Lesson Plan for Implementing

NETS•S—Template I
(More Directed Learning Activities)
Template with guiding questions
Teacher(s)
Name Tori Martin

Position Teacher
School/
District Paulding County School District
Grade
Level(s) Kindergarten
Content
Area Reading and phonetics

Time line 3 days

Standards (What do you want students to know and be able to do? What knowledge, skills,
and strategies do you expect students to gain? Are there connections to other curriculum
areas and subject area benchmarks? ) Please put a summary of the standards you will be
addressing rather than abbreviations and numbers that indicate which standards were
addressed.

 ELAGSEKRL2: With prompting and support, retell familiar stories,

including key details.
 ELAGSEKRF2: Demonstrate understanding of spoken words,
syllables, and sounds (phonemes).
 a. Recognize and produce rhyming words.
 b. Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.
 c. Blend and segment onsets and rimes of single syllable spoken
words.
 d. Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds
(phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or
Content CVC) words. (This does not include CVCs ending with /l/, /r/, or/x/.)
Standards
 1.6 Creative Communicator Students communicate clearly and
express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the
platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their
goals.
ISTE Standards:

Overview (a short summary of the lesson or unit including assignment or expected or possible
products)

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 Students will work collaboratively in groups of 3 to complete the escape the room game
using Nearpod. Upon game completion, students will create a retelling video using
screencast-o-matic, screencastify, Zoom, or Animoto to share their story, discuss what they
learned, and analyze the effectiveness of their strategies.
Essential Questions (What essential question or learning are you addressing? What would
students care or want to know about the topic? What are some questions to get students
thinking about the topic or generate interest about the topic? Additionally, what questions can
you ask students to help them focus on important aspects of the topic? (Guiding questions)
What background or prior knowledge will you expect students to bring to this topic and build
on?) Remember, essential questions are meant to guide the lesson by provoking inquiry. They
should not be answered with a simple “yes” or “no” and should have many acceptable
answers.

1. How can you use technology to connect with others?

2. Why are letter names and sounds important?
3. How do letter names and sounds help us read?
4. What are some strategies we use when working together?
5. How do we retell a story?

The students will be intrigued by the game because it is different that the ordinary paper
pencil activity. They will be manipulating the device and working with others versus doing
and independent activity. They will be using their background knowledge of letter names and
sounds to decipher the secret messages (CVC words) in order to get to the next level or
room. Also, students will need to activate any prior knowledge they have of computer
operations. This can be challenging for this age group because the majority of their digital

Assessment (What will students do or produce to illustrate their learning? What can students
do to generate new knowledge? How will you assess how students are progressing (formative
assessment)? How will you assess what they produce or do? How will you differentiate
products?) You must attach copies of your assessment and/or rubrics. Include these in
your presentation as well.

 Prior to introducing students to this activity, I will give each students an oral pre-
assessment on letter names and sounds. This will drive my instruction and let me
know if students need more practice with isolated sounds. Students will be considered
proficient if they can provide 17/26 letter names and 17/26 letter sounds including all
vowel sounds when given the symbols visually.
 Students will complete a recording sheet while playing the escape the room game.
Students will segment and blend 5 CVC words. The students will show mastery by
accurately segment and blending 4/5 words.
 Students will produce a video retelling and discussing the escape the room activity.
This video will be graded based on a rubric. The rubric will assess whether or not
students can proficiently retell their experience from the escape the room game using
key details.
 Informally during the lesson I will walk around and observe my students and correct
any misconceptions that may occur during the lesson.

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Resources (How does technology support student learning? What digital tools, and resources
—online student tools, research sites, student handouts, tools, tutorials, templates,
assessment rubrics, etc—help elucidate or explain the content or allow students to interact
with the content? What previous technology skills should students retell have to complete this
project?)

This lesson has several instructional technology tools to facilitate student learning. To
support student learning I have chosen to use Nearpod to create the escape the room game.
This tool not only is very friendly to young users, its engaging and promotes problem solving
skills. To go with this escape the room game, students will also have a recording sheet to
help keep them organized. To gather intel on the word they are creating with the letters they
found hidden on the screen students will be provided a video where there is a clue to the
word they are building. This video will either come from YouTube.com or will be recorded by
myself.

