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Day 3: Investor Pitches + Career Presentation Outline

Lesson Overview
Time 50 minutes
Objectives Deliver the team Pitching Investors pitch; outline the individual 3-minute career presentation for Day 5
TEKS d(4)(C), d(1)(C)
Deliverable Team investor pitch delivered + individual career presentation outline
Materials Chromebooks, H&L Workbook (Ch 5, pp. 85-86 Pitching Investors), printed Career Presentation Outline template, printed Career Presentation Rubric, projector, timer

Warm-Up (5 min)

WARM-UP: Look at your team's slide deck. Pick ONE slide that makes the strongest impression. Why does that slide work?

Take 3 student responses. This primes teams to identify their best slide so they lead with it. The first slide of a pitch sets the tone, a strong opener wins half the battle.

Activity 1: Team Investor Pitches (25 min)

Source: H&L Workbook Ch 5, pp. 85-86, "Pitching Investors" Step 5

Today each team delivers their 2-3 minute pitch. The workbook (Ch 5, p. 85) requires:

  • Pitch length: 2-3 minutes total
  • Use the slide deck to support the pitch
  • Each team member should have a speaking part

Format:

  • 4-5 teams present (depending on class size)
  • Time limit STRICTLY enforced at 3 minutes
  • Class acts as the investor, after each pitch, the audience votes whether they would invest
  • Teams give Two Stars and a Wish feedback to the pitching team after the vote (use the Powerskills practice from yesterday). With 5 teams, compress to one star + one wish per team to stay inside the 25-min budget.

Optional from workbook (Ch 5, p. 86): "Present your business idea to the class. The class will act as the investors and decide which business idea they would invest in!", Take a class vote at the end. The team with the most "investments" wins the pitch round.

Facilitation Tip

Project a visible 3-minute timer during pitches. At 2:30, give a verbal warning. At 3:00, cut off. This builds presentation discipline that students will need on Day 5 for individual presentations.

DOK 4: Of all the pitches you saw today, which business idea was the strongest and WHY? Use specific evidence from the team's pitch (the value proposition, the marketing strategy, the slide deck, the delivery).

Activity 2: Individual Career Presentation — Outline (18 min)

Source: Scope and sequence d(4)(C): oral professional presentation

Transition to the major individual deliverable for the week. Each student will give a 3-minute oral presentation on Friday (Day 5) on a career they have explored this year.

Distribute the Career Presentation Outline template and the Career Presentation Rubric. Walk through the structure:

Required structure (3 minutes total):

  1. Introduction (30 seconds)
    • Career name
    • Why you chose this career to present (personal connection)
  2. Body. Three Key Facts (2 minutes)
    • Fact 1: Education path required (high school → college / trade school / certification)
    • Fact 2: DFW salary (entry, median, top 10%)
    • Fact 3: Daily tasks, what does this person actually DO every day?
  3. Conclusion (30 seconds)
    • Connection to your personal Career Plan
    • One sentence: "This career fits me because _____" OR "I learned this career is NOT for me because _____"

Both conclusions are valid. The point is reflection, not enthusiasm.

Student work time (15 min):

Students choose their career (from any cluster they explored this year. Manufacturing, IT, Law, Health Science, Ag, Hospitality, Human Services, Business, A&C, Engineering, Transportation, Education, Arts/AV, Marketing, Sales). They write the outline on the template.

The outline must be COMPLETE before students leave class. Day 4 is for practice, not for catch-up.

Close Activity 2 with a direct student-facing announcement: Friday's individual presentations use the same 3-minute hard cap students just saw with the team pitches. Students need to hear the rule today so they can use Thursday's paired practice to time themselves and adjust.

Facilitation Tip

Watch for students choosing a career they have not actually researched. Push back: "What is the salary? What's the daily work?" If they don't know, send them to H&L Hat Finder or BLS to gather data right now. The presentation cannot be built on guesses.

DOK 3: What conclusions can you draw about why a presentation needs an introduction, body, and conclusion? Why not just list the facts?

DELIVERABLE: Team investor pitch delivered + individual Career Presentation Outline complete.

Exit Ticket (2 min)

EXIT TICKET (Short Constructed Response) · Printable PDF:

  1. Career I will present on Friday: _____

  2. My three KEY FACTS (1-2 words each is fine):

  3. Fact 1 (education path): _____

  4. Fact 2 (DFW salary): $____

  5. Fact 3 (daily task): _____

  6. My one-sentence conclusion (fits me OR does NOT fit me, both are valid):

(d(4)(C), d(1)(C))

Differentiation

  • Support: Provide a partially-filled outline template with the structure pre-labeled and example phrases. Allow students to choose from a list of 6 well-researched careers (Marketing Manager, Graphic Designer, Sales Manager, Teacher, Architect, IT Specialist) if they cannot decide.
  • Extension: Students draft a 1-slide visual aid (Canva or Google Slides) to accompany the presentation, a single slide showing the career name + salary + one image.
  • ELL: Provide a bilingual outline template with Spanish sentence starters ("Mi carrera es _. Elegí esta carrera porque ___"). Allow the presentation to be delivered in Spanish or bilingual format. Pair ESL students with bilingual peers for outline review.