Title of Lesson Plan:
I Know My U.S. Presidents!
Intended Grade Level:
3rd Grade
Problem Statement:
How might you help someone who doesn’t know anything about the U.S. Presidents learn about one?
Student Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this activity, students will be able to:
Write dialogue between characters in complete sentences
Have a great understanding of one U.S. President that they were not previously familiar with
Have a better understanding of other U.S. presidents they did not research through reading classmates comics
Technology Learning Outcome: Be able to use Pixton Comics
Activity/Steps:
Warm-Up (5 min):
Ask students about their favorite comics they have read. Then review their knowledge about U.S. presidents on the board using a timeline of all of them. Ask them questions such as “What was this president most known for?”, etc.
Launch (15 min):
Introduce Pixton Comics, show the students the main features such as (words / backgrounds / historical avatars, etc.), and go over the Sample Project.
Assign students different presidents to make a comic about.
Discuss rules for Comic:
Must have at least 5 correct facts in it about assigned president
Dialogue must be written in complete sentences with proper grammar and spelling
There must be at least two characters (can include president)
There must be at least 6 slides
Finish with final questions about activity.
Brainstorm (5 min):
Students will be given 5 minutes to brainstorm story ideas by themselves or in table groups using a flowchart storyboard (Example)
(Explore) Student work time (45 min):
Students will have 45 minutes to:
Create their avatar.
Create their own comic following the guidelines above.
Students are allowed to work independently or in groups to talk out ideas. Students must create their own individual comic, even if they are allowed to talk in groups. Students must pull information from previous reading materials about U.S. presidents or reputable online sources. *(This is under the assumption that teacher has previously talked to them about reputable sources, such as using EDU, GOV, ORG websites only)*
During this time, the teacher will:
Assist students in using Pixton
Assist students in fact-checking and confirming sources are reputable
Assist students in storyboard ideas
(Summarize) Class discussion/lesson summary (15 min):
Students will volunteer their comics to be read in front of the class. (At least 2 groups).
The writer gets to choose the readers who will read their comics.
After each presentation, the teacher will ask the class “If I didn’t know about this U.S. President, would I have a much better understanding about them?” which students will answer yes or no and why they answered that.
After a few presentations, we will have a “gallery time” on student chromebooks for a few minutes to showcase comics that did not get read in front of the class.
Then the final 5 minutes will be a class discussion to see what they learned about the U.S. Presidents, about Pixton, about writing grammar and dialogue, and how comics might be used to convey information facilitated by the teacher.
Post Assessment Google Form (5 min):