nextgen3 Traveling at the Speed of Life

Transcription

1 Traveling at the Speed of Life Educator s Guide An education program on insurance basics sponsored by the nonprofit LIFE Foundation 2009, Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education. All rights reserved.

2 Guide Table of Contents NextGen3 Educator s Guide TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: How to Use the Program About this Program 2 About the Program Format and Content 2 Resources 3 Educator s Guide and Student Workbook 3 Objectives/Learning Outcomes 4 Using the Program in Your Classroom 5 Supplementing Scheduled Lessons 11 Lesson Structure 12 Insurance Video Guide Before You Start 14 Showing the Segments 14 Questions Keys and Discussion Points 14 Key Message of All Segments 17 Sharina s Life Insurance 101 Video Blog 17 LIFE s YouTube Site 18 Other Options 19 Introduction to risk and Insurance Lesson 1: The 411 on Insurance 21 Test Your I.Q. (Insurance Quotient) 23 Lesson 2: What s Risk Got to Do with It? 24 Rate the Risk Activity 25 Lesson 3: Risk Pooling in Ancient Rome 26 Life Insurance Lesson 1: Whose Life (Insurance) Is It Anyway? 29 What is Life Insurance? 30 What is a Dependent? 30 How Much Life Insurance Does a Person Need? 30 table of contents ii

3 Guide Table of Contents Life Insurance (contd) What Are the Different Types of Life Insurance 31 Think Again Activity Extension 32 Charting My Course Activity 33 Assessment Quiz Answer Sheet 34 Charting My Course Answer Sheet 35 Lesson 2: Better Safe Better Safe Activity 40 Better Safe Answer Sheet 41 Health Insurance Lesson 1: Here s to Your Health 44 Two Sisters, Two Plans 49 Am I Covered? 49 Special Project Topics 50 The Plan, The Plan Answer Sheet 52 Two Sisters, Two Plans Answer Sheet 53 Lesson 2: The Price Is Right 54 The Price Is Right 55 What Would I Pay? 56 The Price Is Right Answer Sheet 57 disability insurance Lesson 1: What Do You Know...About Disability Insurance? 59 The Long and Short of Disability Insurance 60 Disability Quiz Answer Sheet 62 The Long and Short of It Answer Sheet 63 Taking Care of Business Part 1 Answer Sheet 64 Taking Care of Business Part 2 Answer Sheet 66 Johnny s Lucky Break Answer Sheet 68 table of contents iii

4 Guide Table of Contents financial Planning basics Lesson 1: Building the Future 71 Earning Money, Saving Money 72 Financial Pyramid Research Project 72 In-class Activities: Brown Family and Friends 73 Other In-class Activities 73 One Two Punch Answer Sheet 76 Lesson 2: The Wise Consumer 78 table of contents iv

5 Program Intro introduction: How to use the program About this Program Page 2 About the Program Format and Content Page 2 Resources Page 3 Educator s Guide and Student Workbook Page 3 Objectives/Learning Outcomes Page 4 Using the Program in Your Classroom Page 5 Supplementing Scheduled Lessons Page 11 Lesson Structure Page 12 Introduction: How To Use the Program 1

6 Program Intro ABOUT This Program Welcome to NextGen3: Traveling at the Speed of Life. NextGen3 is an insurance education program for high-school age students young people who are on the brink of adulthood, college, jobs and family responsibilities. Secondarily, it is aimed at parents, as a reinforcement and refresher on how insurance can help them manage risk in their financial lives. This program literally is the next generation of the nonprofit Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education s (LIFE) ongoing education initiative: Next Generation: Insuring Your Future, with which you may be familiar. This version of the program provides updated information and lessons on life insurance, health insurance, disability insurance, financial planning and risk management principles. A core focus of the program is personal responsibility in the context of financial management skills. Students will learn how to recognize and manage financial risk, skills that should serve them well when they re confronted with important insurance and financial planning decisions throughout the various stages of their lives. The lesson/activity modules and videos are designed to work together to present a complete picture of the basics of insurance and financial planning. However, the modules can also be used as stand-alone segments for educators who wish to present some, but not all, of the various program components. This focus fits well with the continuing call for more real-world relevance in today s classrooms. Students should understand why they need to learn about insurance and how they will use this knowledge outside of school. The program also is designed to help students develop and apply critical thinking abilities, sound decision-making skills and problem-solving skills. About the Program Format and Content Format. The program is provided in updated formats: DVD and web. Each format contains the same core video and lesson elements. The web component contains additional interactive elements such as an artificial intelligence system and online learning activities. The web component can be accessed at While we have updated the delivery technology, the program can be as high-tech or low-tech, as general or as subject/issue specific as works for you in your teaching environment. The program contains a thematic element that you can use to provide continuity of the learning experience: The Brown Family and Friends. We have developed this group of characters, who appear in all the insurance modules through descriptions and activities. This element enables you to provide a thematic focus with a realistic twist (even a reality show twist if you re so inclined). You can use members of this fictional clan to help demonstrate how different life stages require different financial planning strategies and solutions. We encourage you to develop or have your students develop additional friends and family members that reflect their own personal experiences to provide even greater relevance to the lessons. Introduction: How To Use the Program 2

