Lesson Plan for Implementing

NETSSTemplate I
(More Directed Learning Activities)
Template with guiding questions

Teacher(s)
Name

Kelly Fortson

Position

Teacher

School/District

Marlow Elementary/ Effingham County

E-mail

kfortson@effingham.k12.ga.us

Phone

912-728-3262

Grade Level(s)

3rd

Content Area

Math, Science, and Social Studies

Time line

This lesson plan will be implemented in a class period of 45 minutes over 5-day
period.

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 SS3H2: The student will discuss the lives of Americans who expanded peoples
rights and freedoms in a democracy: Thurgood Marshall
ELACC3W6: With guidance and support from adults, use technology to produce
and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others.
ELACC3W7: Conduct short research projects that build knowledge about a
topic.
ELACC3W8: Recall information from experience or gather information from
print and digital sources; take brief notes on sources and sort evidence into
provided categories.
NETS*S
Standards

1. Creativity and Innovation: Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct

knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.
a. Apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes
b. Create original works as a means of personal or group expression
2. Communication and Collaboration: Students use digital media and
environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance,
to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.
a. Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a
variety of digital environments and media
b. Communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a
variety of media and formats
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d. Contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems

3. Research and Information Fluency: Students apply digital tools to gather,
evaluate, and use information.
a. Plan strategies to guide inquiry
b. Locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information
from a variety of sources and media
d. Process data and report results
4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making: Students use
critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve
problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and
resources.
b. Plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project
c. Collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions
5. Digital Citizenship: Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues
related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior.
a. Advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and
technology
b. Exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration,
learning, and productivity
6. Technology Operations and Concepts: Students demonstrate a sound
understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations.
a. Understand and use technology systems
b. Select and use applications effectively and productively
Overview (a short summary of the lesson or unit including assignment or expected or possible products)
In this lesson, 3rd grade students researched the life of Thurgood Marshall. They were be given questions
to guide their research. Research was conducted using a few websites. Information was gathered from
these websites and recorded using Notepub (www.notepub.com). This information was then analyzed
and organized on a graphic organizer using Gliffy (www.gliffy.com). Lastly, students created a digital
presentation to reflect what they had learned about Thurgood Marshall by creating a Prezi
(www.prezi.com).
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.

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The essential question for this lesson are as follows:

What impact did Thurgood Marshall have on America?
How can I organize information and create a publication that reflects my new
learning?
How can I use the Internet as an effective tool for finding information?
What safety measures do I need to adhere to when using the Internet?
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 created a digital presentation to show their new learning and understanding of Thurgood
Marshall. They obtained this new understanding by answering questions, which were provided by the
teacher. The students used the Internet as a research tool to find the answers to each question. The
teacher continuously monitored students research to ensure they stayed focused and obtained the
pertinent information needed to complete the assignment. The teacher provided a set of differentiated
questions for students who might be overwhelmed with the gathering of too much information. The
Prezi was assessed using a teacher-created rubric.
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?)
Students should be comfortable with basic computer skills, typing, and searching the Internet in order to
complete this assignment. The teacher must be available to answer any questions, offer help in anyway,
and help students troubleshoot any problems that might arise. This lesson allows technology to support
student learning by requiring students to use the Internet as a means of gathering information using a
few websites and Notepub (www.notepub.com) to record the information, organizing and analyzing the
information using the digital tool, Gliffy (www.gliffy.com), and finally presenting their new learning by
creating a Prezi (www.prezi.com).
The following resources were used while implementing this lesson:
http://www.biography.com/people/thurgood-marshall-9400241
https://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/122/hill/marshall.htm
www.notepub.com
www.gliffy.com
www.prezi.com
Questions Version 1 (These will be provided by the teacher to help students gather pertinent information
from the websites.)
Questions Version #2 -Differentiated (There are fewer questions provided on this version. These will be
provided by the teacher to help students gather pertinent information from the websites.)
Rubric for Prezi
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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 enjoy using technology throughout the day and tend to be adventurous when a new historic
figure is introduced. They are usually engaged when learning about biographies and the struggles these
people overcame. They like learning about their accomplishments too. In order for this lesson to have
been successful, students needed to be engaged about the topic. They also needed to use their computer
knowledge and skills to embrace the new technologies they used throughout the lesson. They accessed
their prior knowledge of research via the Internet and creating a Prezi to help complete the assignment.
Students have been exposed to technology all year during my class and have also created Prezis. This
foundational knowledge helped to balance the introduction and use of Notepub (www.notepub.com) and
Gliffy (www.gliffy.com). These tools were intentionally chosen in an effort to not overwhelm the
students with having to use all new digital tools for this assignment.
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.
Because students worked in groups, this allowed the teacher to become more of a facilitator during the
lesson. The teacher monitored all of the groups to ensure behavior and focus did not become an issue.
The teacher also visited each group frequently to ensure the groups stayed on task and were locating the
pertinent information needed to create the Prezi. Because I do not have enough Chromebooks for each
of my students, I had my students complete this assignment in groups. There were 4 students in each
group. This lesson was completed in my classroom over a 5-day period. Students had about 45 minutes
each day to work in their groups. Equitable access to the Internet was achieved by working in groups.
This ensured that each group was assigned a Chromebook for the duration of the lesson. If there were
any difficulties with the Chromeooks, I have 2 desktop computers that would be used as backup if
needed. Fortunately, we had not issues with this. Each day before the lesson began, the teacher would
start and test the Chromebooks to make sure there were no Internet issues. The teacher would also make
sure the websites and tools needed for use that day were accessible.
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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A few of the research-based instructional strategies that are evident throughout this lesson are
summarizing and note-taking, using a graphic organizer, and cooperative learning. Students were able to
strengthen their skill of gathering information and taking notes. They also organized this information by
using a graphic organizer. Students worked in groups to complete the assignment. They had to cooperate
with one another for the group as a whole to be successful. The teachers role was to be a facilitator
while the student became responsible for his/her own learning. After obtaining the needed information,
students then analyzed the information and created a Prezi. They have now become producers too.
Students used higher order thinking skills when they organized their notes and placed this new
knowledge on the graphic organizer. They also used these skills to analyze what they had learned in
order to produce the Prezi. Students used technology in all aspects of this assignment. The searched the
Internet to find the answers to the questions they had been given. They took notes and made a graphic
organizer using digital tools. The culminating task was for each group to create a digital presentation to
reflect what they had learned. Students collaborated with one another in groups. They were required to
work together to complete the assignment. The teacher facilitated this collaboration by monitoring each
group and conferencing with the groups frequently during the 5 days.

