Lesson Plan Overview and Description
• Expected Duration-- 60 Minutes
• Social Sciences-- History
• Concepts -- The history of communication
• Vocabulary/Skills - Pony Express, Telegraph, Morse Code, Telephone, Cellphone
• Broad Goals of Lesson -- Students will learn how technology has affected communication. Students will learn and be able to use Morse Code.
Content Outline and Bibliography
1. PDE SAS Standards -- Civics/Government, History, Economics, Geography
VIII Science, Technoloty, and Society-- A. Identify and describe examples in which science and technology have changed the lives of people, such as in homemaking, childcare, work, transportation, and communication.
Lesson Objectives
Teaching Procedures:
Anticipatory Set/Introduction
• As a class, create a list of all the different ways to communicate with people who live far away. Ask how I could get a message to the principal without using any electronics. Discuss how new technologies have allowed communication between people far away.
Lesson Input
Teacher and Student Resources and Evaluation of Resources
A. STUDENT READING RESOURCES:
Harcourt Social Studies- Chapter 5- Our History Through Time and Space.
http://www.nsa.gov/kids/games/gameMorse.swf
B. TEACHER RESOURCES FOR LESSON DESIGN: List resources you used to design the lesson plan (teacher materials, to provide background on the content, etc...) These are materials you used as a teacher before teaching the lesson.
http://www.nsa.gov/kids/games/gameMorse.swf
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/morsecode.htm
Harcourt Social Studies- Chapter 5- Our History Through Time and Space
Evaluation Chart
Formative/Summative Assessment of Students (P-12)
Technology
Reflection on Planning:
This lesson was very interesting to plan because there were so many different things I could focus on. I thought that students would find Morse Code the most interesting to expand upon because it is not something they do not see everyday. So I planned the lesson to include a lot of Morse Code practice. I believe this lesson would be very successful if implemented because it allows students the student to actively interact with the new material. It fits with the entire unit because of its focus on the changes in time. Our way of communicating with people living far away has improved greatly over time. A potential challenge in the implementation of this lesson is making sure the secret messages the students are writing is appropriate. Other then that I believe the lesson would be extremely successful. I believe the lesson is fun, interesting, and very informational.
• Expected Duration-- 60 Minutes
• Social Sciences-- History
• Concepts -- The history of communication
• Vocabulary/Skills - Pony Express, Telegraph, Morse Code, Telephone, Cellphone
• Broad Goals of Lesson -- Students will learn how technology has affected communication. Students will learn and be able to use Morse Code.
Content Outline and Bibliography
- Changes in Communication
- Messages used to be sent by mail.
- The Pony Express
- Established in 1860. It was the first organized mail service in America that would get mail from New York to California. The mail was sent by a series of people riding horseback
- Samuel Morse and the Telegraph
- Morse invented the telegraph in 1940. The machine used a code of dots and dashes to send messages over wires
- Alexander Graham Bell and the Telephone
- In 1876 Bell built the first telephone. People could hear and speak to others from far distances.
- Martin Cooper and the Cell Phone
- Invented in 1973
1. PDE SAS Standards -- Civics/Government, History, Economics, Geography
- 8.3.3.C: Identify and describe how continuity and change have impacted U.S. History. Technology
- 8. History- 3. United States History- 3. Grade Three- C. Impact of Continuiity and Change on US History
VIII Science, Technoloty, and Society-- A. Identify and describe examples in which science and technology have changed the lives of people, such as in homemaking, childcare, work, transportation, and communication.
Lesson Objectives
- Students will communicate with an Morse Code.
- Students will write a summary on a personally selected topic discussed in class (The Pony Express, The Telegraph, The Telephone, OR The Cellphone).
Teaching Procedures:
Anticipatory Set/Introduction
• As a class, create a list of all the different ways to communicate with people who live far away. Ask how I could get a message to the principal without using any electronics. Discuss how new technologies have allowed communication between people far away.
Lesson Input
- Begin a SmartBoard presentation
- Handout presentation outline with words missing- so the children can fill in as they follow along
- The presentation will begin by asking the students how they thought information was sent from one person to the next before there was telephones or computers
- The next slide will cover that mail used to send information, but instead of mail being sent by trucks and planes, messengers delivered mail. People had to ride horse back hundreds of miles to send just one letter- that could take weeks!
- The next slide will cover the Pony Express- which was established in 1860. It was the first organized mail service in America that would get mail from New York to California. The mail was sent by a series of people riding horseback.
- The next slides will cover the telegraph and Samuel Morse- Which was invented in 1840
- Show what the Morse alphabet is
- Have students come up to the SmartBoard to decipher different words written in Morse
- Listen to the words before the students decipher it
- The next few slides will cover the Telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell- which was invented in 1876
- The next slide will cover the cellphone by Martin Cooper- which was invented in 1973
- The teacher will monitor student progress by walking around the room during the two activities as well as collecting the group work completed by the students. (Formative assessment)
- Hand out a work sheet with the Morse Code International on it, laptops, and head sets for each student
- Each student will sign onto http://www.nsa.gov/kids/games/gameMorse.swf
- They will then have the opportunity to hear and see Morse Code and decipher different words
- Each student will spend 10-15 minutes deciphering words
- Students will then work in pairs to create their own secret messages in Morse Code- each pair will then trade their secret messages with another pair to decipher the secret message
- The messages will be collected and used as a formative assessment for the teacher
- Independent differentiation will be made depending on specific accommodations needed.
- When the students are finished working in pairs I will bring the classes attention back to the front. We will then add three new aspects to our classroom timeline.
- 1840- The telegraph- Created by Samuel Morse
- 1860- The Pony Express
- 1876- The Telephone- Created by Alexander Graham Bell
- For Homework each student will pick one of the topics discussed in today's class (Pony Express, Telegraph, or the Telephone). They will need to print a picture representing the material, and a three-sentence paragraph writing they facts they learned about the topic. This will contribute to their personal timeline they are creating during the Unit.
Teacher and Student Resources and Evaluation of Resources
A. STUDENT READING RESOURCES:
Harcourt Social Studies- Chapter 5- Our History Through Time and Space.
http://www.nsa.gov/kids/games/gameMorse.swf
B. TEACHER RESOURCES FOR LESSON DESIGN: List resources you used to design the lesson plan (teacher materials, to provide background on the content, etc...) These are materials you used as a teacher before teaching the lesson.
http://www.nsa.gov/kids/games/gameMorse.swf
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/morsecode.htm
Harcourt Social Studies- Chapter 5- Our History Through Time and Space
Evaluation Chart
Formative/Summative Assessment of Students (P-12)
- Use observation as a form of formative assessment throughout the lesson.
- As a form of formative assessment the teacher will collect the 'secret messages completed in pairs.
- As a form of summative assessment the teacher will collect three-sentence paragraph completed for homework.
Technology
- SmartBoard
- Personal Laptops
- Headphones
- http://www.nsa.gov/kids/games/gameMorse.swf
Reflection on Planning:
This lesson was very interesting to plan because there were so many different things I could focus on. I thought that students would find Morse Code the most interesting to expand upon because it is not something they do not see everyday. So I planned the lesson to include a lot of Morse Code practice. I believe this lesson would be very successful if implemented because it allows students the student to actively interact with the new material. It fits with the entire unit because of its focus on the changes in time. Our way of communicating with people living far away has improved greatly over time. A potential challenge in the implementation of this lesson is making sure the secret messages the students are writing is appropriate. Other then that I believe the lesson would be extremely successful. I believe the lesson is fun, interesting, and very informational.