7 Program Intro NextGen3 DVD Program Content. The NextGen3 DVD contains videos, other resources and a PDF version of this Educator s Guide and Student Workbook. Videos The DVD contains five video segments featuring insurance concepts from the teen perspective. The real-life stories of young people presented in the first four videos illustrate the importance of insurance protection. The fifth video puts life insurance issues into a familiar context for teens as two fictional students produce a video blog (vlog) as part of a classroom assignment. Subjects covered in the videos are: Risk Life insurance (2 videos) Health insurance Disability insurance Resources This section has links to other videos and web sites that provide more detailed information about insurance. Additional Insurance 101 videos that address other forms of insurance such as disability, health and auto. reallifestories videos, which are true stories that illustrate why it s so important for people to include insurance in their financial plans. LIFE Lessons videos, which are true stories that show how difficult life can become for surviving family members when a mom or dad dies without adequate life insurance coverage. Link to LIFE s YouTube site. These links may be referenced in the individual program modules, but you may also want to incorporate them into the program in other ways. Educator s Guide and student workbook This for educators contains lessons and recommendations for using the videos on the DVD. Relevant national content standards for lessons will help educators integrate activities in the classroom. Student activities and worksheets related to each insurance area are found in a separate PDF document on the DVD, the NextGen3 Student Workbook. Throughout the and workbook, you will notice icons in the left-hand margin. These icons are used to alert you and your students to the use of certain teaching tools. The icons you will see are: Use a Video Educator Resource/Answer Sheet Student Project Assessment Access the world wide web Student Worksheet Brown Family and Friends Activity Introduction: How To Use the Program 3

8 module overview Broad stroke learnings of each of the main modules: Program Intro Introduction to Risk and Insurance Risk and consequences are key life lessons. What am I willing to risk? How can I mitigate risk or lessen the consequences of taking certain risks? Students will learn what they can and can t control. Personal responsibility and self-worth (I am worthy of protection) come into play. Health Insurance Module Students will learn about the various types of health insurance, and gain insights about how to become smart healthcare consumers. Where does wellness fit in? What role do employers play? Can we achieve the goal of health insurance for all Americans? Disability Insurance Module Disability insurance is an important and often overlooked type of insurance. Students will learn about the odds that someone will suffer a disability during their work career (and they are much greater than most students realize) and how disability insurance provides replacement income to make ends meet when that person is unable to work. Life Insurance Module This module focuses on the importance of life and death -- planning. Students will understand why life insurance is truly for those who are left behind when a loved one dies. They will learn about the differences between term and permanent life insurance, and which type of insurance is appropriate for different life stages and situations. Financial Planning Module Where are you going in life? How are you going to get there? Students will learn how they can help determine their own financial futures. They will learn the basics of sound financial planning and financial planning tools. The financial pyramid will help them understand the importance of building a secure financial base through savings and insurance programs, and growing and accumulating assets through investment tools such as mutual funds and retirement plans. Objectives/Learning Outcomes NextGen3 has been designed to help make the subjects of insurance and financial planning relevant to students by illustrating the role of risk, protection and planning in every stage of their lives. As they participate in the lessons and complete activities, students should be able to: understand the principles and purpose of insurance and financial planning; understand that risk is a part of life and that it can be managed and mitigated through smart insurance and financial planning strategies; and recognize that insurance and financial planning decisions will change as they move through different life stages and as circumstances in their lives change. Introduction: How To Use the Program 4

9 Program Intro grasp the basics of financial planning and budgeting; be able to write a check or balance a checkbook, calculate interest on a savings account, make and follow a budget, identify/define different investment and savings vehicles, and how each one works become familiar with the basics of the major types of insurance be able to explain key features and concepts, and determine who needs what types of insurance understand where insurance fits within people s overall financial plans develop competency in the following areas through discussions, activities and research projects tied to the lessons and videos: Personal responsibility and self-sufficiency Critical thinking/debate Financial literacy/math skills Using the Program in Your Classroom Stand-Alone Program You may choose to: Use all the modules and videos over the course of a semester or over a pre-determined time Use selected segments that are relevant to your teaching area or to your students Customize by using selected lessons/activities from several segments. The Educator s Guide contains all of the lessons and answer sheets for student activities. The Student Workbook contains all glossaries, student handouts and student activity sheets. Be sure that as you review each lesson, you have a copy of the Student Workbook so that you can review all the relevant student documents. You may choose to provide students with a printout of the entire Student Workbook, or you may want to copy and distribute individual worksheets at the time you conduct an activity. Team Teaching Partner with math or communications classes to explore the different aspects of insurance. Looking at health insurance, for example, you can examine skyrocketing costs and/or different cost/benefit structures for different types of health insurance plans (consumer math, consumer education or economics), and even the development of wellness and disease management programs (language arts). Thematic Approach (Brown Family and Friends lessons) Create a semester-long (or shorter) adventure that focuses on the evolving need for insurance/ financial planning through all life stages using the Brown Family and Friends scenarios to give the lessons a real-life feel as you move through different modules. This approach lends itself to role-playing and interactive sessions in which students can create their own stories or plays and add new characters. A family s story unfolds like a reality show, and students will make insurance and investment decisions based on the events presented to them. These hypothetical scenarios will help prepare students for actual insurance and asset accumulation decisions they ll encounter in their financial lives. Introduction: How To Use the Program 5

