Grade: 3rd Grade

Subject: Social Studies

Objective: By the end of this 3 week study, students will create a book about the
important historical figure of their choosing. These books will be displayed using
QR codes in the “Hall of Fame” where other students and families can listen to
the book that the student created.

Standard: 3.H.2.2 Explain the importance of famous American figures including

but not limited to George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Jefferson.

Student Goals:

● Identify important American figures and how their role in history impacts
our lives today
● Develop research skills in finding information online

Phase 1:

● Entry Event: I will start my lesson by having all the lights off when
students enter the room. I will tell my students that they need to find a
pencil and piece of paper and start writing a letter to their family member
about what they did today. I will explain to them that they will not be able to
work with the lights on. I will pass out small battery powered tea lights (as a
working by candlelight simulation). After letting students work for 10
minutes, I will flip the lights on and ask them what they thought about
working with only candlelight. This will then lead me to talking about the
invention of electricity with Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison’s
invention of the lightbulb. My point to make here is that there are important
people in history that have helped shape our world today.
● Group Work: Students will break out into groups throughout to provide
feedback to each other. After our entry event, I will have students
brainstorm a list of important historical figures in American history. We will
discuss them together and post them on a Jamboard. This will help
students start to think about who they want to research.
● Driving Question: How have we been affected by the actions of important
American figures in history?
● Community Partner: We will partner with the Smith-Zimmerman museum
in Madison to help us learn about some important people from Madison.
The museum will help us identify what made them important and how that
impacts us today. (i.e. The person who founded Madison)
 ● This whole unit will last us 3 weeks. We will have the goal to complete one
of the pieces of the whole project each week to have the final product
completed at the end of the 3 weeks.

Phase 2:

● Skills and Content Needed:

○ Self-management
○ Critical Thinking/Problem Solving
○ Online Research (using Ducksters, PebbleGo, Epic, etc.)
○ Knowledge of some famous people in history (i.e. George
Washington, Thomas Jefferson, MLK)
○ Plan and Evaluate
○ Publishing
● We will do small pieces at a time. I will need to teach students how to find
accurate information about the person they are researching before we get
started. I will go over how to use the online resources that I provide them
with like Ducksters, PebbleGo, and Epic. The students will already have
knowledge in using GoogleSlides, Book Creator, and Adobe Express prior
in the year. With the help of the community partner, I will need to teach the
students what makes a person an important person. They may have
invented something or they may have advocated for a cause. I will have
them play a before and after game using Google Slides where they will try
and guess if the person is important and what they did that made them
important (i.e. Before this person did _____ there was slavery - Abraham
Lincoln). This will give them the foundational knowledge they need to be
successful in finding information about their important person.

Phase 3:

● Products:
○ Biography about the important person on a Google Slides template
■ Birth, Death, Age, Family, Childhood, 4 interesting facts
■ Creating this biography about their important person will help
them get started researching facts about their person. They
will develop a better understanding about their person by
doing this first. Students will utilize the online resources
provided like Pebble Go and Epic to find their information.
 ○ Adobe Express video with pictures of inventions and/or important
events or roles of the person
■ This will help students answer the driving questions as they
discover and research important things their person did. They
will be able to collect them and present them in a way that is
easy for others to see and learn from too. Again, students will
use the online resources provided to research and will use
Pixabay for free pictures to use in their video.
○ Book Creator with the embedded Adobe Express video and
biography about the important person split across the minimum of 4
pages
■ This is the final piece where students are able to fully answer
the driving question: How have we been affected by the
actions of important American figures in history? They will
learn from what others have created to identify many
important people in American history. With the use of Google
Classroom and SeeSaw, students will be able to revise,
provide feedback, and view other student’s work.

Phase 4:

● Present:
○ Students will present their final projects in the “Hall of Fame.” Their
projects will be showcased during parent-teacher conferences so
families and community members can look at their projects.
Students will also view the final projects of their peers’. From this
viewing, students will see who the important figures are in American
history, what made them important, and how that has impacted us
today.

Phase 5:

● Teacher Role:
○ My job during this unit is to serve as the facilitator. I will be giving
students examples throughout the unit. I will break the unit into
sections where we focus on small bits at a time making it appropriate
for 3rd graders. I will utilize Google Classroom and SeeSaw so I can
easily access student work and provide feedback throughout the unit
and track student progress. I will have times throughout the unit
where I meet with students to discuss the progress they have made
and address the questions they may have.
 In the very beginning of this course, we were tasked with defining

technology-rich active learning (TRAL). My group came up with TRAL being

defined as this: an instructional method that allows teachers to incorporate

technology into a classroom setting to promote active learning with their

students. We also characterized TRAL to consist of hands on experiences,

technology being used in efficient and purposeful ways, a student centered

model, and exploring, investigating, learning, and reflecting to improve one’s

knowledge, performance, and understanding. When I look through this Gold

Standard PBL unit that I designed it meets that. Spector states, “Educational

technology involves the disciplined application of knowledge for the purpose of

improving learning, instruction, and/or performance” (p.10). Within this unit, you

will see those educational technologies being used to improve student learning. I

have selected the resources that my students will use to research very

purposefully. They need to be developmentally appropriate for third graders to

navigate so that they are able to improve their learning. I also carefully selected

the products that I would have students create. It is essential for a teacher to

understand how to integrate technology to achieve instructional goals (Spector p.

