Lesson Plan
The lesson plan unit will be presented altogether in the post but has been broken up into different lessons per session. However, certain aspects of the each session will not change. The introduction and task (motivation) will be stated and the overall objectives. After each session I have included a short assessment. At the end, you’ll find a more detailed end assessment that would include a rubric for the end product. Make sure to read this over in order to understand my approach for the project.
Introduction of the project: Many people like to travel to different places for short periods of time. They use this time to visit, vacation and explore new places. Before they leave, they have to plan where they are going, how they will get there, what they will do there and how much money they will spend. It’s a lot of work to plan a trip. Many people use travel agents to help them. Travel agents are people whose work is to plan all the details of a trip.
Task and explanation of the project: Many times a travel agent will suggest a place to visit when their customer is not sure where he or she wants to go. It’s important that the travel agent knows important facts and history about that place suggested so that the customer is interested. In this project, it will be your job to research and explore one city, country or state to visit. You must provide, in your end project, the following: everyday facts (i.e. population, climate, geographical location, etc), a brief history, good locations to visit and why.
Aim/Objective:
- Students will be able to research, using the internet and library resources, information about their specific city or country.
- Students will be able to listen to a podcast and take notes.
- Students will be able to use technology to interact and perform daily homework and class assignments.
- Students will be able to orally present their findings.
- Students will be able to creatively construct a powerpoint presentation to display their findings. Students will use their own photographs and pictures off the internet to illustrate.
- Students will be able to work collaboratively in pairs.
- Students will be able to evaluate and provided constructive feedback on the presentations of their peers.
ESL Standards:
Standard # 1: Students will listen, speak, read, and write in English for information and understanding.
- Performance Indicators # 2, 5, and 13
Standard # 4: Students will listen, speak, read, and write in English for classroom and social interaction.
- Performance Indicators # 1, 7 and 9
Standard # 5: Students will demonstrate cross-cultural knowledge and understanding.
- Performance Indicators # 3 and 6
Prior Knowledge/Motivation:
- In order to encourage discussion. The students will first hear the elements of the project and the requirements. Next, the teacher will start a discussion on places that the students have gone or visited. Also, if the students are from a different country, the teacher might ask about the native countries of the students. The teacher may also ask about famous places around the world. Has a student ever gone to a famous place around the world, or is there a place they would like to go?
SESSION # 1
Procedure:
- As the discussion develops, the teacher will provide a brainstorming web and have the students contribute ideas.
- First, the teacher will have the students think of a city or country. The teacher will place that name in the center of the web.
- Next, the teacher will ask for the students to say anything that comes to mind when they think of this place (this could be what the weather is like, where is it located, the language that’s spoken there-if it’s a different country, historical places, basically anything)
- This will continue to peak interest and also start to give the students an idea of what information they will need to acquire for the project.
Practice:
- Together the class will listen to a podcast. But first there must be an introduction and explanation:
- The podcast the class will be listening to is called “city podcast” and was created by an elementary class and their teacher. The podcast was created to give information and background about their town where the school is located. In this podcast you will hear many of the things that you will be required to include in your own project.
- We will listen to it together in class and then it will be available on our blog if you would likes to listen to it another time later during computer time or when you’re at home.
- As we listen I would like you to pay close attention to the KINDS of information that the students provide. Listen so that you can get ideas for your own project. As your listening please write down three kinds of information that you find particularly interesting and different.
Assessment:
- After the podcast has been played, have students turn-and-talk with their partner about what they wrote down. Are they the same, are the different?
- Next have a share out with the whole class. Talk about the aspects that they would like to include in their project.
SESSION # 2
Students will now have had a introduction to the project, group practice of coming up with ideas and brainstorming, and time to listen in on a different kind of presentation that included a lot of the same information they will need to include in their project.
Procedure:
- Today’s lesson will be self exploration of the area the students would like to present on.
- Briefly review the web from the previous lesson, discuss and review the facts and information that needs to be included in their report.
- Next, direct them to the class blog where there is a list of resources that will help them find information on different places around the world.
- They may choose whatever place interests them.
- The teacher will first show the students the blog and how to navigate through it. The teacher will also show how to post a comment (this will be required in the practice part of today’s lesson).
Practice:
· The following will be displayed on the blog for the students to interact with. As they explore, they will be required to fill out a chart that includes brief investigation of three different places. This guarantees that they are not choosing the first place they see. The chart will ask the location name, what picture or graphic is displayed that is interesting, and one fact they can easily find about this place.
o Students, in order to get ideas about what city or place you would like to explore, please visit the following websites.