10 Program Intro While we provide the basic details about these characters through the following Brown Family Tree and Brown Family and Friends Backgrounder, we encourage you and your students to create more detailed profiles that reflect the realities of their lives before and during the activities provided. Information about the Brown Family and Friends, including a family tree and brief descriptions of each family member and friends follow. For educators familiar with the previous edition of the Next Generation program, you will recognize some of the activities from the Student Magazine and Educator s Guide. They have been reshaped as part of the multi-generational Brown Family and Friends activities, encompassing several generations and a continuum of insurance/financial needs. The objective behind the Brown Family and Friends activities is to get students thinking about their own lives and future financial needs. As they work through challenges and discuss outcomes, students will be learning about insurance and financial planning, and how to protect themselves at different stages in their lives. Lights, Camera, Action! You can take it to the next level by creating a family saga or series (like a soap opera, mini-series or reality show) and have your students take on various roles; characters can develop as you progress through the program. You may even want to allow students to videotape episodes, enacting a lesson or scenario and providing additional detail to classmates. Students may want to provide cliffhanger endings to keep interest high. This type ofactivity would allow students with different talents to participate: narrators/voiceovers, actors, musicians, writers, producers, even set and costume designers. Here is a listing of the Brown family-related activities and where they fit in the program. Activity Program Section Related Lesson Related Video Rate the Risk Intro to Risk What s Risk Got to Do With It? What s Risk Got to Do With It? Intro to Risk What s Risk Got to Do With It? It Could Happen to You It Could Happen to You Better Safe... Life Insurance Paying for Life After Death Take Nothing for Granted Sharina s Life Insurance 101 Video Blog Two Sisters, Two Plans Health Insurance Here s to Your Health Accidents Happen Taking Care of Business: Part 1 Taking Care of Business: Part 2 Johnny s Lucky Break Disability Insurance Disability Insurance Disability Insurance What Do You Know About Disability Insurance? The Long and Short of It The Long and Short of It Planning for Life Financial Plan Building the Future One Two Punch Financial Plan Paying for Life After Death You Gotta Have a Plan You Gotta Have a Plan You Gotta Have a Plan Introduction: How To Use the Program 6

11 Program Intro Educator Version Brown Family and Friends Backgrounder These basic profiles of the Brown Family and Friends will help you put a face on a number of the lessons and activities in this program. The students version (Student Workbook, pages 2-3) has similar copy minus the instructions and teacher notes. Most of the information provided ties directly into program lessons. You and your students are encouraged to add important facts and life twists during the course of the lessons, especially to make the characters more relevant to students lives. Profiles The Jeffries Description Activity Additional Teacher Info Beverly Brown Jeffries, 80 John Jeffries, 45 Joan and Jill Jeffries, 22 Friends of Joan and Jill jeffries Susan Chen, 25 A widow, retired and living in a condo she owns in Miami. Her income sources are a pension, savings, and Social Security benefits. She has one son, John, an accountant. Because she has difficulty seeing, she relies on public transportation to get around. Son of Beverly. Married and has twin 22-year-old daughters, Joan and Jill. He has worked as an accountant for the same firm since graduating from college. He drives a station wagon and has never received a ticket for a driving violation. During his free time, he likes to go bird watching. Twin daughters of John. They enjoy skiing and other outdoor activities. Planning for Life Rate the Risk Two Sisters, Two Plans His only bad habit is he smokes two packs of cigarettes a day. Additional Activity: Have students create a story for John s wife. Joan s employer offers her an HMO; Jill s offers a PPO plan. That means when they have an identical skiing accident, students must figure out what their different plans will pay and what options they have for care. Description Activity Additional Teacher Info Jill s and Joan s roommate. Single and works at a life insurance company. Susan takes public transportation to work every day. Planning for Life Susan s younger sister depends on her to help pay for college. Even though she s single, Susan may want to have disability and/or life insurance because her sister depends on her financially. Introduction: How To Use the Program 7

