Lesson Plan for

Implementing NETS•S
Template with guiding questions
Teacher(s)
Name Kathryn Harwell

Position General Education Teacher

School/District Patrick Elementary School – Gwinnett County Public Schools

Grade Level(s) 1st

Content Area Science - Weather

Time line 4 weeks

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.

Content Standards  obtain, evaluate, and communicate weather data to identify weather patterns

1.3.a: Students plan and employ effective research strategies to locate information and
other resources for their intellectual or creative pursuits.
1.6.a: Students choose the appropriate platforms and tools for meeting the desired
objectives of their creation or communication
NETS*S Standards:

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

The students will have three weeks to research, collaborate, and review weather topics in order to obtain,
evaluate, and communicate weather data to identify weather patterns.
The unit will begin with a Canva presentation from the teacher about different types of clouds, and another
Canva presentation about different types of precipitation. Students will also go outside and jot down their
thoughts and findings of the weather daily during this unit. Then, students will use websites such as Kiddle (a
free and safe search engine for kids), and Epic to research a weather topic. Students will be partnered with
someone who wants to research the same topic. Students can choose from a variety of topics, such as:
Types of Clouds: Cumulus, Stratus, or Cirrus
Types of Precipitation: Rain, Snow, Sleet, or Hail
Types of Weather Instruments: Rain Gauge, Thermometer, Barometer, Wind Vane
Once students have researched their weather topic, they will collaborate with their partner to create a mind
map, using Coggle, and then write a “Weather Riddle” in which they describe their weather term, but do not
identify what it is. They will then review 3 different Flips from other students and respond with their guess of
what weather term they are describing. The students will be assessed on their Flip presentation and Flip
responses.
When students are finished, they can review their knowledge using a GimKit created by me on different
weather terms.

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?
 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.

Essential Question: What is weather, and how can we collect data to identify weather patterns?
Students would want to know how the different types of clouds directly relates to weather because it will allow
them to stop and think about their daily lives and how it is impacted by the weather.
Students will want to know how we can collect data on the weather and how they can do that themselves.
Additional Questions to Spark Interest:
What are the differences in the types of clouds? Can we track weather data on our own? What do the different
weather tools do? Why is it important to track weather data?
Background Knowledge: Students will need a general knowledge of weather, such as different types of
weather.
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.

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 Students will demonstrate their learning through posting a Flip of their Weather Riddle. They will be graded on
a rubric consisting of four parts: Relevance, Content of their Flip, Accuracy of their responses, and
Participation. To generate new knowledge, students will be learning with the whole class through Canva and
Nearpod presentations, as well as doing their own research. I will do periodic check ins with each group to
answer questions and assess their progress. This will allow me to help and provide guidance when needed.
Students get a choice in what they want to research, as well as how to research it.

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 opportunities did you have to collaborate with your students to discover and use new digital
resources to meet their learning goals? (Note: This meets part of ISTE standard 4.2)
 What previous technology skills should students have to complete this project?

Technology supports student learning by providing engaging ways to research, as well as learn and show their
knowledge. Students will get to have fun while they are learning and putting together presentations for the
class. Technology opens up more opportunities for student success, as well as opens up more choice and
differentiation for students. The digital tools used in this lesson are: Canva, Nearpod, Coggle, Flip, and GimKit.
This will be my first time using GimKit in my classroom. It will be a learning experience for both me and my
students. We will work together to work out any kinks, and improve the lesson as we go along. One of my
students has an older sibling who loves GimKit and uses it in her middle school often. This is how I heard about
the tool, and how I was able to look into using it in my own classroom.
Students should have a basic knowledge of how to use a computer, and should know how to navigate
resources such as Epic and Kiddle. Students should also have a basic knowledge of writing a riddle. Our class
just finished a unit on bird research and bird riddles, so they have this foundational knowledge prior to our
weather unit.

Instructional Plan and 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?

