This lesson plan aims to teach students about equity, stocks, and dividends. It includes defining the key terms, explaining how companies raise money and issue stock, and doing an in-class exercise using Yahoo! Finance to look up information about sample companies. Students will work in small groups to find details like CEO names, salaries, share numbers, and prices for an assigned company. They will then discuss their findings as a class.

1. LESSON PLAN:
EQUITY, STOCK AND
DIVIDENDS
Reynolds Business Journalism Week
Jan. 5, 2014

2. 2
Team Equity, Stocks & Dividends
Neil Foote
Mayborn School of Journalism
Karen Lee Miller
Alvernia University
Ellen Dale Russell
Wilfrid Laurier University

3. 3
Objective
• Defining how equity,
stock and dividends
play a critical role in
helping companies
finance growth

4. 4
Lesson Plan Overview
• Define differences
between equity and debt
• Define equity
• Explain what a stock is
• Explain how companies
raise money
• Explain how companies
issue shares of stock

5. 5
Class Outline
10 min: Opening Discussion: What is an
equity? What is stock? What are dividends?
5 min: Videos defining equity, stock &
dividends
What is Equity:
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=FDXRBRqZfSA
What is stock?
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=JrGp4ofULzQ
What are dividends?
http://www.dividend.com/
what-is-a-dividend

6. 6
Class Outline cont.
20 min.: In-Class Exercise using Yahoo! Finance
- Show example of Yahoo! Financials page: Apple
- Students each assigned a company, such as Starbucks,
Apple, Facebook, Twitter, McDonald’s, Google.
- Small groups of students must find the name of the corporate
CEO, salary, number of shares and current price per share

7. 7
Let’s look up Apple
Computers, Inc. on
Yahoo! Finance:
1. Type “Apple” into the
search box
2. Go to “Key statistics”
3. See salaries for key
executives
4. Go to SEC filings to see full
compensation. See link on
Yahoo! Finance corporate
site
5. Go to “Insider
Transactions” to see which
board members or
executives buying and
selling stock

8. 8
Class outline cont.
15 min.: Class discussion about findings
10 min.:
ü Discuss Key questions students need to ask.
ü Ask students to pick a company and bring story
from Wall Street Journal and be prepared to
discuss.
ü Discuss homework assignment of class readings,
e.g. John Bogle on the culture of speculation and
decline in ownership

9. 9
Questions
Neil Foote
Mayborn School of Journalism
foote@unt.edu
Karen Lee Miller
Alvernia University
klmiller@readingeagle.com
Ellen Dale Russell
Wilfrid Laurier University
erussell@wlu.ca