Unit Outline Template

Name: Lindsey Owens

Grade level: 5th grade
Content Area: Multiple Subjects
Title of Unit: Who We Are

Essential Questions or Driving Questions:

Essential Question(s) that allow learners to explore significant questions
about themselves and/or their world:
Students are going to learn about different cultures, diversity and our classroom
community. They will do this by asking questions such as:
What is digital citizenship? How can be a digital citizen?
How can I reflect on my own experiences and culture
How can I build my knowledge through research on my own identity and family
history
How are my experiences the same or different from someone from a different
culture

Standards:
Your statement about what learners should know and be able to do. (Be
sure it related to your essential questions or driving questions.):
Student will be able to conduct research on their own cultural background
and that of their e-Pal.
Student will be able to ask quality questions that facilitate follow-up
questions.
Student will be able to gather this information and create a digital video
to display it.
Students will be able to compare and contrast their own experiences to
that of their e-Pal.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.7
Conduct short research projects that use several sources to build knowledge
through investigation of different aspects of a topic.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.8
Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from
print and digital sources; summarize or paraphrase information in notes and
finished work, and provide a list of sources.
ISTE*S Standards (Pick 1-2 rather than including the whole list.):

1: Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity

4: Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility
Overview and Timeline
Before these lessons begin, I will need to get parent permission slips to participate
in online activity that connects to other students globally. I also need to address
privacy policies. This form is printed and handed out to parents, but I also provided
the document on our classroom Weebly website.

Lesson 1: Week One

1. Sign up for free account on Digital Passport common sense media.
2. Give students a week during their aloted technology time to play the games that
get them to receive their digital passport. This is individual work where learning
occurs on Chromebooks. Digital Passport can also be accessed on iOS and Android
devices.
3. After each session ask students one thing or rule they learned. Add it to the class
poster for How to be a Digital Citizen
4. Go over the rules at the end of the week to prep them for the upcoming lessons.

Lesson 2: Week Two

Students will have a handout where they keep track of their answers to these
questions. Students are going to be participating in a cultural exploration of
themselves. They are going to be asking questions along the lines of:

What is my cultural background?

Where is my family from?

What are some traditions my family has?

What are some traditions from our heritage?

What are my favorite recipes?

Are any of these recipes from a different country culture?

Students should also be striving to do their own explorations and add in

follow-up questions.
All of these questions are going to help the flow of conversation when talking to
their e-Pal.
Use Google/ Kiddle for more in depth research!

Lesson 3: Week 3 - these conversations can continue until the end of the
lesson but mandatory questions need to be answered on these days!
During Lesson 3 students are going to be introduced to the amazing resource of E-
Pals! This is a global community program that allows classrooms from all around the
world to connect with one another and collaborate on projects. Our plan for this unit
is to connect with a classroom from a country based on the anonymous votes from
students.
1. Once class is set up with their e-Pal on Day 1 of this week, we will start our
introductions.
2. Students are responsible for the conversations that are happening between their
e-Pal and them. Their conversations should stem from the quality questions they
explored about themselves so they have something to compare to. Make sure your
students have their list on hand for reference.
3. Remind students to record the information their e-Pal is telling them.
4. First day of conversations, your student will ask their e-Pal the questions outlined
on the handout
5. Students will write their responses down using key words, not word for word
(too time consuming)
6. Next, students will give responses to the same questions from the e-Pals.
Questions can stem off into tangents and fluid conversations, that is the beauty of
this project. Students dont have a limit to the knowledge they can gain.

Your child will be talking back and forth with their e-Pal in order to investigate and
discover the answers to their pre-written questions that they compiled in the
previous lesson.

This is something that will be on going until Lesson 5. All of these questions will
result in creating a VoiceThread video where they have the amazing opportunity
to compare and contrast the experiences of their E-pal!

