Jill Brooks

ITEC 7430
Dr. Gagnon
Fall 2014

Lesson Plan for Implementing

1st Grade Teacher

School/District

Wilcox County Elementary School/Wilcox County

E-mail

brooksj@wilcox.k12.ga.us

Phone

(229) 401-8521

Grade Level(s)

1st Grade

Content Area

Science

Time line

1 day

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.
Content Standards

S1E2, S1P1

NETS*S Standards:

1a,b,c, 3b, 5a,b,c,d, 6a,b,c,d

Overview (a short summary of the lesson or unit including assignment or expected or possible products)
This lesson was created as an add-on activity to teach along with other content material. I wanted my students to
become more familiar with using their Chromebooks independently, so I created a lesson that could be guided as
a whole group lesson, but still required some independent work for each student. Throughout the lesson, the
students collaboratively analyze the 7 colors of a rainbow and apply different ways to remember the material that
was taught. After a quick pre-assessment through SurveyMonkey, the students complete a Webquest of the
content then students have the option to create their own rainbow online and submit it for an extra 100 points
counted in Science.

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Jill Brooks
ITEC 7430
Dr. Gagnon
Fall 2014
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 are all rainbows alike?
How many colors show up in a rainbow?
What is the correct order of those colors?
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.
To begin the project, the students will complete a very simple 5 question quiz on SurveyMonkey. They will use their
Chromebook to answer the questions as I read them all aloud. Since the Chromebooks are all linked into my
account, I can easily add the SurveyMonkey Quiz link to their bookmark bar before the students turn on their
Chromebooks. With the bookmark added, they can simple click on the link and go straight to the quiz. I can also
write to web address on the board just in case anybody needs to re-type it in. After we have finished the quiz, I will
use their data to lead a group discussion/review of the material we are learning.
Since I geared this project to suit very low level students, there is no huge need to differentiate content. All of the
information presented has already been taught and this project is used as a review. Some of my students are
emerging readers where others are severely struggling readers. I wanted to have the directions posted so the
students could see the words and hopefully read some of them, but I also included video clips of myself reading the
exact text from each page so struggling students would be able to hear the words they could not read. I also
included an option of differentiated assessment at the end. I prefer the students to complete the color chart online
and print it, but for those that are struggling using the computer, I included the option to complete their color chart on
paper using other mediums such as crayons or markers.
I will assess student learning by their creation of a rainbow. In order for the student to get the full credit for this
assignment, they must use only the 7 correct colors of a true rainbow and they must be in the correct order. No
rubric will be created; they must have both parts of the assessment correct to receive the bonus points. Although
the assessment will be at the end of the project, I will be monitoring students throughout the process to try and notice
any struggles they may face on the other elements. I want to make sure they are working successfully through the
entire WebQuest.
Ideally, this would be an independent activity, but could easily be done with any sized group. If done with a large
group, the activity should be teacher guided until the end assessment. The assessment part of the activity is too
simple to be completed within a group larger than 2 or 3.
Link to the SurveyMonkey pre-assessment
Link to Colors of the Rainbow Assessment

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Jill Brooks
ITEC 7430
Dr. Gagnon
Fall 2014
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?)
I have a classroom set of 25 Google Chromebooks and each student used one throughout this project. The
Chromebooks stay in my classroom all the time, so I did not have to reserve them. Although each student had
their own Chromebook to navigate through the WebQuest, I still modeled it on the SmartBoard and led the
students through each page. They found it easy to navigate and after some short instruction, they could have
probably navigated everything independently.
Due to such a large number of SpEd students, I have another teacher that comes in part of the day to help work
with the students. I waited to complete this project while she was in the room, just in case we had students that
needed more guidance. Everything was completed at school and I allowed 1 hour and 55 minutes for this entire
project. The students were able to fit that time frame. Some finished early, but wanted to go back and play the
game or hear the songs again. They really enjoyed the project!
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?)
The way I have my project laid out with games and songs worked well with my students. A teacher knows his or
her class better than someone else and is the best person to create an assignment for them. I used my knowledge
of my students to choose certain elements to make their WebQuest experience as beneficial as possible. Although
my activities were simple, I still struggled with my students not being able to read and know what they were
supposed to be doing on each page. I tried to use different avatars and fun things for the audio directions, but in the
end decided to use a simple self-created video of myself reading the text from the page. This helped the students
to know that if they were confused on what to do, all they had to do was click on the teacher and hear the directions
again.

