Insurance. It’s such an important topic to teach to high school students in order to best prepare them for their futures. In fact, it’s so important that multiple subject areas and courses within the secondary career and technical education (CTE) program require it to be taught. Knowing about insurance and the types of insurance can help save students from confusion and unnecessary financial burden in their futures.
Even though it’s so important to know about, it can be very dry to teach about since it’s traditionally a more teacher centered and content-based area of content. Because of this, I’ve developed a unit on the main types of insurance which uses multiple types of instruction and activity types. The unit starts with the overall topic of what insurance is, then goes into the following main types of insurance: car insurance, homeowners insurance, renter’s insurance, health insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, long term care insurance, identity theft insurance, and umbrella policies. Once all of the types of insurance are covered, there are review activities as well as a test to finish out the unit.
On a 45-minute class period schedule, the unit will take about 16 days to complete. There are web quests, debates, choice boards, gallery walks, games and review activities included. Each lesson is complete with instructions, all materials needed, answer keys and rubrics. You can get these lessons in a bundle or individually in my TPT store.
This lesson was created as a fun way to introduce the topic of insurance to students. They will begin by working in groups to complete a hands-on preview activity over the general idea of what insurance is. They’ll have to infer and make guesses about the idea of insurance to complete the activity. Once that is complete, you can discuss the information further using the provided PPT and note sheet.
This is a two-day lesson (with 47 minute class periods) that first introduces what car insurance is and how it works. On day two there is an interactive game provided to use as an activity that gives an opportunity for students to get up and moving in order to apply the knowledge they learned from day one. In the activity students will have insurance policies, act as drivers and insurance companies, get in "accidents", and analyze their coverage.
To cover the topic of homeowners insurance, this 2 day activity includes notes and an interactive activity. You'll first have students answer preview questions about homeowners insurance, then proceed using the provided PPT and guided note sheets to cover the information in the lesson. On day two, you'll complete the scenario and check gallery walk activity with your students where they can put their knowledge of homeowners insurance to use.
Let students sit in the drivers seat as they complete a guided web quest over renters insurance. They will use the provided links to answer the questions in the quest. An answer key is provided. With remaining time, if there is any, I like to ask questions out loud from the web quest and give students the opportunity to earn a piece of candy from my classroom prize bucket if they give a correct answer.
In this two-day lesson, students will learn about the basics of health insurance and why it's necessary before they apply the knowledge by playing a game. First, you'll go over the provided PPT with the students and have them complete the provided note sheet. On day two, students will play a game where they will become "families" and have health insurance policies with health emergencies. They will have to figure out how these things impact their insurance policy and what they would actually have to pay. At the end, they will reflect on why insurance is important and what kinds of health insurance would be good to have.
This activity will give students a glimpse at what life insurance is, why it's recommended to have life insurance policies, and the basic types of life insurance. You have two options as to how to complete the notes: there is a completed note guide if you wish to deliver the notes to the students yourself or there are instructions on how to make the notes student centered where they will do some research and present their findings to the class. Teacher instructions are included for this as well as links to google versions of the files.
Once you get through the notes, there is an assignment to give students where they will reflect on life insurance policies & fill in information to complete a will. Depending on your level of students and which way you present the notes, this may take two class periods to complete.
To learn about disability insurance, students will complete an activity that is given in both PPT & Google Slides formats. They will read snippets about disability insurance and answer questions to find out about what the insurance is for. When that is complete, they have 3 choices of review activities that they can pick from to complete to summarize the information. There is a rubric included.
While needing long term care insurance is a long way off for students, it's important that they be aware of it for their futures. This lesson will allow you to use the provided PPT to go over what long term care insurance is with your students as they fill out the provided note sheet. At the end there is a summary video for students to watch. They also have 2 choices of activities that they can complete to reflect and expand their knowledge of long-term care insurance. A rubric is included.
Identity theft insurance is something questioned and debated by insurance experts on if it's necessary or not. This activity allows students to learn about id theft insurance on their own then participate in a class wide debate. After the debate students can complete the review activity to summarize their decision and reasoning as to if they think the insurance is necessary or not. There are student expectations & instructions on how to prep and carry out the debate as well as a rubric for grading the lesson.
What is umbrella insurance? Why is it needed? How does it work? These questions are answered in the lesson with the provided PPT. You'll be able to explain these things about umbrella insurance by presenting the PPT to your class as they fill out the provided note sheet.
Since umbrella insurance provides extra coverage to the insured, I use this lesson to wrap up my insurance unit. The vocabulary crossword activity for students to complete at the end of the PPT has them reflect back on the meanings of all of the previous types of insurance discussed.
Review the types of insurance and their specifications by using this insurance gallery walk review activity. The activity has 20 questions about the main different types of insurance ready for you to print & cut into individual cards that you can post around your room. Students will use a blank answer sheet to go around the room and write down their answers to the questions. Further instructions & an answer key are given.
Once you've covered your insurance unit, you can use this product to review and test over the information. The download includes a review guide for students complete over the basic types of insurance - there is also an answer key for the review. Once the review is complete, take a class period to play the review game with students (you'll get instructions on how to play this simple, yet effective game with your class). When you're ready to test, use the 35-question multiple choice test to assess your groups knowledge. An answer key for the test is given.
That’s how I do it! 9 PowerPoints, guided note sheets, 10 activity options, 2 interactive games, 1 debate, 1 web quest, 2 gallery walk activities, a review/game, and a test. Using this unit and the various instructional techniques in it, my students are involved in their learning and get to practice the information multiple times before they’re tested on it. Once again, you can find this bundled in my TpT store by clicking here or find the individual lessons by clicking the headers above.
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