Beyond-the-Basic Productivity Tools (BPT)

Lesson Idea Name: Native American Indian Regions

Content Area: Social Studies
Grade Level(s): 3rd Grade
Content Standard Addressed: SS3H1: Describe early American Indian cultures and their development in
North America.
b. Compare and contrast how American Indians in each region used their environment to obtain food,
clothing, and shelter.

Technology Standard Addressed:

1.6 c: students communicate complex ideas clearly and effectively by creating or using a variety of digital
objects such as visualizations, models, or simulations.

Selected Technology Tool: Bubbl.us

URL(s) to support the lesson (if applicable): N/A

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 activity and technology tool supports and enhances the learning experience for students in the classroom
by allowing them to take the knowledge and information that they have learned and obtained and create
their own timeline by comparing different native American Indian tribes. The students will be engaged in the
lesson and with their group/partner when creating this product and will be able to represent and showcase
what they learned about the different regions. Although they are using a particular technology tool, the
students will be able to make it however they want and use all different kinds of shapes, colors, as well as
groups them together in ways that they found were similar or different. The students can also choose which
categories they would like to compare.

Lesson idea implementation:

The students will be in partners and each partner will choose the native American Indian region of their
choosing if it is different from their partner. Then pair will work together to find information on their
particular region and must address 3 of the 5 categories given to them by the teacher. However, the three
categories that the students choose must be the same for each partner. The five categories the students can
choose from are clothing, shelter, environment, attributions, and food. Once the pair has chosen their
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 Beyond-the-Basic Productivity Tools (BPT)
different regions and the three categories that they are going to research, the students are able to get started
on researching these regions and tribes. The teacher will allow the students to only use certain websites that
are school appropriate and will also provide the students with an interactive notebook that has more
information about the different categories of each different native American Indian tribe. The teacher will
allow the students to work with a partner of their choosing if they are working and there are no altercations
or issues that might arise. In addition, the teacher will allow the students to choose their own categories if the
partners have the same one. Once the students have researched their regions and categories, they will need
to talk to their partner about their own region because they are going to compare the two different regions.
The teacher will provide one example so that the students understand the concept and objective of the
lesson, as well as walk around the room and help students out when it is needed. However, the students are
able to use their own creativity when making this timeline to compare the regions but must use the bubbl.us
website when creating their product.

This activity will be over the course of a couple of days so that the students have enough time to research
their region, research the different categories of their region, and then collaborate and compare the regions
with their partner. By the end of the week, the students will be able to present and share their final product
to the class to showcase their knowledge and creativity. The student will be assessed by the teacher using a
checklist to make sure that the partners each had different regions, the students compared three different
categories of those regions, the information was accurate, and the product was organized and
understandable. In addition, the students will receive points for presenting to the class and showing
knowledge about the information that they put in their final product. Lastly, the teacher will be walking
around the room throughout the week to make sure the students are having great discussions and
conversations with their partner and staying on topic.

The final product will support differentiated learning by allowing the students who do not like to speak in
front of the class simply use their product to showcase their information and knowledge, as well as allowing
the students to choose their own partners to help them with this assignment. For higher level students, I will
ask them to compare all five categories and if they finish that, then they are able to go around the room and
help other students and pairs that are struggling or have questions about their product. To conclude the
lesson, the students will all present or show their final product and the teacher will ask the students to fill out
a graphic organizer with one fact or piece of information that they learned from each pair that presents. For
the exit ticket at the end of the week, the teacher will ask the students to give feedback on a sticky note that
is anonymous and ask them to answer what they liked about the project, what they did not like about the
project, and what they would like to have done differently. The teacher will provide feedback to the students
with a checklist on a point scale to show them what points they had, what points they missed, and why they
missed those points.

Reflective Practice:

After designing this lesson idea, I feel that the activities I created could impact student learning by allowing
them to collaborate and communicate with their peers, as well as use their knowledge and creativity to
create a final product. In addition, there is a lot of flexibility in the lesson that allows the students to have
more free range of what they want to research, who they want their partner to be, how they want their final
product to look, and what categories they would like to research for their region. To further extend this
lesson, I could have the students then choose another region of their choice on their own or with a partner
and do research on that region. Then the students could compare that region to the other two regions that
they have already done research for. This could continue throughout the lesson and the students could
research each region and compare each region to the previous ones they have already researched. Other
technology tools that could further enhance this project could be to use PowerPoint and a voice over when
talking about their region or to make an e-book explaining about their own personal region.

SBooker, 2020
 Beyond-the-Basic Productivity Tools (BPT)

SBooker, 2020