Basic Productivity Presentation Tool

Lesson Idea

Lesson Idea Name: Important Figures of the Civil War

Grade Level/Content Area: Social Studies / 4th grade
Content Standard Addressed: SS4H5 Explain the causes, major events, and consequences of
the Civil War.
ISTE Technology Standard Addressed:  What would you like students to know and
Creative Communicator – 1.6.a. Students be able to do by the end of this lesson:
choose the appropriate platforms and tools Feel more comfortable with the creative
for meeting the desired objectives of their freedom that PowerPoint allows, while also
creation or communication. learning important information about the
historical figures and being able to show
what they learned and know.

What is the student learning goal for this lesson idea?

Students will be able to recognize important historical figures of the Civil War and give
reasons on why they were so important in a fun creative way using PowerPoint.

Selected Instructional Software Tool: Microsoft PowerPoint(desktop)

URL(s) to support the lesson (if applicable):

Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy Level(s):

☐ Remembering ☐ Understanding X Applying X Analyzing X Evaluating X Creating

How will this lesson be implemented? Check all that apply.

☐ Teacher-directed: There is no student voice and choice in the activities. Students are guided by the
teacher's direction and expectations.

X Student-Led: Students are given voice and choice in the activities. They may select the topic for
presentation and/or determine the tool they will use to meet the learning goal. Products of
learning will be uniquely designed. Teacher simply facilitates the learning in a lesson like this.

☐ Project-based and/or Publishable: Students are completing projects to demonstrate their learning
and the projects can be shared outside of the classroom. This objective could be reached by
displaying the project on the school’s morning newscast, posting the project to the classroom
blog, presenting it to another class, or publishing it via an outside source.

Lesson idea implementation: Students will be shown my PowerPoint presentation of George

Washington, what his role was in the Constitution of the United Sates, and why I find him to
 Basic Productivity Presentation Tool
Lesson Idea

be so important. After they have watched my PowerPoint I will put the students into groups
of 3 or 4, where they will then be introduced to six (6) important historical figures of the Civil
War, Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Jefferson Davis, Thomas “Stonewall”
Jackson, and William T. Sherman. Each group will take one of the six figures and research his
role in the Civil War and what they believe made him so important. They will then construct
PowerPoint presentation with a minimum of five (5) slides. An introduction slide, a minimum
of two (2) informational slides on the role of the figure, a slide on why they believe him to be
so important, and a quote slide at the end. The slide should display creativity in font, color,
transition, and use of pictures or animations. Students will present their PowerPoint

Managing engagement: Describe a way to use this technology in a way that gets students
actively involved in authentic tasks and contexts? Students are actively engaged in
co-use/co-engagement in creating the PowerPoint presentation. Using PowerPoint for this
lesson, exploration activities to extend their learning about a topic, time-on-task with
continued focus on the learning goal students will be actively engaged in completing their
presentation in their own creative way which PowerPoint allows and promotes.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL): Students are able to utilize the technology tool of
PowerPoint to creatively express what they have researched about the important figures
given. They are able to work together and come up with a presentation to showcase their
findings. Not only are they actively engaged in the project but they are using the tools within
PowerPoint to use recording, videos, pictures, fonts, and colors to showcase their work in a
digital way.

Reflecting on enhanced learning:

Students will hopefully feel more empowered and engaged in this lesson by the tools
PowerPoint is able to supply. They are able to add their own creativity while displaying their
own thoughts and ideas to showcase. I look forward the most to seeing how the
presentations get designed and the creativity that they discover in them.