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The SMG program reinforces concepts and skills across a wide range of subjects.
Pedagogy
The Stock Market Game™ (SMG) is designed to support team-based, cooperative learning through lessons that engender student-centered teaching - the "guide on the side" approach. Recent research in education supports the paradigm built by both advocates of instruction for multiple learning styles and supporters of the "No Child Left Behind" educational philosophy.
At the same time, the rapidly changing pace of the securities industry has made it imperative that teachers with students engaged in the SMG program have the resources necessary for them to bring those changes directly into their classrooms. It is imperative that teachers send forth from our nation's schools a population of young people conversant in the language and rules of saving and investing.
With this in mind, the SMG program has married advances in Web-based technology with a curriculum design that enables teachers to customize lessons to meet all their students' needs. The teacher can also access industry-based material to keep lessons current, assist students in conducting their own research, and provide for the needs of students at various levels of expertise and experience. The vision of the SMG program is that teachers will be provided with the tools to create a completely personalized classroom curriculum document that engages their students' grade and mastery levels.
Interdisciplinary Strategies
The SMG program is organized to deliver interdisciplinary teaching and integrated student learning. The learning activities are organized to support and extend the building of an investment portfolio through on-line simulated trading of securities.
Whether organized in one classroom or across subjects, SMG provides the natural integration of specific knowledge and skills necessary for student success in the 21st century economy.
SMG activities and units are designed so students apply several indicators from national and state standards, providing evidence of mastery. This requires practiced knowledge of current events, market trends, use of math, reading, research, technology, and presentation skills needed for the successful investing and financial planning required by the SMG program.
What makes this approach powerful for subject specific teachers is the ability to focus the teaching in one content area highlighting the skills needed for a particular subject but still allowing students to integrate those skills when investing on-line. The balance between content specific learning and integrated application of knowledge and skills is part of the SMG design.
By supporting the application of performance standards students with diverse learning styles can demonstrate their ability to solve problems, conduct research, write persuasively and explain current events in a real world context. Yet the unit organization still allows teachers to meet the demands of their specific curriculum while answering the age old student question "Why do I need to learn this?"
Skills and Concepts
Teachers use the SMG program in all kinds of classrooms, from grade schools to high school, to reinforce these important skills and concepts across the curriculum:
By subject:
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Strategies for Achievement
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