Author:
Jennifer
Subject:
Elementary English Language Arts
Material Type:
Lesson Plan
Level:
Lower Elementary
Tags:
  • Lesson Plan
  • utah-ipad-lesson
  • License:
    Creative Commons Attribution
    Language:
    English
    Media Formats:
    Downloadable docs, Text/HTML

    Education Standards

    Influential People in History

    Influential People in History

    Overview

    This lesson is focused on writing a biographical paragraph and creating a short film of a famous or influential person in American history. Students will research, write, and then create a movie using iMovie outlining the life of their chosen person. This unit takes 2-3 weeks to complete. Students can work in groups of two or on their own. 

    Summary

    This lesson is focused on writing a biographical paragraph and creating a short film of a famous or influential person in American history. Students will research, write, and then create a movie using iMovie outlining the life of their chosen person. Students will create a title page for their video using Pages for iPad. A sample title page can be found here. A sample video can be found here. This unit takes 2-3 weeks to complete. Students can work in groups of two or on their own. 

    Students will need to have access to Epic!, Page for iPad, iMovie, and an electronic device for research and creating.  

     

    Background for Teachers

    To teach this lesson you will need an understanding of how to use Page for iPad and iMovie to teach it to your class. 

    Internet safety for children is essential. Please use safe web sources such as KidzSearch or Kiddle. If your students haven't had the opportunity to search the internet for research purposes, please consider reviewing internet safety through NetSafe Utah

    Key vocabulary words that will need to explain to your students: influential and achievements. 

    Student Prior Knowledge

    Prior to this lesson, students will need to have an understanding of how to take notes on a certain subject/topic. Students should be able to find important information on a certain topic and what information is more beneficial to the overall paragraph/ topic. 

    Students should be able to compose an informational paragraph and understand the structure of paragraphs. (i.e introductions, topic sentence, three or more supporting details, and a concluding sentence.)

    Student Learning Intentions & Success Criteria

    Learning Intentions:

    • Students will be able to read and take notes from biographies. 
    • Students will be able to compose a 2-3 informational paragraph. 
    • Students will create a short film of their chosen famous or influential person.

    Success Criteria

    • Students will select the information that is important to add to notes and paragraphs, such as birthdates, schooling, marriage, career, etc.
    • Students will include, an introduction, topic sentence, three supporting details, and a conclusion for their 2-3 paragraphs. 
    • Using the written paragraph as the dialogue for the film students will create a short video of their person including all major events in the chosen person's life. 

     

    Instructional Procedures

    1. Teacher will create a list of famous people with information about the person that is readily available. A suggested list is attached below. Some good resources can be found in Epic!  and using your school library. Ensure the reading material is on your students' reading level. 

    2. Give students a quick life sketch for each person. Highlight the important events and what has made this person famous or an influence on others. After you have given a quick sketch of each person, let students choose who they would like to research and write about. 

    3. Chose an influential person that the students have not chosen. Using this biography, demonstrate how to take notes using the "Biography Notes" graphic organizer. Start by reading the book out loud to your class. Read through the entire book before taking notes. Next, go back to the beginning and read the first page or two of the book. As you read the pages, stop at important dates and information. Explain your thinking to your students. For example, you might say, "I just read that she was born on April 23, 1980, in New York, I think that is important to add to my notes so I will have the information later when I write my paragraph." The add that date on the notes-taking page under "Birth." Continue to model this process for each section of the notes page until you have filled everything in or the book is finished. 

    4. Give students time to collect information about their chosen person using Epic! the school library, or the internet. If using the internet I suggest using Kiddle as it is kid-friendly and filters for lower grades. As students read and study have them take notes on the attached "Biography Notes" graphic organizer. 

    The hardest part for students is skipping any sections on the graphic organizer when the information wasn't given in the book, i.e. schooling, adulthood. If this is the case suggest to students to find another resource to locate the information. 

    5. After students have collect notes about their person, they will start with the writing process. The teacher will need to model this process. Start by showing students this Hamburger Paragraph Video. Explain to students that each part of the note-taking page is going to be a part of the hamburger to write our paragraph. The top "bun" needs to introduce the topic. 

