- Grade Focus
- Grade 1
- Age Level
- 6
- Subject
- Social Studies
- Technology Integration Activity
- Imaging, PowerPoint Presentations
- Estimated Time of Completion
- 2 weeks
Introduction
This activity allows students to explore a Patriotic symbol of the United States by completing research to become an expert on this symbol. The student will then take the information gathered and find or create photographs or videos that will add further appeal t their information. Students will compile thier information and photographs/videos into a PowerPoint presentation which they will use to demonstrate their expertise and teach their fellow classmates about their symbol. This project meets social studies objectives while integrating Language Arts and technology skills.Prerequisite Experience
Students should have an adequate understanding of how to use a digital camera to take photographs. Students should be familiar with Powerpoint. Students should be able to locate photographs from a saved file, insert photographs into slides and add text with assistance. Students should be able to manipulate the font style, size, and color of text, and should be able to modify the size of pictures by clicking on corners and dragging to enlarge.Teacher Prep Time
2 HoursProject
At the end of the unit, students will have created a powerpoint presentation that represents their knowledge of the patriotic symbol they have researched. Students will have gathered facts, taken photographs and/or video and created a presentation that shows the importance of their patriotic symbol to the United States.Assessment/Grading
Observation Notes/Journals, Checklists, RubricsTime Management Tips
Ensure that students are familiar with the tool being used by using tutorials or practicing use prior to the start of the project. Anticipate problems for extra time, should these problems arise. Seek out help from support staff (LMS, GRT, CRS, etc.) to aid with the research process and Presentation creation. Map out the entire process and ensure the availability of technological resources (Reserve lab, digital cameras, laptops, etc).Lesson Plan Details
Engage
Show students a flipchart of pictures/logs they recognize (The McDonald’s arches, Chuck
E. Cheese, etc). After the pictures, the teacher will ask students how they knew immediately what the pictures meant. Discuss that these are all symbols and that a symbol is a picture or thing that stands for something else. The teacher will then will play a slide show for students of patriotic symbols with patriotic music playing in the background. After the slideshow, ask students to discuss in groups what all of the pictures had in common. Why are these things important? After discussing, students will share out. Discuss how these are all called patriotic symbols. A Patriot is someone who loves his or her country. These are all symbols that stand for our great country.
Explore
Each group will be a given a patriotic symbol (American Flag, Statue of Liberty, Bald Eagle, and Washington Monument) to research. Students will be grouped accordingly so that there are strong readers in each group to help read research materials. The LMS, CRS and GRT will be on hand to guide a group in completing this research. Student will explore books and use laptops to find information on their symbol. Students may also watch videos about their symbols on United Streaming to get information. Students will record facts about their symbol on a recording sheet. Students should be able to explain what symbol stands for and how this symbol is a good symbol for our country.
Explain
Students will be divided into new groups with one participant who researched each of the four patriotic symbols studied in first grade. With laptops, each student will present his or her symbol to the other members of the group. The teacher will circulate during these presentations to take anecdotal notes on how student presentations.
Elaborate
Students will take their facts and type one fact onto each slide of PowerPoint. They will find pictures that are fitting for their symbol from a folder of photos collected by the teacher for easy access. Students will use digital cameras and/or camcorders to take photographs or videos that are relevant to their symbol (Photographs of the American Flag, a student with his hand over his heart looking at the flag, a video of students saying the Pledge of Allegiance, etc). Students will insert a photo or video into each slide of the presentation. The teacher will circulate to observe and aid students where necessary in creating their presentations.
Evaluate
The teacher will observe and take notes during each stage of the process. Grades could be given on ability to locate information, record information and write complete sentences for facts, type information into a PowerPoint Presentation, and insert photos. Students can also be assessed on their oral presentations. At the end of the unit, the teacher can assess student learning of each of the symbols using a quiz review game on the Promethean Board where students use ActivVotes to answer questions. The teacher can take the data formulated by the program to determine each student’s learning so far. The final assessment tool would be the formal test given at the end of the unit. Students would answer multiple choice and matching questions to demonstrate their knowledge of the symbols. As an extension, students would choose one symbol other than the one they researched and write to explain what the symbol means and why it is important to America.
Extend
Students who need more of a challenge could become more familiar with the use of a green screen by pretending to be news reporters. Four students could be used to report on one of the patriotic symbols each in front of the green screen. The computer resource teacher could then help students to place a picture of that symbol behind them on the screen. These reports could be compiled and shown to the class as a review of the unit.Students could contine research outside of school by searching for more in depth information that what was gathered in class. A student could visit the Washington Monument or the Statue of Liberty and take more photographs, request brochures, or speak with experts for more information. Students who could not visit these sites could find more information by going to websites for these symbols and printing off pertinent information.