for Life Lessons

Minnesota ABE Supplemental Services, Linda Strand, 2004-2005

And the Minnesota Literacy Council

Focus: Reading Pay Stubs (Reading for Life, volume 1, unit 6: Jobs)

Objectives: Learners will be able to read a pay stub to find gross and net pay and identify amounts and reasons for deductions

Key Vocabulary: pay stub, gross pay, net pay, Social Security, federal income tax, state income tax, overtime, deductions, rate, pay period, FICA, earnings, year-to-date

Procedure:

Real-life application:

            Make an overhead transparency or photocopies of pay stub. Page 125 in Real Life English has a good example. T asks students: “What does this show? What is the name for the paper that comes attached to your paycheck? Sometimes it is called a statement of earnings and deductions. What does earnings mean? What are deductions?”

Go through the different parts of the pay stub, highlight and defining new vocabulary.

Ask students if they have other deductions listed on their pay stubs. List these on the board Ask students if they have other information on their pay stubs, such as sick leave, vacation time, etc.

Put columns on the board for gross pay, net pay and deductions. Have students create a pay stub as a whole class. Have them copy it from the board. Then students create another pay stub in their notebooks.

Progress to Reading for Life, v.1 competency worksheets: Applicable worksheets: RFL v.1, unit 6

Progress to multiple-choice format activities: Some to be created by MLC – coming soon

Extensions: Some to be created by MLC – coming soon