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Jill Brooks
ITEC 7430
Dr. Gagnon
Fall 2014
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 project was teacher guided using a teacher computer and SmartBoard. While the teacher displayed each step
on the SmartBoard, the students followed along individually using a Google Chromebook at their desk. The
teacher has a class set of 25 Chromebooks to use with the students. Students do not have much exposure to
using the computers and are all struggling readers so the teacher made sure to include audio for the directions as
well as guiding the students through the process. No assistive technology was used.
The day before I planned to implement this lesson, I checked my Chromebook charging cart to make sure all
computers were properly shut down and plugged in to charge completely overnight. I also took the main teacher
Chromebook and went in to edit the bookmarks that would show up for all student computers. I wanted to make
sure that the students could simply click on bookmark links instead of having to type out long web addresses. The
students do have to type in a username and password, and to build technology independence, I printed those two
things on card stock and gave each student a copy to look at and use at their desk as they type.
One issue I did face was some of the computers did not sync the bookmarks properly. I printed myself a list of the
exact URLs that we were using and kept them on a clipboard to take from desk to desk. I was easier for me to
come and type the website in on the few computers that didnt synce rather than shut them all down and try to resync them all.
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 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?
Due to the low level of achievement and age of these students, project-based learning has never been attempted.
Students are very familiar with small group learning. Most of their Kindergarten skills were built in small groups and I
incorporate small groups into their First Grade work on a daily basis as well. Much guidance is needed for small
group and students cannot complete assignments independently.
The students are constantly categorizing the colors to correctly create a model at the end. Although they are
assessed on the accuracy of their model, the biggest evaluation would be involvement in group discussion of the
project. The project is teacher guided, yet students are working independently on their own computer. While the
students are working, the teacher is modeling best practices for their actions. This modeling from the teacher leads
into group discussions over the content as well as technology use.
This project was designed as a bonus activity to be completed as a review of previous content material. The online
survey students complete before the project is a great, quick way for the teacher to collect data and then use the
student data to guide student collaboration as they defend their answers or correct mistakes.

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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Jill Brooks
ITEC 7430
Dr. Gagnon
Fall 2014
Some of my students are emerging readers where others are severely struggling readers. I wanted to have the
directions posted so the students could see the words and hopefully read some of them, but I also included video
clips of myself reading the exact text from each page so struggling students would be able to hear the words they
could not read. I also included an option of differentiated assessment at the end. I prefer the students to complete
the color chart online and print it, but for those that are struggling using the computer, I included the option to
complete their color chart on paper using other mediums such as crayons or markers.
Ideally, this would be an independent activity, but could easily be done with any sized group. If done with a large
group, the activity should be teacher guided until the end assessment. The assessment part of the activity is too
simple to be completed within a group larger than 2 or 3.
There are lots of possible ways to incorporate adaptive or assistive technology as resources for this project, but a
few examples are listed below:
Students with visual disabilities could benefit from magnification of their computer screen, or even use of the
SmartBoard to display the project.
Students with auditory disabilities could benefit from the audio version of the directions. They could be offered
headphones to wear to better listen to the audio parts of the project. The students would benefit from being able to
play the audio directions repeatedly if needed.
Students with physical disabilities could benefit from tools such as a wireless mouse to use with their laptop.
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?)
Looking back, I would say there are lots of other choices I might have made. I would have liked to have
something that would last a little longer, so maybe I could have found some more games and activities to
incorporate into the project.
I monitored and questioned my students throughout the whole process and other than some minor issues like
slow internet connection, the project went well. I was pleased with my addition of the direction video clips. This
made the project a lot easier for me to conduct and helped my low level students work independently. The
students had already learned this material, so it was fun for them to be able to work online and complete the
activities successfully. They were all proud of themselves for navigating through the Webquest on their own.
In some of the higher grades as my school, especially 3 rd, students complete projects on PowerPoint. I think that
if I did this lesson again in the future, I might extend it some and include a group PowerPoint at the end to give
my students more exposure to a new type of technology. We could divide into 7 groups and each group be
assigned one of the colors of a rainbow and then create a slide of anything they can think of that is their assigned
color. We could even extend the PowerPoint from there and use our slides to create a Prezi to share online. I
feel that although we cannot go into great depth using the technology tools with such young students, that we
can do as many small group things as possible to prepare them for its use in their future.

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.

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Jill Brooks
ITEC 7430
Dr. Gagnon
Fall 2014
My suggestion to any others that are beginning a project like this it to map out your ideas long before you plan to
implement the activity. This project was rewarding and fun to construct, but took a lot of planning and revising. I
would definitely recommend working with a fellow teacher and collaborating to create a joint project that you both
could use. I would also suggest that at least for your first WebQuest that you focus on a subject you are familiar
with and that you have previously taught. By having a bank of resource already available, you will greatly benefit
yourself in the creation of a new project.

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