It is necessary for students to have moderate computer operational skills. These skills
include using a mouse, understanding where the letter keys are on the keyboard, and also
where to locate the enter key. They will need to understand how to play, stop, and repeat a
video.

In order to create the final retelling video, they will need to understand the concept of a
recording and how to start and stop the recording device or productivity tool.

Instructional Plan
Preparation (What student needs, interests, and prior learning provide a foundation for this
lesson? How can you find out if students have this foundation? What difficulties might students
have?)

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 In preparation for this lesson, I implemented weeks upon weeks of letter recognition and
sound identification. The main focus of kindergarten is school readiness. In order to be ready
for school students need to be able read and write simple CVC words. Providing lessons to
strengthen my students’ phonemic awareness is the key to their success when segmenting
and blending words. Being able to pick apart words by their phonemes allows students to
recognize the order of the sounds and in turn they become successful when blending those
sounds to make a word.
From a young age children become fairly fond of books. Seeing a child’s face once they
actually read the words from a familiar book is so rewarding for both the teacher and the
student. There is an epiphany, and the students suddenly recognizes they can read the
words that were once read to them. This is the biggest indicator of interest that is expressed
by a student. This interest is what motivates students to continue to work on their reading
skills.
I anticipate students having a hard time understanding the game initially. Being between
ages 5 and 6, these students would have never experienced an escape the room game, nor

Management Describe the classroom management strategies will you use to manage your
students and the use of digital tools and resources. How and where will your students work?
(Small groups, whole group, individuals, classroom, lab, etc.) What strategies will you use to
achieve equitable access to the Internet while completing this lesson? Describe what technical
issues might arise during the Internet lesson and explain how you will resolve or trouble-
shoot them? Please note: Trouble-shooting should occur prior to implementing the lesson as
well as throughout the process. Be sure to indicate how you prepared for problems and work
through the issues that occurred as you implemented and even after the lesson was
completed.

In order to be successful while implementing this activity, there will need to have been pre-
established norms and rules for using the devices. There also needs to be some previously
established rules for small group work. Problem solving skills and sharing are definitely
conversations that will need to be had prior to turning students loose with this assignment.
As these are kindergarteners, I will be walking around and informally assess each group.
My students will be working in groups of three and working in different spaces in the
classroom to allow for group discussions. Since this is a digital game, each group will be
given a device to play the game and complete their video. Groups will be playing the escape
the room game on day 1 and somewhat into day 2. The second half of day 2 into day 3 will
be reserved for the completion of each groups video. Creating the videos is going to be a
little difficult for the students to do independently. As the groups complete the game either
myself or a paraprofessional will take each group to the hallway to complete the video.
There can be number of issues when working with technology. The biggest technology issue

I foresee is the internet going out. Since our school is located in a very rural area, this
happens quite often. If the internet is inconsistent students will be given additional time to
complete the assignment. The amount of down time is unpredictable, so it is only fair to
allow extended time. Something could also go wrong with the device itself or even the game.
Teachers have to learn to be flexible and have more devices on standby or complete the
assignments at a later time if the issue cannot be resolved.

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Instructional Strategies and Learning Activities – Describe the research-based instructional
strategies you will use with this lesson. How will your learning environment support these
activities? What is your role? What are the students' roles in the lesson? How can you ensure
higher order thinking at the analysis, evaluation, or creativity levels of Bloom’s
Taxonomy? How can the technology support your teaching? What authentic, relevant, and
meaningful learning activities and tasks will your students complete? How will they build
knowledge and skills? How will students use digital tools and resources to communicate and
collaborate with each other and others? How will you facilitate the collaboration?