55). I followed the TPACK framework when I thought about the products I wanted

my students to produce. I first thought about what students need to know and

how I will teach them before I thought about the technologies to implement. I

wanted the technology to be used meaningfully to enhance student learning. The

way each product can easily be shared will promote student learning because I
am able to provide feedback to them in a timely manner. They also aren’t just

creating one project at the very end. Technology is used throughout to create

multiple products for the final product. The final product also continues to serve

as a learning resource for other students to view. The technology promotes

student learning by being easy to use, accessible, and engaging.

It is obvious how the technology is used in a meaningful way in this PBL

unit. The technology was chosen to enhance student learning outcomes. The

way that the technology is being used in this unit closely aligns with Vygotsky’s

Cognitive Social Mediated Theory. In this theory, it recognizes that children are

influenced by their peers, teachers, and parents (Spector p.69). In this PBL unit,

students are influenced by others and myself. Students will learn from their peers

as they revise and provide feedback to each other as well as when they share

their completed projects. As I work with students on this project I will scaffold

their learning by providing them feedback throughout. Vygotsky defines this as

the zone of proximal development (Spector p.69). I act as the more

knowledgeable other to help them understand and answer the driving question.

A lot of planning went into this unit. There are many people that would be

involved in this project. I would have to involve the 3 other third grade teachers

and get them on board, work with my administration to approve a “Hall of Fame”,

and work with my community partner to find a time and the means to work

together. As many as 123 barriers have been identified in the integration of

technology into schools. One of those barriers being knowledge and skills of

teachers (Herring p. 236). The other teachers that I work with may not have the

knowledge I have in using some of the technologies associated with this PBL

unit. Therefore, they may be apprehensive to do it. Principals are also very

influential in these barriers (Herring p. 236). I know that in order for this event to

be approved by my administration to have displayed at parent teacher

conferences, I would have to have the other 3rd grade teachers willing to do it as

well. Larmer also makes mention of this same barrier in Chapter 6. There is a

shift here that might need to take place. With PBL, many teachers have to shift

the way they collaborate with colleagues or engage with experts and other

community members (Larmer p. 142). I know I could get the other teachers on

board, but I would have to offer a professional development opportunity from me

for my colleagues to feel comfortable doing this PBL unit. I also need to make

sure I allow for collaboration (Larmer p. 144). We already meet weekly as a team,

but we will need to dedicate time to collaborating and talking about PBL as well

and how we see it benefiting our students. Herring states, “. . . their positive

attitudes and beliefs towards technology were likely to not only influence their

own practices, but that they also became catalysts for change in their peers” (p.

241). If I approach this as something that I am very excited about and show my

colleagues how we can use it in our teaching practices, I think I can get them on

board.
 The benefits of technology in the classroom are clear. Many teachers still

view technology as an added workload or something that will just change again.

As I mentioned earlier, sometimes just being eager and optimistic about

technology is enough to get teachers excited about technology too. “School

principals are the gatekeepers of change,” said Herring (p. 242). Principals play a

huge role in technology. They approve what is being used and decide how their

school will adopt or view technology. For technology to succeed in schools,

school leaders need to be more proactive (Herring p. 244). I can be more

proactive as a teacher to promote technology in my school. Since principals do

have a large influence on the morale of the building, I can be enthusiastic and

show my principal the ideas and theories that I have learned that show the

importance and value of technology being used. I can also offer my own

knowledge to support my peers. Professional development opportunities for

teachers should be learner-centered with hands-on experiences and ongoing

communication (Herring p. 259). If I offer to provide this for my peers I can easily

make sure it is ongoing because it would be provided in house. I could set up a

date once a month where we reflect and talk about the things that are working in

our classrooms and also discuss what could be improved or what issues

teachers are facing. “They [teachers] are the most significant stakeholders in

terms of technology-related reforms” (Herring p. 240). If I can be positive about

the use of technology and share my knowledge with my peers by providing

learner centered professional development (or assisting in finding it), then I can

make an impact in how technology is used in our school.

 Works Cited

Herring, Mary C., et al. Handbook of Technological Pedagogical Content

Knowledge (TPCK) for Educators. Routledge, 2016.

Larmer, John. Setting the Standard for Project Based Learning: A Proven

Approach to Rigorous Classroom Instruction. ASCD, 2015.

Spector, J. Michael. Foundations of Educational Technology: Integrative

Approaches and Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Routledge, 2016.