Lesson Plan 2 (What I'm Thankful For)

What Are You Thankful For?

This activity is designed to engage students in making connections with what they are grateful for in their life. This activity will challenge student’s critical thinking skills and force them to look at things outside of the box.

Grade level: 6th grade

Standards:

FINE ARTS: Visual Arts (Grades 5 – 8)

NA-VA.5-8.3 Choosing and Evaluating a Range of Subject Matter, Symbols, and Ideas

NA-VA.5-8.6 Making Connections between Visual Arts and Other Disciplines

Language Arts English (Grades K – 12)

NL-ENG.K-12.4 Communication Skills

NL-ENG.K-12.5 Communication Strategies

NL-ENG.K-12.6 Applying Knowledge

Objectives:

SWBAT: Use communication skills and communication strategies

SWBAT: Apply knowledge and evaluate a range of Subject Matter, Symbols and Ideas.

Criteria

Identify 6-8 atypical things they're grateful for.

Record the things their grateful for on a digital device (computer, phone, etc.)

Explore

Begin the lesson by asking each student to name the top three things he or she is thankful for. Responses probably will include: family, friends, home, school, and so on. Make a list of the most common answers. Next, explain to students that their task is to think beyond those common answers and look for things in their lives they're grateful for that they don't give much thought to on most days. For example, a student might look forward to running with his dog every afternoon, fishing with her grandfather on every weekend, or taking a weekly piano lesson.

Help students think about the mundane, taken-for-granted areas of their lives. Give each student time to think of 8-10 such things and write them down in google docs. Next, have students access their phones and record what they are grateful for on their phones. As the teacher, be looking for clarity of voice, speaking well, communication skills, etc.  

When done, have students save their recordings and send them to you. Use each individual recording to assess the students with a rubric.

After this students will use google drawings to create a document telling their classmates what they are thankful for about them. You could use this in different ways (with words, pictures, animations, etc.)  

Class Discussion

Once the recording and presentation are completed, the class will meet together to share and discuss their thoughts and come to some conclusions about what they are thankful for. During the class discussion, each student will be encouraged to share anything that they take for granted in their lives. 

Summative Assessment

The Individual Report: Once everyone has had a chance to share their ideas about what they are thankful for, students will have the opportunity to write a final report about the things they are thankful for in their life. This can be the atypical things but it can also be the things that they do take for granted. This report can be done in one of the following ways: Students can write a book using iAuthor, students can create a google slide presentation or students can use iMovie to generate a powerful movie. 

Students will create their own individual report that includes the following elements:

·       The report must be generated using IMovie technology

·       The students will communicate clearly and effectively the things they are thankful for. The recording must include 10 things you are thankful for. 

The report must answer the following questions:

What are you thankful for and why?

What are some of the things you take for granted?

By being thankful for what you have, how can you give back to the community?

Sources

(Some ideas were taken from this source)

http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/techlp/techlp045.shtml  

Jackson, Lorrie. "An Attitude of Gratitude." Education World, 3 Mar. 2009, www.educationworld.com/a_tech/techlp/techlp045.shtml. Accessed 3 Apr. 2017.

Speaking Rubric

Category	Excellent	Good	Satisfactory	Needs Improvement
Posture and Eye contact	Good body posture. Looks calm, cool and relaxed. Establishes eye contact with the device the whole time.	Good body posture and establishes eye contact with device.	Sometimes maintains good body posture and establishes eye contact.	Horrible body posture. No eye contact.
Content	Shows a full understanding of the topic	Shows a good understanding of the topic.	Shows a good understanding in different parts of the topic	Does not seem to understand the topic very well.
Speaks Clearly	Speaks clearly and distinctly all the time and does not mispronounce words	Speaks clearly and distinctly but mispronounces some words.	Speaks clearly but voice is muffled. Mispronounces several words.	Often mumbles and cannot be understood.
Stays On Topic	Stays on the topic all of the time	Stays on topic most of the time.	Stays on topic some of the time	Doesn’t stay on the topic.

Writing Rubric

Category	Excellent	Good	Satisfactory	Needs Improvement
Spelling/Grammar	Words are spelled correctly. Student uses subject/verb agreement and writes in complete sentences.	Most of the words are spelled correctly. Accurately uses subject/verb agreement and writes in complete sentences	A lot of misspelled words. Subject/verb agreement is confusing. Some complete sentences.	Most of the words are misspelled. Subject/verb agreement is puzzling. Sentences are jumbled.
Capitalization/ Punctuation	Students uses capitalization and accurate punctuation.	Students uses capitalization. Some punctuation is present.	Student doesn’t capitalize some letters. Punctuation is messy.	No punctuation. Students doesn’t capitalize anything.
Content/Ideas	Student writes on the topic and adds vivid details.	Student writes on the topic. Some details.	Student writes on the topic. No accurate details.	Student does not write on the topic. No details.