Lesson Plan for Implementing

NETS•S—Template I
(More Directed Learning Activities)
Grade Level(s) Fourth Grade

Content Area Social Studies

Time line 1 week (April 16-20)

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? )
SS4H5 Explain the causes, major events, and consequences of the Civil War.
a. Identify Uncle Tom’s Cabin and John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry and explain how
each of these events was related to the Civil War.
b. Discuss how the issues of states’ rights and slavery increased tensions between the
North and South.
c. Identify major battles, campaigns, and events: Fort Sumter, Gettysburg, the Atlanta
Campaign, Sherman’s March to the Sea, and Appomattox Court House.
d. Describe the roles of Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Jefferson Davis,
Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, and William T. Sherman.
e. Describe the effects of war on the North and South.
During the lessons, the students will do research and collect information about the Civil
War. The students will also be learning about the causes, major events, and consequences
of the war before they create a final project. At that time, the student will understand that
the beliefs and ideals of a society influence the social, political, and economic decisions of
that society. The student will also understand that when there is conflict between or within
societies, change is the result. Next, the student will understand that location affects a
society’s economy, culture, and development. Lastly, the student will understand that the
production, distribution, and consumption of goods/services produced by the society are
affected by the location, customs, beliefs, and laws of the society. This unit will also connect
to reading and language arts standards as students will be looking up information and
Content Standards writing to create a final project.
The students will first critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct
knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for
themselves and others. The students will do this by using the internet and online tools like
Brain Pop. After that, the students will use a variety of technologies within a design process
to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful or imaginative solutions. The
students will use PowerPoint and other tools like Flickr and iMovie to accomplish this.
Lastly, students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of
purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their
goals. The students can meet this criteria by publishing their assignment using tools like
NETS*S Standards: Weebly. (Knowledge Constructor, Innovative Designer, and Creative Communicator)

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

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 This lesson will be the culminating project after the students have learned the fourth-grade standards regarding
the Civil War. The project is title “Life in the Civil War”. The students will be placed with the task of choosing one
type of person from the Civil War (Private, Surgeon, Major, Musician, and General) and doing research on what
their life was like. After the students do research and fill out a graphic organizer with all the pertinent information,
the students will get together with all the other students who chose that type of person and make sure the
information is correct. Next, within that group of common roles, students be placed in groups of 3 to create a final
project. The final project will include a summary of what life was like, a letter home from that person to their family
describing one of the battles, and a piece of video or audio reenacting a big event that happened and how the
person was involved. The three assignments will be compiled in a final PowerPoint presentation or Weebly
website that will be presented to the class. Either type of presentation needs to be visually pleasing with pictures
from Flickr and either audio or video. The lesson will be graded with a rubric.

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? What questions can you ask students to help them focus on important aspects of the
topic? What background or prior knowledge will you expect students to bring to this topic and build on?)

How did the different beliefs of Southerners and Northerners lead to conflict?
How did the actions of the people affect the course of the Civil War?
In what ways did location have an effect on the differing beliefs of Southerners and Northerners?
What were some of the major differences between the North and South in terms of population and where people
lived?

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?)

The students will be expected to produce a presentation containing information that the students learned during a
4.5-week social studies unit covering the Civil War. The presentation is to include visuals, writings, and audio or
visual to show the information the students learned. The students will be assessed by a teacher-created rubric
that they will receive at the beginning of the project. This way the students will know what is expected of them.
The students’ final projects are differentiated on student choice. Students will be allowed to use iMovie to record
their presentation with voice overs and a script if they do not want to get up in front of the entire class to present
the information they have learned. During the project, the students will also get a graphic organizer to fill out
while researching their chosen role. The graphic organizer will be taken up as a completion grade. While the
students are discussing this information with a group of other students that also chose that role, the teacher will
use this time to formatively assess what the students know. The teacher will take anecdotal notes on the
students that did not research the information correctly. Also, the teacher will remediate with groups or students
who still have gaps and need re-teaching.
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?)

