CEDU 531--Week 3: Storytelling in Business Education

For the last several years, all of my Business Venture students have written Entrepreneur Profiles in which they research famous entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates, Mary Kay Ash, Kimora Lee Simmons, and Mark Cuban. My eight and ninth graders are required to research the person’s background information (childhood, education, previous business/career experiences, socioeconomic status), company, ideas, and products/services. Students also share if the entrepreneur succeeded right away and if they solved a problem in society and/or for him or herself. Finally, students analyze the importance of their entrepreneur.

I have considered allowing students the option to create PowerPoints rather than Word documents. Several asked for this choice this semester and they did nice work, both in the content as well as in their class presentation. However, I now recognize how this assignment would be perfect for storytelling. Students could use VoiceThread or JumpCut to share the story of their entrepreneur’s background, company, success, and importance. They could even role-play in the first person as they add voiceover text to their slides. As discussed in our last grad course, authenticity and the LoTI level would be greatly increased as students presented their VoiceThreads or JumpCuts to their peers.

At North Junior High, we place a strong emphasis on providing students with options. In this case, I would allow students to create their Entrepreneur Profile in Word, PowerPoint, VoiceThread, or JumpCut. The latter three would require a class presentation. I believe that this lesson/assignment about famous entrepreneurs (their ideas, perseverance, management skills, creativity, etc.) would be best learned if students could fully immerse themselves in a method that best matches their learning styles.