Lesson Plan for Implementing

NETS•S—Template I
(More Directed Learning Activities)
Template with guiding questions
Teacher(s)
Name Brittany Cash and Jesslan White

Position Kindergarten and Second Grade Teachers

School/District Barrow County School System

E-mail Brittany.cash@barrow.k12.ga.us Jesslan.white@barrow.k12.ga.us

Phone BC: 770-868-7319 JW: 404-918-9794

Grade
Level(s) Second Grade

Content Area All Areas

Timeline 3-5 weeks.

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.
SKL2. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to compare the similarities and differences
in groups of organisms.
S2L1. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the life cycles of different living
Content Standards organisms.

NETS*S Standards: 1a, 1b, 2a, 2b, 3a, 3b, 3d, 6a, 6b

Overview (a short summary of the lesson or unit including assignment or expected or possible products)

Students will identify the needs of plants and observe the conditions of the plants when one of these needs is withheld.
With teacher guidance, students will design an experiment using Google Docs that will test whether or not plants need
light and water in order to grow. This will help students in an activity in which grass seeds are planted in plastic cups, and
once germinated, are exposed to different conditions. Students will test their seeds on the effects of light versus darkness,
and watered versus non-watered conditions. Students will measure the growth of the seedlings every few days using non-
standard measurement. After a few weeks, they will compare the growth of the plants exposed to the different conditions,
and make pictorial bar graphs that demonstrate these comparisons. Students will use a premade Google Slides template to
journal and insert pictures of the details of the experiment. As a final piece to the project, students will create a project
presentation using Adobe Spark to present to classmates. They will participate in a FlipGrid post to reflect on their project.

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

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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 do plants need to survive?

Can plants survive in different environments?

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.

Teachers will use the student’s Google Slide journal to assess student progress during the project. We will use the checklist
to assess students Adobe Spark and FlipGrid Reflection videos.
A checklist will also be linked in Google Classroom for quick reference for students.

Resources (How does technology support student learning? What digital tools, and resources—online student
tools, research sites, student handouts, tools, tutorials, templates, assessment rubrics, etc—help elucidate or
explain the content or allow students to interact with the content? What previous technology skills should students
have to complete this project?)

Students will use Chromebooks to access Google Slides, Adobe Spark and FlipGrid to create a digital journal.
Students will access Google Classroom in order to collect and store data collection on measuring their plants during the
experiment. In Google Classroom, students will find a planning sheet that the group will use to make their hypothesis,
record data, and reflections.
Students will use Adobe Spark to publish their Plant Journal.
The students will use FlipGrid to record a video answering the following questions: What happened during the experiment?
What did you learn from this experiment? Did you find other environments that plants can survive?
A Checklist will also be linked in Google Classroom for quick reference for students.

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?)

Have students discuss what they think plants need in order to live and grow. Have house plants to use as examples for
students.
Explain to students they will be planting seeds and observing them to see if they grow better in the light or in the dark.
They will also be observing to see if plants need water to live or if they would survive without water.

An estimated timeline of the project:

Day 1: Discussion of Day 2: Brainstorm Day 3: Groups will Day 4: Plant the grass Day 5: Students will
the things that things that plants hypothesize what seeds and sit one in observe the plants
animals need to live need to live and grow. they think is going to the sun and one in and type in
and grow Get into groups and happen, then they the dark. Students will observations.
choose roles. will type out their record what they did
plan. in Google Slides

Day 6: Students will Day 7: Students will Day 8: Students will Day 9: Students will Day 10:Students will
observe the plants observe the plants observe the plants observe the plants observe the plants
and type in and type in and type in and type in and type in

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 observations. observations. observations. observations. observations.

