Lunch Money Summative Research

Levitt, S. & Dubner, S. (2009). Freakonomics. New York: Harper Perennial.

Summary 

Freakonomics is a book of twists and turns in the economic world.   Levitt and Dubner relate the oddest events to one another.  From naming your child so they succeed in life to who are considered the perfect parents, the book relates every day life events to economics.  What I truly enjoyed about this book is the fact that two odd events can be realted to one another in terms of economics.  Economics is an interwoven web of financial decisions.  Changing one item can effect the outcome of something not even related.  Levitt and Dubner do a great job at connecting the dots to show how the domino effect happens with real life situations.

Economics is a hard category for many people to understand.  Levitt and Dubner were able to get me hooked with their easy to understand language which kept me turning the pages.  They wanted me to know more about the terms they discussed.  From supply and demand to incentives, I was able to understand the basic concepts of many economic terms.  Freakonomics is a great book to get a reader wanting to know more about the economic world.  The book is simple and easy to understand for the person who is new to economics or for someone who wants to see how everything can be connected in one way or another in the economics world. 

Some of the economic terms you will find in Freakonomics I have included in my top ten.  The top ten had been simplified for use in the classroom. 

Why Teach Economics?

Teaching economics to children is essential in forming well rounded citizens in the community.  The subject of economics is formally taught in most high schools as a stand alone class.  In the elementary and middle school levels the subject is usually interwoven with other subjects.  Using Lunch Money will help students connect  basic economic terms to their life at a young age.  Students will be able to better understand that many of their choices are based on economics.

After reading Lunch Money, Freakonomics and the various articles and websites listed in my resources I have a better apprecitation for the economics discipline on a whole.  Economics is a key subject in the broad theme of social studies, it relates to almost every aspect of social studies in one way or another.  One of the National Council for Social Studies ten themes is aimed at economics - Production, Distribution and Consumption.  Integrating economics into the classroom at every grade level will help the students meet the NCSS themes, connect them to their lives and hopefully use their new knowledge later in life. 

Using Literature to Teach Social Studies

In a time strapped classroom using Literature to teach Social Studies concepts is a no-brainer.  Why not approach Social Studies with books like Lunch Money to help drive home topics that seems to be pushed to the end of the school day?  Using children's books will bring Social Studies to the literature block, which tends to be in the morning hours, helping students realize the importance of the topic.

Using literature based products, such as childrens literature, will help students connect social studies and the NCSS ten themes in a fun way.  I found out how easy it is to connect a book like Lunch Money to a variety of economic standards.   The students will be able to read a book that is at their reading level which will help the students comprehend the material.  With comprehension, the students will be able to remember the content.  Literature books also help students connect content to the real world with scenarios that are life like.

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