Lesson Plan for Implementing

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

Template with guiding questions

Teacher(s)
Name Shakia Bruce

Position General ED Teacher

School/District Ivy Preparatory Academy

E-mail sbruce@ivyprepacademy.org

Phone 678 555- 5555

Grade Level(s) Fourth Grade

Content Area ELA/Science

Time line 3 days

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.

Page 1 of 11
Content
Standards

S4L1. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the roles of

organisms and the flow of energy within an ecosystem.

1. Develop a model to describe the roles of producers, consumers, and

decomposers in a community.
2. Develop simple models to illustrate the flow of energy through a food
web/food chain beginning with sunlight and including producers,
consumers, and decomposers.

3. Technology Communications Tools

Students:

1. use telecommunications to collaborate, publish, and interact with peers,

experts, and other audiences.
2. use a variety of media and formats to communicate information and
ideas effectively to multiple audiences.
4. Technology Research Tools

Students:

1. use technology to locate, evaluate, and collect information from a

variety of sources.

NETS*S
Standards:

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

Hook: Students will be provided with four main types of ecosystems in a brown paper bag. They will be
asked to randomly pick an ecosystem, this will put them into groups. There will be four groups of six
students. Students will be grouped by grassland, marine, polar and forest ecosystems.

Research/Collaborative Work: Students will work in groups to conduct research about their ecosystem.
They will have to complete the animal, plant and non-living research sheet, where they will list the three
plants and animals they choose to be in their ecosystem and provide facts about each one. On the non-
living research sheet, they will have to research the climate, landscapes and location of their ecosystem.
They will use Google Earth to help get a visual of where their ecosystem will be and to get facts. Students
will be provided with links of websites to research information through Google classroom.

Task: Students will create a Lino, Google Slide Show, or Glogster to present all the animals, plants and
non-living attributes of their ecosystem. A rubric will be provided.

Page 2 of 11
 Independent Task: Students will be asked to write an informative essay informing the third grade about
their ecosystem. This informative essay can be in the form of an essay, letter or postcard. Rubric provided.

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.

What is an ecosystem? What animals or plants live in an ecosystem? What roles do plants, animals and
non-living things play in an ecosystem? How are plants and animals beneficial to an ecosystem? How are
plants and animals detrimental to an ecosystem? What are producers? What are consumers?

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.

Students will create a presentation as a group via google slides, Glogster or Lino informing the
class about their ecosystem. Groups will present their presentations to the third grade and the class.
The audiences will be provided with a note taking sheet that will ask them to write 3 facts they
have learned from the presentation 2 questions that they may have and give one praise for the
group that presented.

As students are progressing through the assignments there will be checkpoints to ensure students
are understanding what they should be doing and are gaining the knowledge needed to complete
the presentation. Research sheets will be turned in on Day 2 of the project and returned with
feedback. The teacher will address any misconceptions through feedback and make suggestions to
enhance their project. There will be a rubric provided for both the presentation and the written
assignment. Students will be also assessed by the note catcher sheets during presentations to
ensure new knowledge was acquired.

Rubric for presentations:

Tool for Success on your Ecosystem Presentation
Rubric
# Requirements meet Does
of points not
meet

Page 3 of 11
 25 Completed representation of correct
ecosystem
25 9 pictures (1 of each animal, plant and
non-living part)
25 Creative
10 Neat and ORGANIZED
15 Presentation Skills (clear voice, everyone
participating, body language)
Total Comments:
Points
______

Rubric for Written Essay:

Tools for Success on your Essay
Rubric

Your essay can be in the form of a letter, essay or a

postcard. The choice is yours!!!
# Requirements meet Does
of points not
meet
15 Introduction Paragraph
15 Body Paragraph – Describes animals
15 Body Paragraph- Describes Plants
15 Body Paragraph- Describes non-living
components
15 Conclusion Paragraph – summarizes and
includes 1 exciting fact

25 Grammar and Punctuation

Page 4 of 11
 Total Comments:
Points
______

Research Sheets:

Differentiation:

Students will have different options to present their ecosystems. They have the option of creating a
Google Slide Show, Glogster or Lino to present their ecosystems. Students also have a choice to
create their essays in the form of a letter, postcard or an essay. The choices will allow students to
choose the option that best fits their learning style.

Page 5 of 11
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?)

Students will use technology to conduct research on the different components of their ecosystems.
Websites that contain the necessary information will be posted on Google Classroom for students
to research.
Links for research:
What is an Ecosystem?
Grassland Ecosystem
Marine Ecosystem
Forest Ecosystem
Polar Ecosystem
(Some of these links contain other links that students can use for their research. Teacher will
monitor closely while students are researching)

Students will use Google Slides, Glogster or Lino to create their visuals of their ecosystems. The
rubric will guide students in making sure that they have the necessary components for their
presentations. The research handouts will help to guide the students in organizing the information
for their ecosystems.

