Lesson Plan for Implementing

NETS•S—Template I
(More Directed Learning Activities)
Template with guiding questions
Teacher(s)
Name Michael Loveless

Position Gifted Teacher

School/District Baggett Elementary/Paulding County

E-mail [email protected]

Phone N/A

Grade Level(s) 1-5

Time line Three 60-minute work sessions over the span of a week.

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 ELAGSE5W7, ELAGSE5W8, ELAGSE5W9, ELAGSE5SL4¸ ELAGSE5SL5, ELAGSE5SL6

NETS*S Standards: Empowered Learner, Knowledge Constructor, Creative Communicator, Digital Citizen

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

Students will research information about Apollo 13 and include the following information.

 What year did the mission take place?

Students will use a variety of resources to create a presentation that can be presented to classmates in person
or digitally in the case of digital learning.

Once the project is complete students will understand the successes and failure associated with Apollo 13 and
how these experiences informed future space missions. Students will also gain skills with a new presentation
technology through this process.

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.

What were some of the challenges faced by the Apollo 13 crew and Mission Control?

What type of mindset did the crew and Mission Control team need to have to succeed in this event?

Do you consider this event a success or a failure based on your research?

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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?) You must attach copies of your assessment and/or
rubrics. Include these in your presentation as well.

Students will create a visual presentation by choosing from a variety of tools including,
 Adobe Spark
 SWAY
 Screencast-O-Matic
 Voice Thread
 Stop Motion
Students have been provided a discussion board to ask questions and share challenges. I will be checking into
this daily and providing suggestions and additional resources as needed.
The final product will be assessed on a limited basis given the circumstances of digital learning. I will be
checking for the inclusion of the bulleted items in the assignment’s directions.
Differentiation takes form in the place of various product options for students. They have the option of
investigating new tools or staying within their comfort zone and using something they are more familiar with.
Resources have been provided and group work is optional for students.

Resources (How does technology support student learning? What digital tools, and resources—online student
tools, research sites, student handouts, tools, tutorials, templates, assessment rubrics, etc—help elucidate or
explain the content or allow students to interact with the content? What previous technology skills should students
have to complete this project?)

The project was created in the learning management system Canvas and students have been provided various
resources in the form of websites in the previous module. They have also been provided 3 websites that
provide information about this event, Kidde, Britannica School, and Academic Kids.

To assist students with the presentation tools I have provide tutorials that use Screen casting tools to show
which tools are available and how those tools can be manipulated.

Students need to be able to navigate a webpage, open various tools and have some basic keyboarding skills.

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 need to understand the basic of American space exploration and the concept that Apollo 13 faced
challenges. This information was introduced in previous lessons and modules. Students have already
responded to a discussion board expressing their opinions about whether Apollo 13 was a success or failure.
This was reviewed and I participated and presented new questions to keep them thinking.

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.

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 Most students will complete this project independently, but group work is an option for differentiation for two
students that have a hard time completing assignments in general due to twice exceptional classification.
Students will work at home during the digital learning time frame from the Covid -19 pandemic. The school has
provided students with access to check out laptops and I have worked to choose tools that are free or already
including in the student’s district accounts.
There is a discussion board for students to post issues and concerns and this will be checked daily to provide
quick troubleshooting for the students.

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 Bloom’s 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?

My role through this project is that of a facilitator. I am providing resources to help students gather information
as well as resources that will help them compile and present what they learned. As the project progresses, I will
provide troubleshooting assistance for the students.

Students have been asked to check into the discussion board and share their projects with me as they are
completed. The discussion board check in is designed to allow me to keep track of the challenges and
additional support.

The proposed questions that take place prior to and through the lesson are designed to support various level of
Bloom’s. I want students to research and learn about something that is not part of their regular curriculum and
my hope is that the novelty of the information and the challenges overcome by determination will engage their
minds throughout the process.

By working with new presentation tools students will gain knowledge and skills. They will also broaden their
knowledge base about American space exploration.

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?)

Students have been provided a wide variety of resources including websites that can read to students if
necessary. Students can work in pairs if needed. This is limited to twice exceptional students that need this
support. Students have been provided a wide variety of presentation tools that can be chosen based on ability
and willingness to explore new tools.
Keyboards have been provided and this is an assistive technology for one student that struggles with writing.
By design the project is differentiated because students have choices for what their product will look like and
how they will gather their information.

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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? Also answer the following questions?

• How will you know if the students found the lesson meaningful and worth completing?
• In what ways do you think this lesson will be effective? Why do you think this?
• What problems do you anticipate and why?
• How would you design and/or teach this lesson differently if you had more time?)

Students will have the opportunity to provide feedback when they submit the assignment.

I think the quality of submitted assignments will demonstrate if students found the project meaningful. I have
also asked for feedback from parents about work quality and the level of difficulty during this time.
I think the nature of technology assignments causes them to be generally more effective than paper pencils
projects. My students enjoy creating digital presentation and that leads to quality research because they
generally want a quality presentation to hare with their peers.
I expect students to struggle with the new tools, but I am available to help them troubleshoot as needed.
I would develop a space for them to submit lessons to on another and ask them to review at least two peers.
Given the circumstances this seemed like too much to ask.

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 lesson was successful, and I was very pleased with the submissions by my students. My biggest take
away is the technology tools allow students to gather information and create products that genuinely
impressive. As I worked through grading their projects, I realize that they were excited to create a multimedia
presentation and perhaps that skill will serve them well in the future.

My advice would be to create screen cast of how to manipulate the tools you want the students to use. Doing
that up-front cuts down on duplicated questions and I think it puts the students at ease and it creates
excitement as they see new tools being modeled.

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