Lesson Plan and TPCK Model

Overall, I think that my lesson plan on the United States went well as an introduction to doing basic research. I think that for the grade level chosen the lesson was informative for students to use online resources. I found that having students identify states they have been to as an introduction was a useful attention getter as students could identify prior knowledge and share information they have on states. I also thought that each student having their own state to research was informative as everyone had interesting facts to compare and contrast with other states. I would like to improve on how the KWL chart was presented and recorded with the use of technology. I think that using technology for that area could have been very useful, such as creating a poster online or using Kidspiration for students to each create their own charts.

In regard to the TPCK model, I felt confident in each of the areas in terms of content, pedagogical, and technological knowledge as I did a lesson at the elementary level covering states. Out of the three areas I would have included more technology and possibly in different ways. I did not rely completely on technology as the lesson included a short video to get students interested in learning about the states and the classroom wiki with resources for researching states. I think students creating their own KWL charts with technology could allow them to easily update throughout the unit. I also think online graphic organizers would be beneficial for organizing information regarding the individual states being researched. I would have liked to include more technological content to the lesson for students to organize and store their ideas but think that for the introduction to research this was a successful lesson in finding information online.