Lesson Plan for Implementing

NETSSTemplate I
(More Directed Learning Activities)
Template with guiding questions
Teacher(s)
Name
Ashley Sherman
Position

Media Specialist

School/District

Austell ES, Cobb County

E-mail

Ashleybd2008@gmail.com

Phone

404-519-4272

Grade Level(s)

5th grade

Content Area

Social Studies/ Reading

Time line

February- April

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.
Students will be identifying important events leading up to and during WWII, and students
will be comparing and contrasting two texts about WWII and the characters experiences in
Content Standards
each text (SS5H6, ELA5RL9).

NETS*S Standards:

Students will create a movie trailer incorporating events from WWII and from the texts, and
students will express their ideas through the use of plickers and padlet (NETS 1A, AB).

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

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In fifth grade students study events leading up to WWII and the Holocaust. I collaborated with a fifth grade teacher
to co-teach this unit with her. She taught Number the Stars in class, and I taught I Survived The Nazi Invasion in
the media center. Prior to starting the unit, we tried to have students consider the different perspectives
surrounding the Nazis, Jews, and people fighting the war during this time. Students were given an anticipation
guide (see attached document), and they provided their answers via the Plicker cards as well to see where the
class agreed and disagreed to prompt discussions. Additionally, students had a packet to complete where they
can compare and contrast different elements of the two texts read in class and in the media center (see attached
document).This unit led up to the culminating product of a movie trailer. Students were given the option to create
a movie trailer in PPT (using narration, sounds, music and text), GoAnimate, or Moviemaker. Additionally, we
ended the unit with students leaving their final thoughts on a padlet. We put all final thoughts in a Wordle and
students completed a reflection writing piece based on these common words/phrases. Also, students completed
the final part of the anticipation guide by stating if their views were changed or not.

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
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.
How can I apply an understanding of the events leading up to WWII and the Holocaust in my writing?
How can I use evidence to compare and contrast two texts on the same topic?
How can I depict descriptive images from the text through images and narration?
How can I identify re-occurring themes in connection to life today? (For example: bravery, loyalty, etc.)

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.
Because Im not the primary classroom teacher, I didnt assess these products. However, the teacher and I
assessed students informally by having them complete the anticipation guide (at the beginning and end) as well
as the packet throughout the process. The teacher also gave students discussion points when discussing the
responses with the plicker tool in addition to small and whole group class discussions. The teacher used the
attached rubric to assess the movie trailer, which was the major summative assessment for this unit. Additionally,
the students completed a reflective writing piece using the responses posted on the padlet used to create the
classs WWII wordle. Their writing was assessed by the classroom teacher using the attached writing rubric for 5 th
grade students.

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

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For the pre and post discussion for the anticipation guide, the class only needed one ipad to read their plicker cards.
We also had students write their responses so they could think back to their original responses at the end. Students
were very interested to see how their classmates answered these questions through the use of Plickers. This did
require a projector connection. Additionally, students were given the option to use PPT/Moviemaker as a movie
trailer or GoAnimate. Almost every student selected PPT/Moviemaker to create their movie trailer because they
could access it at home. Many students didnt have internet connections at home, so they wouldnt have been able
to use GoAnimate outside of the classroom or media center. This also plays into digital equality because some
students had to work on the project outside of school, so they had limited resources. Students were able to pull
quotes, images, and sounds from the databases provided in the schools MackinVia account. Again, students also
needed an internet connection to access these resources, so many had to take time at school to save images,
sounds, and songs so they could have them to work on the project at home. When students did their presentations,
we used the projector and teachers laptop in the media center. After this, students completed the padlet response
in class by using the teachers smartboard and simply clicking and typing their answer. I took all the responses and
turned this into a wordle (because students cant access wordle at school), and this was displayed on the
smartboard for students to base their final reflective pieces off of. For the assessments, the teacher created the
rubrics, and I created the anticipation guide. The teacher and I adapted the attached packet to give to students to
use throughout the unit, and this was assessed after each chapter of the text.
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?)
Students had little to no background knowledge of WWII or the Holocaust when we started this unit, so we focused
a lot of our time on the content instead of the technology and the creation skills for the movie trailer. However,
students were able to create a product that they truly felt invested in because they were interested in the characters
and their stories. Students were hooked when we introduced the content with the anticipation guide, and students
liked using the plicker cards in order to see immediate responses from their peers. Also, the anticipation guide was
a good way to see exactly what students already knew about WWII and the Holocaust. Additionally, the movie trailer
demonstrated important ideas, characters, and events that students got from the information in the two texts.
Additionally, the padlet/wordle activity was a good way for students to see how other felt after the unit was over or
how their views had changed. Students may have had a hard connecting with the content at first, but the two texts
and the fact the student created their own movie trailer had them excited!
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.
This was the hardest aspect of this unit. We had limited time to teach two texts and have students complete the movie
trailer. While we gave students an option to use GoAnimate or PPT/Moviemaker, many have issues with internet
access at home and limited time to work on it at school. I think if we had more time in class and in the media center,
more students would have chosen GoAnimate. Additionally, students had the option to complete their movie trailer with
a partner. This allowed content strong and technology strong students to pair up together. Additionally, they brought
their ideas to whole group discussion (when looking at the plicker answers for the anticipation guide), and they
participated in small group discussion when we would discuss answers from the packet. Also, students realized they
had to save materials (songs, sounds, images) to work on their PPT/Moviemaker at home, and we had to troubleshoot
a few issues with certain resources not saving correctly, so there were times when students had to re-format the image
or resource they were trying to use.

