Lesson Plan for Implementing

NETSSTemplate I
(More Directed Learning Activities)
Template with guiding questions
Teacher(s)
Name
Tiaundra Reynolds
Position

4th Grade Teacher

School/District

Atlanta Public Schools

E-mail

treynolds@atlanta.k12.ga.us

Phone

6782662090

Grade Level(s)

4th Grade

Content Area

All

Time line

Feb29-March 14th (2 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.

Content Standards

Describe how the Native Americans used their environment to obtain food,
clothing, and shelter. Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of
view with reasons.

Students will demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative
products and processes using technology. Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate,
and use information.
NETS*S Standards:
Overview (a short summary of the lesson or unit including assignment or expected or possible products)

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This lesson will provide students the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of our 6 key Native American tribes
briefly covered at the beginning of the school year. Students will be able to demonstrate their knowledge of a
Native American tribe by completing a persuasive writing task. Although Native Americans were briefly covered at
the beginning of the school year, this lesson is meant to provide students a deeper understanding and review of
the unit before testing. The entire project will be accessed via a Weebly webquest created by myself. Students will
access the weebly, then review the Introduction, Task, Process, Resources, Evaluation, and Conclusion. Students
will work in groups to complete extensive research on an assigned tribe. Research will be conducted using the
resources page on the Weebly webquest as well as literature available to them in class. They will use a graphic
organizer to organize their conducted research. Students will then create an advertisement convincing others to
join the tribe that they researched. Students have a choice in whether they want to complete a powerpoint, prezi,
poster, video, or audio/radio advertisement. The advertisement must include a written script which includes
persuasive language. After completing the advertisment with their group, students will individually write a 1-2
paragraph summary about their tribe. After completing their summaries, students will present their advertisements
to the class. During the presentations, students will be given a graphic organizer where they are to record
information about all of the tribes their classmates present. Upon listening to all presentations, students will
complete a venn diagram where they will compare their tribe to another tribe presented by their classmates. They
will also explain which tribe they would be willing to join based off of the presentations.

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
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 does the environment affect the lifestyle and economic specialization of the Native
Americans?
How would you describe the environment (land, climate, resources, and culture) of the different
Native Americans nations?
How did Native Americans use their environment to survive?

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.
In this project, students will conduct extensive research on an assigned Native American tribe. They will complete
a graphic organizer detailing their researched information. Students will then complete an advertisement inviting
people to join their tribe. The advertisement could be in the form of power-point, a video using Youtube, prezi, a
poster using images from Flikr, or audio/radio presentation using Voki. (Poster must include photos, captions, and
information researched and downloaded online.) Students will also write summaries of their tribe and complete a
venn diagram comparing and contrasting their tribe to another. Students will be assessed on all components of
this project using a teacher created rubric. This project will be differentiated by choice, time modifications, and
level of teacher assistance. All students will have the opportunity to choose how they want to persuade their
audience. This allows students the opportunity to choose a tool that is more comfortable for them. Being that I
teach an inclusion class, many students will be given extended time to complete their project as well as a
paraprofessional for additional support. The graphic organizer will serve as a formative assessment. Before
moving on to creating their advertisements, students must have their graphic organizers approved by the teacher.

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Resources (How does technology support student learning? What digital tools, and resourcesonline student
tools, research sites, student handouts, tools, tutorials, templates, assessment rubrics, etchelp elucidate or
explain the content or allow students to interact with the content? What previous technology skills should students
have to complete this project?)
Technology fully supports and enhances learning in this lesson. Students are able to retrieve and explore all
information via a webquest housed on the teachers weebly page. Within the project students are able to fully
explore various Web 2.0 tools through their advertisement project. Some of these tools included, YouTube,
PowerPoint, Prezi, Voki, and Flikr. Students are able to work with a digital camera for filming. Students are able to
access various websites and videos via the webquest to assist with their research of their tribe. Students in this
class already have previous experience with PowerPoint, Prezi, Youtube, and Webquest. Students are also able
to use various search engines to locate information.

