Lesson Plan

Lesson Title: Where are we?

Learning Objectives:

Grade Level Content Expectations:
Fourth Grade GLCE:  4 - G1.0. Identify and describe the characteristics and purposes (e.g., measure distance, determine relative location, classify a region) of a variety of geographic tools and technologies (e.g., globe, map, satellite image).

Michigan Educational Technology Standards:
Fourth Grade METS: 3-5.RI.2.  Use digital tools to find, organize, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information. 

Substance of Lesson:

For this lesson the students will be using the online tool “Google Earth”  to learn about  where the United States is located in the world and why and explain their understanding through written work and discussion in class.

The teacher will ask the students to give ideas as to what goes through the mind of a geographer when they are exploring different places around the world.  The students then begin to and throughout the entire lesson, answering the question, “Where is the United States located on a map and why?”  The students will learn different geographical terms such as relative location in which they will learn about what surrounds the area they live through using “Google Earth.”  They will refer back to maps and to the online tool they are using allowing them to take what they see on the map of the United States, world maps, and globes, and then refer back to “ Google Earth” to get a more real life picture of where the United States is, what is around it and specific qualities of the area in which they live.

Technology in the Kindergarten Classroom

When I think about my ideal grade level, as I have mentioned in previous blog posts, I think of Kindergarten. With that being the case, I have to think about if the different forms of technology we have been learning about to be used in the classroom could actually be used in a Kindergarten class of five year olds. I love all we are learning about and the new ways of introducing students to computers and different ways of teaching information but some of what we have been learning I feel may not go over as I would plan it to go in a Kindergarten classroom. When I think back on what we have been introduced to so far I immediately think about what I am writing right now, a blog. Students in Kindergarten are just starting to learn their letters, numbers and some words, reading is not even developed at this point. With that being said I feel it would be hard for students to do a lot of the hands on things on the computer that would be asked of them because their inability to read and write to the level needed to be able to do many of the activities on the computer. With using Google Earth, students could watch me use it on the big screen without having to do it themselves so I think that could be useful. The digital storyboards would be very difficult and possibly would need to be a large group activity where a teacher or aid is leading the lesson on the computer. But with the Twitter, and making websites, and Delicious, and many of the other things they have learned about, would be too advanced I think for Kindergarteners. Not to say it could not be done, I just think it would take a lot of extra instruction but would in the end be beneficial for the students.