Blooms Taxonomy

Weekly Template
Class Name: Geography Age Group: 7
th
Grade
Unit Goal: SWBAT examine the five themes of geography and climate.
SWBAT analyze how geography and climate impact human civilization.
SWBAT identify resources and discuss their role in human societies.
Lesson Objective: SWBAT identify at least five climate sub-zones.
SWBAT describe two features of each sub-zone.


Lesson Objective Tasks Assessments
M

T Prior Lesson Students will describe how they think that weather
affects the way we live our lives. Students will
identify the five major types of climate zones. They
will take notes on these zones. Students will watch
a video on climate and how it affects the lives of
people throughout the world. Finally, they will
write a blog post based on guiding questions
(already on the board) that will help them to
reflect upon the role of climate in their world.
I will use the blog
post as an
assessment as the
video should tie
together what we
have previously
done throughout
the class.
W

Activity 1 (4 minutes) Bell work: students will
answer the bell work question on the board.


Activity 2 (6 minutes) - I will have en.linoit.com
on the board and model how to use it for students.
Students will rapid-fire go to the laptop (connected
to projector) and use en.linoit.com to leave post it
notes about what different kinds of climate there
are. They will be in a line for this activity.

Activity 3 (15 minutes) Students will each use
their iPads to find information on a particular
climate zone. I will give them climate sub-zone via
randomly handing out index cards. Each card will
have one of the five main types of climate zones.
Students will go tohttp://oceanservice.noaa.gov
/education /pd/oceans_weather_
climate/media/climate_zones.swf.
Here they will click on at least two
subcategories of their main category. They will
create a haikudeck with at least 2 facts about each
subcategory with pictures they find online.

Activity 4 (10 minutes) Students will present
Students will be
formatively
assessed with
linoit activity as a
pre-assessment.
Students will share
their haikudeck on
Google+ with me.
This will be graded
and count as the
final assessment
of this lesson. The
blog post will also
help me to gauge
student learning
and will also count
as an assessment.
their findings to the class as a whole. One-by-one
students will connect their iPads to the projector
and display their Haikudecks. While their work is
displayed, observing students must write down
facts from one climate sub-zone being presented
on by the presenter. They must create an
additional slide on their haikudecks with the
information shown to them by the presenter. In
this way, students will each have access to some of
the research done by their fellow presenters.

Activity 5 (10 minutes) Closure: Students will
share their work with me on Google+. When done,
they will use their remaining time to write a blog
post about what they learned. They will comment
on a fellow students blog about what that person
discovered according to our normal blog
procedures.
Th Next Lesson Students consider what kind of climate zone they
think that Pine Ridge falls into. They will then
examine some of my personal pictures from
tornado damage when I did disaster relief.
Students will do a graffiti board activity on this.
We will talk about how extreme weather is
becoming more common due to greenhouse gases
Students will do a pre-reading activity and then
engage in a whole-class reading exercise. Students
will then complete a post-reading activity which
will measure what they learned.
Post-reading
activity.
F


* Highlight each activity by category: Teacher Led Activity
Student Driven Activity (work time, presentations, interactives)
Collaboration (pairs, groups, peer-editing)

Website: http://cgio.weebly.com/

Reflection:

Summary

My lesson was designed to further expound upon the concept of climate for my seventh
graders. Previously we had spoken about climate regions/zones. Now I wanted to connect them
to the important sub-zones that make up these climate zones. To do this, I tried to minimize the
number of teacher-led activities, preferring instead for students to find their own information and
then teach one another.
After the initial bell work, students were warmed-up by an anticipatory activity which
had them coming up in a line to my laptop to use Linoit to past post-it notes on the screen. They
shared their prior knowledge with me and each other in this way as well as prepared themselves
for the rest of the lesson. This also helped the more kinesthetic learners become engaged in the
lesson. Next, students used their iPads and laptops to access a website I shared with them. This
contained two subzones that each student was assigned to research. Then the students created a
haikudeck to portray their information. Finally, students presented their research to the class. The
trick was, however, that other students had to take a part of the information presented by their
peers, and input it into their haikudecks.
I chose these activities because my students on Pine Ridge are right-brain thinkers. For
them, kinesthetic, visual, and hands-on activities are very important for lessons. They also enjoy
collaborative work. Furthermore, I think that have students teach information back to one
another actually helps them retain knowledge. This focus on student work, collaboration, and
sharing makes my lesson to be student-centric. I think that all of these things will contribute to
the learning of my class and enable them have a greater handle on their own learning.

The Practice Lesson: Looking Back
The anticipatory set that used Linoit went very well. I acquired a good idea on the level
of the students background knowledge. The students were highly engaged and in a few short
minutes managed to input a significant number of answers on the board. I also think that the
students were able to successfully use the e-map I shared with them to great effect. They were
able to quickly access information and input that into their haikudecks.
The Haikudeck program is one that the students were engaged in. They had no real issues
in creating their Haikudeck slides and were able to easily input pictures and text. The
presentations created were of good quality and if this had been a full lesson the presentations
would have gone well with the time we had left.
Certain challenges, however, also came up during my lesson. First, the transition times
were rather rough. This was especially true of the transition from Linoit to the Haikudeck
activity. Russell and Katie were unable to access their e-mails nor other matierlas via the iPads.
Sara and Russell had to look on the same laptop and Katie had to use my laptop. This created a
great delay. Fortunately, they did not need longer than fifteen minutes to complete the Haikudeck
activity. At the same time, we could have moved on much quicker to the next portion of the
lesson. It also created a great deal of angst and disconnect with the subject material.
My students felt that the Haikudeck activity needed to be reworked for more time. They
also felt that more than one computer for the Linoit activity could have made it run more
smoothly. Finally, there was concern that I was not assessing students as they went along. There
seemed to be some thought along the lines that I was not really checking for understanding of the
students. In hindsight, I should have gone around asking deeper questions about student work
when I checked in on their groups.
Applications to My Classroom
In my actual classroom, this lesson will have to be adapted. First, there are ten sub-zones.
I also have ten students. I would aim to divide students into pairs that examine two sub-zones
apiece. I think that having the students helping one another create their presentations will be very
important. I would definitely do several tests as well, probably the night before, using the iPads
my students will use so as to make sure that everything is working properly.
Overall, I think that it might be best if this lesson lasts for two days instead of one. What
I saw from teaching this practice lesson was a feeling that I did not properly assess students
throughout the research and presentation creation option. I see making this a two rather than
one day lesson to be not only a time extension, but an opportunity for me to spend greater time
assessing and working with students.
In doing these things, my hope is to make a student-centric lesson which will help my
students to better understand climate. I also hope to facilitate their skills in working together and
learning to collaborate with their peers.