Technology Lesson Plan

Name: Trinity Belcher Date: 3/9/20

Subject: ELA Topic: Research

Grade: 4th Length of Lesson: 1 hour

The Big Idea: I can use research to discover new information.

Domain: Writing

Cluster: Research to Build and Present Knowledge

Standard: ELA.4.27
Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print and
digital sources; take notes and categorize information and provide a list of sources.

Specific Objective: Students will use the internet to research a code that has been used in the
past or present and write a paragraph explaining the purpose for the code for a 6 out of 9 on
the rubric.

Introduction: The teacher will introduce the lesson by asking the students what the purpose of
the Navajos’ secret code was (to keep the Japanese from being able to decode secret messages
from the U.S. military). The teacher will explain that the students will be researching other codes
that have been used or are being used to figure out why they were created.

Method(s):
Internet Research

Materials/Equipment/Technology/Community Resources:
iPads

Direct Instruction/Warm-Up Activity/Presentation/Model Lesson/Make Connections:

The teacher will model how to use the internet to do research, using the Navajo code as an
example. The teacher will explain that keywords help to find useful information for research.
The teacher will open a relevant article and model how to pick out the information that can be
used to write a paragraph about why the code was developed.
Guided Practice:
The teacher will give the students a few minutes to brainstorm with their partners about different
codes that they could research. The teacher will then have the students share what they came up
with, writing their suggestions on the board. If needed, the teacher will provide some additional
examples of codes that the students can research (police codes, Egyptian codes, etc.)
Independent Practice:
The students will choose which code they want to research. Each student will use an iPad to
conduct their research. When they have found the articles which contain the information they
need, the students will use that information to write a paragraph explaining the purpose for the
code. Students will show the teacher the article that they used for their research so the teacher
can verify that it is a good resource.

Differentiation:
Higher level students will have the opportunity to write a message using either the code that they
researched or the Navajo code. Other students will have to try to decipher the message.
Lower level students and students who are struggling to find relevant articles will be provided
with assistance from the teacher who will either help choose appropriate key words to use to find
articles or will choose the articles for the students.

Evaluation/Assessment:
Students will be assessed on the ability to use the internet to do research and write a paragraph
on that research using the provided rubric.
3 2 1
Relevance of Article The article is relevant The article is The article is not
to the purpose of the somewhat relevant to relevant to the
research. the purpose of the purpose of the
research. research.
Content The paragraph fully The paragraph The paragraph does
answers the question somewhat answers not answer the
based on the the question based on question based on the
information provided the information information provided
in the article. provided in the in the article.
article.
Mechanics The paragraph The paragraph The paragraph
contains few errors in contains some errors contains many errors
capitalization, in capitalization, in capitalization,
spelling, and spelling, and spelling, and
punctuation. punctuation. punctuation.

Wrap-Up (Lesson Closure) /Concluding Activity:

Students who wish to will read their paragraphs to the class.

Lesson Reflection:
Once students found suitable articles, they had no problem writing their paragraphs. Many
students, however, struggled to find articles for the codes they decided they wanted to research.
Next time I teach this lesson, I think it would be better for me to have a list of codes for the
students to research and then either let them choose from them or randomly assign them (so they
aren’t all doing the same ones). I think I also need to develop a lesson on how to choose
appropriate websites for research. This is one area where it has been a challenge coming in to a
classroom all on my own, because I don’t know what the students have been taught and what
they haven’t. I assumed that they had prior experience with something like this, but it does not
seem that that was the case.