Online Projects, Collaboration Sites and Publishing Opportunities

Lesson Idea Name: American Revolution Summary

Content Area: Social Studies
Grade Level(s): 4
Content Standard Addressed: SS4H1 Explain the causes, events, and results of the American Revolution

Technology Standard Addressed: 3. Knowledge Constructor

Selected Online Project/Collaboration Site/Publishing Opportunity:

URL(s) to support the lesson: www.kidpub.com

Describe how you would incorporate an Online Project/Collaboration Site/Publishing Opportunity in your
classroom: I would use an Online Publishing Opportunity in my classroom to allow my students to get peer
feedback on their work. For this particular lesson, I am using KidPub which is a great tool that allows students
to talk to other students about their writing in a safe space. After a lesson on the American Revolution, I will
have my students write up a paper on the causes, events and results of the American revolution based on
what we have learned. I will then have the students put their work on KidPub and there they will be able to
discuss their writing and their information with other people that are not in their class.
After the students have gotten feedback and had discussions about their work, I will give them the
opportunity to revise their work based on their discussions. I think it will be great for these students to get
feedback from somebody that they do not know and who was not in our class during our lesson. It will help
the students stay more engaged and it will help to provide honest feedback instead of feedback their friends
want to hear. This will be a great way to review what we have learned about the American Revolution.

What technologies would be required to implement this proposed learning activity in a classroom?
Any device that allows typing and access to KidPub
Describe how the following features are addressed in this learning experience (note: all of them may not be
addressed in the project, but most should be if you are reaching a high LoTi Level).
a. Collaboration with peers, near-peers, mentors outside their classroom and often beyond their
school: Students will be discussing their writing with other students on KidPub. KidPub is used by
multiple people at various schools so the students will be collaborating with other students they do not
know to receive feedback on their work.

b. Student-centered learning and knowledge creation (creating original data and or producing original
products as a result of engaging in a project): Students will write a paper on the causes, event and
results of the American Revolution based on what we learned in class. They will do their own research
and create their own paper, which will be tweaked if needed based off of the feedback received on
KidPub.

c. Higher-order thinking: Students will have to decide what parts of the feedback will be beneficial to
their writing and decide which parts they want to tweak based off of the feedback they receive.

d. Students publishing their original work to others who will use/care about their product: Students are
publishing their work and it will be reviewed by other students who are learning about the American
Revolution and the information in their writing may help provide information to another student
reviewing their paper.

Bloom’s Taxonomy Level(s):

☒ Remembering ☒ Understanding ☒ Applying ☒ Analyzing ☒ Evaluating ☒ Creating
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 Online Projects, Collaboration Sites and Publishing Opportunities
Levels of Technology Integration (LoTi Level):
☐ Level 1: Awareness ☐ Level 2: Exploration ☐ Level 3: Infusion ☐ Level 4: Integration
☒ Level 5: Expansion ☐ Level 6: Refinement

Universal Design for Learning (UDL): The tool that I have selected for this lesson will support all types of
students and it will help to capture their attention because it is something we don’t normally do in an activity.
This activity supports remembering and understanding because the students will have to remember and
understand the information that they learned about the American Revolution and they will also have to
branch out and find some of their own information. This activity supports applying because they will have to
apply their knowledge and answer the questions and put together a paper about what they learned and what
they found through research. This activity supports analyzing and evaluating because the students will have
to analyze and evaluate the feedback given to them and decide what changes to make in their write up. This
activity supports creating because the students will create an original writing that provides the necessary
information and they will tweak it based on the feedback on KidPub.
Lesson idea implementation and Internet Safety Policies:
I can implement this experience and still comply with district’s Internet Safety and Student Privacy policies by
assigning each student a pseudonym that will go on their published paper on KidPub. I will also make sure
that my students know not to give out any personal information, including their real names when they are
online. They will know their pseudonym and will have practiced using it before in a controlled classroom
setting. I will also make sure to closely monitor what is happening while the students are working online
during this experience.

Reflective Practice: I feel that this activity could really spark student interest. It is an activity that is not done
often and that usually grabs students’ attention right away. To further extend this lesson, I could have my
students find a writing on KidPub that belongs to someone else and have my students provide feedback on
that writing based on what they learned doing this project.

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