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?)
There are several ways that differentiation occurred throughout this lesson. The first way is through the
creation of groups. Students who might not have the basic technology skills needed to complete this
assignment were grouped with students who did. The questions that were provided to guide the
obtaining of information were also differentiated. The higher-level and average students received
Version #1, which contained 10 questions to research. The lower-level students received Version #2,
which only had 5 questions. This was done in an effort to prevent the lower-level students from feeling
overwhelmed with too much information and not being able to organize it appropriately. The teacher
was also able to differentiate the use of Gliffy (www.gliffy.com). The higher-level and average students
had the freedom create a more complex and elaborate graphic organizer, while the lower-level students
made a simpler one. This was true with the Prezi as well. The lower-level students made a simple
presentation that included the basic information required, while the higher-level students created a
presentation that included videos, pictures, sound effects, etc. Although there is a wide range of assistive
technologies that could be used to help students with the completion of this project, there are no students
in my class currently who needed this type of service.
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?
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How would you teach this lesson differently?)

Students presented their Prezis to the class as the closing event. After this had been completed, students
took a brief survey to give feedback about the project. Questions included in the survey were:
1. Was this project meaningful to you? Why or Why not?
2. How were you affected by completing this project?
3. How do you feel about the digital tools that you used for this project?
4. What did you like about working in a group?
5. What did you not like about working in a group?
6. After viewing the other groups projects, what would you do differently next time?
After viewing all of the surveys and taking notes from the students perspectives, I edited my lesson to
ensure that it will be more effective the next time I implement it. I have learned that I need to give each
student a job within the group to ensure that all students are contributing equally. I also know that I need
to set up behavior expectations for students while using the Internet. This will be done in an effort to
prevent students from getting off task and visiting websites that do not pertain to the project.
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.
The implementation of this lesson has taught me several things. Cooperative grouping is such a fun and
effective way for students to learn. Students learn from one another and become each others support
network. When one is struggling, the others will help him/her. It is very heartwarming. I also learned
that when using the Internet as a teaching tool, you must be very active in making sure students do not
get off task. I had to monitor my students closely to make sure none of the groups visited any gaming
sites. I caught one group who tried this and it made me realize that I need to establish strict guidelines
for this type of behavior and maybe even set up a reward/consequences chart for such behavior.
Although the website the group was looking at was educational and one we use frequently in the
classroom, it was not the right time to be visiting that site. Students loved producing the Prezis. They
were very creative and their projects actually far passed my expectations. Their Prezis contained the
pertinent information that was required and even more so. Students were able to be creative and show
their digital knowledge. The lesson went great!
The advice that I would offer up to other teachers who are implementing this lesson or one similar is to
not underestimate your students. Sometimes it is easy to limit the technologies we bring into the
classroom because we feel that it will be difficult for our students to proceed with them. I have learned
that this is not true. Students are excited to embrace and learn about new digital tools. While some
students might figure these technologies out quicker than others, these are the students who now become
the teacher. They love helping their peers explore new technologies and showing them how to use the
digital tools. I would advise any teacher to incorporate technology in as much of their teaching as
possible. We live in a digital age and our students need to be comfortable with embracing any kind of
technology that is presented.

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