Financial statements

(a) (i) State why the concept was selected in relation to its importance in the discipline.
The concepts of financial statements (statement of comprehensive income and statement

of financial position) is of integral importance to the area of Principles of Accounts. For any type

of business (trading and non-trading) the financial statements are used however, depending on the

type of business (sole trader, partnerships, cooperatives) certain additions or subtractions to the

formats can be made to the financial statements. This concept was also chosen as it will allow

students to gain entry level employment in Accounting by acquiring the knowledge learnt about

this concept. In particular, I chose the financial statements of a sole trader as this can make students

aware of what is required of them when they start their own business and thereby enhancing their

entrepreneurial skills. It is also in keeping with the UNESCO pillars of learning: learn to know,

learn to be, learn to do, and to live together. In addition, it will develop the 21st century skills of

students Literacy and numeracy, critical thinking and problem solving, interpretation in

Accounting.

(ii) Explain what you would want students of an identified year group to understand about
the concept, if you were going to explore it via an instructional unit.
For Form 4 CSEC Principles of Accounts students, the area of syllabus concentration

would be Section 5 the Preparation and Analysis of Financial Statements of the sole trader,

specifically objectives 1 to 5 which deals with financial statements.

Students should be able to explain, construct and identify the various components of the

financial statements (statement of comprehensive income and statement of financial position). For

the statement of comprehensive income students should be able to construct the account for trading

and profit and loss and be able to compute net sales, cost of sales, gross profit/gross loss, total
expenses, net profit or net loss. They should know how to interpret what these figures mean and

take corrective actions where necessary to ensure business survival.

For the statement of financial position students should know about the various sections

Fixed assets in particular recording of cost, accumulated depreciation and net book value, current

assets, current liabilities, the calculation of working capital, long term liabilities and capital.

Students should be able to use order of liquidity or permanence and understand how and why a

balance sheet balances and apply the balance sheet equation.

Essentially, all the cognitive areas above the students would know however there will also

be concentration on the affective domain as well. Here students will be able to appreciate and relate

the uses of financial statements and its relevance to aiding business decision making as users of

financial information whether internally or externally.

(b) Create a performance assessment that could be used for evaluating students’

understanding of the concept or an aspect of the concept described in (a).

b. Performance Assessment – project based

Theme: Preparation and Analysis of financial statements of a sole trader

Class: Form 4

Time: 3 weeks

Topic: Financial statement of sole trader (statement of comprehensive income and financial

position)

Task Description: This project based assessment will allow students to form themselves into

groups comprising of six persons per group. They will be required to form a business, select and

name, select an item and sell the item to a specific class at school and record their trading activities,

income, expenses, assets, capital and liability in the statement of comprehensive income and

financial position for a period of three weeks. They will also keep a reflective journal for the 3

week duration. At the end of the 3 weeks all groups will make a presentation to the class.

At the end of week 1 students will be required to submit a their business name, item sold and class

sold to. Show evidence of bookkeeping and records. In addition, their reflective journal for the

past week.

At the end of week 2: students will be required to construct their business financial

statements and assess the business performance in order to assist them in decision making of the

business. In addition, they would reflect on what was written in their journal and make note of

changes for week 2.

 At the end of week 3: students will be required to construct their business financial

statements and assess the business performance in order to assist them in decision making of the

business. In addition, they would reflect on what was written in their journal and make note of

changes that worked or did not work.

Students can present their work using any form they wish to: charts, PowerPoint

presentations, and handout.

State (i) the purpose of the performance assessment and

B i) The purpose of this assessment to allow students the opportunity to become sole traders and

produce, construct financial statements for each week of their business. In addition, it will allow

students the opportunity to put into practice the theory they learnt in class to a business and instill

lifelong skills required for them becoming entrepreneurs in the future. Moreover, it will aid

students in the financial aspects of their School Based Assessment which is a requirement for

CSEC Principles of Accounts. For each week students will do a reflective journal where they can

revisit and improve on areas they found to be lacking in the business. While preparing the financial

statements: statement of comprehensive income they will be able to identify their gross profit/loss

from trading activities, their expenses and net profit /net loss. Students’ should be able to analyze

and interpret figures and make decisions to ensure business success. For instance if expenses were

to high how can it be reduced and so on. For the statement of financial position they should be able

to construct using order of permanence and calculate working capital. This activity will also allow

students the opportunity to practice using the balance sheet equation for the balance sheet to sheet

to balance. They will utilize 21st century skills in interpretation, critical thinking and problem

solving for these activities.

(ii) What insights about the concept students will gain from performing the assessment? [400

words max]

B ii) The students will gain valuable insights as to how the real world operates especially as a sole

trader. They will be able to practice what was learnt in class and apply it to their business and

apply various skills: interpretative, critical thinking and problem solving skills. They will

understand the UNESCO Pillar of learning: Learn to be, to do, to know, to live together and to

transform oneself and society. Students will have attained a working knowledge of the duties of

accountants in preparing financial statements and the process involved. In addition, students will

be exposed to the appropriate application of accounting principles when working within a financial

environment such as competency, willingness, communication, continuous training,

confidentiality, openness, trust, honesty and accountability. It will allow students the opportunity

to practice the ethical codes of conduct as carried out by the International Ethics Standards Board

for Accountants (IESBA) and accounting practices from International Financial Reporting

Standards. From the reflective journals students will be able to see their growth and how situations

were dealt with and reflect upon whether the decisions made could have been better. Also students

will enhance their presentation skills and learn from each other the forms of presenting work.
 (c) Create a rubric that assesses the performance task and describe how the rubric is to be
used.
Rubric for Task on Financial statements of sole trader and presentation
REVIEW OF DATE

REVIEWED BY

RUBRIC SCORE SCORING SCALE TOTAL

EXEMPLARY Expectations exceeded 4 EXEMPLARY 18-20

ACCEPTABLE Expectations met 3 ACCEPTABLE 15-17

NEEDS
NEEDS IMPROVEMENT Guidelines met 2 6-14
IMPROVEMENT

INADEQUATE Guidelines somewhat met 1 INADEQUATE 0-5

UNACCEPTABLE Incomplete; Information not available 0

CRITERIA 4 3 2 1 0

TEAMWORK

All students contributed to business development, constructing financial

statements, preparation of presentation and reflective journals
SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE

Thorough knowledge evidenced, problem solving and critical skills

demonstrated
PRESENTATION

Presentation was error free and presented in a logical manner

ORGANIZATION

Material was original and presented creatively. The audience was engaged

GRAMMAR

Students communicate information using correct grammar

COLUMN TOTALS

TOTAL SCORE
The holistic rubric will be based on criteria such as teamwork, subject knowledge, presentation,

organization and grammar which are tied to the learning outcomes of the performance tasks. The

performances will then be rated on scores zero to four using the descriptors of unacceptable,

inadequate, needs improvement, acceptable and exemplary respectively. Each one of the

descriptors gives a description of the level of performance. For instance, unacceptable can be

described as incomplete, information not available and score zero. The total marks also gives a

range for the scoring scale so students will know whether or not the guidelines for the task was

met.