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?)
As far as the Social Studies content is concerned, this lesson is meant to broaden student understanding of
various Native American tribes and how they utilized their environment. It is not an introductory lesson to the
material. Students have worked on various persuasive writing assignments however many of them still need
assistance with shifting from narrative writing to persuasive writing. Allowing them to experience persuasive
writing through use of an advertisement assist with student engagement. Students take a weekly computer
technology class where they have worked with many of the tools that they will use in this lesson, however they will
still need assistance with using technology. Being able to work in a cooperative group and choose the tools used
will assist in technology use.

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
trouble-shoot them? Please note: Trouble-shooting 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.
I have allotted a few extra days within this lesson to account for any internet issues that could and often due
occur. Students will complete the majority of this project in cooperative groups. The majority of the project will be
completed within the classroom setting on desktop computers and the MacBooks. All students will have access to
their own MacBook for one hour a day for the entire two weeks of the lesson. In addition, they will have the
opportunity to complete research for two days of the lesson in the computer lab. Being that this is an inclusion
class, a paraprofessional is present to assist students for the entire lesson.
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 Blooms 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?

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In this lesson, students have the opportunity to work in a cooperative group setting. I will work as the facilitator in
this lesson alongside my paraprofessional who will assist those students who need additional support. This lesson
will also be centered on choice. Students will have the opportunity to choose the tools they would like to use to
create an advertisement. They will also have the opportunity to choose how they plan to present it. Within their
cooperative groups, they will decide amongst each other who will act as the scribe, the presenter, researcher,
material manager, and technology manager. Additional instructional strategies include the use of graphic
organizers to help organize information and the use of a rubric to communicate expectations in this lesson.

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?)
In this lesson, I am seeking to improve student understanding of Native American tribes and enhance their ability
to write persuasive pieces using technology tools. Students will work on this lesson during our Reading/ELA
block. Students are already grouped according to reading ability. Grouping students by reading ability will enable
myself and the para to allow mid-high readers an opportunity to work independently as we assist lower level
students with reading and researching. Lower level students will also receive a modified graphic organizer.
Incorporating choice into this lesson also provides differentiation. It encourages students to choose the tools they
are most comfortable with. Different technology tools also appeal to various learning styles; auditory, visual, and
kinesthetic.

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 conclusion of this project took place on March 15th. Students were required to present their advertisements to
their peers. Within the advertisement, students presented all researched information to their peers. The goal is to
get as many people to join your tribe based off of the information presented. During the presentations, students
are expected to fill in their graphic organizers to record information about other tribes given to them by their peers.
To conclude the lesson, they chose one other tribe to compare and contrast to the tribe they researched on a
venn diagram. As part of their exit ticket, students decided which tribe they would join and provided details as to
why. I do think that students found the lesson to be meaningful. They were able to use various tools to research
and communicate their understanding of the information. They also were able to cooperatively create an
advertisement which is an example of persuasive writing. The use of a webquest was an excellent tool to use
because all of the necessary information needed to complete this lesson was housed in on place. I think this
lesson incorporated various forms of differentiation however differentiation could have been improved by including
more of an enrichment piece for my higher level students. I also think that I could have been clearer about what to
include in the actual advertisement. Although students did an excellent job, some of them did not include all of the
facts they researched in their presentations. I think that incorporating modified graphic organizers was a great
idea and fell in line with what my students are accustomed too, going forward, I would also incorporated a
modified rubric since many of my students are on varying writing levels.

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.

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I think that incorporating cross-curricular instruction is a great way for students to not see content in isolation. This
lesson required that students research social studies content and utilize persuasive writing techniques and
technology in order to present the information. Utilizing a webquest format was a great way to manage this
lesson. Anyone looking to do a similar lesson should definitely make sure that students are clear about all aspects
of the assignment(s). When a lesson requires a student to follow multiple steps and complete multiple tasks, there
is a chance that they may miss important details and expectations. Although a rubric was included, incorporating
multiple check-points along the way could help students to evaluate if they have fulfilled all requirements for their
assignment. I chose to have students choose from a very short list of tools for their final project. I did not want to
overwhelm them and I wanted to stick with tools that many of them had experience with already. In a project such
as this, I think its ok to seek the opinion of your students when composing a list of tools. Many of them are familiar
with tools that I may not have taught them but it would have been appropriate to use for the assignment.

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