Lesson Plan for Implementing

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

English Teacher

School/District

Rockdale County School District

E-mail

jeasley@rockdale.k12.ga.us

Phone

770-483-5428

Grade Level(s)

9-12

Content Area

English

Time line

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.
Content Standards

ELACC11-12RI1, ELACC11-12RL3, ELACC11-12W6, ELACC11-12SL4

NETS*S Standards:

ISTE 1a, 2a, 2b, 3c, 5b, 6a, 6b, 6c

Overview (a short summary of the lesson or unit including assignment or expected or possible products)
After reading the novel, The Lord of the Flies, students will conduct a character analysis. Students have the choice
of picking any three characters from the novel. Students will be placed into groups of five and each student will
fulfill a different role (Group Leader, Recorder, Text Master, Director, and Media Editor). To complete this this
character analysis, students will conduct an interview of their selected characters. The interview may be a
television interview, or a radio interview. In the interview, the characters must be represented in some way. The
characters may be represented in person or by someone that had a relationship with the character off the island.
For example, since Piggy was tragically killed on the island, his character may be represented by a parent, school
official, or someone else that knew Piggy. These interviews will be recorded and edited with either Windows Movie
Maker or Audacity, depending on if it is a television or a radio interview. Before the interviews are performed, the
students must write out an entire script for the interviews. Drafts of the scripts will be written out and edited by the
group members before submitting the final draft. During the interview, each character or character representative
must answer at least five questions that reveal character. Answers about the characters day or what they ate for
lunch do not count. Along with the five questions for each character, characters will either use a quote from the
book, or be asked to explain a quote from the book to reveal character. The groups will also create a Project Wiki
for this assignment. One of the main functions of this wiki will be to upload and share the final draft of the script for
submission. This wiki will also be used for collaboration among group members. Students can share thoughts
about common interview practices from popular radio and talk radio shows. Students can also suggest changes to
the script and allow the group to come to a collective decision about the change. At the end of the assignment,
students will be asked to upload and share the final script and the media interview to be graded. A complete
description of the assignment and place for submission will be on the class edmodo page.
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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 can direct quotes from the text reveal character?
What journalistic practices can contribute to an effective interview?
How can the group use the wiki to maximize its commutative and collaborative potential?

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 media interview using ether video or audio. They will use the interview to illustrate their
analysis of three characters from the novel, The Lord of The Flies. By closely reviewing the actions and the dialogue
of the characters from the novel, students will be able to make informed decisions about what kind of person he is.
Direct quotes from the novel will play a large part in the character analysis. Students will make direct connections
between quotes from the novel and how they portray the character in the interview. Students will be given numerous
deadlines throughout the project so that I may check on their progress. Students will be given a grade after every
checkpoint, but they will also receive a rubric for their scripts and their media submission. Students will have the
opportunity to grade each other on how well they fulfilled their roles (Group Leader, Recorder, Text Master, Director,
and Media Editor).
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 is providing students with the opportunity to communicate and collaborate with one another at any time.
Students are able to effectively do this through their wiki group page. Students will need these skills in the
professional world when they have to work on a team to complete a project. They will have to work together for a
common goal and accomplish that goal using teamwork. The wiki page allows them to do that. I will share the
rubrics, deadlines, peer assessment, and description of roles to each group as points of reference. These
resources can be found on the class edmodo page and it is also where the group wiki link will be submitted. The
media portion of this assignment is also unique and it allows students who may be considering a career in
broadcasting a taste of what that life would be like. I will be giving students a wiki, movie maker, and Audacity
tutorial, so the only prior technology knowledge would be from Microsoft Word, phone voice recorder, and a digital
camera.
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 recently finished reading The Lord of The Flies, so they are familiar with the plot, characters, and
the themes of the novel. By this time, they would have taken various quizzes regarding the plot, vocabulary, and
character, so they are well acquainted with the novel. Students have been reading silently, on their own, and as a
class, so they are eager to move around and do something active. This assignment is the first media project of the
semester, so students are excited to use and manipulate technology. Some students may struggle with stepping
outside of their shell and participating in a role playing activity. Those students may need a little more encouraging
than others.
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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
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.
For the majority of this project, students will be working in small groups. I will assign students their groups, and they
will work together on their scripts and their media project as a group. There will be time when I will have to give whole
group instruction. During the tutorials of wiki, Windows Movie Maker, and Audacity, I will have to give those tutorials in
a whole group. This way, I can answer any and all questions at once and I will not have to repeat myself more than
usual. When it is time to record the media for the project, I have a set arranged in a small commons area to record.
The set consists of a desk, coffee mug, sofa, and a chair. It is nothing fancy. I will accompany the individual groups to
the small commons for recording. Each group has a total of fifteen minutes on set and not a second more. Groups that
are using audio media usual dont use the entire fifteen minutes. While I accompany the groups to the set, the
remaining groups will stay in the class will an inclusion teacher (that I have made arrangements with beforehand) will
monitor the class as they make changes and put the finishing touches on their projects. I prefer not to take the
students to the computer lab to upload their scripts and edit their media because the setup is not conducive for group
work. I prefer to check out the mini laptop cart and use those in the classroom. This allows the students to keep their
desks in groups and work on the laptops. Teachers must check the internet connection first thing in the morning to
avoid connection issues. If you plan to use the internet and the connection is down, that throws off the plans
completely. Also make sure to check out the laptop cart a couple months in advance to ensure access.
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?

When the project is in full swing, the classroom will seem a little unorthodox. The desks will be pushed together
and students will be passionately discussing their project ideas. My role will change depending upon the activity.
The days when I am giving tutorials on different technologies, I will act as the lecturer, giving direct instruction.
When students are working in groups and collaborating ideas, I will be guiding students and they will be
responsible for their own learning. This assignment is a character analysis, but students are not writing down their
analysis of the characters. They are creating dialogue and showing the audience their analysis of the characters
by the media they create.

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?)

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My class, just like many other classes has many different learners and providing students with choices helps
accommodate those students. By giving students choices on the different roles that they can complete, gives
students options based on their learning styles. I also gave the students a choice on the kind of media project they
can submit. Some students do not like to be recorded on video and some students thrive on video recordings.
Some students can really buy into a character on a voice recording and prefer that method. By giving the students
these choices, I believe there is numerous ways the process has been differentiated. I did not assign students to
characters from the novel to analyze, so they had a choice on the content that they would be covering. Some
students felt like a character analysis on Jack would be to easy, so they would rather use characters that are a bit
more complex.

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?)
To close this event, we will watch or listen to the final media projects. Students will give written feedback on the
groups projects. Students will share what the group did well and what the group can improve. Students will also
submit an assessment on their group members as well. The link to the groups wiki will be submitted to edmodo.
Along with the submission, students will provide a comment about the assignment in the comment box. Only one
group member has to submit the link for the wiki, but all students must leave a comment about the assignment. I
will take time to reflect upon the good, the bad and the ugly of the project. Upon my reflection, I will adjust how I
teach the lesson in the future.
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.
I really enjoyed this lesson and this project. I believe it allows the students to step outside the box of what they
think a literature class should be and let their creative energy flow. I think this assignment requires the students to
reflect on the novel and really analyze the characters and events from the story. I dont think the assignment is
perfect and I could always tweak it here and there, but I feel like this assignment is a good risk to take. I would
encourage other teachers to take similar good risks so you can find out about yourself and about what the
students are capable of.

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