Lesson Plan for Implementing

NETS•S—Template I
(More Directed Learning Activities)

Template with guiding questions

Position 4th Grade Teacher

School/District Calhoun Elementary School – Calhoun City Schools

E-mail joneskimberly@calhounschools.org

Phone 706-629-7130

Grade Level(s) 4th grade

Content Area Social Studies

Time line One week

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.

Westward Expansion – Students need to be able to describe the process of

Page 1 of 6
 Creativity and Innovation – Students will use the information gathered through the
web quest to produce a page on a Google Site to share with others what they
learned. The format for this web page is up to the group. Students will also take the
information learned to create a series of journal entries from the perspective of
someone living during the event.
Communication and Collaboration – Students will work collaboratively on the
Google Site to share the information they learned.
Technology operations and concepts – Students will use the skills they have learned
about using Google Apps as well navigating through the web quests and
NETS*S Standards: assignments.

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

These lessons are a part of the unit on Westward Expansion with 4th grade students. Students will work
individually through a web quest on one of four topics (Gold Rush, Lewis and Clark, Oregon Trail, Texas and the
Alamo). After this, they will pretend they are someone living through the event and will create a series of journal
entries from that character’s perspective. This will be done either through Google Docs or a video journal created
in FlipGrid. They will then work collaboratively with their topic groups to create a page of a Google Site for
westward expansion that will teach their classmates about their topics. All assignments and web quests will be
organized on a Content Page on the Canvas learning management system. All web quests include either a
simulation or other virtual learning experience.

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 did the United States become the size it is today? What were the reasons people moved west? What
challenges did people face as they moved west?

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.

Page 2 of 6
 Students will complete assignments that correlate to their topic throughout the web quest. For example,
students completing the Oregon Trail web quest will have to complete an assignment in which they are
given a list of items they can choose from to pack a wagon within a given weight limit. All web quests
include an Important Terms assignment. Completion of this assignment will determine whether or not
students understand the important concepts before moving on to the character journal and website.
Students have the option of doing a written journal or a video journal using FlipGrid. Students are also
placed in mixed ability groups so students with language or reading and writing difficulties will have
support. There are only minimum requirements to the web quests, so students who are more
technologically savvy can add more types of items to the web site.

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?)

Technology supports student learning because they are ultimately creating a product to share with an
authentic audience. All web quest sites and assignment links are included on a content page on the
Canvas learning management system. Students will need to have previous experience with utilizing the
features of the learning management system such as submitting assignments. All web quests are created
through Weebly. Tellagami was used to add a read aloud feature to all directions. Within the web quests,
students will have links to Google Docs. Students will need to know how to follow the instructions to
make a copy of the document to add to their own Google Drive. For the journal, students can either
create a Google Doc for a written journal or create a video journal using FlipGrid. For the culminating
task, students will work with their groups to create a page on a class Google Site for westward
expansion. They should have a basic understanding of how a collaborative site works as well as how to
add information. The webquests have rubrics attached for evaluation. The assignments completed
throughout the web quests also have rubrics included on Canvas.

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 understand how the United States was formed as a result of the American Revolution. Students
need to understand the idea of Manifest Destiny as the ultimate driving force for westward expansion.
Students have a desire to use technology in different ways. They already have experience using Canvas,
Google Apps, and navigating web sites. Some students have already used FlipGrid, so they can serve as
peer tutors along with teacher support. Some students have experience creating a Google Site. They all
need varying degrees of support which can be provided through teacher or peers.

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
Page 3 of 6
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.

Students will work individually and in different small groups depending on the activity. They will begin
by working through their assigned web quest and accompanying assignments individually. Once they are
finished, they will work with the group studying the same topic to collaborate on a Google Site. Students
will work in the general education classroom. The teacher is ESOL and gifted certified which will allow
for on-the-spot support for a variety of needs. Students have one-to-one access to Chromebooks allowing
them to work at their own pace. Few technical issues should arrive during instruction. All web quests and
links were previewed before assigning to make sure they all worked and that instructions and
information were correct. Some students who were not as familiar with Google Sites made some
mistakes which needed to be addressed during the lessons.

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?

This lesson will provide students the opportunity for a collaborative learning experience in order to
create a product for an authentic audience. The learning environment supports these activities by
allowing students to move around the classroom in a way that meets their learning needs, so they can
move to their groups when needed or move to a quieter location to record their video journals. Many of
the individual assignments have elements of choice or open-ended responses such as deciding what to
pack for the wagon on the Oregon Trail or determining how they would respond to certain situations.
Students also use technology daily which helps them meet the objectives of this lesson. Students will
receive feedback on the independent assignments to gauge their understanding before completing the
culminating parts both individually and as a group. Students have to work in their groups to determine
the most important and essential information that others would need to know and choose how to
incorporate this (i.e., through text boxes, pictures, or videos). Students can also choose who they want to
be for their character journal as long as it is somebody who could be involved in that historical event.
Students will build the necessary knowledge through the completion of the web quest and coordinating
assignments. I will facilitate by providing feedback on assignments and offering support as students are
completing this lesson.

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?)

Page 4 of 6
 Various sources are included in the web quests to support various levels of accessibility as well as
learning styles. Tellagami was used to provide read aloud of the important instructions and information
for struggling readers. Groups were formed to be mixed ability levels academically and technologically
so they could offer peer support. An Important Terms assignment is included in each web quest to guide
students to the most important information. Students are allowed to choose how they organize their
Google Site page allowing for creativity and extension while providing guidelines for minimum
requirements. Students also had the choice of doing written character journals or video journals
supporting various language and levels.

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?)

The website will be the culminating project. After the completion of the web pages, students
will view each other’s’ web pages and offer feedback on them. This will include the most
important information about their topic as well as one character journal from each student. In
addition to all of the information for westward expansion, there will be a section for students
to reflect on their experiences with the content and the activities. The reflection questions
include how they liked the learning experience, what they learned about the content and
technology, and what they would still like to learn.
The students really enjoyed this lesson. They liked being able to work through the web quest
and assignments at their own pace. They also enjoyed having a mix of independent and group
assignments. This lesson resulted in the longest amount of continuous time for which my
students were on task. They actually complained when time was up for the day! Students
were able to learn about their assigned topic to an extent which allowed them to teach others.
All of the technology tools were a success; even when a student was not familiar with a tool,
they were able to figure it out with peer and teacher support. Even though I had previewed
each web quest, there were still a few directions that were not clear to students as they began
working. These were clarified as needed. If I taught this lesson again, I would allow more
time from start to finish, possibly doing less time each day to allow for students who work
through the independent activities more slowly. I would also add in more extension activities
for early finishers as they waited for the rest of their group to finish. I would also like to
include more partner or small group work throughout the web quest instead of waiting until
the end.
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.

Page 5 of 6
Even though my students use a variety of digital tools every day, there were still a few issues with the
tools in this web quest. With my background in piloting many digital learning experiences over the last
few years, I was able to easily troubleshoot any issues. My advice to other teachers implementing this
lesson would be to have someone you can call on for technical support if you are not comfortable with it
yourself. Several of my colleagues have already begun implementing this lesson with their classes to
varying degrees. We have discussed potential issues they may face and troubleshooting tips. I have told
them to significantly increase the amount of time they think the lesson will take. One thing I have found
with using digital tools is that students may enjoy using a tool but the excitement will wear off if that tool
is used all the time. For example, we had only used these tools occasionally so they were still new and
engaging for the students. It is important for teachers to have a variety of tools and to choose the best
tool for the learning objectives in order to keep students more engaged.

Page 6 of 6