12 Program Intro Friends of Joan and Jill jeffries Joey Golden, 23 Johnny Sanchez, 23 Helen and James Brown Helen Martinez Brown, 64 Bill Brown, 40 Brian Brown, 16 neighbors of bill brown Description Activity Additional Teacher Info Joan s boyfriend, a movie stuntman who seeks thrills off the job. He loves to race his motorcycle and his sports car. His eating habits are bad; he loves junk food and snacks. He and Joan have been dating about three months. Jill s fiance. A recent college graduate who just landed a job as a graphic artist at a small design agency that does not offer disability insurance. Jill s and Joan s roommate, Susan, thinks he should take out his own policy. Rate the Risk Johnny s Lucky Break A year after he starts his job, Johnny has a car accident that keeps him out of work for nine months. (Depending on student consensus during the activity, he may or may not have disability insurance.) Description Activity Additional Teacher Info A surgeon who suffered a heart attack two years ago and was forced to retire early. There is a history of heart disease in her family. She enjoys low-key activities. She and her husband, James, recently moved to Florida to be closer to his older sister Beverly. Helen s son, a careful planner. He has had a life insurance policy as part of his financial plan for some years. Because he bought it when he was 30, his monthly premiums are only $20 a month. Bill s son. Plays roller hockey on a regular basis. His equipment is a little old, but he s saving up for new skates and pads by working part-time for a local landscaping company. Maintains a solid B average and likes playing video games on his computer. Rate the Risk A One-Two Punch Rate the Risk Additional Activity: Have students create a story for James Brown. Description Activity Additional Teacher Info Jimmy Hernandez, 42 Married with two teens, one in college. He believes in setting aside savings to cover his family s future needs; he chose not to buy life insurance. Instead he puts $200 a month into an investment that earns 8% annually. A One-Two Punch Introduction: How To Use the Program 8

13 Program Intro neighbors of bill brown Mike Hernandez, 19 David Dvorak, 38 Jerry and Elaine Brown Jerry and Elaine Brown, 62 Jane Brown, 29 Janice Brown Davidson, 29 Friends of Janice Julie and Fred Inabe, 28 Description Activity Additional Teacher Info Jimmy s oldest son. He s is a college freshman who rents an off-campus apartment with two friends. He has a small hatchback car to drive to school and to his part-time job. Because he is still in school, Mike s health care needs are covered by his mother s health insurance plan. Divorced father who has custody of his three school-age children. He is an architect who drives to work in the city each day. He has owned the home where he and his kids live for 10 years. Planning for Life Planning for Life Added Activity: Have students create a second son, Mike s younger brother, and a backstory/ problem for him. Added Activity: Have students create an ex-wife character and stories about her and one or more of David s children Description Activity Additional Teacher Info Now retired, they have twin daughters Jane and Janice (clearly twins run in the Brown family!). Jerry and Elaine have always been careful with their finances. Jerry has always been the primary breadwinner. Elaine worked as well, but illnesses prevented her from working at times. A registered nurse and a total health nut. She works out at the gym five days a week and competes in 10K races every other weekend. She is a vegetarian. She has never smoked, and she doesn t drink. A single mother of two who manages an in-store boutique at Lacy s department store and earns $60,000 gross annually. She recently investigated disability insurance. Better Safe Rate the Risk Taking Care of Business, Part I Her mother is a breast cancer survivor. Description Activity Additional Teacher Info Newlyweds with a combined net monthly income of $4,150. They have about $25,000 in savings and put away about $400 each month. Julie is Janice s best friend. Taking Care of Business, Part 2 Janice has been trying to convince the couple to get disability insurance. They keep putting it off, and Fred gets hit in the head during a softball game and is out of work for several weeks. Introduction: How To Use the Program 9

14 Program Intro Introduction: How To Use the Program 10

15 Program Intro Supplementing Scheduled Lessons Use the lessons and activities to supplement and illustrate basic concepts you are teaching in language arts, communication, math, social studies and economics. For example, as students look at the Depression and pre-world War II eras, the realities of disability insurance and health insurance help bring the periods to life. See Back in the Day lesson and timeline. Lessons from the Financial Planning module, The Wise Consumer and You ve Got the Power (compounding), can bring math assignments into sharper focus for teens by illustrating the need to know how to compute the numbers. Teaching To Specific Learning Standards The lessons and activities can satisfy a number of learning standards in financial literacy as well as traditional subjects such as economics, language arts, social studies and math. Where possible, we have linked to lessons to these content standards. Start with a standard such as, Take responsibility for financial decisions. Select lessons from the financial planning module that help students understand how they can identify and make sound financial decisions throughout their lives, and why it is important. For example, ask your class to compare different types of health insurance plans, and then explain how each of the plans would be appropriate for people at different stages of their life (using Brown family profiles). This assignment ties into the Language Arts Learning Standard 7: Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. It also ties into the National Council on Economics Education Economics Standard 2: Marginal Cost/Benefit: Students will understand that effective decision making requires comparing the additional costs of alternatives with the additional benefits. Most choices involve doing a little more or a little less of something: few choices are all or nothing decisions. In choosing among various health insurance options, people often have to weigh what they need against what they can afford. Taking the learning Home Protecting income, assets and property through smart insurance and financial planning is a critical topic for most people. Encourage students to take activities home, and to find out what kinds of insurance and financial planning strategies their families use. Help students start dialogues with their families as they themselves become more aware of and interested in the relevance of protection and planning in their own lives. Note: A parents section on the web site presents discussion starters and at home activities families can do together, as well as helpful worksheets and resources. Make sure your students families know about this web resource. Introduction: How To Use the Program 11

