Lesson Plan for Implementing

NETS•S—Template I
(More Directed Learning Activities)
Template with guiding questions
Teacher(s)
Name Amy Alfonso

Position Teacher

School/District Shallowford Falls Elementary School/Cobb County School District

E-mail ah2max@gmail.com

Phone
Grade
Level(s) 3rd Grade

Content Area Social Studies/ELA

Timeline 4 weeks

Standards (What do you want students to know and be able to do? What knowledge, skills, and strategies do you
expect students to gain? Are there connections to other curriculum areas and subject area benchmarks? ) Please
put a summary of the standards you will be addressing rather than abbreviations and numbers that indicate which
standards were addressed.
Student will be able to explain reasons for, obstacles, and routes taken of the early
Content Standards european explorers.
Students will use technology tools to enhance learning, increase productivity, and promote
creativity. Students will also use productivity tools to collaborate in constructing
technology-enhanced models, preparing publications, and producing other creative works.
Finally, students will use telecommunications to collaborate, publish, and interact with
peers, experts, and other audiences, as well as use a variety of media and formats to
NETS*S Standards: communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences.

Overview (a short summary of the lesson or unit including assignment or expected or possible products)

This unit will span over six weeks where the students will be applying previously learned Social Studies
content on Early Explorers. In partner groups, the students will be creating pages on a WikiSpaces website which
will include a researched informational summary of the explorer assigned, a map of the route(s) taken, and
multimedia resources about the assigned explorer. Included on their explorer page, students will need to post a
picture of their explorer using either Flickr or Creative Commons. At the completion of the project, students will
create a Podcast using GarageBand and share their experience through this unit. Parents will then be invited for
a “PodCast Party” where the WikiSpaces page will be launched and the student-created podcasts shared.

Essential Questions (What essential question or learning are you addressing? What would students care or
want to know about the topic? What are some questions to get students thinking about the topic or generate

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interest about the topic? Additionally, what questions can you ask students to help them focus on important
aspects of the topic? (Guiding questions) What background or prior knowledge will you expect students to bring
to this topic and build on?) Remember, essential questions are meant to guide the lesson by provoking inquiry.
They should not be answered with a simple “yes” or “no” and should have many acceptable answers.

● How did the decision to explore lead to trials and triumphs for the explorers?
● How do I use map skills to understand the discovery of America?
● How do I create an informational piece of writing to summarize important information?
● Where am I able to find credible resources to provide knowledge about my chosen explorer?
● How can I best share my learning experience with others?

Assessment (What will students do or produce to illustrate their learning? What can students do to generate new
knowledge? How will you assess how students are progressing (formative assessment)? How will you assess
what they produce or do? How will you differentiate products?) You must attach copies of your assessment and/or
rubrics. Include these in your presentation as well.

Students will create a page for a WikiSpace website that includes a researched informational summary of the
reasons for explorations, obstacles overcome, and route(s) taken for an early european explorer. On the
WikiSpace page, students will need to include other multimedia resources such as videos or other websites to
explore for more information, as well as a photo of the explorer. After completion of their page, the students will
need to create a PodCast reviewing their experience with this project. Students will be assessed on their
WikiSpaces page using a rubric.

Resources (How does technology support student learning? What digital tools, and resources—online student
tools, research sites, student handouts, tools, tutorials, templates, assessment rubrics, etc—help elucidate or
explain the content or allow students to interact with the content? What previous technology skills should students
have to complete this project?)

Utilizing technology within learning of content material provides a connection between history and real life
learning. To apply knowledge previously learned about the early explorers, students will utilize various formats to
assist with creating their pages. EDpuzzle is a resource that will allow the students to provide additional
information needed on their pages. Flickr or Creative Commons will allow for image use when posting a photo of
their explorer. Google Tour Builder will assist students while creating an interactive path that their explorer took
along their exploration route. The students will utilize Microsoft Office 365 in order to complete their writing
pieces and collaborate together in revising and publishing. In addition, GarageBand will allow for the students to
explore creating a podcast to review their learning experiences. Incorporating these tools will allow for 21st
Century learning to occur as well as incorporate higher order thinking skills in applying previously learned content.
During our entire school year, the students have explored these needed tools in various capacities, therefore
making them usable and effective in creating this project.

Instructional Plan
Preparation (What student needs, interests, and prior learning provide a foundation for this lesson? How can
you find out if students have this foundation? What difficulties might students have?)

Students have been learning about six early european explorers; John Cabot, Christopher Columbus, Jacques
Cartier, Hernando de Soto, Henry Hudson, and Vasco Nunez de Balboa. Students have also previously written
several informational writing pieces in order to prepare for this project, as well as have received intensive
instruction regarding the writing process. In preparation to show how much information the student will need to
collect on the assigned explorer, the students will complete an outline for writing the informational piece. A
checklist will also be provided for each student group in order to ensure that all pieces of the project are
completed. When introducing the project, students will receive a copy of the rubric in order to fully understand
what they will be assessed on. Students may need extra support in utilizing the Web 2.0 tools for this project, so
the Technology Lab teacher has agreed to review them during her upcoming lessons. The classroom teacher will
create the initial WikiSpaces account where the students will then be added to include their content.

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Management Describe the classroom management strategies will you use to manage your students and the use
of digital tools and resources. How and where will your students work? (Small groups, whole group, individuals,
classroom, lab, etc.) What strategies will you use to achieve equitable access to the Internet while completing this
lesson? Describe what technical issues might arise during the Internet lesson and explain how you will resolve or
troubleshoot them? Please note: Troubleshooting should occur prior to implementing the lesson as well as
throughout the process. Be sure to indicate how you prepared for problems and work through the issues that
occurred as you implemented and even after the lesson was completed.