For this lesson I will implement differentiation, questioning, and scaffolding. Using Nearpod, I
was able to include several approaches including modeling, authentic engagement,
discussion, scaffolding, differentiation, and collaboration. I began this lesson by reviewing
letters and segmenting and blending words whole group by using a video. I also asked the
essential questions to activate background knowledge and promote discussion and
connections. Next, I will begin showing students a practice escape the room page I created
on Nearpod to help students understand the task. Students had the opportunity to review
letter names and sounds and implement that knowledge with instructional support. This was
a great opportunity for scaffolding.
Based on the conversations amongst the students, I provided remedial direct instruction,
which attends to personalized learning. Once I feel the students have delve deep enough
into the prerequisite content, we can start solving the mysteries provided in the videos in
order to find the word we are trying to spell. Following a gradual release of responsibility of “I
do, we do, you do.” First, I demonstrated for the students how to successfully figure out the
puzzles and find the letters within the page that spell our first CVC word, then they shared
the responsibility of completing a riddle with me, and finally, they were asked to solve the
riddles within their small group within Nearpod.
These riddle-like videos required students to think logically and critically about reasonable
answers. Once they produced a word, they recorded the word on their recording sheet and
moved onto the next Nearpod slide. After students completed
After escaping 4/5 to 5/5 rooms students will create a video to reflect on the learning
experience, retell how they found each word, then discuss any strategies they used once
they task became a little more challenging With the help of a teacher, and finally they will
share their video with that class and make connections based on each groups
commonalities.

Differentiation (How will you differentiate content and process to accommodate various
learning styles and abilities? How will you help students learn independently and with others?
How will you provide extensions and opportunities for enrichment? What assistive technologies
will you need to provide?)

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 This lesson has a strong differentiation piece to its design. Nearpod allows for auditory, and
visual learners to be successful. On Nearpod the students can draw, record, and even
upload pictures. The videos I used have developmentally appropriate language for this age
group. I have also differentiated the content of the lessons. The lower students will just be
completing riddles about letter names or letter sounds instead of CVC words. For higher
students, I plan to use differential questioning to compare and contrast the experiences of
each group based on their video. This will extend their learning, facilitate deeper thought,
and foster collaboration. For students who need ESOL instruction I may need to provide a
translated version of the game and questions. This will ensure the highest success rate for
students with language barriers. Google translate will be a good tool to use to accommodate
these students.

Reflection (Will there be a closing event? Will students be asked to reflect upon their work?
Will students be asked to provide feedback on the assignment itself? Also answer the following
questions?

• How will you know if the students found the lesson meaningful and worth
completing?
• In what ways do you think this lesson will be effective? Why do you think this?
• What problems do you anticipate and why?
• How would you design and/or teach this lesson differently if you had more time?)

Upon Completion of the escape the room game, students will create a video to discuss their
experience ad retell a few key details. By completing this lesson in its entirety, students will
have to use several higher order thinking skills including analyzing their collaborative
strategies, evaluating solutions, and creating a product. They also have the chance to
develop some 21st-century skills, including collaboration, communication, creativity, and
critical thinking (4 Cs). This lesson will be an effective skill building and collaboration activity.
Students will get the opportunity to work in groups and problem solve, building real world
skills. Research has shown that the most effect lessons are those that have real world
applications. Students can build on this a activity for the rest of their lives. In any work force
or social situation people have to collaborate with others. As an educator for small children,
I anticipate some arguments, but that is common with this age group and for any situation
where people have to share space and work together. It is my job as an educator to help
diffuse these disagreements and help student grow through them.

If time allotted, I would try gamification or immersion instead of a Nearpod slide. I think this
context would be even more effective. I would also like for students answers to be digital and
submitted individually as they complete each level instead of on a paper recording sheet.

Closure: Anything else you would like to reflect upon regarding lessons learned and/or your
experience with implementing this lesson. What advice would you give others if they were to

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implement the lesson? Please provide a quality reflection on your experience with this lesson
and its implementation.
After implementing this lesson I've learned a few new things to account for when planning
such a tech rich activity. Always account for those that are not as exposed to technology and
computers. If possible, even give them a mini lesson so they can have more digital literacy
and be aware of how the machine works. Kindergarteners have a lack of exposure with
devices, and they are not as independent as some of the other grades. There were a few
tech-type issues that arose once I allowed the students to start playing the game and
touching the screens, and I had to stop my students a few times too guide their learning. It
took them a minute to understand that the videos that were being played correlated with the
letters they were finding hidden behind objects on the screen. Once they understood that the
Riddle gave them a clue then they were more successful with the activity. What took them
the most time was writing down the words that they had created on their paper recording
sheet. They're fine motor skills are still developing at this age, and it makes it difficult for
them to write letters. If I were to share this activity with someone else, I would suggest they
play the game in a teacher-led small group before trying to have several small groups
running at the same time. I was pleased with my students results. I do think this was a great
segment in blending activity. I feel that they learned parts of words and strengthened their
phonemic awareness.

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