Lesson Plan for Implementing NETSSTemplate I

(More Directed Learning Activities)

Template with guiding questions

Teacher(s)
Candice Helton
Name
Position
School/Distri
ct

Teacher

E-mail

Candiceh713@gmail.com

Phone
Grade
Level(s)

478-272-8452 (work)

Content Area

Life Science

Time line

3 weeks

West Laurens Middle School / Laurens County

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.

S7L4 (a-e): Students will examine the dependence of organisms on one another and
their environments.
a. Demonstrate in a food web that matter is transferred from one organism to
another and can recycle between organism and their environments.
b. Explain in a food web that sunlight is the source of energy and that this
energy moves from organism to organism.
c. Recognize that changes in environmental conditions can affect the survival
of both individuals and entire species.
d. Categorize relationships between organisms that are competitive or
mutually beneficial.
e. Describe the characteristics of Earths major terrestrial biomes and aquatic
communities.
Content Standards

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NETS*S
Standards:

Students will demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge and develop

innovative products and processes using technology. They will apply existing
knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes. They will use models and
simulations to explore complex systems and issues.
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. They will interact, collaborate, and publish with
peers, experts or others employing a variety of digital environments and media.
Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. They will
locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a
variety of sources and media.
Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects,
solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and
resources.

Overview (a short summary of the lesson or unit including assignment or expected or possible products)
Students will review back over food chains, and food webs, and then introduced to biomes. They will be
expected to draw accurately food chains and food webs from different biomes. These food chains and
food webs will lead to how organisms rely on each other and their types of environments. Students will
research a biome that they are assigned and will have a rubric to help them with their research. They
will have their choice on how to present their information: poster, brochure, PowerPoint, Google slides,
IMovie, and Movie Maker. If they want to use another way to create a visual they also have that option,
what I have listed is just a few of the ways that they can do their projects. Students will keep reflection
logs of information that may be new to them and things they found interest in and how they felt about
the project in general. Students will also have to take digital responsibility for what they are doing on the
Internet. Before I let the students research, I will go over about being safe on the Internet and how to be
responsible for what they are looking up on the Internet.
Also as students are researching their biomes, they will pay attention to vocabulary, because most of
these terms they have had this year in their social studies class. In social studies they have used terms to
describe biomes and cultures. One of the parts on the rubric is to describe a culture that could possibly
be found in their biome. They can relate this information back to their social studies class.
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 are the six major biomes found on Earth?
What factors determine the type of biome found in an area?
How do organisms interact with each other and their environment? (Food chains and food webs)
What cultures can be identified in each biome?
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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 produce a visual to present about the biome they were assigned. Students who were
assigned the same topics will be allowed to brain storm together. Since my district is limited on
technology, my students will be allowed to bring in their own devices as well as use my one extra
computer, and my school issued IPad. Students will be allowed to type up their ideas and put them on
the classs Google doc page so they can pull up their ideas and work at home as well. If there are not
enough devices brought in, then I can send a few to the two computer labs that we have at school. The
computer labs have connection classes in them, which is why I can I send just a few students at a time to
them. I have also got a few days where I have the mobile laptop cart checked out so students can work
on their research. Students have a login account at the school so they can work on their projects, save
their ideas. If they work on it at home they will have to save their work to the classs Google doc page or
email their work to themselves. Since most of my students do not have an email address, they need to
submit work to the classs Google doc page.
There will be formative and summative assessments for the students. As a facilitator and guide I will go
around and question students as they are working and assess what they are learning. Students will also
be typing and writing their ideas down. Students will be following their rubric as a guide and also their
guided questions. They need to make sure they gather all the necessary information for their visual
projects. Students that are doing the same biome can bounce ideas off of each other and work together in
creating their own end of the unit project. Even though they are working together to gather information,
each student will have their own project to present. I will use the rubrics, the visuals, and the
presentations as their final grade.
I have several students with 504s that ask for certain accommodations, such as extended time, small
groups, one-on-one instructions, etc. But differentiation as a whole will be that students will choose their
own way to create their visuals, what technology they would like to use, and how to present their
projects. The only thing I ask of the students is to follow their rubric. There are certain things they have
to know for the standardized test. I want students to know more than just what they need to know for the
Georgia Miles Stone standardized test, I want them to have fun researching, and creating their visual
projects.

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?)