Students will work in partner groups and be assigned an explorer. Since there are more student groups than
explorers the explorers will be doubled up. Students will complete their projects in the classroom as well as during
designated Computer Lab time. Students will be expected to complete some of their research at home after the
partners decide how to divide up the information to be researched as well as where the research will need to
come from. This will reduce the time needed to research items considerably. The students will need to create a
draft of their WikiSpaces page on paper and then decide how to develop their page. When developing their
pages, the students will have time in the Computer Lab to access the computers. The only issues I can forsee is
with internet access or down computers. Since the students will be working in partner groups the need for every
students to have a computer will be eliminated. To address issues with accessing Microsoft Office 365, students
will have their user information on a card, which will be placed in an accessible area in the classroom.

Instructional Strategies and Learning Activities – Describe the research-based instructional strategies you will
use with this lesson. How will your learning environment support these activities? What is your role? What are the
students' roles in the lesson? How can you ensure higher order thinking at the analysis, evaluation, or
creativity levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy? How can the technology support your teaching? What authentic,
relevant, and meaningful learning activities and tasks will your students complete? How will they build knowledge
and skills? How will students use digital tools and resources to communicate and collaborate with each other
and others? How will you facilitate the collaboration?

During this project, students will be working together in collaborative pairs. They will receive peer feedback from
their partners as well as teacher feedback throughout completion of the project. My job will be to facilitate
learning through asking questions, modeling ideas, encouraging conversations, and assisting with troubleshoots
technology needs. Students will be taking an authentic role by becoming web page designers for their explorer
page. Higher order thinking skills will be met by applying already learned content into a student-created project
where the students are now the teachers. Digital tools ranging from videos to podcasts will be used throughout
the project to foster critical thinking skills and allow for creativity. Students will be collaborating through Office 365
in writing their informational writing piece and also through their podcast creation that will be shown on “PodCast
Party Night.”

Differentiation (How will you differentiate content and process to accommodate various learning styles and
abilities? How will you help students learn independently and with others? How will you provide extensions and
opportunities for enrichment? What assistive technologies will you need to provide?)

Currently in my class I serve EIP students along with my regular education population. To address any needs
this group may have, our EIP teacher has agreed to assist during their writing block time to ensure our EIP
population is overcoming any challenges they may have. I will be choosing partners, based on previous
partnerships that have worked well with each other to avoid “arguing” time. The partner choices will also include
an ability aspect so that my lower performing students will be paired with a higher performing student. Any
students who will need extra research time, will have time during morning arrival as well as access to our Digital
Library to assist with acquiring research on different learning levels. For students will need to extend their
learning, they will be provided with an opportunity to create a “TED Talk” experience on how their explorer was
the most accomplished of all the explorer’s involved. Creating this experience will require the use of video
technology where the student will need to create a “TED talk” type video as well as knowledge of how to create
an opinion piece of writing. Exploration of “TED Talk” videos can be accessed through EDPuzzle.

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Reflection (Will there be a closing event? Will students be asked to reflect upon their work? Will students be
asked to provide feedback on the assignment itself? What will be your process for answering the following
questions?
• Did students find the lesson meaningful and worth completing?
• In what ways was this lesson effective?
• What went well and why?
• What did not go well and why?
• How would you teach this lesson differently?)

The closing event for this lesson will take place in December in the days before holiday break where the students
have invited their parents to view their podcasts as well as officially launch our WikiSpaces page. Students have
reflected on their work by creating a podcast about their experience with this project. Within the podcast students
have provided feedback on the assignment itself and after reviewing some of the podcasts already it seems that
this lesson was something that my students will remember for years to come. Upon completion of the
assignment, I have self-reflected on the project and found the lesson to be meaningful, worthy of completion in
order to apply learned concepts, and very effective in providing an authentic learning opportunity for my students.
This self-reflection comes from various forms of feedback from my students as well as feedback provided from
both the Technology Lab teacher and EIP teacher. Receiving their feedback and evaluating the project
processes allowed me to come to the conclusions that I have reached regarding this project. In looking forward, I
feel that the students need more experience with the required web tools in order to spend more of their time on
actually creating the website versus learning new ways to use the web tool. Although this lesson was beneficial
to my students, gaining a better understanding of how to use the provided tools would allow for more facilitating
from me and less troubleshooting time, which in turn meant that students were “waiting” for me to help them with
the web tool itself. Knowing ahead of time that this lesson requires a solid background of these web tools allows
me to plan better for the next project or the future of this particular lesson. Overall, this lesson was by far one of
the best learning opportunities I have seen my students partake in.

Closure: Anything else you would like to reflect upon regarding lessons learned and/or your experience with
implementing this lesson. What advice would you give others if they were to implement the lesson? Please
provide a quality reflection on your experience with this lesson and its implementation.
This lesson provided an amazing learning opportunity for my students in a way that allowed them to apply learned
information and reflect on their own learning processes. Understanding that my students required some more
background knowledge of Web 2.0 tools was a growing frustration and can be resolved with future
implementation of this lesson. This frustration proved to be a learning experience to me as where I completely
understand the value of providing this knowledge to my students in order for them to be successful at life long
learning opportunities. It was eye opening to me to see how much of the Web 2.0 world I take for granted and
assume my students have already had exposure to. If I were to give advice to another teacher who would like to
implement this lesson, I would stress the need for a solid background in using Web 2.0 tools. The more
knowledge the students have, the easier it will be for them to troubleshoot their own issues instead of having to
wait until you can assist them. Although the Technology Lab teacher was extremely helpful in providing some
background for my students, I needed to ensure that I followed up by providing more opportunities for practice in
order to work out the kinks. I would also recommend keeping an anecdotal record of what worked best and what
needs tweaking. This helps when planning for future lessons and was something I was thankful that I did in order
to reflect on the impact of this lesson.

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