Design Document for Lesson Plan

Name: Ashley Kreider and Wendy Recinos

Grade Level: 5th grade

Concept/Topic: Important Technological Advances Throughout History

Length of Lesson (in minutes): 75 minutes

Learning Objectives: What are your learning objectives? (What new understandings will the
students have as a result of this lesson? Make sure learning objectives are measurable.)

● The student will examine and explain different technological advances that have had an
impact on geographic limitations over time.
● The student will use technology to contribute to the research and evaluation of
technological advances over time.

Under which standards from North Carolina Standard Course of Study (NC-SCOS) do these
learning objectives fall?

5.G.1.3 Exemplify how technological advances (communication, transportation and

agriculture) have allowed people to overcome geographic limitations.
5.G.1.2 Explain the positive and negative effects of human activity on the physical environment
of the United States, past and present.

Key Tasks/Activities: What are the key activities or tasks that you plan to use?

● Students will complete a mini-presentation when they talk about the impact a
technological advancement had on human activity.
● Students will use given texts to come up with important conclusions and implications of
the technologies.
● Students will work collaboratively in small groups.

What is your rationale for why you have selected these particular tasks/activities to meet your
learning objectives?

There are so many kinds of technologies out there, and little time to study each and every one,
allowing small groups to learn about one technology and share it with the class can save time in
the long run. Students will work on their collaboration skills through this project, and are
working on their Higher-Order Thinking skills with creating a presentation and creating
conclusions based on evidence.

Anticipating Students’ Responses: How do you anticipate that students will respond to your
planned activities/tasks? This does NOT mean their response affectively, but instead their
response academically (e.g., What prior knowledge or conceptions might they bring? How do
you think they will approach or solve the task(s)?). When necessary, please insert images of
your handwritten anticipated approaches/strategies. Be specific! Use your anticipated responses
to help you plan your questions in the lesson plan.

Students might have misconceptions about technological advances that will be discussed. They
may confuse it with modern technology.

Students will be learning about the cotton gin, John Deere plow, Erie Canal, steam engine,
railroad, telegraph and other forms of communication. Some might not be interested in learning
about these technologies, because they might not understand their connection to today’s society.

We might come across students who will disagree with each other, during the collaboration, on
their conclusions and understanding of why this technology is important.

Students might have a hard time creating an overall conclusion to why this technology is
important, or understand what “being impactful” means.

Responding to Students’ Responses: Describe how you will provide scaffolding for students
who are stuck, and describe how you will extend the thinking of students who have a firm grasp
on the target content/objectives.

For students who are stuck, they can be provided with a similar chart to what they fill out in EL,
that has a student connect the main idea to the key details in the reading. For this activity, they
will have the main idea filled in… “How the ___________ impacted the world” … and they will
have to find key details to support their argument.

For those who are on target for understanding, we will ask them to make the connection to
modern society. How did this technology, influence or impact our technology use today? They
will be encouraged to help the students within their group in making these connections as well.

*Since students are working in groups, there won’t be extensions for individuals, but rather
groups that are on target. For the intervention for helping understand, the chart will be given to
the whole group to complete before creating a short presentation on their technology.
Development of Practices among Students: Which disciplinary practices does your lesson aim
to develop? (e.g., “construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others”, “develop
and use models”) How do the task(s) develop the target practice(s)?

● Applying Disciplinary Tools and Concepts

○ Students will have to understand the concept of human activity specifically, how
humans interact with the environment.
● Evaluating Sources and Using Evidence
○ Students will be given sources to help them learn more about the technology that
they are researching about, and they must find out what this source is telling them.
● Communicating Conclusions and Taking Informed action
○ Students will be coming up with a conclusion to why their technology was
important and share it with the class in the form of a presentation. If they can,
they will make a connection to modern day society.

Assessment: Describe your assessment plan for the targeted learning objective(s). What
specific data/information will you use, and how will that data/information tell you that the
students have/have not met the objective?

