[Courseware Update] New Louisiana Business English Course

Edmentum’s mission includes providing teachers and students with resources that help students have positive outcomes in school. We provide teachers with standards-based curricula that help students meet their graduation requirements. To speak to that mission, we’ve developed a new course for Louisiana students: Louisiana Business English.

The course focuses on acquiring knowledge and building skills that will make students successful in the career path of their choice. With a strong focus on writing for business contexts, the course gives students opportunities to refine their writing through planning, drafting, and revising business documents (no essays!).

Our team of instructional designers and subject matter experts worked to determine a comprehensive plan for covering the essentials of Louisiana Business English. We began by seeking input from Louisiana educators on critical content for the course.

At the beginning of the development phase, we created a lesson prototype and met with educators so that they could provide feedback on engaging approaches that capture students’ interest. As we continued to develop the course, we made sure that lessons and activities aligned with the Louisiana Business English standards (grades 11–12), ACT® WorkKeys® for Workplace Documents, and ACT WorkKeys for Graphic Literacy. The course content covers a range of speaking and listening, language, reading, and writing skills. The skill practice for the ACT WorkKeys assessment provides real-world scenarios that help students master graphic literacy and locating information. 

Each lesson begins with a warmup that engages students’ active thinking and prior knowledge. Every lesson contains an activity that provides students with opportunities to enhance their critical thinking and writing skills for the workplace. In the first unit activity, students read about setting goals, and they reflect on their own short- and long-term goals. Then, they apply what they’ve learned about writing memos to create a memo to their teacher in which they describe their professional goals for the future.

We begin and end every unit with introductory and summary videos that feature an EdOptions Academy teacher. Introductory videos let students know what will be covered in each unit, and summary videos ask students to reflect on what they’ve learned. The teacher challenges students to think about how they can apply the skills that they’re learning. Within every unit, each lesson includes engaging guided notes that help students highlight key objectives, concepts, and terms—the notes are rich resources that prepare students for course assessments.

In addition to teaching students how to compose digital messages for business purposes, the course covers standard business documents, such as memos, letters, reports, policies, and proposals. Louisiana Business English includes a whole unit on professional and ethical conduct, interpersonal interaction, ethics, cultural awareness in the workplace, and social media best practices. These are valuable skills for thriving as a professional. Check out a sample video from the social media lesson below:

The final unit, titled “Searching for the Right Job,” has activities that help students identify career interests, conduct a job search, and prepare a resume and cover letter, as well as learn how to effectively prepare for different job interviews.

Throughout the Louisiana Business English course, we’ve included custom videos that portray common situations that students can expect to encounter in business settings to teach them 21st century communication skills in an online environment that’s bolstered by teacher support. By the end of the course, students will learn how to effectively communicate in the workplace, appropriately use social media for business purposes, practice professional courtesy in meetings, and prepare for a job interview well.

Interested in learning more about our Louisiana course offerings? Click here to view our entire course catalog!

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