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
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students' roles in the lesson? How can you ensure higher order thinking at the analysis, evaluation, or
creativity levels of Blooms 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?

Students participated in small and whole group discussions, and they provided reasoning in their discussion answers.
They were able to view all responses to the initial and final discussion using the plicker cards, and they were able to
ask each other why they felt the way they did. This allowed students to make real-world connections from the content
to their own reasoning and understanding. They completed the packet a formative assessment throughout the unit,
but this allowed for small group and whole group discussion. Additionally, this allowed students to explore the idea of
theme, character analysis, and imagery and construct their own responses to each of these using evidence from the
text in their answers. Again, this prompted students to make real-life connections to the characters and theme in the
stories, but they also had to provide textual evidence to support their analysis. The summative assessment allowed
students to create a product, and again while students may have been using a technology they were already familiar
with, they had to become knowledgeable of copyright and the creative commons as well as different databases in
MackinVia to pull materials from. During the course of the unit, the teacher and I did facilitate discussions and helped
troubleshoot technology issues, but ultimately, we wanted the students to form a connection with the two texts and
create a meaningful movie trailer based on a theme or character they felt a connection with. Students sat a tables in
the media center, and this made collaboration and discussion easier for the students when completing the packet or
brainstorming ideas for their presentations, but because students were in desks in the classroom and we had only
one ipad and teacher laptop as a resource, we had to complete the plicker activity and padlet response on the
smartboard.

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?)
Differentiation happened mostly through choice with this unit. The students had a choice of their final product and
which technology tool to use, and they also could work with a partner if they wanted. Students could participate in
whole group and small group discussion in addition to completing their responses on the anticipation guide/plicker
assignment and padlet response/reflection. Additionally, students could check out a copy of either of the texts if
they wanted to follow along with the teacher reading the text out loud to the class. Students with accommodations
worked with the academic coaches or co-teachers to ensure their learning accommodations were met
appropriately.

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? What will be your process for answering the following
questions?
Did students find the lesson meaningful and worth completing?
In what ways was this lesson effective?
What went well and why?
What did not go well and why?
How would you teach this lesson differently?)

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The final reflection is the students writing based on their responses to the padlet/wordle activity, and they were able
to reflect on how their perspectives may have changed when examining their previous answers and class
discussions based on the anticipation guide. Students did feel a connection with this unit, but I would have allowed
more time for students to work on their final projects in the media center so students would have felt more confident
using different technologies. Additionally, I had to focus on the content more so than anything else, so I would like to
shift the content focus to the classroom teacher so I can simply incorporate that into the media center lesson based
on the technology tools or resources.

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.
My advice for others would be to ask students about their backgrounds prior to starting. I revealed how my
husbands family was Jewish, and I think this prompted a lot of questions and insight into the own students
backgrounds. Additionally, I would love if students could use other technology resources along the way to
research those involved in the Holocaust or WWII.

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