16 Program Intro Lesson Structure Each lesson will have the same structure for ease of use. Lesson Subsections Lesson Title: Type: Description: Learning Objective(s): Learning Standard(s): Subject/Skill Focus: Educator Resources/Materials Needed: Related Activities/Student Worksheets: Lesson Script/Teaching Steps: Assessment: Description Name of activity/exercise. The kind of exercises, activities that are part of the lesson, e.g., discussion & share, research project, report, take home activity or calculation. Brief description of the lesson focus and intent. What will be learned. National standards that apply. Skills that will be sharpened; subjects that tie into the lessons such as, critical thinking, analysis of written material, math, etc. Educator answer sheets, relevant web sites, organizations, people (an insurance agent or banker, for example), glossary, etc. A list of activities/worksheets that go with the lesson. How to conduct the lesson. Method for assessing student learning. Introduction: How To Use the Program 12

17 USING THE VIDEOS insurance video NextGen3 Videos Before You Start Page 14 Showing the Segments Page 14 Questions Keys and Discussion Points Page 14 Key Message of All Segments Page 17 Sharina s Life Insurance 101 Video Blog Page 17 LIFE s YouTube Site Page 18 Other Options Page 19 Introduction: Video Guide 13

18 USING THE VIDEOS NextGen3 Videos The NextGen3 videos are presented as subject-specific segments to provide flexibility to educators. Four of the videos run approximately 4-5 minutes each and describe real-life scenarios as told from the perspective of teenagers who experienced them: Introduction to Risk and Insurance It Could Happen to You Life Insurance Take Nothing For Granted Health Insurance Accidents Happen Disability Insurance You Gotta Have a Plan The real-life stories of young people presented in these videos illustrate the importance of insurance protection, and will help your students understand how insurance could impact their own lives. The fifth video, Sharina s Life Insurance 101 Video Blog is an 8-minute video that puts life insurance issues into a familiar context for teens. Two fictional students Sharina and Jayson produce a video blog (vlog) as part of a classroom assignment. While the vlog is not real, the Life Insurance 101 video is an actual informational video on life insurance that resides on LIFE s web site ( org/lifeflash). Before you start Take the time to review the videos to help you determine the most effective way to present them to your class (e.g., use them as conversation starters before you delve into a particular lesson plan, show them after you ve introduced a particular topic and use the video to help students understand real-world applications of insurance, etc). Make a few notes on the key points in each of the video segment that you think will stimulate a good class discussion. Showing the segments Use each segment to introduce a specific module or to reinforce the lessons students are learning. For example, you may want to conduct lessons on health insurance, then show Accidents Happen to discuss Jamel Dawson s story using the knowledge they now have about health insurance. Or show only the segment/segments that tie in with your subject area. Question keys and discussion points by segment introduction to insurance - It Could happen to you The story and message: Jeremy Saylor plays lots of sports and likes to live life to the fullest. Being so active, it gives him peace of mind knowing that he s protected by insurance. Before showing: Ask the following questions; write them for your students to see before the video is shown. You want students to have these questions in their minds as they watch the video to get them looking for and thinking about the answers. Introduction: Video Guide 14

