Maglov-K12 DS Project

ET 620 Spring 2018

Lesson Title: Who Are Our Community Helpers?

A-Analyze Learners

• Intermediate students (grades 4 and 5)

• Accessing Functional Academic Learning curriculum
o The curriculum uses Core Content Connectors in lieu of Common Core
State Standards.
o The curriculum is modified to meet the needs of students who require
extensive modifications and accommodations and are still unable to
make progress in the general education setting.
o Students in this program are working towards a Certificate of
Completion and are no longer pursuing a high school diploma.
o These students access reading, writing and math as well as a
functional curriculum that is designed to teach life skills. This lesson is
considered a part of the functional curriculum.
• Ability levels vary
o One student is minimally verbal and utilizes a communication core
board
o Other students are verbal but utilize BoardMaker when reading grade
level texts
o Students are able to verbalize answers to a scribe; unable to
independently type or write
• Background Knowledge: Students will have participated in the following
lessons:
o What is a community?
▪ Which community do we live in?
▪ Who are people that help us in our community?
o Who are the community helpers? What do they do, wear and drive?
▪ Firefighters
▪ Policemen and women
▪ Mailmen and women

S- State Standards & Objectives

• Curriculum Connection: Students in the functional program study community

helpers. The curriculum includes lessons on physical appearance of these
individuals (uniforms, vehicles, etc) as well as the specifics of their jobs within
the larger community. My students study these individuals and we work on
accurately describing each community helper and identifying which would
be called in a variety of scenarios.
 • Curriculum objective: Students will observe and describe how people in the
local community make contributions to meet their personal and community
needs.
• Curriculum Standards
o 1.0 Political Science: Students will understand the historical
development and current status of the democratic principles and the
development of skills and attitudes necessary to become responsible
citizens.
▪ A. The Foundations and Function of Government
• b. Identify leadership positions and organizations in the
community and explain how they can be helpful in
maintaining safety and order
• ITSE Standards
o 2b -Students engage in positive, safe, legal and ethical behavior when
using technology, including social interactions online or when using
networked devices.
o 6a- Students choose the appropriate platforms and tools for meeting
the desired objectives of their creation or communication.
o 6b- Students create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix
digital resources into new creations.
o 6d- Students publish or present content that customizes the message
and medium for their intended audiences.

S-Select Strategies, Technology, Media and Materials

T- PACK

Technology: Communication boards and devices (board is low tech but still considered
technology), teacher computer with access to videos, student devices with access to
Movie Maker

• Additional Technologies
o Students with lower verbal abilities will utilize their core language
boards or communication
o I will use my teacher device to provide students with images and
videos of community helpers in action

Pedagogy: Small group, direct instruction

• Delivery Model
o The lessons prior to the completion of the digital story will be delivered
in a small group setting with a 3:1/2:1 student to teacher ratio.
o The students will be grouped by ability level. The groups will have
various levels of verbal ability.
o All groups will be presented with a multi-sensory materials including
visual paired with vocabulary terms, videos as well as opportunities for
movement.
Content: Intermediate functional program: Community Skills

U- Utilize Technology, Media and Materials

• Students are familiar with the various technologies being used in these lessons
• The lessons will take place at the small group table located in the back of the
classroom.
o Students participate in small group rotations daily and are familiar with
the behavioral expectations as well as the design of the small group
time.
• In order to help students become familiar with the Movie Maker program,
they will attend several small group lessons with the paraeducator. Most
students are tech-savvy and can utilize their personal devices easily and
effectively.
• For some students, they will have the use of a scribe in order to access the
text feature on Movie Maker.

R- Require Learner Participation

• Students will participate in a small group lesson about a designated

community helper
• Students will begin by watching a video about Firefighters
• Students will then look at photos to identify uniform, tools and describe the
job of the community helper
• Students will complete a worksheet about the community helper. This sheet
will be added to a book about community helpers and the students will use it
as reference as needed
• The worksheets will be modified to meet individual student needs and will
include: fill-in-the-blank options, pictures paired with vocabulary, access to a
scribe and a reader
• Students will complete the lessons over a series of days
• Each day, we will practice, in a whole group setting, identifying the
community helpers we have already studied and naming their uniforms,
vehicles and jobs
o This will be done on the smart board as a part of our morning meeting
routine
• At the conclusion of the lessons the students will be allowed to select a
community helper to create a digital story about.
• Planning and Creating the DS
E-Evaluate & Revise-

Assessment-Students will be assessed on their ability to correctly answer the prompts on

the Digital Story Planning sheet. The digital story itself will be graded for completion as
the level of complexity will vary based on student ability levels.

Evaluation/Reflection

Overall, this unit went well but was very difficult. The topic of community helpers
is always exciting and motivating for my students so engagement with the lessons was
high. Students enjoy viewing photos as well as videos when exploring the roles and
responsibilities of the identified community helpers. The idea of creating a Digital Story
was also motivating and engaging for many of the students in my class. When defining
the term “Digital Story” students viewed examples and likened what they saw to
movies. The students were excited to make their own movies.

I think providing students with the scaffolded worksheet to plan their stories was
effective. While it required a lot of teacher preparation it was worth it to ensure the
content as well as the final project were accessible to all learners. For students with a
lower ability level, they were presented with two choices and asked to select the
correct answer based on a given verbal prompt while other students were asked to
produce spontaneous answers either verbally or through selecting an image.

When it came to creating the digital stories I felt there were high points as well as
low points. As previously stated, the students were excited and motivated to participate
in the project but there was a lot of teacher preparation as well as planning and
scheduling to ensure each student had support while creating their stories. Students
with low verbal abilities were able to complete their projects with more ease as they are
versed in keyboarding and were able to add captions easily. Students who were
required to record their narration needed more coaching, practice and some were
very frustrated by the process. In the future, I may opt to allow students to add captions
and forgo the verbal narration if they choose to do so. For all students, much of the
process of putting the images together in Movie Maker was left to the adults in the
classroom. The students were able to choose their images but needed a lot of support
inserting them and manipulating them.

In the end, the students were proud of their finished products and were eager to
share them with one another. I think this was a successful project and I look forward to
embarking on this journey with my future student.