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?)
Before starting this lesson, students have to first know how to navigate the internet and Google classroom.
They have had plenty of practice with both so there should be no need to review how to do so. In regard to
content, students should know the differences between the producers and the consumers to help them
determine the relationships and impact that the animals have in their chosen ecosystem. In order to know
if they got this information, the teacher will conduct an informal assessment on kahoot. The kahoot will
provide you with a quick summary of who understands the content or not.

During the working period, students may have trouble recognizing the relationship and impact that the
animals and plants have on their ecosystems. Teacher should facilitate this misconception by walking
around and asking guided questions and help scaffold their thinking. If the majority are not understanding
the relationships, teacher will stop and inform the class by showing information on Producers and
Consumers.

Page 6 of 11
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.

In the classroom students are always timed to make sure they do not have any time for leisure. Students will
have 45 minutes to conduct research on Day 1 of the lesson. This is when all research sheets should be turned
in for feedback before Day 2. Teacher will be actively facilitating and monitoring to ensure that students stay
on task. Student will work in four groups of about six students in each group. After collaborating with their
group to create the presentation, students will be responsible for an individual assignment to write an essay
about what they have learned with their ecosystem. Students will work in the classroom with the chrome
books. To ensure equitable access to the internet while completing the lesson, every student will have their
own computer with Wi-Fi connection to the schools’ broadband.

During the lesson if there are any technical issues such as loss of internet connection, there is an IT specialist
on site that can assist us with that issue. If there is a delay in retrieving the internet access during the school
day, students will use their own devices or any textbooks that are available in the classroom. If there are any
trouble-shooting issues, the computers will be powered off and powered on again, If the problem still persists
the IT specialists will be called to the classroom.

To prepare for any issues I made sure that all laptops were charged the day before. I also signed up for the
computers ahead of time to ensure that they would be accessible to us on the day of implementation.

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?

Page 7 of 11
In this lesson, I will use research-based strategies such as setting objectives before giving the task. Students
will be provided with the rubric beforehand so they are aware of what I am expecting of them. I
incorporated cooperative learning strategies such as grouping them and forcing them to use academic
language to promote healthy academic discourse. I provided them with organizers to guide their research.
Students analyzed the research by taking it apart and exploring the different relationships and discussing
and exploring how the animals, plant and non-living factors contribute to the ecosystem. Students
evaluated the research by thinking critically on the information gained and determining the contributing
factors that each animal and plant contributed to maintain the ecosystem. Students were held responsible to
create an ecosystem with animals and plants that will benefit their ecosystem. They used a variety of web
2.0 tools to create this ecosystem. The technology supported my lesson and teaching because it released the
teaching from me and students were able to actively research for their own information.

Students built more knowledge after completing the note-catcher sheet from other presentations. Students
used digital tools to communicate their knowledge learned on their particular ecosystem by creating a
presentation through Lino, Glogster and Goggle Slides. I facilitated the collaboration by being an active
listener to ensure academic conversations were taking place during work time.

Note-catcher for presentations:

Note-catcher from Ecosystems Presentations
List three facts you have learned.

List two questions that you have.

Give the group one praise or suggestion.

Page 8 of 11
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?)

To ensure that the content is differentiated, I have included websites that have appropriate links for those
that want to extend learning. The teacher will facilitate while students are researching and encourage those
that are interested to click on links that will extend their learning. To accommodate various learning
styles, students have choices on how they present the information for the presentation as well as the
independent writing assignment.

Students will learn from others in their group by participating in academic conversations. Students will
use “Talk Moves.” For example, “I agree with you _____ because……..” I disagree because in the text it
says,……” These sentence starters are something that they are very familiar with and it promotes healthy
academic conversations. It also teaches them to agree and disagree respectfully. There will be earphones
provided for those that need them. There will also be plug in mice that can be connected to the laptop for
those that need them.

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?

Page 9 of 11
 • 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?)
For the closing event, students will present to the third graders. This will provide a different audience for
them. Students will complete a survey to reflect back on the project and the teacher will also use the
responses and feedback from the survey to make the project better in the future. The questions that are
listed above will be embedded in the survey.
After implementation, the teacher will reflect with keeping these questions in mind.

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.

After implementing this lesson, I would say overall it went pretty well. Students expressed how much they
really enjoyed working with their peers and they loved how they had a choice in how they were to present
the information. They did feel that is was meaningful to their personal lives, but they did express that they
learned a lot about the different ecosystems and how living and non-living things work together in the
ecosystem. The lesson was well planned out and I felt really prepared for any misconceptions or trouble-
shooting issues. There were no during the lesson, but if in the event that there were any, there was a plan in
place to fix them. Every student was able to have their own laptop, because I ensured that I signed up ahead
of time for the cart. I am really surprised at how well they worked together to get the job done. I made sure
that I facilitated instead of telling them what to do and how to do it. They really enjoyed the free range that
they had with the assignment.

Some students were getting off task when they were researching. When I was spending too much time with
another group, I noticed that a few students from other groups were getting off task by opening other tabs
and trying to play games on other websites.

I would not teach this lesson differently, because I feel that it really worked and the kids enjoyed it.
Although next time, I would love to invite the parents in to watch the presentations.

Page 10 of 11
Page 11 of 11