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 The students used a variety of technology tools to support their learning during this lesson. First students used
research tools to construct their knowledge. The students could use Brain Pop, Galileo, and Pebble Go to
research. During this part of the assignment, students had a graphic organizer to guide them as they compiled
the research they needed. Then students used a few different tools to create a unique project. Students could
use podcast/audio tools, video tools, Flickr, and Jing as they worked on their project. Finally, the student could
choose between two types of technology present their final project including Weebly and PowerPoint. As for
previous skills, students needed to know a few things before they could adequately complete this project. First,
students needed to understand how to log on to the computer using their log in and get on Microsoft Office. I
emailed out the graphic organizer the students were to use. Students had to open the file, edit it, and save it to
their Microsoft Cloud account. This is something the students have been doing most of the year in fourth grade.
Next, the students needed to understand how to use the internet as a research tool. Keyboarding skills were
necessary as students compiled the information. In addition to these skills, students had to add some sort of
audio or video. This took the ability to be able to screencast, webcam, or podcast. The students also needed to
have a basic understanding of PowerPoint, Weebly, and iMovie to finish their final project. These skills were
taught previously during the year a little at a time. The teacher walked around and helped students, as needed,
with the technology.

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?)

This is the culminating project to be done after the students have been taught a whole unit on the Civil War.
During the teachings, students learned about the causes, major events, and consequences of the war. The
causes include Uncle Tom’s Cabin and John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry as well as states’ rights and slavery.
The major events include Fort Sumter, Gettysburg, the Atlanta Campaign, Sherman’s March to the Sea, and
Appomattox Court House. Next, the students needed to know the following people and the role they served in
the war: Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Jefferson Davis, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, and
William T. Sherman. Lastly, the students learned the effects of war on the North and South. Students were
assessed both formatively and summatively during the four and ½ weeks that the unit was taught. The project
was done after all the social studies standards were taught. Because of that, most of the re-teaching and support
will be for the technology standards. The technology standards and resources used in the project have been
used this year in other projects, but many of the students are not completely proficient using all the technology
yet. It will be beneficial for students to choose the presentation method they are must comfortable with. The
teacher will need to support students as the lesson goes on in that capacity. The students always get excited
when we use technology in our lessons though, so there will be more interest in this type of lesson.

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
troubleshoot them?

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 In the beginning, students will work individually. For this part of the assignment, I will need to make sure the
students know how to research and construct knowledge using internet tools. I will have an ELL teacher with me
during this segment of the day, so that teacher will oversee helping when and with whom he sees fit. If more
direction is needed, he can pull the students in a small group and walk them through the steps of getting on the
websites. He can also help them through researching and answering questions. Since the whole project will be
done at school, students will all have access to both desktop and laptop computers. All of the computers in the
school are connected to the internet. The teacher will sign up for the computer lab during class so that each
student has their own computer. If a student needs extra time, the student can use their homeroom teacher’s
desktop computers during homeroom time. Homeroom is set up as “study hall” where work is not assigned, but
students have free time to finish any activities they need. I will upload the graphic organizer that the students are
using to their learning management system (Canvas) so if students lose a copy, they can re-download and print
more copies, as needed. For the next part of the assignment, students will work in small groups. The teacher will
assign these groups. ELL students and lower level learners will be consciously placed in groups that will be to
their benefit. They will be with students who will help them as they get on the internet and complete the final
product and presentation. The only technical issue that I can see would be an interruption with the internet or
Canvas. If the internet becomes a problem, students will be asked to do the research in their social studies
textbook. The textbook has much of the same information and the students used it during the previous lessons on
the Civil War, so they know how and where to look. If Canvas is not working, I will have hard copies of the graphic
organizer. Also, instead of submitting the final project through Canvas, the students will just email me a copy of
their final product if there are problems with the internet or connectivity.

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?

