AOF Business in a Global Economy
Lesson 1
Course Introduction
This introductory lesson exposes students to some of the key terms and areas of knowledge that they will
be studying throughout this course. They also learn about the skills they will develop that are crucial to
the field of global business.
Students acquire a sense of the course objectives by looking at examples of previous students’
culminating projects: recommending a foreign market entry strategy by a multinational corporation to a
group of invited guests. Students probe their personal conceptions about international business by
judging the accuracy of a variety of statements about globalization, culture, and economics. Students also
set up two tools: a general taxonomy of key terms in global business and economics, and a notebook
that they will use throughout the course.
Advance Preparation

Prior to the first class period, make sure that the Apple QuickTime Player is installed on your
computer. You will need the player to show the culminating project video to the class. You can
download and install the free QuickTime Player by going to
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/ and following the step-by-step instructions. If you have
difficulty installing the player, contact your site administrator.

Review Teacher Resource 1.7, Update: Business in a Global Economy Revisions 2012–2013,
which describes significant changes to the course since the previous year.

Use Teacher Resource 1.6, Course Planning Tool: Business in a Global Economy, for planning
purposes throughout the course.
This lesson is expected to take 2 class periods.*
Course Expectations
The National Academy Foundation (NAF) serves and supports Small Learning Communities within
existing high schools across the United States. Our courses are intended to prepare students for postsecondary education and professional careers within their academy theme. All NAF curricula are
designed to be supported through high-level mentoring by business professionals and paid internships.
* There are various introductory activities you may want to add before the first set of course activities, depending upon your own
needs and preferences. Such activities will extend the length of this lesson and may include conducting a favorite icebreaker, setting
course and grading expectations, teaching classroom procedures, and having students learn each other’s names.
Copyright © 20092012 National Academy Foundation. All rights reserved.
AOF Business in a Global Economy
Lesson 1 Course Introduction
While NAF courses are designed to be effective in as many academy settings as possible, they work best
in conjunction with the complete NAF academy model. Accordingly, you can fully implement this NAF
curriculum if the following assumptions about your academy are true:

The academy functions as a Small Learning Community and contains a subset of students and
teachers who are together for a three- or four-year span.

The academy has partnerships with employers, communities, colleges, and universities through
an active advisory board.

The curriculum is designed around the NAF academy advisory board playing an active role in
students’ experiences.
 Certain lessons and projects have the continued support and participation of an advisory board.
For further explanation of what is essential for operating a highly successful NAF academy, please go to
http://www.naf.org.
The NAF Learning Handbook explains the instructional design of this course. In order to understand how
the course is structured and how the key instructional strategies work, please read The NAF Learning
Handbook prior to teaching the course and refer to it as necessary.
Lesson Framework
Learning Objectives
Each student will:

Identify the knowledge and skills demonstrated in a completed project artifact

Deduce the global business skills and knowledge needed to be successful in an authentic project

Evaluate the importance of learning about global business terms of relevant professions

Identify general global business terms with which to build a taxonomy
Academic Standards

None
Assessment

None
Prerequisites

None
Instructional Materials
Teacher Resources

Teacher Resource 1.1, Example: Culminating Project Presentation (separate video file)

Teacher Resource 1.2, Answer Key: Business in a Global Economy Anticipation Guide

Teacher Resource 1.3, Notebook: Table of Contents (separate Word file)
Copyright © 20092012 National Academy Foundation. All rights reserved.
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AOF Business in a Global Economy
Lesson 1 Course Introduction

Teacher Resource 1.4, Key Vocabulary: Course Introduction

Teacher Resource 1.5, Bibliography: Course Introduction

Teacher Resource 1.6, Course Planning Tool: Business in a Global Economy (separate Word file)

Teacher Resource 1.7, Update: Business in a Global Economy Course Revisions 2012–2013
Student Resources

Student Resource 1.1, Anticipation Guide: Business in a Global Economy

Student Resource 1.2, Example: Alphabetical Taxonomy

Student Resource 1.3, Worksheet: Alphabetical Taxonomy
Equipment and Supplies

Each student will need a three-ring binder to use as a notebook to hold worksheets and
assignments and as a place to take notes during the course

Video of a culminating project presentation from a previous class (optional)

LCD projector or computer equipment necessary to view culminating projects from previous years