Go to this site:
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/
Then click on PEOPLE AND PLACES
This will bring you to a page where you can look at pictures of people and
places around the world. Anything look interesting to you?
If you didn’t find anything, go to this site
http://kids.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia
Then click on WORLD FACTBOOK
This will open a page with different flags of countries you can click on.
If you want to find a city or place in the
http://www.usconsulate.org.hk/pas/kids/
Then click on EXPLORE USA
Next, on the left side click EXPLORE THE 50 STATES
Then click on the letters to get information about the state.
o
· Once the search and chart is completed, they students will choose the place they like most out of those three.
· As a conclusion to the activity, the students will post their decision on the blog along with a brief description as to why they chose this location.
Assessment:
· Students will turn in their charts
· Blog postings will be reviewed to see that the student understood the assignment and could navigate around the blog.
SESSION # 3 (this may take a couple days)
Students have now decided what location they would like to investigate. They will receive their charts back with any needed comments. Since they already filled out something brief about the location, they will use this is a starting block.
Procedure
- The class will visit the classroom’s blog together.
- The teacher will play the two VOKIs that describe today’s assignment. This does not only give instructions but it’s a way to expose the technology to the students.
- A brief run-through of how to use this site will be explained by the teacher (this will be used later on in today’s assignment).
Practice:
- The VOKI animation will tell the students that today they will get started on researching their location. But they first must fill out a KWL chart. This chart has them write what they already know about the location and what they want to know about the location (the last section is filled out after the research has been done, here they write: what they hav learned about the location).
- After they fill out the chart and before they get started on researching, they will work collaboratively with a partner or in a group of 3. They will swap charts, read them over and then give feedback. Did they find something interesting? Do they have a question that they might ask about this location? Did the two share any similar questions or facts they knew?
- When they’ve finished, they will begin to research. They will be able to use library resources (books, magazines, etc) but they will also be required to get some information from the internet.
- The blog will be set up with some suggested search engines. These will also include the websites that were listed in the previous assignment since all those websites are rich with information.
Assessment:
- To make sure that the students are staying on task, they will be required to check in with their partner from time-to-time to show the progress they’ve made and to ask for help if they need it.
- To close this assignment (that may take a couple days), they will need to post some interesting facts that will be included in their end project. This may be simply posted on the blog or they may create a VOKI animation that tells us the fact and upload it to the class blog.
SESSION # 4
This will be the final step of the project before the oral presentations.
Procedure:
- The end publishing/presentation produce of this project is a powerpoint slideshow and an oral presentation.
- The teacher will model what he/she expects from the students while the present
- Eye contact
- Clear speech
- Standing up straight
- ETC
- The teacher will also provide a brief mock example of what their slideshow will look like. It’s important to state that this is just to give the students an idea, but does include everything that is required in their presentation.
- This part of the project will be approached after powerpoint has been used in the classroom and the teacher knows his/her students are able to use it on their own.
Practice:
- Students will now begin to take all the information that they have researched and piece it together in a powerpoint presentation.
- They must also create note cards to assist them in their oral presentation.
- Students will be given the resources to pre-record their presentation if they would rather present this way than live to the class.
Assessment:
I have included small assessment “checks” at the end of each session. This is to insure that they students are staying on task and keeping with the pace of the project. I would imagine that this whole project could span out to a couple more sessions, given that I would make sure the students had ample time research and take notes. Also, part of Project Based Learning and letting the students have an elongated time to work and therefore I believe the research session would be the one most prone to needing extra time. While so much of the research part is guided on the internet, I would perhaps spend a session on library research as well. Internet is a great commodity, but books and tangible items are just as good and it’s important for the students to know this. I might goes as far as to require at least one book resource.
I would follow a rubric for grading the presentation. Also, the follow the collaboration method, I would ask the students to provide feedback on the presentations of their peers (I would first go over the appropriate ways to respond) and this would factor into the overall grade on the project. I have included, in this document, something that I might give my students to review their peers. I have also included in this blog a rubric for the presentation and project.
Student Evaluation
Name of Student_____________________________
(4 is the highest, 1 is the lowest)
He/She makes eye contact with the audience, speaking slow and clearly.
1 2 3 4
Powerpoint presentation includes graphics and maps.
1 2 3 4
Powerpoint presentation includes interesting and important facts.
1 2 3 4
I liked this presentation because ______________________________________________
I think he/she could work on______________________________________________.
Overall I would give ___________a: 1 2 3 4