Parts of this lesson utilized different learning strategies. The students are working in cooperative learning groups
for the second part of the project. The students are helping one another as they construct their final presentation. I
picked the groups to have a higher-level learner in each group to help guide the other students. I was also there
for assistance, as well as the ELL teacher, when needed. Most of the project was student-led and the teacher took
the role of a facilitator. The project also took on almost a jigsaw type learning. Each student chose a different role
from the Civil War and in the end presented their information to the class. Since the whole class did not learn
about the same person or side of the war, the class learned from each group’s presentation. Another strategy
used was the multi-choices of presentation method. This was done to help the students feel more comfortable and
suite each student’s learning needs. The final presentation could also be pre-recorded with iMovie in case a
student did not feel comfortable getting up in front of the whole class to present. The students got to creatively
communicate what they learned to the class through PowerPoint, Weebly, or an iMovie presentation. Each
student had to work independently at times, and with a group at other times. After the students worked
independently, there was a formative check of the information they found during their research. This was the point
where the teacher made sure each student had the correct answers before moving on to the presentation. The
research part of the project allowed students to become knowledge constructors using digital tools like Brain Pop
and Pebble Go. The graphic organizer for this part of the project was developed to support the students as they
did their research. Lastly, the students learned through meaningful activities. They were asked to put themselves
in the shoes of the person they chose for their project while completing a few of the activities. It can be hard
imagining what happened in the past. Putting themselves in the role of someone from the Civil War helped make
the experience more authentic for the students. I allowed the students to dress up for their presentation for 5 extra
bonus points. Many of the students chose to do this and it added another layer of connection to the Civil War.

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?)

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 There are 27 students in the class I taught this lesson to. There are 12 gifted, 5 EIP, and 8 ELL students (2 of
which are monitor this year). 4 of the EIP students are also ELL. As I mentioned earlier, I also have an ELL
teacher with me for the 50 of the 90 minutes in the block to help with strategies and accommodations. The content
will be differentiated to the students because the students get to choose the person for their project so not
everyone is doing research on the same person. The process is different because the students get to choose the
website or resource they use to get their information. Some of the websites have videos other resources to go
along with each topic. Brain Pop has great resources for ELL students. The movies and supporting activities can
even be done in Spanish if that is the student’s native language. My students could watch the video on “Guerra
Civil de Estados Unidos”. Brain Pop also has great enrichment and extension opportunities including games,
quizzes, and interactive graphic organizers. I have 1 student that is hearing impaired in my classroom. His assistive
technologies also help many of the other students in the class. I speak with a FM Voice Amplifier and all
movies/presentations/and readings have closed captions. Also, for ELL students, we have the capability to add a
screen reader to anything the students are doing on the internet.
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?

A closing event took place on April 20 when the students did their final presentations. As I said earlier, there was
some jigsaw learning going on, so one thing I wish I had done differently was for students to take notes while each
group presented. The students did such an excellent job on their final projects and it would have been beneficial
for students to have notes on what each student taught them. If I had done it that way, I could’ve done the project
while I taught the important leaders and it could’ve been part of the process of learning instead of afterwards. As
for during the project, the students worked very hard and seemed to enjoy the project. They liked making the
presentation more than researching, but I think that is because they got to work with a group at that time. One
hiccup I had was students were getting caught up in the role of each person. For some students that was too
abstract since they couldn’t just go and look up a specific name. Because of this, I made a change at the
beginning of the project. I ended up letting some students research specific leaders from the war including Ulysses
S. Grant and Robert E. Lee. This made it easier for them to find information. They also had to include birth and
death years as well as important quotes or contributions. Everything else went as planned. If I was doing this
again, I would probably add a reflection or a group rating at the end. I usually like to see how each member
contributed to the project. I feel like if each student knows they will have to explain what they did for their group,
they know the expectation going in. That way I don’t have students who sit back and watch other members do all
the work. Lastly, I wish I would have made a website (maybe Padlet) where the students could have all uploaded
their work. This would be a great way for students to look back and see everyone else’s work. You could also use
it as a portfolio or reference for the following year.

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?
Overall the lesson went well. As I explained above, if I could do it again, there are a few things I would
change. Other than what they have learned in my room, the students have not been taught about any Web
2.0 tool or productivity tools. Next year, the school is getting a technology class. I think if I did this project with
the students in a few years after they had some more experience with technology, things would run even
smoother. I spent a lot of my time helping the students using the technology and I would’ve liked to use more
of that time helping them with content. Even with their limited knowledge on some of the programs, it was still
worth it though. The interest level went up because the students were enjoying themselves. Overall, I think all
the students learned more than they would have if this was a non-technology related project. As for advice, I
would say teach a little technology at a time throughout the year. If you do that, at the end of the year, you
can do fun projects like this where you bring everything together.

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