Listening to this call-in show about financial literacy got me thinking about ways to replicate this in the classroom.  Here is one idea on how you might set this up:

1. All students write down 1-2 personal finance questions that they have that are relevant to their lives.
2. Collect all the questions and find the 6-7 questions that are most prevalent.
3. Assign one of these 6-7 questions to each student so in a class of 21, there might be 3 students trying to answer the same question.
4. Students research answers to the questions.
5. Simulate talk show and have a student come up to the front of the class and answer the question that they had to answer.  You can read the question to them to simulate the call-in feature.
6. The rest of the class is ready to discuss the answer in a conversation facilitated by you.

Good luck!

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

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