Day 11: Students will Day 12: Students will Day 12: Students will Day 12: Students will Day 13: Groups will
observe the plants observe the plants observe the plants observe the plants share their Adobe
and type in and type in and type in and type in Spark Presentations
observations. observations. observations. observations. and Flip Grid Video
(answering the
-Students should have -Students will work on -Students will work on -Students will work on reflection questions)
enough data to presentations presentations presentations and
beginning working on record Flip Grid
their adobe spark videos
presentations

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 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.

The teacher will have the students form groups of 4 or 5 students. Each group will have their own chromebook to use in
the classroom. Students will be assigned roles in their groups. These roles include:
Manager: Manages the group by helping to ensure that the group stays on task, is focused, and that there is room for
everyone in the conversation.
Recorder: Keeps a record of those who were in the group, and the roles that they play in the group. The recorder also
records critical points from the small group’s discussion along with findings or answers.
Speaker: Presents the group’s ideas to the rest of the class. The Spokesperson should rely on the recorder’s notes to guide
their report.
Photographer: Takes pictures of the progress of the experiment.
Reflector: Helps group members come to a common conclusion.

During the lessons/ project the teacher will be available for students by walking around and checking in. The teacher will
also have times for each group to come visit at the small group table. One group at a time will be allowed to come up. Each
group will know that if the teacher is with a group they may not come to the table.

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 Bloom’s 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?

Teachers will explain to students that each group will have materials to grow plants in their experiment. Teachers will
explain to the groups they will have the opportunity to do an experiment to determine if plants really need water and if
they really need light. In a class discussion, teachers will ask students for ideas as to how this could be done. Teachers will
ask leading questions to get the student to realize that a better way to grow a plant might exist.
Point out that if the class wants to see if water is necessary, it is important that the non-watered plants be otherwise
treated just the same as the watered ones. They will be laced in the light alongside the watered plants. Otherwise the class
will not be able to tell if it was the lack of water that was responsible for any differences that occurred. If the students'

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 class wants to find out if plants will grow in darkness, explain that the plants must also be treated the same as the plants
grown in the light. They should be watered just like those grown in the light.

Try to allow students to come up with a way to keep some of the plants in the dark by asking for suggestions. The more
input students have into the design of the experiment, the more invested they will be. Lead them to suggest a dark closet
or cabinet is ideal, or a space can be created from a large cardboard box draped in black felt.

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?)

Assigning roles to students during group projects allows for differentiation in this project. Assigning these roles provides
the student with more ownership over their learning. It also helps reduce the amount of time a student could be off task.
The student roles in the project include:
Manager: Manages the group by helping to ensure that the group stays on task, is focused, and that there is room for
everyone in the conversation.
Recorder: Keeps a record of those who were in the group, and the roles that they play in the group. The recorder also
records critical points from the small group’s discussion along with findings or answers.
Speaker: Presents the group’s ideas to the rest of the class. The Spokesperson should rely on the recorder’s notes to guide
their report.
Photographer: Takes pictures of the progress of the experiment.
Reflector: Helps group members come to a common conclusion.

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? Also answer the following questions?

• How will you know if the students found the lesson meaningful and worth completing?
• In what ways do you think this lesson will be effective? Why do you think this?
• What problems do you anticipate and why?
• How would you design and/or teach this lesson differently if you had more time?)

Students will complete a video log reflection at the end of the experiment using FLipGrid. Students will be asked to reflect
on the following questions: What happened during the experiment? What did you learn from this experiment? Did you find
other environments that plants can survive?

Based upon the students final product and video log reflection will determine if the lesson was authentic. We believe that it
will be due to the importance of plants in our everyday lives. Students will find the authenticity of the assignment by
connecting it to what they see around the school environment.

If we had more time with the assignment we would like to take the students to a plant nursery to learn hands on in a
growing environment. Another task would be to have the students plant an outside garden at the school to observe.

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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Students have their questions answered throughout the learning process. They know the directions and have access to a
checklist for the project.
It would be helpful for students to have access to digital directions using screencastify when they are creating their final
presentation in Adobe Spark.

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