Economics

Resources for Teaching Economics

Economics concepts and tools are required in K – 12 education. According to the Council of Economic Education’s latest Survey of the States or report card, 22 states now require students to take an Economics course in order to successfully graduate High School. Forty-nine states (49) plus the District of Columbia include Economics within their core curriculum content standards. (By the way, the only state that does not is Rhode Island.) Often this is a stand-alone Economics course in High School or an Advanced Placement (AP) course. In some school districts, economics is integrated into other business, personal finance, or social studies courses.

In 2009, the State of New Jersey amended the High School graduation requirement to include 2.5 credits of “financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial literacy” for all those entering Grade 9 in 2010. Specifics are found in the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards.

Much of the economics content to be covered by New Jersey teachers is found in the social studies Standard 6, though there is some overlap with the newly enhanced Standard 9.

This section of SCEFL’s website contains links and suggestions for teachers in New Jersey and elsewhere. We try to include suggestions for all grades and school subjects:

Grade 9 – 12 teachers asked to cover economics may also be teaching social studies, business, family and consumer sciences, and career and technical education. Even better, a teacher may be asked to teach a stand-alone economics course.
Grades 6 – 8 teachers asked to cover economics may also be teaching social studies or mathematics.
Grades pre-K & K – 5 teachers are creatively introducing economics concepts through language arts/literacy, social studies, mathematics, and all subjects.

AP Economics

Teaching AP Economics: A Guide for New Jersey Educators. There are hundreds of resources available to teachers and students interested in the two AP exams in economics: AP Macroeconomics and AP Microeconomics. But where should you begin? Is there any succinct summary and evaluation?

We provide this guide for free to benefit New Jersey educators and School Districts. Please feel free to use the guide as needed as long as you note the author, title, and publisher as the School of Education at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.

For all Grades pre-K to Grade 12

EconEdLink, from the (national) Council for Economic Education has a database of lesson plans searchable by topic and grade level.

The Federal Reserve Board of the U.S. has an extensive Classroom Resources website.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas offers lesson plans and activities for all grade levels.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York Education Department offers lesson plans and links to additional resources in economics education for all grade levels.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Resources for Teachers offers lesson plans and links to additional resources in economics education for all grade levels.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond website has interactive games about economics and the economy.

The national Center for Economic Education has state affiliates across the U.S. You can search for resources in your state.

For Grades 9 - 12

What Unions Do: A Briefing Pamphlet. This short 28-page monograph aims to introduce students to the purpose of labor unions in society and the economy. What Unions Do was written by Dr. Deborah M. Figart and published by the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy. Click here to complete a quick form to access this monograph.

More and more publishers of economics textbooks are developing and producing versions of books and ancillary materials specifically aimed at high school students.

Economics in the Movies and Popular Music, maintained by G. Dirk Mateer and Herman Li from Pennsylvania State University, offers suggestions of movie clips and popular music segments that illustrate economics concepts. The website also has a section devoted to teaching economics through YouTube.

Economics in the Movies by G. Dirk Mateer is a paper pamphlet for teachers and students from Thomson South-Western Press with a lesson plan template with economics concepts or examples that can be applied to various movie clips. Purchasing the booklet for classroom use gives the teacher an access code to view the specific movie clips online.

Share My Lesson is a free database of lessons written by teachers to share with each other. Both Economics and Social Studies are subjest categories.

The Learning Network from The New York Times, provides economics lesson plans using blogs from the newspaper.

Teaching Economics as if People Mattered, has high school lesson plans from United for a Fair Economy, a non-profit organization in Boston, Massachusetts.

Understanding Taxes, from the Internal Revenue Service. This site has lesson plans and resources for studying the taxes in the United States. It is also available in Spanish. For amusement, and additional fun fact called "7 Crazy Taxes from the US and Abroad" is available from Intuit's Turbo Tax.

What’s the Economy for, Anyway?, is an educational resource project of the Center for Communication and Civic Engagement in association with the Forum on Social Wealth, the Political Economy Research Institute, and the Center for Popular Economics. It contains quizzes, discussion questions, slide shows, etc.

For Grades 6 – 8

EconEdWeb, from the University of Nebraska-Omaha Center for Economic Education, has lessons for all grades, including Middle School. Though mapped to the core curricular content standards in the State of Nebraska, lessons are also appropriate for other states.

EconKids, offers ideas for using children’s literature to introduce economics concepts to younger students in elementary and middle school. The website is maintained by the Rutgers University Project on Economics and Children.

The Indiana Council for Economic Education has a number of resources for the early grades.

For Grades Pre-K & K – 5

The Indiana Council for Economic Education has a number of resources for the early grades.

Sesame Workshop provides literacy and numeracy lessons for young, pre-school children, including one on financial habits.