We will assess students through an informal performance assessment. The observations made
about students when working in a group by the teacher can also be taken into consideration (were
they on task?, did they work collaboratively?, did their work get done?, etc.). A performance
assessment rubric will be used to grade final efforts and quality of the presentation.

There will be a quick exit ticket for students to complete one important detail that they took
away from others’ presentations. This will be an informal formative assessment to see if students
paid attention during other groups’ presentation. This can be used as evidence to whether or not
this lesson/project was a success to helping students learn about technology, or if it needs to be
altered for future use.

Vocabulary/Language Function: Define vocabulary that students will need to know in order to
access the content and goals of your lesson. Be precise and careful with your language. Please
attend to three types of vocabulary:
● Content vocabulary (e.g., obtuse, molecule, civil rights)
● Academic language (e.g., represent, model, compare)
● Key non-content vocabulary that is necessary to understand the task/activity

● Technology “the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in

industry” (the sum of techniques, skills, methods, and processes used in the production of
goods or services or in the accomplishment of objectives, such as scientific investigation)
● Impact “have a strong effect on someone or something”
● Human Activity “something that people do or cause to happen”
● Cotton gin “a machine for separating cotton from its seeds”
 ● John Deere Steel plow “an invention that allowed farmers to cultivate crops more
efficiently because of the smooth texture of the steel blade would not allow the soil of the
Great Plains to stick as the cast iron plow did”
● Erie Canal “a canal in New York that is part of the east-west, cross-state route”
● Steam Engine “an engine that uses the expansion or rapid condensation of steam to
generate power.”
● Railroad “a track or set of tracks made of steel rails along which passenger and freight
trains run.”
● Environment “the surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or
operates.”
● Pollution “all the inhabitants of a particular town, area, or country.”
● Overpopulation “the condition of being populated with excessively large numbers.”
● Deforestation “the action of clearing a wide area of trees.”

Classroom Management Plan: Describe your classroom management plan. Explain how you
will motivate students to engage in the lesson, how you will set and enforce expectations, and
how you will ensure that transitions are smooth and efficient.

Students will be placed into groups by the teacher. The teacher will know which students will
work together and those that will not, and make sure that students can work to the best of their
ability. During group work, the teacher will be available to assist and float to keep students on
task.

To keep students engaged, they will be able to pick which technology they are going to choose
(one for each group) and present in the manner that their group fits best. During the
presentations, students will have to complete an exit ticket to show that they were paying
attention to the group who was sharing.

Students will be reminded to follow their traditional classroom rules/expectations.

 Lesson Plan

Name: Ashley Kreider and Wendy Recinos

Grade: 5th grade

Topic/Concept: Technological Advances Throughout History

Materials/Resources:

● Research resources for students during presentation

● Scrap paper for exit ticket

Teaching Behavior Focus:

● Promote collaboration
○ Design learning environments that enable student collaboration.
○ Foster student engagement through discussion.
● Align task with learning goals
○ Selecting tasks in a manner that provides coherence between what you want
students to learn and what you ask them to do.
○ Utilize measurable learning outcomes

Learning Objectives (measurable):

The student will examine and explain different technological advances that have had an impact
on geographic limitations over time.

● “I can examine and explain the impact that a technological advancement has had on
geographic limitations over time.”
● “I can use technology to contribute to the research and evaluation of technological
advances over time.”

Standards:

5.G.1.3 Exemplify how technological advances (communication, transportation and agriculture)

have allowed people to overcome geographic limitations.

5.G.1.2 Explain the positive and negative effects of human activity on the physical environment
of the United States, past and present.

Assessment Plan (How will you know that your students met the objective?):

We will assess students through an informal performance assessment. The observations made
about students when working in a group by the teacher can also be taken into consideration (were
they on task?, did they work collaboratively?, did their work get done?, etc.). A performance
assessment rubric will be used to grade final efforts and quality of the presentation.
There will be a quick exit ticket for students to complete one important detail that they took
away from others’ presentations. This will be an informal formative assessment to see if students
paid attention during other groups’ presentation. This can be used as evidence to whether or not
this lesson/project was a success to helping students learn about technology, or if it needs to be
altered for future use.