Lesson 4: Week 4 Work Week! This week will give them time to go back
and edit/add to their previous posts along with adding their new ones in
regards to conversations with their E-Pal friend.
This is a work week to catch up on e-Pal conversatioins that may have been missed.
1. Give students enough time to create a solid/quick script for their voicethread.
Lesson 5: Week 5 - Time for VoiceThread!
Create a script and outline of what each slide on VoiceThread will look like.
Continue script, get set up on Voicethread
Create! Add images, music, voice, etc.
Post it on Seesaw!
1. Show students a screencast or how-to for using and navigating VoiceThread
there could be a learning curve here so this helps them know what to expect.
2. Show classroom / teacher example of final project mine is posted on my
classroom website for easy access.
3. Demonstrate how to save images onto their desktop, they should have one
image for every slide.
4. Work time, let students get started putting images onto their VoiceThread
5. Once images are set up in chronological order from their scripts, they can
begin to record their voices.
Assessment
Students will be assessed based on their final production of their VoiceThread and
the quality of comparisons and contrasting they had with their e-Pal.

Formative: Students will do a self-assessment once they complete their video.

Scoring themselves on 1 5 based on the rubric of what is expected of them.

Summative: Your assessment will be based off the same format and should take the
students assessment into consideration on how they felt they did. Based on their
completion of their VoiceThread

Resources
Educator Preparation:
In preparation for this I will need to address privacy issues and get parent
permission for these online discussions.
I will also need to set up our e-Pal classroom so we are on the same page for
timeline of conversations.

Take vote on what country to pair up with our classroom must be an English
speaking country, but Dual Immersion schools feel free to pick other countries!

Tools and Resources Provided to Learners:

Students in class need enough computers (Chromebooks or iPads) to access the
applications throughout these lessons using the Internet. This tool must have a
working microphone handy!
Students will need access to the above accounts that we will use throughout the
unit.
I will also provide instructional videos and examples of a VoiceThread made by me
in the same manner of how they are making it. This is available on my classroom
website for them to reference throughout the unit.

Tutorials and Templates Provided to Learners:

Lesson 1:
Digital Passport Tutorial I will have them watch the introductory video that is on
the website.

Lesson 2:
Google / Kiddle
Print out of pre-guided questions to explore and write out interview questions for
family members.
If they want to record their interviews they will need access at home, so hopefully
they will have resources at home if not a check out of an ipad or Chromebook would
suffice (is this possible)
IF NOT we can just record pen and pencil the interview and type it out to put on the
blog.
Lesson 3:
E-Pal introduction.

Lesson 4:
Work week for students to work on script and conversations for e-Pal.

Lesson 5:
Provide students with how-to video for VoiceThread. This gives them an instructional
walk through on how to use the tool. Give them time to get acquainted on the first
day.

Class demonstration on how to save images to their desktops.

Briefly explain how the resources, tools, and tutorials may be used to
differentiate content or process for learners:
Giving a detailed screen cast of what to include will not only guide them through a
step by step project, but it will also give them an outlook on what I am expecting by
providing my own example.

Throughout this unit students will have tech and non tech options to help them
manage their time. The in-class tech things are mandatory since they will be
provided with the resources during class time and thats what will be assessed.
Anything that happens outside of the classroom has some flexibility to add equity to
the unit.

Reason(s) for chosen technology(s):

Epals is one of the most interesting tech tools I have come across as an educator,
and something I would love to incorporate into my future units as a teacher.

Screencast is a great tool for giving how-tos and tutorials for students to follow

VoiceThread puts together a presentation in a fun and exciting way that is different
from normal PowerPoints or Prezis. I love that students can use images they found
in research while also using their voice to orally tell their story and share their ideas.

Instructional Plan

Management:
Each day working on this unit students will meet at the carpet for a quick intro into
what that lesson entails and my expectations of them. Always referencing our
poster from what they learned from getting their digital passports.
Most of this work is going to be semi self-paced, individual work happening at their
desks.
I will walk around and make sure on task behavior is happening. Asking probing
questions to get them to think deeper.
In lesson 5 especially I will be there to walk through technical difficulties of
VoiceThread.
Differentiation:
Venn-diagram graphic organizer for comparing and contrasting will help students
differentiate between themselves and their e-Pals. Showing them an example of
bullet points on the inside will help.

Closure and Reflection

Students will be posting their VoiceThread onto our classroom Seesaw page, so it is
private to students, teacher and parents. Students who dont wish to share it
publically can send it directly to the teacher to be graded. Before this unit, parents
must sign internet use contract and acceptable usage policy Students will be using
VoiceThread which is an easy set up that can occur on the first day of lesson 4 or 5.