QuickTime Player to show culminating project video

Chart paper
Lesson Steps
Step
Min.
Activity
CLASS PERIOD 1
1
40
Presentation: Example of the Global Business Culminating Project
This activity introduces students to the Business in a Global Economy course by giving
them a chance to view a videotaped presentation of the culminating project they will be
creating during the course. It also focuses on the following career skill:
 Monitoring one’s own understanding needed for success
Start the class by giving the students some overall background on the culminating
project. The driving question for the project is, “How can we, as corporate strategists,
best develop a plan to enter a new international market and structure our operations
abroad to effectively compete in the global economy?” Explain that the students will
work in strategy teams of three or four to develop a global market entry strategy for a
company that currently sells only in the US market. They will then prepare and give a
convincing presentation for investors and an executive summary that outline the optimal
market entry strategy.
Tell the students that you are going to show them a video example of the final
presentation they will be giving at the end of the course. In the video, they will see
students making a presentation to a group of invited guests who are taking on the role
of company executives listening to their team’s presentation.
As an alternative (or in addition) to showing Teacher Resource 1.1, Example:
Culminating Project Presentation (separate video file), you can show a video of a
Copyright © 20092012 National Academy Foundation. All rights reserved.
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AOF Business in a Global Economy
Lesson 1 Course Introduction
Step
Min.
Activity
culminating project presentation from one of your previous Business in a Global
Economy classes.
Show the video (Teacher Resource 1.1) once through to give the students an overall
sense of the presentation. Then show the video again, but this time ask students to look
for the skills and knowledge they need to learn in the course in order to produce a
successful culminating project. As they watch the video and for a few minutes
afterwards, have them write down answers to this question:

What do you think you need to know about global business, and what skills would
you need to have, in order to complete a project like this?
Tell students to work with a neighbor to answer this question. Ask volunteers to
share what they wrote, and then list their ideas on the board. As an option, make two
lists: one for kinds of knowledge and one for skills needed. Work with the class to
whittle down the list to the 10 or so most important skills and/or areas of knowledge that
the students believe would be needed for this course. Have them explain their reasons
for including each skill or knowledge area.
Write the 10 or so items on chart paper and post the chart on the class wall. Return to
this list during the course to evaluate their initial expectations. You can also have the
class check off skills and areas of knowledge as they are encountered throughout the
course.
Ask students to share any final observations about the video they just watched. Here
are some possible questions you might ask:

Does the work fit your idea of what a global business professional would do? If so,
how?

What strengths and knowledge do you have that would help in work like this?
 What challenges would you have to overcome to do work like this?
In the last unit of the course, you will discuss this list with the students to determine
which of these items are most important to a global business professional.
2
10
Homework: Business in a Global Economy Anticipation Guide
In this activity, students build on prior knowledge as they begin to engage with some of
the topics covered in this course. This activity also focuses on the following career skill:
 Being open and responsive to new and diverse perspectives
Have students read the directions for Student Resource 1.1, Anticipation Guide:
Business in a Global Economy, and answer any questions they may have. For
homework, have students complete the first two sections of this resource. Model the
completion of the first statement for the class so that they understand what they will be
doing for homework. Explain that it is not important to figure out what an expert would
put as the “right” answer, but rather to write down their own reasons. Let students know
you’ll be reviewing the homework next class period as a class.
CLASS PERIOD 2
3
15
Homework Review: Business in a Global Economy Anticipation Guide
Reviewing the homework from the previous class period gives students a chance to
Copyright © 20092012 National Academy Foundation. All rights reserved.
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AOF Business in a Global Economy
Lesson 1 Course Introduction
Step
Min.
Activity
share their work and to continue building on their prior knowledge of key global
business concepts. This activity also increases anticipation for learning more about
global business.
Have students review their homework in pairs to compare their responses to the
statements and discuss their reasoning. Then, with the whole class, ask a couple of
students to share their responses to each statement. Note the areas where students
are in agreement and disagreement. Use Teacher Resource 1.2, Answer Key:
Business in a Global Economy Anticipation Guide, to tell students how most global
business professionals would respond to these statements, but point out that some are
open to interpretation. Also note that they will be learning more about each of these
topics throughout the course. Tell students to write down what they learned during this
discussion in the “I learned” section of the resource.
This anticipation guide will be inserted into each student’s course notebook, which
students will prepare in the next activity.
4
15
Preparation: Course Notebook
Prior to class, print enough copies of Teacher Resource 1.3, Notebook: Table of
Contents (separate Word file), so that all students have a couple of pages to place in
the beginning of their notebooks.
The notebook is a place where students save important work and is one of the key
components for the course. Keep in mind that the notebook you or your students
provide must allow for easy insertion of worksheets and other pages as the course
progresses.
Tell students that one important tool they will each use throughout this course is a
notebook. They will need to bring it to every class and will use it to keep many kinds of
work in, including:

Notes

Reflections

Ideas

Project plans
 Taxonomies
Explain to students that they will now set up their notebooks. They will all use the same
structure for organizing them to make it easier for both you and the students to locate
completed work. Ask students to open their notebooks and insert a couple of copies of
Teacher Resource 1.3, Notebook: Table of Contents. Tell them to write their names at
the top and the roman numeral “I” in the bottom right-hand corner of the first page, and
“II” on the second page. Explain that they will number their table of contents pages
using roman numerals and their notebook pages with arabic numerals, the ones they
usually use, to keep from confusing the two sections.
When the table of contents is ready, have students insert their anticipation guide after it
and write the page number “1” in the bottom right-hand corner. Next, have them fill in
the information for this resource as the first entry in their table of contents. Tell students
that they need to keep all of the handouts they receive in this course, and keep track of
them via the table of contents, because they will refer back to many of them and use
them for other assignments.
Another important tool is a taxonomy that students will keep in their notebooks. They
Copyright © 20092012 National Academy Foundation. All rights reserved.
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AOF Business in a Global Economy
Lesson 1 Course Introduction
Step
Min.
Activity
will complete the taxonomy in the next activity.
5
20
Taxonomy: General Course Terms
By developing a taxonomy of terms during the first unit of this course, students realize
how much they remember from previous AOF classes, explore what they already know
about a topic, and store new terms as they learn them. (See The NAF Learning
Handbook for more information on this strategy.) This activity focuses on the following
career skill:
 Following instructions precisely
Have students begin by looking at Student Resource 1.2, Example: Alphabetical
Taxonomy, to remind them what a completed taxonomy looks like. Then ask students
to look at Student Resource 1.3, Worksheet: Alphabetical Taxonomy.
Have students begin independently by thinking of words that belong with the course.
For Global Business, a word might be exports. Students will write exports next to the
letter E. Have students work for about five minutes, adding as many words as they can
think of that relate directly to global business. They may write more than one word for
each letter and they should not worry about finding a word for every letter.
Now organize students in pairs. Ask them to collaborate by sharing words in order to
build their taxonomies. For example, if one student has written exports and the other
has not, the second student would add exports to her taxonomy.
After five minutes, ask students to leave their taxonomies on their desks and walk
around the room to view each other’s taxonomies. Ask students to collect words from
their peers to bring back to their own taxonomies.
Give students a couple of minutes to add the words they collected to their taxonomies,
and then complete the activity with a short discussion. Call on as many pairs as time
allows, asking them to share some of the words that were easy to come up with and
words from peers that were new to them.
Tell students to insert the taxonomy into their notebooks after the anticipation guide,
number it page 2 in the bottom right-hand corner, and add this entry to their table of
contents. Inform them that from now on they will be in charge of remembering to add
resources to their notebooks and to keep the table of contents up to date.
This taxonomy can be used as time allows and as appropriate until the end of Unit 1.
Have students continue to add relevant vocabulary words they encounter. This
taxonomy should become a solid list of basic terminology that will serve as a resource
for future assignments. Adding to the taxonomy will not be explicitly suggested in the
lesson plans, so please incorporate this activity at your discretion.
Extensions
Enrichment

Ask students to use a search engine such as Google to locate and compare job descriptions for
foreign investment analyst, international shipping specialist, international trader, and other global
business-related occupations. Tell them to write a paragraph explaining what skills and areas of
Copyright © 20092012 National Academy Foundation. All rights reserved.
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AOF Business in a Global Economy
Lesson 1 Course Introduction
knowledge these jobs involve and how they might differ from domestic (non-international) jobs in
the same field.
Copyright © 20092012 National Academy Foundation. All rights reserved.
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