Philip Forlenza

EDU 5170
Lesson Plan

Standards: Students will: use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate

their understanding of the geography of the interdependent world in which
we live - local, national, and global - including the distribution of people,
places, and environments over the Earths surface (Content Area). Students
apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information (ISTE Standard)

Lesson Objectives: By the end of the class students should be able to:
1. Identify the major countries that are on the Earth
2. Research and collect information about various counties
3. Use PowerPoint to convey what they have learned to their classmates

Introduce the Learning Activity:

The learning objectives would be written up on the board before the students
came into class. Before discussing the activity with the students it is
important to say the lesson objectives to them as it will reinforce what they
have already seen. This should give them a very good idea that they should
be able to do the lesson objectives by the end of the lesson. The motivation
for the students are that they have to present what they find at the end of
class so in order to do well they have to focus and research in class.

Information:
This lesson would take place early in the year in an Geography class. As the
students come in the room I would have them take their seats in order to
describe the activity. Tell the students that today they are going to be
studying the countries of the world and their geographical location . After
that tell the students that they are going to work on research a country of
their choosing using a map website. After choosing a country from an
interactive map the students will then have to create a power point with key
information about the country that they chose. Capital, Culture, Religion,
Famous Landmarks or anything else that they can find about their country.
After doing so the student will create a power point in order to convey that

information to their classmates. The presentations will be given at the start

of the next class.
Provide Practice:
In order for students to be able to identify the major countries of the world
they will first try to complete a country quiz for each continent. On this
website http://world-geography-games.com/countries_continents.html the
students will move around the world answering the questions of where is the
certain country. They will start in North America, then after completion they
will move on to South America. After that Europe, then Asia, then Australia,
and finally Africa. By doing this it gives students the spatial awareness of
where countries are and gives them practice for the first learning objective.
After they finish with the quizzes they will next pick one of the countries in
the world and research about it online. The students need to collect key
pieces of information in order to give the presentation. The five key pieces of
things that they need are Demographics and Population size, Style of
Government, Cultural/Religious Values, Bordering Countries, and a major
issue that the country faces today. This gets students thinking past just
location and to what makes these countries stand out. After collecting this
information the students will create a powerpoint using Microsoft PowerPoint
that effectively conveys these four pieces of information. This gives students
practice in all three parts of the learning objectives.

Results:
During the first part of the activity with the country quizzes each tome the
student finishes a quiz they will have to raise their hand in order for the
teacher to come check how they did. If the students attempts is more than
double the score they will have to re try the quiz. The quiz itself gives very
quick feedback for the students and having the teacher come check can also
give quick verbal feedback as to how the student is doing. Checking the
students after each quiz gives the teacher feedback as well as it shows how
well the student is doing mastering the material. There is also verbal
feedback when the student gives their presentation as the teacher will say
one good thing about their presentation and one thing that they can improve
on. The written feedback will come in the form of a rubric that is graded as
the student presents.
Review the Activity:

After each student has give their presentations have ask the students to
remember what the learning objectives for this lesson were. After the
students tell them ask them what they did today that achieved what they
were supposed to learn today. This gives students an idea that they learned
what they were supposed to for that lesson. After that is finished tell the
students to keep their power points as they will be used for a later lesson.

Method of Assessment:
The quiz activity is a quick way to test how the students were able to learn
the locations of all the different countries. In the future there will be map
quizzes as we study each continent more in depth. The major form of
assessment is the presentation that the student will have to give which is
graded. It tests their ability to research information, understand geography,
and their oral skills. This rubric will be used to grade them.

CATEGORY

Content

Shows a full
understanding of the
topic. And goes
above the five major
pieces of information

Shows a good
understanding of the
topic. Hits the major
five pieces of
information

Shows a good
understanding of
parts of the topic.
Only hits 2-3 major
pieces of information

Does not seem to

understand the topic
very well. Only hits 1
or none of the major
pieces of information

Volume

Volume is loud
enough to be heard
by all audience
members throughout
the presentation.

Volume is loud
enough to be heard
by all audience
members at least
90% of the time.

Volume is loud
enough to be heard
by all audience
members at least
80% of the time.

Volume often too

soft to be heard by
all audience
members.

Posture and Eye Stands up straight,

looks relaxed and
Contact

Stands up straight
and establishes eye
contact with
everyone in the
room during the
presentation.

Sometimes stands
up straight and
establishes eye
contact.

Slouches and/or
does not look at
people during the
presentation.

Speaks Clearly

Speaks clearly and

distinctly all (10095%) the time, but
mispronounces one
word.

Speaks clearly and

distinctly most ( 9485%) of the time.
Mispronounces no
more than one word.

Often mumbles or
can not be
understood OR
mispronounces more
than one word.

confident.
Establishes eye
contact with
everyone in the
room during the
presentation.

Speaks clearly and

distinctly all (10095%) the time, and
mispronounces no
words.

Enthusiasm

Facial expressions
and body language
generate a strong
interest and
enthusiasm about
the topic in others.

Facial expressions
and body language
sometimes generate
a strong interest and
enthusiasm about
the topic in others.

Facial expressions
and body language
are used to try to
generate
enthusiasm, but
seem somewhat
faked.

Very little use of

facial expressions or
body language. Did
not generate much
interest in topic
being presented.

Vocabulary

Uses vocabulary
appropriate for the
audience. Extends
audience vocabulary
by defining words
that might be new to
most of the
audience.

Uses vocabulary
appropriate for the
audience. Includes
1-2 words that might
be new to most of
the audience, but
does not define
them.

Uses vocabulary
appropriate for the
audience. Does not
include any
vocabulary that
might be new to the
audience.

Uses several (5 or
more) words or
phrases that are not
understood by the
audience.

Uses Complete
Sentences

Always (99-100% of Mostly (80-98%)

time) speaks in
speaks in complete
complete sentences. sentences.

Sometimes (70Rarely speaks in

80%) speaks in
complete sentences.
complete sentences.

Preparedness

Student is
completely prepared
and has obviously
rehearsed.

Student seems
pretty prepared but
might have needed a
couple more
rehearsals.

The student is
Student does not
somewhat prepared, seem at all prepared
but it is clear that
to present.
rehearsal was
lacking.

Stays on Topic

Stays on topic all

(100%) of the time.

Stays on topic most Stays on topic some It was hard to tell

(99-90%) of the time. (89%-75%) of the
what the topic was.
time.

Comprehension

Student is able to
accurately answer
almost all questions
posed by classmates
about the topic.

Student is able to
accurately answer
most questions
posed by classmates
about the topic.

Student is able to
accurately answer a
few questions posed
by classmates about
the topic.

Student is unable to
accurately answer
questions posed by
classmates about
the topic.