Student Response and Assessment Tools

Lesson Idea Name: Roles of Organisms

Grade Level(s)/Content Area: 4th Grade Science
Content Standard Addressed: S4L1. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the roles of
organisms and the flow of energy within an ecosystem.

Technology Standard Addressed: ISTE Standard 7B: Educators will use technology to design and implement a
variety of formative and summative assessments that accommodate learner needs, provide timely feedback
to students, and inform instruction.

Overarching Question: Can you explain the relationship between producers, consumers, and decomposers in
a food web or food chain?

Selected Technology Tool:

☐ Socrative ☐ iRespond ☐ Quizlet ☐ Plickers ☐ Kahoot! ☐ Office365 Forms
☒ Other: Gimkit
URL(s) to support the lesson (if applicable): https://www.gimkit.com/view/603da194ecb65700227a185f

Technology that student will use to respond to questions/prompts:

☒ Computer ☐ Hand-held student response system (like iRespond) ☒ Phone ☒ Tablet (such as iPad)
☒ Other wireless device (such as iPod Touch)
Type of session:
☐ Teacher-Paced ☒ Student-Paced
Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy Level(s):
☒ Remembering ☒ Understanding ☒ Applying ☒ Analyzing ☐ Evaluating ☐ Creating

Levels of Technology Integration:

☐ Infusion Level: Students may work at a higher Bloom’s Level, but they do not have any “Voice or Choice”
during the activity and most of the decisions are made by the teacher.

☒ Integration Level: We would like to see ALL lessons/activities reach this level. The project is student-
driven. Students have “Voice and Choice” in the activities, selecting the topic of study and determining the
technology tool to demonstrate mastery of the standard. The teacher becomes more of a facilitator.
☐ Expansion Level: The projects created are shared outside of the classroom, publishing student work and
promoting authorship. This could be reached by showcasing the project on the school’s morning
newscast, posting the project to the classroom blog, or publishing via an outside source.

Describe the instructional activities that will occur PRIOR to the SRT activity and how you will introduce
the SRT activity: Before students begin the Gimkit activity, I will teach a lesson on the different roles of
organisms and the flow of energy in an ecosystem. To introduce the lesson, I will ask students how they get
energy every day and what they eat on a normal day. Then, I will ask students to do a quick sketch of the
where energy starts and how it gets to them, and I will ask one or two students to draw their model on the
Smartboard. This will give me an idea of what students already know and what I need to teach more about.
Then, I will tell students what we will be learning about and ask a student to read the standard and objectives
for the day out loud. After this, we will go through a PowerPoint presentation of the roles of organisms and
energy flow in ecosystems that has important concepts and vocabulary in it. This PowerPoint will include

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 Student Response and Assessment Tools
pictures, words, and short videos to support all learners and help them make connections between past
knowledge and new knowledge. As we go through the presentation, students will follow along with a guided
notes worksheet that they were given. We will then do a Smartboard activity together as a class where
students have to drag the producers, consumers, and decomposers into the correct order of how the energy
flows. They can draw arrows and explain their thinking to the class as they go. We will go over each example
as a class to make sure everyone understands what each does and how they are all connected. After this
short interactive activity, I will tell the students that we will be completing a Gimkit, and I will send them all
the link to it through their school emails. On their personal device or laptop, students will log on to Gimkit and
open the kit I have assigned them. I will give a quick overview of how it works for students who don’t know
and explain what the money means and how to move through questions.

Describe the purpose of the SRT activity (check all that apply):
☒ Assess prior knowledge ☐ Anticipatory set (Create interest in a topic) ☒ To illuminate common
misconceptions ☒ Formative assessment of content knowledge (for purpose of differentiation and
mastery for ALL students) ☐ Summative assessment of content knowledge ☐ Test preparation
☐ Survey/Poll ☐ Discussion starter ☐ “Homework” collection ☐ Other (please explain):

Briefly describe what will happen DURING the SRT activity: Students will begin their Gimkit activity
individually. They will be able to work through the questions at their own pace because none of the questions
are timed, and they can move along as they are ready. Students will be asked questions that assess the
knowledge learned during the lesson as well as ones that require them to apply that knowledge to a real-life
scenario. As students answer a question, it will automatically tell them if they got it correct or incorrect. If
they get the answer right, they will receive “money” that they can use to buy upgrades. If they get the answer
wrong, students can raise their hand and I will come explain why their choice is incorrect and scaffold their
thinking about what the correct answer is. They will get the chance to retry the question. As students play, I
will have the Smartboard on so that students can see who is in the lead which will add a competitive
component to the game to make it more engaging. Students will continue until they have answered all of the
questions in the Gimkit, and then I will announce who won and who else was leading in the class. I will thank
all students for participating and tell them they did a great job at showing their knowledge.

Type of questions/prompts used in this activity (check all that apply):

☒ Multiple choice ☒ Multiple select ☐ True/False ☐ Yes/No
☒ Short open-ended response or fill-in the blank ☐ Longer open-ended response

If you are unable to provide a working sample of your questions, please list them below (7-10). If you
cannot provide one or two critical thinking questions in your assessment, please list a question or two you
would want students to provide an open response to below. Use your Bloom’s terms to design the
question(s):
The link above should show all of the questions.
Immediate corrective feedback: Will you pre-select correct answers to some of all of the questions and
display correct response to the class after the SRT activity?
☒ Yes
☐ No
Why or why not? I will pre-select answers so that students get immediate feedback in real-time. This way,
they can ask me questions as they are going to clear up any misunderstandings or confusion. They can also
learn as they go as they will know whether the answer, they chose is correct or not. If they got the answer
wrong, they would get the chance to try again and know which choice not to pick.

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Describe what will happen AFTER the SRT activity? How will the data be used? After all the students
complete their Gimkit, I will be able to see which questions students missed and look at the data as a class or
for individual students. I will use this data to look for any common misunderstandings or concepts that may
need re-teaching because many students missed these questions. Then, I can plan future lessons that reteach
certain concepts or provide opportunities for students to have additional practice, whether it is in class or as
homework. If I see that a particular student did not perform well on many of the questions, I can differentiate
instruction for that student and give them extra attention and guidance over the topics at hand. I will not
share the data with the class or with individual students because each student will know how they performed
because it will show them. I also will not use this activity as a grade because I’m mostly using it as a formative
assessment to find out what students know and what I need to reteach. Therefore, I will just use this to
monitor student’s individual progress.

Describe your personal learning goal for this activity.

I have never used Gimkit, but I read that it was similar to Kahoot with a few twists and more engaging
components. I wanted to try it to see if I liked it more and if it was something that I could students using and
learning from. I hope to learn if this is an effective method to use as a formative assessment and if it will keep
students engaged. I hope it will give students extra practice on certain topics in a fun and competitive way.

Reflective Practice: After designing this lesson, I think the activities will impact student learning by giving
them an engaging and competitive way to practice and apply concepts. It will allow them to use technology in
the classroom which will make the activity more authentic, and it will also allow students to think more
critically since some of the questions require it. To extend this lesson, I would include some questions in the
Gimkit that could serve as an introduction to whole-class discussion. There could be more advanced questions
in the kit that require higher-order thinking and could lead to more in-depth learning or discussion about
ecosystems and energy. Using videos, like BrainPOP, at the beginning of the lesson could incorporate more
technology into the lesson that would further enhance this project.

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