thought to what they were presented with in the lesson, answer reflective questions, and
complete a discussion with their group.

(K) Enrichment: (L) Reteach:

What learning opportunities will you offer to Describe different instructional strategies you will
students who have already mastered or quickly use to reteach the material if students do not
master the objective? master the objective?

Students who master the objective quickly will be Students will go to https://www.myfico.com/credit-
given access to the Wall Street Journal Online via education/whats-in-your-credit-score via their iPad
iPad or laptop and play an interactive game. of laptop

“Play The Credit Score Game”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/play-the-credit-score-
game-11571832001
Students can use the game to mimic making
sound financial decisions or see the effects of
poor financial decision making.
From the data on the website, the students will
create a graphic organizer in the form of a pie
chart. The students will section off the pie chart
based on the percentages that each factor
influences credit score. They will label each factor
in the corresponding pie piece. The students will
then provide a one sentence summary of each
factor within the pie piece.

Guided discussion:

Give Scenario: Your find out your parents will no

longer pay for your cell phone bill. You purchase a
cell phone and cell service from Verizon with your
credit card. You pay your cell phone bill on time
every month.
Does your credit score go up or down?
 Why does it go up or down?

Another Scenario: You are moving into your first

apartment and you want to buy new furniture. You
buy a TV, couch, and mattress. When the credit
card bill arrives next month, you notice you have
spent the full credit limit of $3000.

Does your credit score go up or down?

Why does it go up or down?
(M) Modifications: (N) Accommodations:

Revised Learning Objective: Students will
understand how a credit score is generated by
answering multiple choice questions, scoring 4 out
of 5.
Multiple Choice questions will have 2 answer
choices. Assessment will be open note/book.
Students will provide a copy of the notes filled in
and highlighted. Independent practice: Student
will need to select 1 large purchase items.
Exclude calculating loan amount for a Fair credit
score. Poster can be turned at the beginning of
the next class period.

You must attach a copy of your assessment from the Independent Practice section,
along with an answer sheet, grading guide, checklist, or rubric. Be sure that specific
instructions are included.