Sandy Nightingale

Lesson Summary: Working in groups of 3-4, first grade students create a PowerPoint presentation incorporating technology into the subjects of Reading and Language Arts, Art, and Computer Literacy. The theme of this presentation is “colors, although other themes could be used. Approximately two or three 45-minute class periods will be needed, depending on class size.

Content: This lesson is done early in the year in a first grade classroom. It is the students’ first experience with PowerPoint and they are also inexperienced at keyboarding.

With students observing, the teacher prepares an opening slide that includes the title of the project, name of the class, and a class photo. The students are told that they are going to make a PowerPoint presentation for their parents to watch at an open house. They are told that the slides are like pages of a book, activating prior knowledge. The teacher divides the class into groups of 3-4, and each group works together to make one slide. Prior to this lesson the students had been working on constructing complete sentences and also on adjectives in Language and Reading. Each group comes up with a sentence containing a color word used as an adjective. One student writes the sentence on a piece of paper and the others draw and color a picture to go with the sentence. While the other students are working on learning centers, the teacher spends about 10-15 minutes with each group helping them prepare their slide. The teacher shows students how to make capital letters, periods, and spaces between words on the keyboard. The teacher divides the words in the sentence as evenly as possible among the students in the group and the students take turns typing them. After the entire sentence is typed, students practice reading it together and then record it to use in their presentation. The teacher helps them scan their drawing and insert it into their slide. The students choose a background color and type their names at the bottom of the slide. The procedure is repeated with each group. The entire class votes on transitions between slides. Parents are invited in for an open house to view the slide show.

Audience: First grade students will make the PowerPoint presentation for their parents to view.

Nature of Instruction: The teacher was responsible for providing mini-lessons, as needed, for the students to enable them to do the project. She must be flexible, providing for various levels of knowledge. The instructor was responsible for preparing the lesson by having a class photo ready to insert, having the software already on the computer, and having a scanner available to use. She also was responsible for supplying learning centers or some other projects for the students to work on while they were waiting their turn to do their slide. The teacher’s role, at times, was facilitator, but at other times was instructor, especially when new material was presented. The teacher was also responsible for evaluating the students to be sure that objectives were met.

The student needs to be motivated and actively engaged in the learning process. The student needs to use good listening skills and work effectively in a group setting.

The role of technology was to serve as a guiding instrument to complete the unit. The computer, scanner, and PowerPoint software were used to publish what they had learned and to present it to an audience.

Theory Base: This lesson contained both cognitive and social constructivism. The teacher was the facilitator whose main function was to help the students become actively engaged in their own learning and make meaningful connections between prior knowledge, new knowledge, and the processes involved in learning. This lesson also contained visual, auditory and tactile experiences to provide for different modalities of learning. The role of the students was to construct their own understandings and capabilities in carrying out the learning tasks. This lesson also followed the idea that using cognitive processes with help from others will soon allow students to practice them independently.

Nature of Instruction, Revisited: After reading the information found at the SEDL web site, I believe that this lesson follows the general idea of what the constructivism theory is. The lesson is done early in the year and the students are very inexperienced at using the computer and software, writing sentences, and working constructively in groups, so it’s difficult to give them too much freedom. Although, improvements can be made if the teacher uses skillful questioning techniques and allows the students time to provide thoughtful answers. Multiple forms of assessment could be provided to allow for different learners to demonstrate their understanding. The importance of teamwork and dialogue in the groups deserves attention, and student growth in areas of cooperation and interpersonal skills should be documented. It is the teacher’s responsibility to monitor student discussions and establish rules that allow conversation and collaboration. Then as the students learn what is expected of them, more flexibility can be given in future lessons to allow for more freedom to guide their own learning.