New Vocabulary:

● Technology “the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in

industry” (the sum of techniques, skills, methods, and processes used in the production of
goods or services or in the accomplishment of objectives, such as scientific investigation)
● Impact “have a strong effect on someone or something”
● Human Activity “something that people do or cause to happen”
● Cotton gin “a machine for separating cotton from its seeds”
● John Deere Steel plow “an invention that allowed farmers to cultivate crops more
efficiently because of the smooth texture of the steel blade would not allow the soil of the
Great Plains to stick as the cast iron plow did”
● Erie Canal “a canal in New York that is part of the east-west, cross-state route”
● Steam Engine “an engine that uses the expansion or rapid condensation of steam to
generate power.”
● Railroad “a track or set of tracks made of steel rails along which passenger and freight
trains run.”
● Environment “the surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or
operates.”
● Pollution “all the inhabitants of a particular town, area, or country.”
● Overpopulation “the condition of being populated with excessively large numbers.”
● Deforestation “the action of clearing a wide area of trees.”
Lesson Development:

(10 minutes) Hook: To begin the lesson, the class will participate in a whole class discussion
about the following questions:

● “How do we define technology?”

● “What kind of technology do you use every day?”
● “Where can we find examples of technology around us?”
● “What are the benefits of technology?”
● “How does technology help us?”
● “How does technology harm us?”

(10 minute) Launch: “We talked a little bit about technology and what it is. But now, let’s think
about the ways that it has positively and negatively affected the environment, or human activity.”
After this statement, engage the students in a deep dive of this website:
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/topics/resource-library-human-impacts-environment/?
q=&page=1&per_page=25

Watch 1 or 2 of the videos (depending on their length and let students vote on which videos to
watch) on the website and discuss the following questions:

● “What technology was this video talking about?”

● “How did it positively or negatively impact the environment?”
● “What should we consider when talking about the influence of this technology on the
future?”

After engaging in this discussion, quickly run over the requirements for this assignment, with the
class. Students will be assigned into a group of 3-4 students (or 5 total groups, depending on
class size). Each group will be researching key technologies that have impacted human activities
(cotton gin, John Deere Plow, Erie Canal, Steam Engine, and railroad). They will be tasked with
creating a 3-5 minute presentation about the technology, and how it impacted human activities
both during its time, and now (thinking about both the positive and negative effects). Groups will
receive a resource guide (see figure 1) to help them create their short presentation. They can use
any kind of presentation tool to aid them for the final.
(Figure 1)

(25 minutes prep, 25 minutes present) Engage:

During the preparation portion, students will be working in their groups on their research. They
will have access to the technology necessary to complete their presentation. During this time, it
is important that students are working collaboratively on the presentation. It will be necessary for
the teacher to rotate around the room to keep students on task and check their understanding.

During the presentation portion, students will have 3-5 minutes to present their research and
answers to the question, “How did your assigned technology impact human activities both during
its time, and now?” After the presentation, there will be one question asked to each group, and so
their “expert” research should help them answer. If their group is not presenting, students will be
completing an exit ticket on a scrap paper to turn in. This exit ticket will ask them to write one
thing they learned about each technology, during each presentation.
List of Literature that can be used to support the study of Technology:

The Way Things Work by David Macaulay

Girls Think of Everything: Ingenious Inventions by Women by Catherine Thimmesh

Crossing on Time: Steam Engines, Fast Ships, and a Journey to the New World by David
Macaulay

Hooray for Inventors! by Marcia Williams

Invention (DK Eyewitness) by Lionel Bender

List of Websites that can be used to support the study of Technology:

https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/Technology-and-Invention/353296

https://www.inventionandtech.com/innovations

https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/cotton-gin-and-eli-whitney

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/did-john-deeres-best-invention-spark-
revolution-or-environmental-disaster-180957080

https://www.ducksters.com/history/us_1800s/steam_engine_industrial_revolution.php