Inquiry Mini Lesson 1

Grade Level: 2nd

Standard:
SS2H1 Describe the lives and contributions of historical figures in Georgia history. A-F

ISTE Standards:
1.1.c
Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to
demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.
1.2.d
Students manage their personal data to maintain digital privacy and security and are aware of data-
collection technology used to track their navigation online.
1.3.a
Students plan and employ effective research strategies to locate information and other resources for
their intellectual or creative pursuits.
1.3.c
Students curate information from digital resources using a variety of tools and methods to create
collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions.
1.6.b
Students create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources into new creations.
1.7.c
Students contribute constructively to project teams, assuming various roles and responsibilities to
work effectively toward a common goal.

Goal/Objective:

By the end of this project, students will be able to successfully describe the lives and their
contributions of their chosen Georgia Historical Figure

Opening:
“We have taken some time throughout this year to learn a little bit about all the Georgia Historical
Figures. I would like someone to raise their hand and give me one person we learned about this year.”
Teacher will allow students to raise their hands and answer. “Great job, those are all the different
people we have covered and now your job is to use your prior knowledge with your research skills and
create a presentation about any ONE figure to present.”
**At this time students will be presented with the learning goal**

Work Session:
Students will be using our classroom laptops in order to conduct their research
“Once everyone has their laptops, I would like for you to log into Cobb Digital Library. Remember this
is where you will conduct your research. You can use PebbleGo, Galileo, or any other website through
Cobb Digital Library. Also, if your figure was talked about during Georgia Day you can rewatch the
videos from the experts in Cobb Digital Library on our Royals class page”
Remember your goal is to grow your knowledge and discover ideas and facts we did not cover in class
together. Once you have done some research and you are ready to start collecting your information
you will go into OneNote and type out what you have. Another reminder is not to copy and paste the
information! Make sure you put the author and title next to the fact so you can cite it properly later!

**Allow students to research their figure for about 10-12 minutes before encouraging students
beginning their OneNote note page.**

Be active in walking around during research time to watch students in order to guide and assist as
needed. This is a great time to observe student work and the amount of information as well as the
quality of information students are adding to their notes in order to create a successful PowerPoint.

Closing:
“Our day of researching is coming to an end so I would like for everyone to stop where they are, go
into their OneNote and save it. After you have saved your note page make sure to click Share on the
top right corner and click my name as well as our Royals class. If you have not finished working and
feel like you need more information, please feel free to work on this during any downtime we have in
class today, or at home if needed”
**Assist any students who may need help during this time**
“Great work today everyone. Now tomorrow we are going to finish this mini project of ours by
creating our PowerPoint to put together our knowledge and research. When we come in tomorrow, I
will be handing you the rubric on how I will be grading you”

Inquiry Mini Lesson 2 (Continuation of lesson 1)

Grade Level: 2nd

Standard:
SS2H1 Describe the lives and contributions of historical figures in Georgia history. A-F

ISTE Standards:
1.1.c
Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to
demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.
1.2.d
Students manage their personal data to maintain digital privacy and security and are aware of data-
collection technology used to track their navigation online.
1.3.a
Students plan and employ effective research strategies to locate information and other resources for
their intellectual or creative pursuits.
1.3.c
Students curate information from digital resources using a variety of tools and methods to create
collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions.
1.6.b
Students create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources into new creations.
1.7.c
Students contribute constructively to project teams, assuming various roles and responsibilities to
work effectively toward a common goal.

Goal/Objective:

By the end of this project, students will be able to successfully describe the lives and their
contributions of their chosen Georgia Historical Figure

Opening:
Review what students completed yesterday and provide what they will be completing today.
“Yesterday you all worked so hard on researching and gathering your information on your historical
figure! Today we are going to now put the information you gathered into a presentation for you all to
share with the class!”
*At this time teacher will hand out rubrics*
“On your desk in front of you, you have the rubric on how you will earn your grade. This tells you
exactly what I am looking for. Let’s go through it together”
*Teacher will review rubric with students as a whole so there is an understanding of all that is
expected*
Teacher will show students BrainPop Video on copyright (ethical curation)
https://www.brainpop.com/english/writing/copyright/

“Are there any questions before we get started?” *Allow for questions from students*