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Students will be using the Internet and other web 2.0 tools to engage in the learning. Technology use will
help students create authentic and meaningful visual projects. These are the sites I recommended but
students were not limited to these:
Kidsgeo.com
Kids do Ecology
Blue Planet Biomes
Biomes of the World
Flicker (using the commons)
Google Slides
PowerPoint
Google Doc
These are the worksheets or websites I got for the worksheets that were used:
Biomes-Facts-Map
Science-class.net
Printable-worksheets
The students have some previous technology skills. They have a computer class in the elementary, but
they mostly focus on using certain sites for studying. At the middle school we have a computer class that
teaches typing, they have a technology class that teaches them how to use PowerPoint, videos,
communication technology, etc.

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 will have prior learning with plants, animals, climate, etc, from not only when I discussed
plants and animals, but from previous science classes as well. In social studies students learn about
vocabulary that describes certain regions, cultures, etc. To confirm this, I asked the students several
questions and made some observations from what they said; I also did a pre-assessment to see what they
knew.
I think students may have difficulties rewording information they have found. I have stressed that there
is to be no plagiarism in this project that everything has to have a source. They have to cite (or write)
where they obtained their information and any pictures or websites they use in their visual projects. If
students do not know how to make multimedia presentation, they will definitely have difficulties with
this. With those who do not know how to create a multimedia presentation, I will spend a class period
showing them how to make one.

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
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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.
Students will research together, but have to create their own projects. I will monitor by of course by
going to each group and asking questions about their projects and what information they have found. To
make sure students have equitable access to the Internet, I will have the mobile labs checked out for a
week, and students can bring in their own devices, and the computer labs have a few seats open where I
can send students. Students will also have access to my one extra computer and my school issued IPad.
If Internet goes down, I do have hard copies of information that students will be allowed to use. If a
computer on the mobile lab goes down, I do have an extra computer on the cart that can be used. I will
be at work early enough to check all laptops on the mobile lab, so if there is something wrong with the
mobile lab, I have access to another one. If something goes wrong with both, the majority of my students
have their own devices, but I can also schedule a day or two where I can rearrange my classes so I can
take each class to the computer lab.
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?
During this unit students with the same biome will collaborate together. They will give each other
feedback and since I am a facilitator, I will also give feedback. I gave the students a series of questions
to help guide them on their research. I used Blooms Taxonomy to help me with higher order thinking
skills. Technology will help students gain better access to information about biomes. Students will be
creating authentic, relevant and meaningful work because we all live in a certain biome. But in this
project students are able to explore not only their own biome, but a different one as well. They will gain
an understanding of others environment, and how they live. I will be going back and forth between
groups to monitor the collaboration between the groups. I will make sure they are on topic, that they are
using the Internet appropriately, etc.

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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Students can choose how they want to create their visual project and how to present it. Students will
collaborate with each other so this will be an opportunity to learn from each other as well as get
feedback from each other. Independently students will complete some research and their project on their
own. For enrichment, students will be allowed to complete another project on biomes. I have two
students that are extremely shy and would rather take a zero than to dare get up and actually talk in front
of the class. So with these two students, I have decided to show them how to use Voki so they can still
get credit on presenting.

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?)
The closing event will be the actual presentations. Students have been asked to reflect on their projects
and to write me a summary of what they learned, if they liked the project and if there was something
they would change. The students love technology and any chance they can use it they seem to do more
with their work.
The lesson was effective because it allowed the students to dig deep into their research and find their
information. It also brought my shy students out and allowed them to use technology to help them
present without saying a word. The students who created movies, or Power Points or Google slides loved
putting the information together and finding ways to animate their projects. After the presentations,
those who did posters or brochures were enthused about the IMovies, movie maker projects and decided
that the next project they wanted to do something like that.
Some things that did not go well were some of the groups that collaborated together. Some of those
students could not get along together, so I split those groups up into two separate groups, and this helped
out.

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.

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I really liked the movie maker and I Movies that the students completed. One of my students used media
player and did an excellent job. If others are going to implement this lesson, I would say to make sure
everyone has access to a digital device, and plenty of time to complete the project. Make sure students
have a grasp of what plagiarism is and how they can properly reword information. Showing students
how they can use web 2.0 tools was quite rewarding because they became very involved in not only
creating a visual project but the actual research too. Teachers who are not comfortable with technology
really need to rethink about not using it in the classroom. Students can benefit and learn so much if
technology is used to enhance lessons. Pencil, paper, and textbooks can really be boring and students
lose interest fast. Incorporating things like technology can really bring the interests out in the students
and since technology is something most all students (if not all) are interested in this will be something
they will use and benefit from.

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