Fall 2013
Articles
- The 1910 Plan to Create a Central Bank
- What Teens Should Work On to Get Work
- Video Q&A with the Fed Explained
- Atlanta Fed's Early Years
- More Ideas for Teaching with Fed Resources
- 100/2 reasons for Fed's centennial lessons
- Ben Franklin Gets a Facelift
- Can Bart Help Teach about Money?
- Financial Education at the Fed
- Large Role of Small Business
- Financial Illiteracy Can Be Harmful
- A Primer on Inflation and Inflation Indexes
- Classroom Economist, Meet the New Katrina's Classroom
- New Tool for a Clear Discussion
- Current Events for Classroom Discussion
- Inflation Indexes Important to Monetary Policy
- Fun with Numbers
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More Resources for Teaching Economics through the Lens of Current Events
Our economy is constantly changing. With the business cycle comes the ebb and flow of aspects of the economy such as inflation, unemployment, and gross domestic product. Because of this constant fluctuating, economics textbooks can become obsolete soon after printing. Teachers can turn to newspaper articles and government websites—including those of the Bureau of Economic Analysis and Bureau of Labor Statistics—which are good sources of current events and updated information on the current economy. But the technical nature of the information in newspapers and on these websites is not always well suited for students and can leave them unengaged. Add to this the fact that the Common Core Standards place new emphasis on informational texts within subject areas—literacy in reading and understanding nonfiction texts is increasingly a key skill desired by today's employers.
But as we explained in a January 2012 Extra Credit article ("Ready-Made Current Events for the Economics Classroom"), the Atlanta Fed has a tool that offers plenty of easy-to-digest economic information: the print and online magazine EconSouth. Many teachers across the Southeast have found this magazine to be a useful tool in filling the gaps. They are using these articles, which are written in language aimed for the general public, in a variety of ways, including as platforms for classroom discussions, supplements to lessons, extra credit assignments, and writing assignments.
Published once a quarter, EconSouth features articles on national and world economies, with a particular focus on the economy of the Southeast. Each issue contains regular departments such as "Fed@Issue," a primer on key economic concepts;"Grassroots," which focuses on the economy of a particular region within the Atlanta Fed's district; regular full-length feature articles; and "Closing Numbers," a fascinating page full of numbers, statistics, and interesting factoids to share with your students.
Below are links to several EconSouth articles from 2012 and the first half of 2013. You'll also find links to discussion questions that relate to the stories with accompanying related links to articles, company websites, educational resources, and more.
Fed@Issue articles
Grassroots articles
Feature articles
By Amy Hennessy, director of economic education at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and Lesley Mace, economic and financial education specialist with the Jacksonville Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
August 26, 2013
