Lesson using Google Earth and Google Maps

Your name: Nechama Lipschutz

Grade Level: 8

Title of the lesson: Borders and Relationships between Countries

Length of the lesson: 3 lessons, 1 hour each

Central focus and central technology of the lesson (The central focus should align with the CCSS/content/ISTE standards) Key questions: ●     what do you want your students to learn? ●     what are the important understandings, core concepts, and skills you want students to develop within the learning segment? Students will learn where countries lie in reference to each other and what their political relationship is.

Knowledge and skills of students to inform teaching (prior knowledge/prerequisite skills and personal/cultural/community assets) Key questions: ●     What do students know, what can they do, what are they learning to do? ●     What do you know about your students’ everyday experiences, cultural backgrounds and practices, and interests? Students know how to use a map, understand the planet Earth, recognize that countries have political relationships with their neighbors and are interested in learning about the world around them.

Common Core State Standards/Content Standards/ISTE Standards (List the number and text of the standard. If only a portion of a standard is being addressed, then only list the relevant part[s].) Common Core Learning Standards for ELA and Literacy) CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.7 Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.10 By the end of grade 8, read and comprehend history/social studies texts in the grades 6-8 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

Support literacy (traditional literacy, domain specific literacy, or new literacy) development through language (academic language) ●     Identify one language function: research and analyze ●     Identify a key learning task from your plans that provide students opportunities to practice using the language function. Students need to determine relationships between countries based on their research using ICTs ●     Describe language demands (written or oral) students need to understand and/or use. Students need to recognize what the different possible relationships between countries are and apply that knowledge to the geography research. Vocabulary ●     General academic terms: analyze ●     Content specific vocabulary: research, borders, politics ●     Research paper, oral presentation, work with groups Note: Consider range of students’ understanding of language function and other demands-- what do students already know, what are they struggling with, and/or what is new to them?

Learning objectives

Formal and informal assessment (including type[s] of assessment and what is being assessed) ●     Explain how the design or adaptation of your assessment allows students with specific needs to demonstrate their learning. Consider all students, including students with IEPs, ELLs, struggling readers, and/or gifted students. Students are assessed while they are researching on their abilities to effectively use Google Maps and Google Earth.

Instructional procedure: Instructional strategies and learning tasks (including what you and the students will be doing) that support diverse student needs. Your design should be based on the following: ●     understanding of students’ prior academic learning and personal/cultural/community assets ●     research and theory and technology affordances ●     developmental appropriateness Consider all students, including students with IEPs, ELLs, struggling readers, and/or gifted students. Students are split into groups of 4. Each group is given an area on the map to research. Students receive requirements of the assignment: Each group is to duplicate a map of each country individually and indicate its bordering countries. Each group needs to explain the relationship between this specific country and the countries surrounding it. Groups are to research this information using Google Maps, Google Earth and Google Search.

Instructional resources and materials used to engage students in learning. Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Search

Reflection ●     Did your instruction support learning for the whole class and the students who need great support or challenge? Yes- students were able to make their report according to their level of ability and were placed in groups so as to balance. ●     What changes would you make to support better student learning of the central focus? Students should be given specific categories of possible relationships between countries and be required to categorize the countries into them. ●     Why do you think these changes would improve student learning? Support your explanation from evidence of research and/or theory. Students need their instructions to be clear and not vague. Instructions need to be narrowed down so that students recognize where the teacher wants them to head and how their assignment should look.