Work Session:
Students will be using PowerPoint to create their presentation. Have students log into their computers
and load their OneNote page as well as a new PowerPoint presentation.
“Now that we have your notes and presentation up, I want everyone to title their page with your
person’s name and then write by first and last name.”
*This is a great time for the teacher to model by doing this step on the interactive board*
“Now that the title is done, please click New Slide at the top left. (Teacher demonstrates) You will
need to have a total of 4 new slides after your title page.”
*Teacher will go through each slide naming them with the whole class. Slide names will be as
followed: ‘Who am I’, ‘What Did I do’, ‘How Did I help’, and ‘How they helped my life today’
“Now that we have created the 4 main areas of your presentation you are now free to work on
putting your notes into the correct slide. Remember to turn your notes into your own words rather
than copying and pasting or if you use a fact make sure to cite it by putting the authors name next to
the fact”

*Teacher will allow students a decent amount of work time of 35-45 minutes. Teacher will walk round
while providing support to students where it is needed*

*Teacher will specifically meet with students who had little/no information on their OneNote that was
shared with teacher*
*Once students have completed the work session students will be allowed to add a color background
if they feel inclined to do so*
Closing:
“I would like for everyone to stop where they are in their work and click the save button on the top
left of the screen”
*Teacher models*
“Everyone has done a fantastic job and has worked very hard on this project! If you did not get the
chance to finish that is okay, I will allow you to take some time tonight at home to work on it, as well
as working on finishing during morning work tomorrow. We will begin presenting tomorrow afternoon
which is when I will be grading your project as well.”
*Teacher will post rubric to class board for student access at home*
*This lesson would eventually lead to a “Class Wax Museum” which students will dress up as their
figure and present information on him/her as people come around to learn about them*

Rubric for students can be found below on next page!

 Rubric
Do Not Meet Standard Approaching Standard Meets Standard (3)
(0) (2)

Research Student does not have Student has some facts Student has
any facts/ research on on his/her figure. These information that will
his/her figure. OneNote facts are useful but meet the needs of the
page was not shared could use some more different categories for
with the teacher. in-depth information. presentation. OneNote
OneNote was shared was shared with the
with the teacher. teacher.

Presentation Student does not have Student has a Student has a

a PowerPoint PowerPoint completed PowerPoint
Presentation. presentation, but not with the 4 main slides
all required slides have completed with correct
been completed with and adequate
enough proper or information.
enough information

Grammar and Neatness Student did not take Student has taken Student has put in the
the time with his/her his/her time however effort to make his/her
project. >10 spelling there were still some project neat and free of
errors. spelling errors. >5 errors.
spelling errors

Citing Student has copied Student rephrased Student put the

word from word in some of the facts or information gathered
his/her presentation put a fact straight from into his/her own word
from facts gathered. research with no citing. or cited the author of a
fact straight from
research.

Total: _______/12
 Reflection

In my two mini lessons I incorporated many different principles of Inquiry-based

learning. I used authenticity principle in my lesson by having students connect their historical

figure’s contributions to how that has impacted their lives today. Deep understanding was used

as I provided students with a learning goal for the project they were completing. Use of

technology was used in many different ways throughout these mini lessons. Students used

appropriate research websites such as Cobb Digital Library as well as using the production tool

of PowerPoint to create their presentation. While using Cobb Digital Library students were able

to access our Georgia Day presentations which allowed for them to connect with experts.

Student success was achieved throughout these lessons as students shared their notes page

with the teacher for review and guidance, as well as allowing collaboration with peers and the

teacher for guidance. Assessment was used in two different ways. Students were assessed

through observation of OneNote page and then formally assessed via rubric at the end of their

project. Finally ethical citizenship was implemented when students needs to cite his/her facts

when gathering information in their OneNote page as well as in their final PowerPoint

presentation.

Beth Robinson was my partner when it came to peer reviewing. I was very lucky to

receive someone who was just as much on top of their school work! We both reached out via

email and text to keep in communication which was very helpful. We both decided to send

each other a draft of what we had for our first mini lesson to see what all was missing from

each other’s lessons. This was extremely helpful. Beth and I both were able to provide strong

feedback to each other in order to enhance our mini lessons. By having this partnership, we
were able to clear up some misunderstandings in each other’s lessons which we may have no

caught if another set of eyes were reviewing it. Having the feedback from lesson 1 I was able to

create my second mini lesson with more thought!

My understanding of inquiry lessons, information fluency and technology integration

has changed a lot after this course. I always had the impression that if you had technology in

your classroom everything you would do would be using the technology which always worried

me as I thought it would be a quick burnout, however after this course my view is much

different. I have learned how to correctly implement students at a younger age to appropriate

technology rather than fearing from it. I also was able to realize that when I did use technology

in my classroom my students were in the levels of untaught and skilled for information fluency

and now, I feel like I have the tools and resources to move students from untaught to skilled,

and then skilled to mastery when it comes to information fluency.