Lesson Plan
(adapted from Thinkfinity Integration Plan)
General Information
Name: Mechelle Powers
District/School or Organization: Custer School District
Subject Area/Topic:
Science
Grade Level(s):
7th and 8th grade
Step 1 – List the appropriate standards (State or National Standards for Content, Technology or 21 st Century Skills) and
one ore more Thinkfinity learning object(s) aligned to the standards.
State or National Standards
Name of Resource
State Science and Technology Standards for South Dakota
7.N.2.1; 7.L.1.3; 7.L.3.1, 7.S.1.1 and 7.S.2.1 were the science
and technology standards of the field trip that served as the
basis for the activity.
8.N.2.1; 8.P.1.1; 8.P.1.3; 8.E.1.1; 8.E.1.3; 8.E.1.5, 8.S.1.1;
8.S.2.1 were the science and technology standards of the field
trip that served as the basis for the activity.
Step 2 – Develop the student learning activity - Integration
A. Which type of resource is this?
B. Where will I use this activity in the
instructional cycle?
C. Which reading strategies will I
employ? (KWL Charts, Concept Maps,
Paragraph Outlines, etc.)
Teacher Resource
XX Online (requires a computer)
Offline (no computer required)
Opening Motivational Activity
Central Focus of Lesson Plan
Research Tool for Students
XX Closure Activity
XX Assessment Tool
Remediation Tool
Enrichment Tool
XX Before I asked student so close
their eyes and think back to the field
trip day before they began to write.
This is a visualization and guided
imagery technique. To help them get
ready to write descriptive text.
Student Resource
XX Online (requires a computer)
Offline (no computer required)
XX During Students did some 3-2-1
strategies to help them think about the
“learning” that was a part of the field trip
day.
XX After
As part of the peer reviews, students
asked eachother “thick and thin”
questions to discuss their essays.
21st Century Skills: Information,
Media and Technology Skills
XX Information Literacy
Access and Evaluate Information
Use and Manage Information
XX Media Literacy
Analyze Media & Create Media
Products
XX ICT Literacy (Information,
Communications, and Technology)
Apply Technology Effectively
Notes:
D. What will students be asked to do with the resource(s)?
I have asked all 7th and 8th grade students to write a descriptive essay about their Choices Day Field Trip activity. The Choices
Day field trips are constructed on the idea of how our everyday choices affect our environment. Students choose between 9
field trip options, hiking Harney Peak, touring Wind cave or Jewel cave, wildland fire suppression, exploring water resources and
land management, hiking to Little Devil’s Tower and canoeing on Bismark Lake and biking the Mickelson Trail and exploring the
history of the railroad. Student essays were to include their experiences and reflections on the day. The length of the essay
could vary, but I was interested in about a page of writing. Students had to create and save their documents to the student
common.
After completing the essay students shared them in a small group of students who had not been on the same field trip. Students
discussed the content of the day in terms of the environmental education they gained from the experience and the descriptions
used by the writer. This peer review also included that they share their overall impression of the writer’s experience.
I shared with students my descriptive essay about the field trip using the smartboard and then I went to Wordle.net and showed
the students how to create a Wordle using their essay. I showed them the edit and save buttons but did not demonstrate each
of the options. I wanted them to explore those options for themselves.
After their peer reviews, students went to wordle.net and created Wordles with their descriptive essays. Students had to
manipulate their Wordles to change the backgrounds to white and to change the color of the font at least once. Students were
to save their Wordles to the gallery and then check the gallery for their classmates’ Wordles. They had to save with a certain
title and then I printed their Wordles in color for them to look over and sign.
They had to present or share their Wordle with the class. Then we used them as thank you’s for the state and federal agencies
who helped conduct the Choices Day Field Trips.
E. Assessment – What observable indicators will inform you about student success with the learning activity?
Students were scored on their ability to create a word document and save it to the student common in the correct file. This was
worth 3 points. Students were scored on their ability to copy and paste their essay from Word to the Wordle create page. This
was worth 3 points. Students were scored on their ability to change the background and their font colors and save their Wordle
with the correct title which was worth another 3 points.
Students were scored on their peer reviews. Students had to complete at least 3 peer essay reviews and have their essay
reviewed by three other students which counted for 6 more points. I collected these at the end of the activity to make sure I
assigned the correct points and to be sure that I could assess the quality of the reviews.
Finally, students had to share their printed Wordle with the class, which was worth 2 points.
I keep one sheet that listed these criteria for each student. If they completed the task they received the point. Students were
given direct feedback at each step of the project as to the points they were receiving for each portion of the project.
Step 3 – Do a complete trial run of the learning activity you described in step 2D.
Reflect on the learning activity.
Considerations:
We did need to talk about the nature of posting on the web. Students saw how any and all words can be put into a Wordle. The
site does not sort for whether or not the word is appropriate. We discussed that once you posted a Wordle it was there forever
and could not be corrected for spelling or content. This gave us a great opportunity to talk about how to handle things when
searching the web. Students came up with some great strategies and thoughts on how to “ignore” the bad stuff and still be able
to use the resources of the web.
It may be a good idea to create a checklist for the points portion of the assignment. I did not need one but it may help if
someone else tries to implement the activity.
Step 4 – Plan for student success - Implementation
E. How will I configure my classroom for the learning activity?
Classroom Configuration:
Computers not needed - printable resource
XX Whole group instruction, using a projector and / or interactive white
board
Whole group activity, with small groups using mobile laptops
simultaneously
XX Small group, using classroom computers or mobile laptops as rotating
stations
One to one, using classroom computers or mobile laptops as rotating
stations
One to one, in a computer lab setting
XX One to one, with individual student laptops
Other
Notes:
I used whole group instruction for the first part of
the essay creation and then for the
demonstration of the creation of a Wordle.
Students had the use of their own laptop or
tablet for the entire activity. They used their
tablets in the peer review portion instead of
printing out hard copies of the papers. Their
peer reviews could have been done in a group
Google-Docs document if the students had
school email addresses. My school does not
have that feature so we used paper and pencil to
complete the reviews.
F. How will I manage implementation?
Classroom Management:
XX General computer rules /
procedures
XX Specific directions for activity
Helping Hands
Other
Notes: It helped to have the Smartboard to demonstrate the Wordle creation.
Students had that visual to refer to when they got stuck and it allowed me to answer
questions in a quick and concise manner.
G. What additional considerations will support successful implementation?
XX Software
Hardware
Supplemental Materials
Other
Notes: Some of our computers did not have JAVA, which required us to download a
free version. This might be something that you need to check before trying the
activity.
Step 5 – Consider the bigger picture
How will this learning activity fit within your curriculum to best support student learning of standards listed?
We used this activity to help us focus our learning from a very busy day. It allowed students to create their own story of the day
and share it with one another. It also gave students the opportunity to take their thoughts and create something to publish on
the web. Of the 102 students that completed this activity, only 4 had prior experience with Wordle. Students felt empowered to
see their work in the gallery for the world to see.
I used the Choices Day Trips to help students discover Wordle but they have since used it on their own in other classes and just
for fun. I think that we will continue to explore widgets for students to use to create their own presentations of the large topics
we are discussing all year in science. Environmental education and land use and key standards that were addressed in this
activity.
They also saw firsthand how important it is to use good judgment in posting things to the web. It ended up being a great
learning activity for web etiquette.