    The teacher will use her example notes to model this section. Say, "I am writing about _________, I know that this person is famous or influenced us by ____________. I think I will start my paragraph with that. I think I will write, 'Did you know that ______ invented the ______?' Point out to students that this is part of the introduction. The next step is to give a topic sentence. This could be something like, '_______ helped others around the world, let me share a little about _____.'

    6. Model how to take the bullet points in the birth section of the Biography Notes graphic organizer and turn them into sentences. You might say, "I have in my notes April 23, 1980, but that doesn't make sense. I need to write it in a complete sentence so my readers will know what I am trying to say. I think I will write, 'She was born on April 23, 1980." At this point stop your lesson and give time to students to begin writing their introduction, topic sentence, and first supporting details (birth section on the Biography Notes graphic organizer.) 

    7. The following days model how to take your notes (teacher notes) from each section of the graphic organizer and turn those notes into complete sentences for the rest of your writing paragraph. 

    8. The last section will be the "bottom bun" of the hamburger. You can model this by showing your thinking in a mini-lesson. You might say, "Now that I have all the information about ______ I need to have a conclusion that will let my readers know I am done. The last section in my notes page says Achievements. I have that ______ did _____. I am going to turn that into complete sentences. ______ invented _____ which we use today. I hope that the next time you use ____ you will remember some of the ____ life details and how she worked hard to make ____ useful for us."

    9. Once students have finished their entire biography paragraphs, have them edit the paragraph.  Use your own editing method. Last, have them write the final project onto a clean piece of paper. 

    This next section will describe how to work through the Page app for iPads

    1. Open or download the Page app. 

    2. Students will click the + in the upper right-hand corner to choose a template. 

    3. Students can choose to use a premade or a blank template. 

    4. Once inside the app click on the + again to add different pictures, recordings, text and so much more. 

    5. Save their title page as a jpeg, png, or video file to upload to iMovie. 

    This next section will describe how to work through the iMovie process. 

    1. Using Kiddle, have students search for pictures that will go along with their influential person. If they can't find pictures of the person as a baby, suggest using any picture of a baby. Have them save the pictures in Google Drive, Google Classroom, or any other learning system you use and students are familiar with. 

    2. Students will first upload their pictures to iMovie.

    3. Next, they will drop their pictures in sequence into iMovie.

    4. They can choose to have music in the background or just them speaking. 

    5. To record the speaking part in iMovie, students will need to have their final paper in hand. Have the students count how many pictures they have in their movie. Then have them decide what they want to say on each picture slide. I like to have my students mark the section they will say on the first pictures with brackets around the text. Then I do the same for the remainder of the slides. 

    4. When the final movie is complete, share the published link with parents so they can see their child's masterpiece! 

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Strategies for Diverse Learners

    Struggling writers:

    Students that are struggling with taking notes would benefit from having a peer, who has already finished, help walk them through the process. Teach these peer students to help them break apart the book or text into small parts like pages or paragraphs. Then read through and look for the information that will fit within their graphic organizer section. 

    You can also choose to have these students write fewer paragraphs, most information can be written in one paragraph and still be created into a video. 

    Struggling movie  and page makers:

    For students who are struggling to find pictures of their famous person, have a file with some pre-selected photos that they can choose from. You can share this whole folder with your class or just the students who need them. You can also pair students with one that can navigate the apps well. 

    Extension:

    Encourage students who are moving quickly through the process to add additional details about their person. They can research how many children the person has, where they are now, what other influence they had on the world, etc. They can also add more pictures and dialogue to their movie. 

    Assessment Plan

    Student's learning will be assessed by the writing and paragraph format as well as the final video created in iMovie. 

    • Students will be able to read and take notes from written biographies and will be able to compose a 2-3 informational paragraph. Students will include, an introduction, topic, sentence, three supporting details, and a conclusion for their 2-3 paragraphs. 
    • Students will create a short film of their chosen person. Using the written paragraph as the dialogue for the film.  Students will create a short video of their person including all major events in the chosen person's life. 

    Attached are the rubrics for both the writing and movie project.