HOLY NAMES UNIVERSITY LESSON PLAN

Planning Statement
Title of Lesson:

Google Earth and Latitude and Longitude

Grade: 4th

Subject Area: Social Studies

Anticipated Time Frame: (How

Classroom organization: (whole class, small

group, partner, independent)

long will each part of the lesson

take?)
Introduction: 5 minutes
TDI: 10 minutes
SLT: 10 minutes
IP: 15 minutes
Closure: 10 minutes

Introduction: whole class

TDI: whole class
SLT: whole class, with volunteers.
IP: independent, but can talk to their table partners and
teacher for assistance.
Closure: Whole class

Resources and materials: Attach any worksheets or graphic organizers.

Classroom Cart of Computers

Google Maps worksheet
Elmo
Projector to project what your working on with computer
Pencils
Students will have picked out 2 special places to them and one place they
would like to visit outside of the United States for homework.
Whiteboard

Central Focus or Big Idea of Learning Segment:

By using Google Earth students will find the latitude and longitude and determine
the absolute locations of places in California and outside of the United States.
California Content Standard(s):

1.1. Explain and use the coordinate grid system of latitude and longitude to
determine the absolute locations of places in California and on Earth.
Specific Learning Objectives:
What do you want students to learn in this lesson?
o Students will demonstrate that a physical place is connected to longitude
and latitude coordinates.
o Students will begin to express how to say the longitude and latitude
coordinates.
How will students demonstrate their learning? (observable learning outcomes)?
o Students will demonstrate learning by recording information
Prerequisites:
What skills, knowledge and prior experience do students need for this lesson? Work
your way back through the standards. What do they specifically need to know in
order to go through this
How will you determine whether students have these? Can look at previous test
scores.
How will you connect to students interests, backgrounds, strengths, needs? Must
be very specific. To keep students attention, students will work with a partner
to. To

Key ELD Standard(s):

Listening and Speaking
Comprehension
Grades 3-5

Ask and answer instructional questions with some supporting elements

(e.g., Is it your turn to go to the computer lab?).
Challenging Academic language and concepts: What particular language demands
are there in this lesson? (types of text, features of text, key subject-specific terms, for
example) What language demands are likely to be challenging? Make sure to include any
types of academic language that would be included. Make sure to use alternative words
for the content/academic words. We need to include and make sure we are including all
learners, not just the ones in front of us.

*Make sure to include vocabulary building for ELLs.

Access to the curriculum / modifications:
How will you make the lesson accessible to English learners? *use manipulatives,
sentence starters, etc. To make it accessible, you need to do something to get them
to learn about it and get them started. Array, unifix cube, flu. Give them lots of
different tools to access unpack the information given to them.
How will you make the lesson accessible to students with special needs?*Do not
leave this blank, make sure that you are really thinking about it.

Assessment:
What evidence of student learning will you collect? Ex: Informal verbal check-ins.
Exit Slip- have something pre-written up that will sum up what theyve learned
during class. Equity Sticks call on random students and ask different
questions.
*make sure to include a small note or take a picture of the assessment tool.
What criteria will you use to interpret the evidence? Attach any rubrics or
descriptions of performance tasks. How will the results of this assessment inform your
next steps in teaching?
Instructional Sequence
Set or introduction:
*Student preparation:

Bring out their slide notes about longitude and latitude from the
previous lesson.
Take out 3 to 5 addresses or locations they would like to use for the
lesson.
Pass out worksheet for class.

Teacher: By using Google Earth we are going to be practicing using the

coordinate grid system of latitude and longitude to determine the absolute

locations of special places in California and one place we would like to visit.
Projected on the Board:

By using Google Earth we are going to be practicing using the coordinate

grid system of latitude and longitude to determine the absolute locations
of special places in California and one place we would like to visit.