19 USING THE VIDEOS After showing: How was Jeremy protected from injuries due to the risks he took? How does health insurance help? Could most people afford the cost of treating serious injuries/illnesses without any insurance? Have students search the Internet for sample health insurance policies and quotes (Note: www. ehealthinsurance.com/ehi/individual-health-insurance.ds is a good site for health insurance quotes and sample policy provisions). Have them look at various policies to determine how much of Jeremy s healthcare expenses might have been covered. Using The Price is Right activity, they can research actual costs. Life Insurance Take Nothing For Granted The story and message: Missy Junk lost both her parents at a young age. The life insurance they had is paying many of the family expenses, such as a college education for Missy and her brother. Life insurance can cover a lot more than just the cost of a funeral and other final expenses. It can provide an ongoing stream of income for a family to live on for a period of time as well as help fund future needs like college or retirement. Before showing: Ask the following questions; write them for your students to see before the video is shown. You want students to have these questions in their minds as they watch the video to get them looking for and thinking about the answers. Ask students if they have experienced a death in their immediate family. How did it impact them emotionally and financially? Did it set the family back financially? Did it affect future plans like college funding? Do you know how life insurance works and what it pays for? After showing: Are you surprised at what life insurance helps pay for? What does that tell you about the importance of life insurance? Ideally, when do you think life insurance should be purchased? (As soon as someone depends on you financially. That could include a spouse, child, sibling, parent, domestic partner.) How is life insurance different than health or disability insurance? (Health insurance pays medical expenses; disability provides replacement income if you re unable to work; life insurance provides your surviving family members with money to live on after you die.) You may want to show this video in conjunction with Sharina s Life Insurance 101 Video Blog (see page 17 of this ). Health Insurance Accidents Happen The story and message: Jamel Dawson and his mother suffered serious burns from a stove fire in his home. Health insurance paid most of his medical bills and disability insurance provided his mom with replacement income when she was out of work due to her injuries. With the rising cost of healthcare, it can be very difficult for families to pay medical bills for accidents or injuries if they do not have some form of health insurance. Introduction: Video Guide 15

20 USING THE VIDEOS Before showing: Ask the following questions; write them for your students to see before the video is shown. You want students to have these questions in their minds as they watch the video to get them looking for and thinking about the answers. Have you or any family members or friends been injured in a serious accident? Has anyone in your immediate family or circle of friends ever been faced with serious health challenges? Do you have health insurance? Have you had to use it? Do you know how it works? After showing: What kind of insurance did Jamel have? (Health insurance that included hospitalization). Have you ever gone to the Emergency Room or been in the hospital for a serious injury/illness (or they may know someone who has)? What kinds of costs do you think are involved? The doctor, the room charges, medications or other supplies, any therapy or X-rays, etc., plus doctor visits and rehab once you are out of the hospital. How much could that cost? Refer students to one or more of the sample health policies provisions that can be found at Have them look at the policy provisions to determine how much of the various inpatient (services rendered in the hospital) and outpatient (services that don t require a hospital stay) expenses you listed could be covered. Using The Price is Right activity, they can research actual costs. You may also want to direct your students to the following web site that provides a general idea of what certain medical procedures may cost. These costs include the average charges billed by providers for a given service or procedure. Disability Insurance You Gotta Have a Plan The story and message: Alysia Lim s dad became disabled, was unable to work for a period of time, and eventually needed to take a different job with a lower salary. The disability insurance he owned provided the family with replacement income when he was recuperating and was unable to work. Disability insurance is perhaps the most overlooked and misunderstood types of insurance (your students may not even know what it is). But as the video shows, it can be one of the most important types of protection an individual can have. Before showing: Ask the following questions; write them for your students to see before the video is shown. You want students to have these questions in their minds as they watch the video to get them looking for and thinking about the answers. What happens if you are working and get injured in a car accident or even playing basketball with friends, and you can t work for several weeks or even months? How would you pay your bills? Are there other sources of income you might be able to rely on? Do you think the government would provide assistance? Have you heard of disability insurance? How do you think it would work? Introduction: Video Guide 16

21 USING THE VIDEOS After showing: Did you know about disability insurance? What do you think about it now? How could it be useful to you when you are working and living on your own? How is it different than health insurance? (Health pays medical expenses; disability provides replacement income.) Key message of all reality segments Life is unpredictable. People need to recognize that and plan accordingly. Having a smart insurance program won t guarantee you ll never face a tragic situation. But it will provide you and your family with financial protection for whatever twists and turns life throws your way. Students should identify the type of challenges and problems the main character and his/her family faced and how they solved or addressed those problems. It s best to pause between each segment to ask and answer questions, if you can: What s the key message you heard? What type of insurance was featured? What is the main reason for having insurance (or that type of insurance)? Can you explain how it works/what it protects? Who needs this type of coverage? What might have happened to the main character/ their family if they did not have the right kind of insurance protection? Does anyone in your family have this type of insurance? (Follow up with take home research assignment. Have students ask about their family s coverage.) Has anyone in your family or anyone you know ever benefited from insurance recently? (Ask students who answer yes to describe the situation if they re comfortable doing so and how the insurance offered protection.) When you complete a module of the program, you can return to the video segment as a review. At this point students should have a better understanding of how insurance protection works in different situations. You can ask them how the program modules have increased their understanding of the situations depicted in the video. Life Insurance 101 Video Blog Sharina s Life Insurance 101 Video Blog (vlog) is an 8-minute video designed to help teen students put life insurance into a context to which they can relate. It is designed to teach them about the basics of life insurance and pique their interest in learning more. The premise of the video is that two students Sharina and Jayson are producing a video blog (vlog) as part of a classroom assignment. The vlog is in response to a video Sharina has found on the web, Life Insurance 101. While the vlog is fictional, the Life Insurance 101 video is an actual informational video on life insurance that resides on LIFE s web site ( It is one of a series of informational videos on various types of insurance. This video and the others are links on the downloadable Resources PDF on the DVD. Introduction: Video Guide 17

