Classroom Blog and Website Creation Tools

Lesson Idea Name: Famous American Symbols

Content Area: Social Studies
Grade Level(s): Kindergarten
Content Standard Addressed: SSKH2 The student will identify important American symbols and explain their
meaning.

Technology Standard Addressed: 3: Knowledge Constructor- evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility
and relevance of information, media, data or other resources.

Selected Technology Tool:

☒ Blog ☐ Wiki ☐ Other: Website Creation Tool (list):

URL(s) to support the lesson (if applicable): edublogs.org

Bloom’s Taxonomy Level(s):

☐ Remembering ☒ Understanding ☐ Applying ☐ Analyzing ☐ Evaluating ☐ Creating

Levels of Technology Integration (LoTi Level):

☐ Level 1: Awareness ☒ Level 2: Exploration ☐ Level 3: Infusion ☐ Level 4: Integration
☐ Level 5: Expansion ☐ Level 6: Refinement

Universal Design for Learning (UDL):

Engagement: Students are engaged by the games that are provided on the topic of famous American
symbols.
Representation: The games are displayed on their own personal devices, allowing them to complete the
activity at home if they are absent. Additionally, there are both words and audio available on my blog
website.
Action and Expression: Students have the freedom to pick which game they want to play in order to practice
the material that was taught as I will provide several different options.
Lesson idea implementation: After having a lesson on famous American symbols such as introducing it with a
BrainPop video, and discussing the importance of the symbols the students will practice what they have
learned on the computers. I will have each student go on the computers and go to my blog page (created
using Edublogs.org).
From there, they will find links to different educational games and audio instructions on how to play them
that I attached. I will allow them to play these games for 15 minutes. Student learning will be assessed with a
standard quiz taken after they’ve had time to explore the websites. To extend this idea to a higher thinking
level, students could then have to draw their favorite American symbol and tell me why it is important. I will
provide feedback for this assignment based on their quiz scores after they’ve had time to listen to my audio
instructions, and play the games I attached.
Importance of technology: Using Edublogs is important for this project as it allows me to have the power to
put what I want on the website, and create it to fit the needs of my students. I can attach my own audio files.
Additionally, it is assessable to students at home and also available for students to go back and look at
whenever they feel like they need to. All of this would not be possible without the use of technology. This as
well as the websites with the games on them are crucial for this project. Also, the tool Audacity is helpful for
creating the audio files.
Inspiration (optional): n/a
Internet Safety and Student Privacy: Students may wander off and explore the internet while being on the
computer which can be a potential hazard. To minimize these risks to students/yourself I would make sure to
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 Classroom Blog and Website Creation Tools
explain to them beforehand that they are strictly to stay on the website I provided and that there are
consequences if they don’t. I will also be sure to watch over everyone to ensure that they are staying on task
at all times, I will be sure to follow common Internet Safety/Acceptable Use Policies at all times.
Reflective Practice: I feel like students will retain the information well after participating in this exercise. To
further extend this lesson, we could go deeper into social studies and learn more about why these symbols
are so important. There are so many helpful technology tools out there that can help me with future lessons,
and extending this one. Some of these include (but are certainly not limited to) BrainPop, Kahoot,
PowerPoint, Quizlet, etc.

Summer 2017_SJB