Sammi Salter

Learning Artifact Revised

Helpful Materials:
Advice to a Future UTA When Preparing a Lesson Plan:
When I create lesson plans, I try to think about what is most important for my
students to get out of this lesson. What do I want them to take away? Is it a small lesson
or is there a bigger meaning behind it? Another important factor relies on how to engage
your students in the best way possible. This is a biggie and it is something that you will
have to think about before crafting a lesson plan for your students. It really depends on
the type of classroom environment you have, and it may be different for every UTA. For
example, my first time being a UTA, my students were very comfortable with me and we
had a great relationship. My second time being a UTA, I had a much different
relationship with my students because of the online environment. We also had
synchronous meetings only once a week and it was much harder to grasp their attention
through a camera rather than right in front of them. Determining the environment of your
classroom and its personality is possibly quite the most important factor in developing a
lesson plan and the biggest piece of advice I can give to first time UTAs. Are your
students’ extraverts and voluntarily willing to participate in an open discussion or do you
need to think outside of the box and incorporate some creative games to grasp your
students’ attention?

Before Class:
Complete Assigned reading for class today in Fearless Writing that teaches us about
Hyperlinks

Learning Objective:
1. For the students to understand how to incorporate hyperlinks into their Digital
Forum
2. For the students to understand why one should use hyperlinks while writing for
digital audiences
3. For the students to understand when one should use hyperlinks in their Digital
Forum
4. For students to get any last questions answered about the Digital Forum

Materials
- An open mind! We are going to be running things a little bit differently to spice
things up and give our instructor Sabrina a well-deserved break! Please have an
open mind when I introduce something that strays a bit from what we normally do
 (We will be incorporating some breakout rooms and games in today’s lesson
plan!)
- Your Digital Forum
- A computer
- Cameras on! (I want to see your shinning faces! It is gloomy enough around here
let’s show up for each other today )

Time estimate: 50 Minutes

Outline:
Part 1: Small Group Readings Discussion (10 Minutes)
- We will break into 5 Breakout Rooms of 4 people. Go over the following
questions in your small groups:
1. How does one hyperlink using Weebly? How does one hyperlink using
Wix? (If you are using a different platform, how do you hyperlink using that
platform?)
2. Why should one hyperlink instead of using in text citations for a digital
audience?
3. How often should one hyperlink?
4. Can you hyperlink scholarly sources?
5. Can you hyperlink using popular sources?
Part 2: Discussion of Small Group Discussions (5 minutes)
Part 3: True or False Game (10 Minutes)
- The purpose of this game is to clarify any questions or confusions you may have
about hyperlinking. If you think the statement is true, type T in the chat box. If you
think the statement is false, type F in the chat box.
1. I must hyperlink every single source in my Digital Forum (Agree or
Disagree)
2. My Digital Forum must look like a professional website and be absolutely
perfect (Agree or Disagree)
3. A “Required Reading” Page is required at the end of my Digital Forum,
including 5 annotations (approx. 100 words each) of scholarly sources
pertaining to your issue (Agree or Disagree)
4. A stakeholder is someone who has no interest in my topic (Agree or
Disagree)
5. My Digital Forum should be submitted on Dec 1 (Agree or Disagree)

Part 4: Peer Review (20 minutes)

1. You are going to be sent into breakout rooms with your partners. I will be hopping
in and out of the rooms to check on you guys to see if you have any questions.
You have been assigned partners over the Peer Review Website. Specifically
 look at your partner’s use of hyperlinks and in-text citations in their project (15
minutes)
2. Give your partner your feedback. Did they do an efficient job citing their sources?
Should they add anything else? Do they have enough sources? This is your last
chance to receive feedback on your projects before they are due so give your
partner honest helpful advice. (10 minutes, 5 for each partner)
3. We will come back to the main room- Have time to chat with your friends about
the project to see if there are any remaining questions. (5 minutes)

Part 5: Final Questions and Assessing your Understanding of Objective (5

minutes)
1. Ask any final questions you may have!
2. Your understanding of this class objective will be measured in your submission of
the Digital Forum. Please make sure you understand everything we talked about
today, and if you do not, that is what both your instructor and I are here for!
Sources:
A helpful source in the creation of this lesson plan is the “5E Learning Cycle
Lesson Plan” from appstate.edu. Something that really helped me when creating this
lesson plan are the 5Es: Engagement, Exploration, Explanation, Expansions, and
Evaluation. When creating this lesson plan, I would go back through these 5E’s and ask
myself whether or not I included elements from all of these 5E’s in order to truly have a
robust and finished lesson plan.
Reflection:
I really had to be creative when transforming this Lesson Plan from an in-person
lesson to a Zoom University Lesson! I remember creating this lesson with the intention
of getting the students up and moving- I love interactive classes, as you will soon be
able to tell. It was also something fun and new the students could experience instead of
just listening to my Professor or I lecture the entire class and grabble for some
participation. My students and I my first time being a UTA had such a great bond and
relationship. I remember walking around the classroom peaking my head into each
group’s conversations and just chatting right along with them. Sometimes I would hear
all the boys in the back talking about their favorite new XBOX game, and I would make
squinting eye contact with them- and we would all just laugh. I really miss the in-person
environment, I will cherish that semester being a UTA forever.
I really tried to encompass those aspects into this lesson plan. I know some of
my students are struggling this semester- most of them are first semester freshman
students. I recently had a chat with one of my students who has been very open with
me about her experience living alone on South Campus and having all of her classes
online. How is she supposed to make friends and develop a community when she has
no roommate, no in-person classes, and has to eat all of her meals in her room. This is
really why I tried to encompass interactive materials into this lesson plan. I want my
students to know they are loved, they are cared for, and they are special. I know even
living with three roommates of my own, sometimes I get overwhelmed, feel isolated, and
struggle, I cannot imagine what they are going through.
Therefore, a few things I changed and transformed for the new and online
environment: Instead of walking around the classroom and finding some new students
to collaborate, the students will be randomly assigned into breakout rooms for
discussion in the beginning of class. Even though breakout rooms sometimes can be a
little nerve wrecking, I, as a student, feel more conferrable talking in the breakout rooms
with my peers than in front of a huge class. Instead of running to a different side of a
classroom for the true vs false game, the students will type their answers into the chat-
not nearly as fun, but not much we can do there. And finally, instead of swapping their
computers, the students will be assigned a partner via the Peer Review on Elms and
work with their partners in a breakout room. While these circumstances are not ideal,
we have to simply try our best to make the most of them. The smallest gestures really
can go a long way in these times, and it is important to establish communities every
chance possible.