Beyond-the-Basic Productivity Tools (BBPT) Lesson Plan – Brenna Wilkes

Lesson Idea Name: What are the parts of a plant?

Content Area: Science
Grade Level(s): 1st

Content Standard Addressed: S1L1. a. Develop models to identify the parts of a plant – root, stem,
leaf, and flower.

Technology Standard Addressed: Creative Communicator 6d: Students publish or present content
that customizes the message and medium for their intended audiences.

Selected Technology Tool: Padlet & BrainPOP

URL(s) to support the lesson (if applicable):

• BrainPOP - https://jr.brainpop.com/science/plants/partsofaplant/
• Padlet - https://padlet.com/wilkesbrenna/ybu7xfglbbn9bffx
Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy Level(s):
☐ Remembering ☐ Understanding ☐ Applying ☒ Analyzing ☒ Evaluating ☐
Creating

Levels of Technology Integration:

☐ Infusion Level: Students may work at a higher Bloom’s Level, but they do not have any “Voice
or Choice” during the activity and most of the decisions are made by the teacher.

☒ Integration Level: We would like to see ALL lessons/activities reach this level. The project is
student-driven. Students have “Voice and Choice” in the activities, selecting the topic of study and
determining the technology tool to demonstrate mastery of the standard. The teacher becomes
more of a facilitator.

☐ Expansion Level: The projects created are shared outside of the classroom, publishing student
work and promoting authorship. This could be reached by showcasing the project on the school’s
morning newscast, posting the project to the classroom blog, or publishing via an outside source.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL): This lesson implements the UDL guidelines by supporting
engagement through collaboration within the classroom. In the lesson, students will work on their
graphic organizers together. In addition to that, I provide multiple means of representation by offering
different ways to display information. For example, when I play the BrainPOP video, I will have the
closed captions on and invite students to read the transcript or watch the video again after the whole-
class viewing. Along with representation, I will provide options for comprehension by activated prior
knowledge with a KWL chart and providing the graphic organizer to guide students in processing the
information. Lastly, I will provide means of action and expression through optimizing access to tools,
like allowing students to use computers, laptops, or tablets to create their own Padlet.
Lesson idea implementation: This lesson will take about 2 days to perform: 1 day to teach the lesson
and another day for the students to collaborate on their Padlet. This lesson plan will be introduced by
creating a ‘KWL’ chart in order to activate background knowledge. When creating this chart, I will

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 Beyond-the-Basic Productivity Tools (BBPT) Lesson Plan – Brenna Wilkes
ask the students things like: What do you know about plants? What are some of the things they need to
survive? Can anyone tell me some of the parts of a plant? What do you want to know about plants?
What do you think we will learn about plants? After completing the Know and Want to Know
sections of the chart, I will play the BrainPOP video “Parts of a Plant” for the class to watch. This
video is about 4 minutes long. I will be sure to put the closed captioning on and allow the students to
watch the video again or read the transcript after the whole-class. After we watch the video, I will ask
students to go back to their groups and discuss some things they just watched. After their small group
discussion, I will call on students and ask things like: What do the roots do? Where is the stem
located? Why are leaves important? Where is the flower on a plant? This discussion will take about 4
minutes. After this, I will pass out a graphic organizer for the students to label the different parts of a
plant. Students will be able to work in groups to complete this organizer. This will take about 5-7
minutes for the students to complete.

After students are done with the graphic organizer, I will invite them back to the carpet to explain the
Padlet assignment is and share my example. Students will work in pairs to create a Padlet of the Parts
of a Plant. They must write at least 2-3 sentences under each part of the plant, add at least 2 visuals,
and describe at least one using audio.

Using Padlet differentiates learning by allowing students to add visuals, collaborate with their
classmates, and easily come back to the Padlet for notes. I assess students learning by going back to
the Padlet and leaving quick, but meaningful feedback. By doing this, I will be able to see which
students need further instruction and which students are ready to move on. I could further extend this
lesson by letting students leave a “Glow or Grow” comment on at least one other pairs’ post.

Reflective Practice: I feel this lesson greatly impacts student learning because it allows students to
work in groups, add visuals, and talk about their post. Overall, I feel that Padlet does a great job in
letting students be as creative as possible, which is something that I will strive for in my future
classroom. With that being said, if students finish early, students can look at other classmates’ Padlets
and leave constructive feedback using the ‘Glow and Grow’ strategy. I could further this lesson even
more by filling out the ‘Learned’ column in the KWL chart to summarize the lesson plan. Another
technology tool that could further this lesson is Excel. Students can grow their own plants and track
its growth using a chart on Excel.

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 Beyond-the-Basic Productivity Tools (BBPT) Lesson Plan – Brenna Wilkes
KWL Chart: Parts of Plant Organizer:

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