I have done this lesson for a couple of years now. I do it twice a year because I teach semester classes. I’m on block scheduling so I have an 83 minute class period to get this lesson done. However, it is a hurried 83 minutes! Here is my review:

The video is good. It's short enough not to lose the student's attention. It uses language they can understand and follow. This is important to me because most of my students have no idea with the Fed is or what is does, let alone the terminology used with the Fed. I usually let my students fill out handout 1 (monetary policy basics quiz) and handout 2 (monetary policy in-depth--minus questions 7 & 8) during the video. After the video, we go over these together.

I don't care for the two suggested readings in the lesson. My reasoning is this: they use language that some of my students struggle to understand, the reading level is hard, and it just generally seems way over their heads. They also tend to lose interest quickly because it is such a hard (and somewhat boring) reading.

My students LOVE the children's book activity. My students are put into groups and they complete a children's book based on one aspect of the Fed. This is a modification of the original lesson. I have done the exact instructions on the lesson, but have found the books to be a higher quality when the students can choose the aspect of the Fed they write about. I grade the students based on reading aloud to class (5 points), illustration (5 points), content (10 points), and organization (5 points). I have received some great books in the past. Some titles include Scooby Doo and the Inflation Crew, Rules for Fred the Fed, Chicka Chicka Bank Bank, and Where the Pocket Change Goes.

The next class period the students are quizzed over the Fed. The questions come from handouts 1 & 2 and the video.