Just concluded my first week c0-teaching the summer bridge program for incoming freshmen at Eastside College Prep. I was reminded about the power of role play while observing my co-teacher, Bill Elmore. First, let me set up the lesson today on the importance of savings. We kicked off class with a discussion about why it is important to save money. They took a minute to write down their responses, shared with their neighbor and then we had a full group discussion. They hit on the key reasons, including, saving for emergencies, retirement (who says young people don’t think about retirement), safety, getting paid to save by the bank in the form of interest (even if so low today) and how savings can keep you out of debt.

I then asked students who had bank accounts to share their experience of opening an account, including what they needed to bring with them to open an account. Most shared that they were passive participants and that either their parent/guardian drove the process or the bank representative did.

The final set-up prior to the role play was to have them develop a list of questions they would want to know before opening an account. Here they needed a bit more assistance and the list we came up with included:

• What is the interest rate? Pretty low, in today’s environment
• Is my money safe? Opportunity to discuss FDIC and how up to $250,000 is protected
• What are the fees? Focus was on ATM fees and Overdraft (several students shared their negative experiences with overdraft which was very effective at making the point about knowing your account balances!)
• What is the minimum deposit required to open the account?

This where the role play happened.  My co-teacher, Bill Elmore, played the role of bank representative and called on a student volunteer to sit down with him to set up a bank account. Bill asked a few basic questions of the student regarding the purpose for their visit as well as how much they had to deposit. He then asked the students if they had questions for him (it was OK for them to refer back to their list of questions).

He repeated this role play twice (with two different volunteers) taking on two different archetypes:

• The explainer role: Bill provided detailed answers to each of the student’s questions and highlighted the dangers of overdraft coverage and noted that his bank didn’t even offer it since they didn’t want to encourage customers to spend more than they had. He was helpful in educating the student about the ins/outs of bank accounts and how they could best utilize the bank’s services while keeping fees to a minimum. When he asked the student to sign up for the account, they went ahead and signed on the dotted line (he just had a blank sheet of paper).

• The hard sell: Bill immediately went for the kill. After asking the questions described above, he asked the student to sign up for the account. In one of the three sections, the student actually did sign while the rest of the class groaned about her decision. In the two other sections, the students held their ground and worked down their list of questions. Bill responded with curt, incomplete or even non-answers to their questions. He encouraged them to sign up for overdraft protection and downplayed that fee as well as the other fees his bank charged.  In one case, he even said it was mandatory for them to take overdraft protection (which is against banking regulations). Both of these students refused to sign because they weren’t comfortable.

Why do I love this role play?

• Students like watching other students in the hot seat and are willing to help to offer advice.
• Students learn a graceful way to walk away from any agreement they aren’t comfortable with or don’t understand: “I need more time to look over your information.”
• Demystifies the process to open a bank account. This can seem intimidating to students but now they understand the terminology and the key factors to consider.
• Students learn the right questions to ask about a common banking product. In reviewing the questions, they get an opportunity to learn vocabulary in context (minimum deposit, overdraft fees, overdraft protection, FDIC, interest rate) and why they are important
• They learn about incentives and discover why Bill the hard seller might be behaving the way he is (opportunity to discuss commissions and how they could work for any financial product they are considering).
• With overdraft protection, they realize that they need to “opt-in” to receive it and shouldn’t allow others to pressure them to take it. One student shared her experience with these fees which led to her account being closed by the bank. This led to lots of great questions and discussion about the long-term ramifications of this account closure.

Please let me know how this role play goes in your classroom!

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Check out this NGPF Savings Activity: Create Your Savings Goals

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.