22 USING THE VIDEOS Using the video You may want to use the video as a part of the Life Insurance module after holding an opening discussion about students level of knowledge about life insurance. Before showing the video to students, you should preview it, as well as the full-length Life Insurance 101 video found at Sharina s Life Insurance 101 vlog includes the following key points from the Life Insurance 101 informational video. There are three questions to ask yourself about life insurance Do I need life insurance? How much do I need? What kind should I buy? Who needs life insurance? If someone will suffer financially when you die, chances are you need life insurance. How much should I have? To figure out how much, you need to do a needs analysis of: immediate expenses; ongoing expenses; and future expenses. What kind should I buy? How long you need it will help answer which policy is better, either term insurance or permanent insurance or a combination of the two. Once students have viewed the video, ask them what key messages they took from the video. Ask students what more they would like to know about life insurance based on the snippets they saw of the Life Insurance 101 video within the vlog. Next, have students view the Life Insurance 101 video on the LIFE web site. Ask what additional key points they picked up from the video or what concepts were explained more fully. Ask students how they would create a vlog about the Life Insurance 101 video and what kind of information they would include. You can divide students into groups and have them create an outline, a theme, a skit or even produce their own video vlog to explain the concept of life insurance to their peers. You may also want to use the video to help students develop a similar project/video for the other Insurance 101 segments that can be found on LIFE s web site at videos. LIFE s YouTube Site YouTube is a phenomenon that educators can use to their advantage in the classroom. It contains a wealth of interviews, new stories and other videos on insurance that can provide the basis for important life lessons and classroom discussions. In fact, LIFE has developed its own YouTube site with videos and materials that you can incorporate into your classroom lessons. To access the site, go to Introduction: Video Guide 18

23 USING THE VIDEOS The LIFE YouTube site contains a number of real-life stories and interviews that you can use to supplement the videos and lessons and on life and disability insurance. Many of the interviews demonstrate the life-changing impact on families of those who had life insurance and families of those who didn t. These videos can help your students see the bigger picture. They may already know or have heard the reasons for having life insurance through classroom lessons. But there is no substitute for hearing someone s true story. Have your students watch several videos and discuss the ultimate outcome of the decision to purchase life insurance or not. For instance, Melissa Wandall s story illustrates how life insurance can have an impact well beyond the immediate family. This young widow, whose husband died when a car ran a red light, has used the life insurance proceeds to raise her daughter while raising awareness on the dangers of running red lights. She also has begun a foundation in her husband s name to benefit children. Her work is having an immediate, direct and positive impact on her community. Without her husband s foresight and planning, she may not have had the opportunity to become a community advocate. Other Options You may want to allow your students to do some YouTube exploration on insurance through the Related Videos and Search functions on the site. There are a number of domestic and foreign insurance commercials that use a wide variety of styles to deliver their message. If you go to YouTube ( and search insurance commercials, you will find commercials from Asia, Europe and the United States that use sentiment and humor to promote the role of insurance in a sound financial plan. For example, shows a very touching, sentimental and quite long ad for life insurance from Asia. One way to turn this exploration into a class discussion is to assign individual or groups of students to explore the life insurance ads on YouTube and select the one they feel has the greatest impact or makes its point about the importance of insurance most effectively. While many commercials are in other languages, most don t require translation; the visuals speak for themselves. Have students present their commercial, the key messages they feel it delivers and their reasons for selecting it. Once all commercials and supporting logic have been presented, a class discussion about the videos. Ask students how the commercials may have changed their perspective on insurance. Could they relate personally to any of what they saw? Have students vote on their favorite or favorites. Introduction: Video Guide 19

24 introduction to risk introduction to risk and insurance Lesson 1: The 411 on Insurance Pages Test Your IQ Answer Sheet Page 23 Lesson 2: What s Risk Got to Do with It? Pages Rate the Risk Activity Page 25 Lesson 3: Risk Pooling in Ancient Rome Pages

