What made you decide to undertake a tax based programme and specifically the Part of something bigger kit for your students?
The students are starting to think about their careers and where their learning is taking them. They are also at the stage where they are starting to undertake part time work themselves so understanding their payslip, taxation and KiwiSaver is important to them. Students are also developing a world view and it is useful for them to understand that being a New Zealander allows them to live in a way that is different from many other places in the world.
If you were to re use this resource in the future, how would you see yourself doing this? (Eg, as a full unit, separately in other units of work, integrating into cross curricular lesson plans)
I used this resource with a junior and a senior class and I found that the Part of something bigger unit lead really well into the teaching and assessment of Unit Standard 24697 (Income related calculations). I would look to connecting these units of work together again in the future.
How effective was the Melani interactive in increasing your students' understanding of tax?
How would you rate the change in your own understanding of Tax systems and what it contributes to, prior to engaging with the kit?
Which part/s of the kit did you find the most useful in supporting you to teach financial literacy and why?
The information about the way that tax income is spent in New Zealand. Getting students to determine how they think the tax income should be spent was a really good activity for them to advocate for their characters and to their personal experiences of social income as a young person in New Zealand.
How would you rate the change in your students understanding of Tax systems and what it contributes to, prior to engaging with the kit?
Which part/s of the kit grabbed the attention of your students and engaged them the most?
All of the kit that involved personal resources - the name tags and the scratch off cards. They also enjoyed using the coloured tape to express their thoughts. Using the Supermarket site to determine their current income was also interesting for the students and created some interest and amusement for the class. The randomness of the characters role and circumstance made the tasks interesting for the students.
How useful would you say the kit was at extending students overall financial literacy?
How did the activity help students make connections between circuit theory and real-world applications?
This unit was team taught and together, we were able to build on the learning activities by discussing our own experiences with the workplace, income and taxation as well as a range of experiences of parents and students other family members. Hopefully students were able to connect the learning with a range of real world experiences from the people in our close and wider communities.
