1) A Culture of Credit by Sam Bernstein, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center

Throughout the homebuying unit, we moved back and forth through old and new ways of teaching and learning. For example, as I mentioned earlier, our regular curriculum includes some fundamental concepts about banking and the search for an apartment. But I also wanted to incorporate the FannieMae Foundation materials and to try some new approaches as well.

For instance, I didn't begin by handing out the FannieMae Foundation's ESOL curriculum How to Buy a House in The United States, for two reasons: I didn't want the students to get lost in the text and I didn't want them to be frustrated that I was handing them too much information and not teaching it to them. So, I copied the first unit, and we used that, lesson by lesson without much alteration. Of course it took some time to deal with new words and new ideas. The concept of credit, for instance, was a very foreign one to the students. The discussion about credit lead students to inquire about obtaining credit cards. Also, many of the students assumed that in order to buy a home you needed to have saved for a down payment of at least 25-50% of the total purchase cost of the house. These lesson were a good opportunity for students to learn about U.S. homebuying practices.
 
 

2) Creating a Credit History by M.J. Natalie, Bunker Hill Community College

During these lessons, I introduced my students to the FannieMae Foundation ESOL curriculum, Unit 1/Chapter 1, pages 1-4 which asks the students to think about when their circumstances and housing needs might lead them to considering buying a home. I also encouraged students to begin to create a "paper trail" in preparation for documenting their credit histories. We then took a field trip to the Boston Public Library, in part, so that students could get a Boston Public Library card and begin to build an alternative credit history. Also, students were asked to get a Bunker Hill Community College Identification card. As well as helping students think about the importance of documenting and validating themselves for further banking and credit approvals, I also wanted to help instill a sense of community spirit- a feeling of belonging in their new county.
 
 

3) Writing Letters to Credit Bureaus by Dulany Alexander, Operation Bootstrap

The students used a word processor to write a letter to a credit bureau requesting a copy of their credit history. They followed a format suggested by a local TV channel: Full Name, Date of Birth, Social Security Number, Spouse's Name, Spouse's Social Security Number, Five Years of Previous Addresses, Current Employer, Day Phone Number, and Evening Phone Number. They then used the cut-and-paste tool on the computer to revise their letters.

Students who had a credit history actually made copies of a utility bill or driver's license to establish their identity, and then mailed the letters, but even those who had no credit history chose to go through the entire process.

They sent their requests for credit histories to the following companies:

4) Calculating Down Payment Costs by Dulany Alexander, Operation Bootstrap

After they sent their letters, the students used Lotus' amortization calculators to generate figures that were then plugged into a spreadsheet that I built (i.e. the spreadsheet contained cells that I had already defined with numeric functions). The purpose of this activity was to explore the effect of the variables of term and interest rate on the monthly payments and total "lifetime" interest of a particular mortgage.

For the final step, the students used both hand-held and computer-resident calculators to calculate down payments as actual percentages of the selling price.
 
 

5) "Borrow and Lend": A lesson developed by Cathy Anderson found in Where The Sun Breezes Don't Stop Shinning by Dwight Jarrat, ABCD's South Side Head Start

I approached the topic of homebuying with a general in-class discussion. Were students interested in the topic? Why? Did any of the students already own homes? What did they think it would cost to own and maintain a home? After that discussion, we worked with Unit 1 of the curriculum workbook, "Do you want to buy a home?" Students had little difficulty understanding the vocabulary and concepts presented in this unit. There was some confusion with the terms "borrow" and "lend," but after using ALRI lesson materials developed for this purpose, the students could use the two terms correctly.
 
 

6) Developing Credit Histories by Dwight Jarrat, ABCD's South Side Head Start

We also spent time exploring the different ways to develop a credit history so as to be better prepared for the mortgage application process. We spoke about the importance of paying bills on time and creating a paper trail. One student shared the story of how he had to collect his receipts from South Side Head Start's Daycare Program to prove that he and his wife had paid a whole year of daycare for their child. This led to a discussion about the possibility of establishing a non-traditional credit history.

As a way to see how my students' attitudes about homebuying had changed during the course of the unit, I decided to revisit the initial discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of owning a home. On the whole, students expressed some of their same concerns about being home owners including their anxiety about keeping up property, and making the monthly payments so as not to lose the house. But there also seemed to be an overall sense that home ownership was a realistic and attractive option for many immigrants. Because students had been writing about homebuying in their journals, I was able to discern and dispel other more subtle concerns about home ownership. For instance, one student wrote about her dislike of banks and how borrowing money for a mortgage was in the interest of the bank and not of the borrower.

The next class period we spoke frankly about banking practices in the U.S. Students shared their distrust of banking, borrowing and accruing debt. We spoke about the need for careful research and financial planning when deciding to apply for a loan or credit card. Was it different to use your credit card to go grocery shopping than to take out a loan to buy a house? How about opening up a no-fee checking account where you could accrue interest and establish a rapport with a bank? Without answering these questions for my students, I was able to facilitate a discussion about financial planning and investment and the advantages of prioritizing living expenses such as housing. Through class discussion, it became evident that buying a house in the United States was much more complicated than buying property in the students' native countries, but that ultimately, in the United States, it was a much more possible goal to achieve.
 
 

7) Visit From A Community Educator by Deborah Marquardt, W.A.I.T.T. House

Kevin Winn, a community educator/liaison from U.S. Trust, spoke to the class about finance issues. He is a frequent presenter at W.A.I.T.T. House and a particular favorite with the students. In the past, he has been able to make banking seem accessible even to people who express suspicion about the motives of large financial institutions. Upon hearing of the students' interest in homebuying, he offered to explain the loan process from the bank's point of view. He described what criteria the bank deems important when reviewing loan applications, and he offered advice about how to prepare for the loan application process. He also focused on fixing credit problems and how students can obtain their credit reports to begin to do that. As always, his information was clear and practical, and it added another important perspective to the homebuying process.