Lesson Plan for Implementing

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

Position 5th Grade Teacher

School/District Sixes Elementary/ Cherokee County School District

Grade Level(s) 5th

Content Area Math, Science, and Social Studies

Time line One Week (5 days) 30 min Blocks

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.

SS5H5 Discuss the origins and consequences of the Cold War.

a. Explain the origin and meaning of the term “Iron Curtain.”
b. Explain how the United States sought to stop the spread of communism through the
Berlin airlift, the Korean War, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Content Standards c. Discuss the importance of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War

I. Creativity and Innovation

Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and
processes using technology. Students: A. apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas,
NETS*S Standards: products, or processes.

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

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 During this 5 Day period students will focus on the effects of the Cold War after World War II.
Students will shoot to be able to design and create a FlipGrid video for students to watch and
comment on about what they have learned during their instruction. Students will work along side the
teacher and each other to create and build understanding of what is and what caused the Cold War.

Students will use a variety of resources such as Nearpod to fill in their Cloze notes, and students
who are lower level will work directly with Mr. Parker during the instruction period. Students will use
their Chromebooks to follow along with the Nearpod and other collaborative instruments used during
this mini unit.

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.

Why did the Cold War Happen?

What was the Iron Curtain?
In what ways did the United States try to stop the spread of Communism?
What was the Cuban Missile Crisis?

During the lesson the teacher will also be running a Virtual Parking Lot that allows the students to ask questions the
last 5 minutes as a ticket out the door activity. It will be on a Microsoft word document, and may drive how the teacher
starts class the next day. This will help lower level students be able to ask questions, and to be able to help with
spelling on those questions as well.

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.

For the assessment of the students understanding they will be creating a short Flipgrid video answering the
essential questions stated above. Students will be graded on their accuracy of their understanding, and will
have to comment on each others video. The teacher will emphasize that accuracy is important for this and will
be looked at as a formative assessment.

As for grading this assignment the teacher should simply listen for the answers of the questions specifically. If
the student does not answer the questions directly the teacher can deduct points for not answering fully. With
the students having their Cloze Notes the teacher should help students by directing the students to get the
answers from the notes.

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

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explain the content or allow students to interact with the content? What previous technology skills should students
have to complete this project?)

The following resources will be used during this lesson:

Student Chromebooks- Issued from the cart that stays in the classroom.
iPads- this is an option for students who would rather film the final product on the iPad.
Nearpod- Where the teacher will place the slides for the students to get on their own devices and be able to see
their own screen and fill their notes in as they continue along.
FlipGrid- The software that students will work to create their final product to show understanding of the content
about the Cold War.
Microsoft Word- Students will use this word processor to collaborate with each other and use for brainstorming
ideas for their video.

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?)

The teacher will already have started some cloze notes with the students that talk about the United States from the
1950’s through 1975. Students will have the prior knowledge of what all happened post World War II and will pick up
talking about Berlin and the Soviet Union not wanting to give their section back. The teacher will print off Cloze notes
where students will need to follow along on the Nearpod and fill in their blanks as they go along. The teacher will also
give a pretest that simply ask the students to answer the essential questions for the lesson.

The teacher will also talk to the ITS for the school and ask to do a quick refresh lesson with the students on how to
use Flipgird. This will allow students who haven’t used the platform before to work with it and become aquatinted with
it before they are scored for a formative grade.

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.

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 Most of the Cold War lesson are for the students to work either alone, or as whole group. Students will work with
the class in helping them fill out their Cloze Notes by following on the Nearpod and asking clarifying questions on a
Microsoft Word Document that the teacher gives students access to. Students will use the word document as a
parking lot and the teacher can refer to it during the week to answer the questions.

The teacher will refer to their students if they see any other small groups need to be formed, for example is a
student is absent. Teacher will have to pull a group of AIM students who are pulled every Tuesday, or Wednesday
to get them caught up. During this time none AIM students will work on brainstorming their products for the
Flipgrids.

Small groups for this assignment will also correlate with the school improvement plan of targeted teaching for
weaker students in the content. The teacher has different checks during the Nearpod asking questions, and if there
are students who don’t answer correctly the teacher can easily spot and work with them as needed.

Trouble shooting should be minimal for this. If students are in need of help the teacher can try and help with minor
technology gliches. The teacher can also reach out to a county Instructional Technology Specialist to help with
getting students comfortable with the different Flipgrid tools. Nearpod is very user friendly, and if the teacher needs
help with that an email to an ITS can most likely fix those problems. Overall the technology in this lesson is
designed to have very minimal snags along the way.

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?

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 Cloze notes- Students will be working on the notes that they review whole group. The teacher has printed them out
and will ask students to popcorn read as we read the slides from the PowerPoint. This teaches the students how to
take notes just by filling in the blanks as we move through the work.
Nearpod- Teacher will use Nearpod as a technology tool for a different way to teach whole group. Embedded in the
Nearpod are poll questions and collaborative boards that the teacher can use as a way to make learning fun. Students
can work collaboratively with the class and this allows them to see how to work on their Cloze notes.
Microsoft Word Parking Lot- The teacher will use this as a living document for students to put any clarifying
questions on. The teacher should check these as students place questions on as an exit ticket for the lesson. The
teacher can also use them as guiding questions during the lesson for the following day. Teacher can also reflect on if
they need to sort out any confusion as well. This also helps the lower leveled learners because they can have tool like
spell check and others to ask questions without feeling embarrassed.
Flipgrid Video Assessment- This will be how students will show understanding and also will be graded as they move
through the lesson. Students will take what they have learned and simply answer the essential questions for their
video. Students will be graded for understanding off the video.

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?)

For students who need extra help they will be identified by the teacher watching who is asking questions, and
who is in need of a little more assistance. During the time of creating the videos to the teacher will work with
students who may have some questions about the content.

Lower groups of students who are Tier 4 or IEP may receive the Cloze Notes that are filled in completely. This
will allow those students to not feel the pressure of getting all the content down while the entire class is
moving. This allows the students to really listen to what the teacher may be saying, and allows them to work
on their comprehension. Students may also have the use of a chrome extension speech to text or text to
speech to help read the different content as well.

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?)

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 When the lesson is complete the teacher should look for the videos from the students to be good solid information
filled videos. With the complete Cloze Notes student should be able to work with their notes. The students should be
able to run though and answer the essential questions that were stated. If students can explain what those answer
are the teacher can say that they have mastered the content of the 5 th grade standard.

The ultimate goal for the lesson is that students can answer the three essential questions from the lesson. One thing
I wish I had time to do had the students create a podcast to talk about what they think the experience during the
Cold War was like. A podcast would have been an interesting medium for elementary school students to be exposed
to and be able to create different content.

Overall, the lesson should be fun for students and my overall goal is to keep students engaged during the lesson.

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 implement the lesson? Please
provide a quality reflection on your experience with this lesson and its implementation.
I feel that for a small lesson this lesson was really enjoyed by the students. It brought in a lot of collaborations
and really had the student learning without them knowing. During the lesson the students also brought in a lot
of similarities of what is going on with the Russian and Ukraine conflict. I enjoyed having the student learn, and
really had them engaged thanks to the little bit of technology that was added.

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