25 introduction to risk Lesson 1: The 411 on insurance - Introduction to Insurance and risk Estimated time: 45 minutes type Discussion and share, research project, report, take home activity, calculation. learning standard Financial Literacy: Risk Management and Insurance. Overall Competency: Use appropriate and cost-effective risk management strategies. Standard 3: Explain the purpose and importance of health, disability, and life insurance protection. Learning Objective Students learn the basics of insurance and begin to understand the role insurance can play in the various stages of their lives. Educator Resources/materials Needed Optional: An insurance professional, actuary, underwriter or agent, to help students understand and appreciate how familiar math concepts are used in insurance. (Look within the school community: a parent or relative of one of your students or parent of a student in another class.) Test Your I.Q. quiz answer sheet Related Activities/Student Worksheets 411 on Insurance Student Activity Sheet (Student Workbook, pages 6-7) Test Your I.Q. quiz (Student Workbook, page 8) Subject/Skill Focus Math, problem-solving Lesson Script/ Teaching Steps Before you begin the lesson, you may want to show your students It Could Happen to You, the video segment that introduces the concept of risk and insurance. (See Video Guide, page 11.) Then use the 411 on Insurance to begin a discussion on how insurance works. Talk about the importance of a safety net or a Plan B in life. It is great to have a plan, but sometimes things don t go exactly as you thought they would. That s when you need to make sure you have a safety net or a back-up plan. For example: You plan to go to a concert with a friend who has volunteered to drive. Your friend s notoriously unreliable car breaks down. Back-up plan(s): Have bus or train schedules in case the car ends up in the shop; ask a parent or another friend to drive. Have students share back-up plans they use or have used in the past. Explain that insurance is the safety net part of a financial plan. For example: You may assume you will someday have a good job with a salary that will be enough to provide for your family. But that plan would change if you were to die prematurely. Having life insurance provides a financial safety net to support your family when you re gone. lesson 1: The 411 on Insurance 21

26 introduction to risk You may plan to work as a nurse. But that plan would change, and fast, if you hurt your back or legs, and could no longer be on your feet for 12-hour shifts. Having disability insurance provides a safety net to replace lost income if you are unable to work for a period of time. Distribute the Test Your I.Q. quiz or have students find it in their Student Workbooks, explaining that students may not have all the answers. It is not a test but a benchmark of what they know now. You can discuss the answers or ask small groups to research different questions and report back to the class with their findings. Assessment Have student teams quiz each other on the 411 sheet basics, posing questions or problems such as demonstrating the concept of probability or explaining the law of large numbers. lesson 1: The 411 on Insurance 22

27 introduction to risk Educator Answer Sheet: Test Your I.Q. (Insurance Quotient) How much do you know about basic insurance concepts? Complete the quiz to the best of your ability. As you learn more about insurance, you will be able to answer the questions more easily. Note to educators: Correct answers are in italics. 1. Automobile accidents are the most common cause of death among teenagers. O Yes O No 2. Life insurance companies are not allowed to charge smokers higher rates than non-smokers because of anti-discrimination laws. O Yes O No 3. The Law of Large Numbers is something insurance companies use to make mathematical predictions about the probability of certain events occurring. O Yes O No 4. Risk pooling is the process of separating good insurance risks from bad ones for the purpose of denying coverage to people with high-risk profiles. O Yes O No 5. Historically women have had longer life spans than men, but today men live longer than women. O Yes O No 6. Life insurance policies pay money only when a policyholder dies. O Yes O No 7. Students who have healthcare coverage through their parents typically have the option of staying on their parents plan for up to five years following high school or college graduation. O Yes O No 8. On average, each American spends $2,000 a year on healthcare. O Yes O No 9. Pregnancy is the #1 cause of disabilities for females ages O Yes O No lesson 1: The 411 on Insurance 23

28 introduction to risk Lesson 2: What s Risk Got to Do with It? Estimated time: 80 minutes type Discussion and share, research project, report, take home activity, calculation. learning standard Financial Literacy: Financial Responsibility and Decision Making. Overall Competency: Apply reliable information and systematic decision making to personal financial decisions. Standard 1: Take responsibility for personal financial decisions. Standard 4: Make financial decisions by systematically considering alternatives and consequences. Risk Management and Insurance. Overall Competency: Use appropriate and cost-effective risk management strategies. Standard 1: Identify common types of risks and basic risk management methods. Learning Objective To understand the concept of risk, how it relates to your life, and how you can protect yourself from the losses that can come with risk. Educator Resources/materials Needed Familiarity with concepts of What s Risk Got to Do with It activity sheet and Rate the Risk activity sheet for discussion purposes. Related Activities/student worksheets What s Risk Got to Do with It? (Student Workbook, pages 9-10) Rate the Risk (Student Workbook, page 11) Subject/Skill Focus Critical thinking, analysis of written material, oral and written communication skills Lesson Script/Teaching Steps Risk is a fundamental part of life and an underlying principle of insurance. Risk is something students deal with every day, although they probably don t think about it or even realize it. Distribute What s Risk Got to Do with It? or have students locate it in their Student Workbooks as you discuss the concept of risk and help students recognize how they protect themselves from the losses that can come from risk. Discuss the following: How can you alter your actions to reduce or eliminate risks? People have to analyze potentially risky situations and then take necessary precautions. For example, the skateboarders in the video wear helmets, which help reduce the risk of a head injury. Can risks or hazards be anticipated? Sometimes it can be difficult to predict whether you are putting yourself in a potentially harmful situation especially when it comes to athletics. lesson 2: What s risk got to do with it? 24