To assess student knowledge prior to this lesson, I can administer a pre-test through Nearpod. This will show
me what students know, and how to grow their knowledge appropriately.
Students should have a general interest in weather, and should know that there are different types of weather
as well as jobs in which people predict weather and report weather.
Students may have difficulty collaborating with others nicely, as well as differentiating between the different
types of clouds.

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.
 Explain how you worked with students to resolve or trouble-shoot them? (This meets part of ISTE
standard 4.2.)

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  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.

Students will work with a partner in our classroom. I will have the desks set up in groups of two to allow and
support this type of collaboration.
Students will complete this project entirely at school. All students have their own Chromebook and all students
have headphones.
Some different issues that may arise are any typical internet connection issues, or battery issues for their
Chromebooks. I am able to work with students to solve them by turning their Chromebook off and back on
again, as well as putting in a ticket for our technology coordinator to come assist if it should ever arise.
Additionally, I have access to several Chromebook chargers if ever a Chromebook should lose battery. I will
ensure all Chromebooks are charged overnight to avoid any potential battery issues, and will keep up to date
with any county-wide outages that may happen.

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?

My classroom will be set up in tables of two to support collaborative learning. The students and I will make a
“Collaboration Norms” poster together and establish what the classroom should look like, sound like, and feel
like during this time. My role is to teach the content, and then facilitate the collaborative learning; only jumping
in to answer questions or ask leading questions that are thought provoking and do not just give answers. The
students will be reaching the create level, or highest level, of Blooms Taxonomy because they will be
researching and creating their own riddles and mind maps throughout this project. The technology allows
students more creative opportunities to do things, such as mind maps and Flip videos, along with allowing
students to be able to respond virtually to peers. Students will complete a mind map, record a video of their
research, and respond to peer’s videos using Flip.

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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 I will allow students a choice for what they want to research, and will implement several different learning styles
within this unit. I will be explicitly teaching information, students will research further on their own, students will
work together to create a weather riddle, and students will complete the unit with some gameplay on GimKit.
Students will learn independently when they are listening to my teachings in the beginning, as well as through
their gameplay on GimKit in the end, and will collaborate with a partner for the rest of the unit. I will provide
ample time for completion of this project, but will extend the time if I see that students need the extra time. I can
allow students to complete their projects when they finish early in other subjects throughout the day as well. I
do not have students who require assistive technologies this year, but if I do this project in other years,
Chromebooks have lots of assistive features such as text size and text-to-speech which I can easily enable for
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?
The closing event is simply their comments on other student’s Flips. However, I think it could be an awesome
extension to have students present their riddles to other classes as well, whether that be in person or through
Flip. Students will be asked to reflect on their work after completion on a separate Flip board in which they tell
the teacher what went well and what didn’t, as well as share their thoughts on the project itself. Through those
reflections, I will be able to see if the students found the project to be meaningful or worth completing. I think
this lesson will be effective in teaching the content, as well as teaching collaboration skills to young students.
The biggest problems that I anticipate are issues with the collaboration piece and working well with others. It
has been difficult for my students in the past, but the more exposure they have to collaboration, the better it will
get. If I had more time, I would want for students to pick one term per weather topic (ex: one term from the topic
of clouds, one from the topic of precipitation, and one from the topic of weather instruments. This would provide
them with more opportunities for research and learning. However, our weather unit is only about 3 weeks long
and therefore does not allow the time for that to be completed with fidelity.

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.
The biggest piece of advice I have to anyone who plans to implement a lesson of this caliber in a first grade
class is to really go over the classroom management piece before beginning. It is important that students know
what is expected of them prior to the start of the lesson. This may mean taking one science class period to just
simply go over expectations and create anchor charts to hang in the room. Share the rubric with students
before they begin as well, so that they know what they need to do in order to be successful. My class was able
to be successful with this project because I was very clear about my expectations for them and I modeled for
them what their end products were before they began. I shared a rubric with them, and checked in on each
group frequently to ensure success. My students had a lot of fun with this, and I know that it will be something
that I continue to use in the future.

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