Teacher: Before we start lets share with our elbow partner, our 2 special places
and one place outside of the United states we would like to visit. Each person will
have 1 minute to share. When you hear the time ring, you will know that your turn
is up. Allow students to share with their elbow partner. Use a timer to audibly
remind students that their time is up and they can now let their partner share.
*Project on the board:
Share with our elbow partner, our 2 special places and one place outside of
the United states we would like to visit.
Teacher: So where are we going to travel today? Allow students to share. Write their
places on the board. Wow, we are going to find the longitude and latitude for soo
many places today!
Developing Content: (Teacher Directed Instruction) TDI
Teacher: Each line labeled with a degree and direction is called a coordinate.

Giving the coordinates where latitude and longitude intersect is like giving the
address of that location. This is exactly what we are going to do today! We are going

to be looking up the longitude and latitude coordinates of some places that are
special to you and some special places on Earth.
Today all of you have brought in addresses or names of places that are special to you
on Earth and you will find the longitude and latitude coordinate of these places. One
of my special places would have to be Childrens Fairyland. I spent years going there
when I was little and still love it.Did you know that Disneyland was inspired by
Childrens Fairyland?
On your assignment you will be looking up the latitude and longitude of each of your
three special places on Earth.
*Pull up Google earth, all computers will be pre set up for the activity.
Your screen should look like this at the very beginning.
*Put in a picture of google earth screen.
You will first write your address in the search section and click enter and you will
pull up a screen that looks like the following.
*Show the following screen.

Google docs will show you the latitude and the longitude of your location on earth.
You will write them down under the designated spots on your worksheets. (write
this down on your sheet as your saying it) This says that the latitude of Fairyland is
at 37 degrees, 48 minutes, and 32.29 seconds North. The longitude is 122 degrees,
15 minutes, and 35.89 seconds West. You will find that the numbers for the latitude
and longitude are very very long. I would like you to just copy them down on your
worksheet for now. Tomorrow we will practice saying the numbers.
Teacher: Then once youve looked up all 3 of your places on earth, you are going to
tell me why this place is important to you. So for me on my own worksheet, I would
write: This place is important to me because when I was younger I had a big
birthday party with all of my friends. We played tag, pet the donkeys, and rode on
all of the rides. This day is one of my happiest memories from when I was younger.
Did you know that Childrens Fairyland was inspired from Disneyland
Student Learning Tasks:
Guided Practice:
Okay lets do my next one together.
What is our first step? Use equity sticks to choose a student. Answer: Write your

address in the search section and click enter and you will pull up a screen that looks
like the following. Write the first step on the board for students.
Can (use equity stick to call on person) put our school in the search section for me?
*Insert picture of the school.
Lets hear everyone say this one: what is our second step? Answer: Write the latitude
and longitude (for all three of your locations). Write the second step on the board.
Do you have to worry about saying the long word yet? Student response, No!
So after weve looked up latitude and longitude for all 3 of your places, what will
your third step be? (Use equity stick to call on student) Answer: On the worksheet:
write why this place is important to you. Write this response on the board.
Okay let's do a quick thumb check in, How do we feel like we understand the
material? Thumb-up = I get it, Thumb in the middle = I get most of it, Thumbs
down = I am totally lost. (Do another problem if mostly thumbs down, if mostly
thumbs up, allow others to move ahead independently and pull those unsure into a
smaller group and clarify.)
Lets get our computers and start working.
Independent Practice:
*Students will be sitting at their desks filling out their worksheet. Student desks are
organized in groups, where they are at different performance levels. Students must
ask 3 for help before they ask the teacher. The teacher will be moving around the
room, checking in on students, particularly those who gave thumbs down signals
during check in.
Checks for Understanding / On-going informal assessment:
How will you know what students are understanding?
(questioning and observing throughout the lesson)

Equity Sticks

Choral Response
Thumb-Check in System
Worksheet that will be collected at the end (please see attached document
rubric)

Closure:
*Call students back to attention with the chime. Ask students to log out, let them
know that they have a total of 3 minutes to log out and putt their computers back on
the cart.
Teacher: Tomorrow we will be practicing how to say our long latitude and longitude
coordinates. Would anyone like to share the longitude and latitude of a place that
they found?
Remember when you see you will say degrees, you will say minutes, and you
would say seconds. Write the following on the board: = degress, = minutes, =
seconds.
Allow students to share the latitude and longitude coordinates that they found and
begin practicing how to say the long number phrases.