Frog and Toad Facts

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Frog and Toad Facts

• Sarah Simon
• Quail Glen Elementary School
• 1st Grade Teacher

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Introduction

• Students will research frogs and toads on web
  sites and will use the writing process to
  demonstrate their understanding of frog and toad
  facts.
• Subjects Science and Writing
• Topic Researching on the Internet and using the
  writing process to show knowledge
• Grade Level First Grade
• Student Lesson URL
• http//ctap295.ctaponline.org/ssimon/students

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Standards Addressed

• LANGUAGE ARTS CONTENT STANDARDS
• First Grade
• 1.0. WRITING STRATEGIES
• Students write clear and coherent sentences and
  paragraphs that develop a central idea. Their
  writing considers audience and purpose. They
  successfully use the stages of the writing
  process (i.e., pre-writing, drafting, revising,
  and editing successive versions).
• Organization and Focus
• 1.1. select a focus when writing
• 1.2. use descriptive words when writing
• Penmanship
• 1.3. print legibly and space letters, words, and
  sentences appropriately

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Instructional Objectives

• 1. Students will visit websites to research facts
  about frogs and toads.
• 2. Students will use information found on
  internet about frogs and toads to write facts
  about frogs and toads.
• 3. Teacher will use the primary six-traits rubric
  to evaluate how the students write.

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Activities

• INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITY
• Students will brainstorm all they know about
  frogs and toads.
• ENABLING ACTIVITY
• Students will choose a frog or toad link to find
  more information about the amphibians.
• Frogs
• Toads
• Amphibiville

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Activities

• CULMINATING ACTIVITY
• Students will write at least five sentences about
  frogs or toads, using the Six traits.

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Assessment

• Pre-Test
• Students will write what they know about frogs
  and toads.
• Post-Test
• Students will write about frogs and toads and
  include information learned from the websites.

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Student Performance Before
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Student Performance After
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Assessment

• This is the rubric used for scoring Pre-test and
  Post-test data

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Internet Integration

• The Somewhat Unusual Things About Frogs
• The Virtual Zoo

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Lesson Plan Revision

• It took a lot of revising to figure out a lesson
  plan integrating the internet that 1st Graders
  could use and understand. Frogs and toads are
  always a hit with my students and it fits into
  our writing program very well.

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Lesson Implementation

• Writing Pre-Test 1 Period
• Internet Research 2 Periods
• Writing Post-Test 1 Period
• Writing Scoring of Data Many Hours!

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Student Performance Analysis
Students learned more information about frogs and
toads using the internet. Many of the students
writing improved from the pre to post tests. The
majority of writers were in the Emerging Writer
category to begin with. However, after the
lesson plan implementation, the student data
showed the majority of the students were now in
the Capable Writer category.
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What I Learned from CTAP 295
I learned how to use the internet and Office
tools to design and implement effective lesson
plans for 1st graders. My students were
fascinated with the internet as a tool for
learning. I became more comfortable with FTP
software and Composer for web pages.
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SUMMARY
Students can benefit from using technology to
stimulate their learning. Technology encourages
creativity. I am looking forward to the
continued use of technology throughout most
subject areas.