UC San Diego

With increasing demand for innovative practice in the classroom, there are more and more educators across the globe seeking to instill the authentic, educational experience in their classroom. This curriculum empowers Deaf students to bridge classroom learning to the real business world, providing opportunities for students to generate, investigate, and examine their business ideas. From a modeled sample classroom business idea, the Deaf students were successful in designing their own business plan. All lessons provide the one-of-the-kind bilingual business education in American Sign Language (ASL) to advance academic English. During the implementation, the students learned business components, understood marketing strategies, analyzed the Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat (SWOT) portions of their business plan for their entrepreneurial venture, examined their business idea through market sampling, and then designed the business plan for the final presentation. Based on the methods of data collection, e.g. rubrics, formative and summative assessments, and documented observations and reflections, all of the curriculum goals were satisfactorily met.