Mr. Eric F.

McGarvey
Some Sort of School
Grade Six - Eight
Title of Lesson: Social Media Wherefore Art Thou?
Curriculum Outcome: GCO 3: Students will practice responsible citizenship.
Specific Outcome 3.3. Students will explore the educational and career pathways that exist
in technology.
Class Objective: Big Ideas, Key Questions: The purpose of this lesson is to introduce students to the
various forms of social media and get them to think about what said social media means re: careers. It
is more than likely that many students are quite familiar with social media, 1 but not as a tool in a career
context. Students will have the opportunity to give this some thought & apply it.
Assessment (Products): The end game of this will be a Fakebook page and Twister posts, to be
summatively assessed, but in the immediate future that is, the end of the class the students will
simply be formatively assessed via observation and via a class-ending discussion.
Time Required for this lesson: 45 minutes.
Materials/Resources:
Self Smart Board; models for Fakebook & Twister; definition of wherefore.
Students iPads and/or Netbooks, which will be provided for them.

LESSON MAP
Instructional Strategies/ Procedure for the Class:
Prologue
Time: 3 Minutes
Greeting, attendance, general riffing.
Phase 1
Time: 7 Minutes
The first step will be to introduce students to the word wherefore, which figures
prominently in the title & concept of the lesson. Guesses will be fielded. Once
students have floundered for a minute, offering rapid fire guesses that come
nowhere near the mark, the answer will be revealed with a dramatic flourish on
the Smart Board.
Wherefore: [Archaic]: For what? Why?
1 Perhaps more so than the instructor.

At this point, the class will descend into a wide discussion about the uses of social
media. What do you do with Facebook? or How pointless is Twitter? or Please
explain the appeal of Snapchat could also be thrown out as prompts, assuming
that children don't ramble incessantly about social media without prompting. The
students will also discuss what companies & governments are trying to convey
with social media. What is the goal?
We will end with but a single question: Is it truly useful?
Phase 2
Time: 10 Minutes
iPads and/or Netbooks will be distributed to each group. Students will be shown
the basic layouts of Twister2 and of Fakebook3 via the Smart Board. The scope of
their assignment will be made clear they will design a Fakebook page, as well as
Twister posts, to promote their group's respective career ie: invent a fake
hospital and promote it; invent a fake accounting firm and promote it; invent a
fake country and promote its military; etc., etc. They will also present to the class
their ideas for how social media & e-mail have affected their career and how they
will affect their career.4
A model of both a Fakebook page and Twister posts, created by Self, will be
shown.
Phase 3
Time: 20 Minutes
In their groups, students will begin to brainstorm ways that their fields do use or will use social media.
They will also familiarize themselves with Fakebook and start to build their website & Twister posts.
The instructor will be mingling from group to group, checking in, monitoring, and guiding when
necessary.
Phase 4
Time: 5ish Minutes
The instructor Self will field from each group their general ideas about the uses of social for their
respective career. Students will be told that they will have a work class for this but only one, and that if
it is not finished in class then students must finish it outside of class.

2Yes, Twister not Twitter.

3Yes, Fakebook not Facebook.
4The parameters for this will be fairly explicit. For the Fakebook page, there should be: a cover photo;
a profile picture; 10 15 posts; an About section with the Founding Year, a Mission Statement, and a
description about the company/entity; and three upcoming events. For the Twister posts, there should
10 15 and they should either promote the field/company/entity or serve another function which the
group argues is a social media use for that career.

Mr. Eric F. McGarvey

Some Sort of School
Grade Six - Eight
Title of Lesson: Social Media Wherefore Art Thou? Part II [or: A Time for Reflection & Work]
Curriculum Outcome: GCO 3: Students will practice responsible citizenship.
Specific Outcome 3.3. Students will explore the educational and career pathways that exist
in technology.
Class Objective: Big Ideas, Key Questions: The main & central purpose of this lesson is to give
students the opportunity to work on their Fakebook pages & Twister posts.
Assessment (Products): The end game of this will be a Fakebook page and Twister posts, to be
summatively assessed, but in the immediate future that is, this class the students will simply be
formatively assessed via observation.
Time Required for this lesson: 45 minutes.
Materials/Resources:
Self Keen observation & wit; Smart Board; another model for Fakebook & Twister; access to
Youtube, from which some catchy but appropriate dance song will be harvested; rhinestone skeleton
hand sunglasses; Beats by Dre headphones.
Students iPads and/or Netbooks, which will be provided for them; killer dance moves.

LESSON MAP
Instructional Strategies/ Procedure for the Class:
Prologue
Time: 3 Minutes
Greeting, attendance, general riffing.
Phase 1
Time: 6 Minutes
A cheerful recap of expectations, as well as displaying a new model for both
Fakebook & Twister posts.
Phase 2
Time: 18 Minutes
Working on the Fakebook & Twister pages. The instructor will be circulating to
prod, guide, mentor, and at times hassle the students.

Phase 3
Time: 1 Minute
A quick 45 second dance party, to relieve tension and to encourage movement. The instructor will not
be participating from a dance perspective, instead providing music and behaving like the DJ. This will
involve wearing rhinestone skeleton hand sunglasses and Beats By Dre headphones. The person
deemed to have danced most feverishly will receive rhinestone skeleton hand sunglasses as a prize.
Phase 4
Time: 15 Minutes
Working on the Fakebook & Twister pages. The instructor will be circulating to
prod, guide, mentor, and at times hassle the students. The instructor may also
offer the occasional splash of praise re: dance moves.
Phase 5
Time: 2ish Minutes
Students will be reminded that they will have no more time in class to work on this, but that they must
be ready to present when called upon during presentation day. We will also request the winner of the
dance contest to stand and receive our applause & adulation.