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? )
Lesson Plan for Implementing
NETSSTemplate I
(More Directed Learning Activities)
Template with guiding questions
Teacher(s)
Name Candice McClendon
Position First Grade Teacher
School/District DODEA - Department of Defense Education Activity
E-mail candice.mcclendon@gmail.com
Phone
Grade Level(s) Grade 1
Content Area Social Studies
Time line
3 hours per week in the classroom for 2 weeks= 6 hours
2 hours per week in the computer lab for 2 weeks= 4hours
Total = 10 hours

Content Standards
Individuals, Culture and Society
1SS4: Students explore and describe similarities and differences in the ways groups,
societies and cultures address similar needs and concerns
1SS4.a: Compare similarities and differences in customs, foods, play, recreation, and
celebrations of families in the community.

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

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? What questions can you ask students to help them focus on important aspects of the
topic? What background or prior knowledge will you expect students to bring to this topic and build on?)
NETS*S Standards:
Creativity and Innovation
Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative
products and processes using technology.
Apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes
Create original works as a means of personal or group expression

Research and Information Fluency
Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.
Plan strategies to guide inquiry
Locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a
variety of sources and media
Evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to
specific tasks

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.
Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of
digital environments and media
Communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of
media and formats
Develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other
cultures

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.

Technology Operations and Concepts
Students demonstrate a sound understanding
of technology concepts, systems, and operations.
Understand and use technology systems
The students are learning about other cultures and their traditions. The students in my class are from all over the
world. At the beginning of the lesson the students introduced themselves and what country they are from. The
students were immediately interested in learning more about these other countries. The students did some
reasearch on their own country. They were then expected to put together a presentation about their country
using Pixie 2.
What are the differences in other cultures? Where are other countries and states located on the map? How does
your country or state compare with others? What are some interesting facts about your country or state?

Having the students tell where they are from got the students interested in learning more about each others
countries. The students were asked to find information on their countries flag, food, animals, landscape, special
holiday traditions, and any other fun interesting fact that they could find. The students were able to use their own
prior knowledge about their country because they have lived there. They also were able to ask their parents and
older siblings for more information.
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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?)

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?)

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?)

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?

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?
Students will produce a digital presentation about their country using Pixie 2. The students will illustrate and write
about all of the information they gathered. The students will then record themselves reading their presentation.
The will then share their presentation with the class, the school, and parents.
The students will use kid friendly websites to find information about their country. http://
kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/places/find/
http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/flags/flagcnty.htm#.UYYoRb-R_zJ and others.
The students will use a handout that asks for the students to draw a picture of the flag, list the colors of the flag,
describe some of the popular foods, landforms, language, special holidays, animals, and other fun facts.
Students will need to know how to use the internet sites provided to help fill out the the handout. Students will
also need to know how to use Pixie 2. The students have had a lot of experience using Pixie 2 and are efficient
at using the program.

The students curiosity about where there fellow students are from and how they lived is what sparked an interest
for this topic. The students have a lot of prior knowledge being that it is about their own country. The students
may have difficulty transferring their research finding to the handout and onto their presentation without including
too many extra things.
The students will work in small groups based on where they are from to offer each other support while doing their
research. The students will work in the computer lab. There are enough computers for every student to have
access. The students could have trouble on some of the research sites. There are many students who speak
english as a second language so some of the vocabulary may be difficult for them to understand. There will be
parent volunteers there to help with aiding the students.
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How will students use digital tools and resources to communicate and collaborate with each other and others?
How will you facilitate the collaboration?


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?)

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?)

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?
The students are in a positive learning environment that values the differences in culture. My role as the teacher
is to be there for the students to guide them in their research and there use of technology and to help facilitate
their learning. The students are to be leaders of their own learning. The students will be engaged in higher order
thinking when they have to analyze the differences in their cultures, evaluate the findings of their research, and
create a presentation of their country. Having students use research websites and Pixie 2 supports the teaching
because it gives the students more information that they can discover on their own, which gives it more meaning.
The students will complete the authentic and meaningful task of researching their country in small groups
analyzing their research and creatively displaying their findings in a digital presentation. The students will share
their product with their community through a digital display in the school office, on the class website, and with the
class.
There are two students in the class who will need some extra assistance to complete this project because their
they are below grade level in reading and writing. These students will receive extra support from the teacher. The
students will have a volunteer there to help them with the research and writing. To extend the activity the
students will be able to extend their research to find other information that they would like to share about their
country.
The closing event will be the students presenting their work to the class and sharing questions and comments.
The students will also have a chance to share their work with the school via a slideshow on the TV in the office,
as well as on the class website so that parents can see their work. The teacher will discuss the project with the
students to see what they think about the process. The students found the project meaningful because they were
excited to do it and share it with their community. The research part of the project could have gone better
because the students needed assistance and more practice recording only the important information. The
handout could be modified to a fill in the blank and the research could be done as a webquest to make it easier
to navigate for the students. The creative part of the project went very well. The students were able to express
their knowledge and creativity using this program. The product of this project turned out well.
I would give the advice of having more volunteer help and more guidance for the research process.
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