EconKids Working Paper No. 2007-01

"Teaching Economics Through Children's Literature in the Primary Grades."
By Yana Rodgers, Shelby Hawthorne, and Ronald Wheeler.

Abstract: Primary-grade students can gain exposure to a wide range of economic concepts in state standards if teachers use reading strategies that embrace children’s literature with economic content. This approach allows teachers to teach their students reading strategies and economics simultaneously. Almost all states have content standards in economics beginning with kindergarten. Our review has identified more than three hundred picture books and easy readers that focus on economic concepts found in the state standards. Despite the appeal of teaching economics through literature, there is not enough assessment of reading strategies to teach economics, and new assessments are needed in the early grades.

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Published as:
Rodgers, Yana, Shelby Hawthorne, and Ronald Wheeler, "Teaching Economics Through Children's Literature in the Primary Grades," The Reading Teacher 61 (1), September 2007, 46-55.