21st Century 9th-Grade Learners

Leadership: This lesson plan involves the students watching a film and using the prompts provided to guide their discussion. As opposed to a direct instruction approach where the teacher would describe leadership while students take notes, the teacher is NOT the focal point in the classroom. In this lesson, the teaching is implemented through the technology as opposed to the teacher being the main source of information. If I were implementing this lesson in my classroom, I would modify a few aspects to involve more characteristics of 21st century learning. For example, instead of asking students to react to the prompts in writing, I would create a discussion post for students to record their thoughts and reply to others' posts. This way, students are able to learn from the responses of their peers and provide thoughtful feedback that enables the class to dive deeper into the content.

Digital Literacy: This lesson plan incorporates three important aspects of the digital world: digital literacy, digital safety, and digital etiquette. The students begin by tallying the number of times they have used technology that day. Next, they compare and contrast citizenship and digital citizenship. The students then go online to read more information about digital citizenship and are divided into three groups based on the list above. The core of the lesson involves the three groups presenting their information to the class. To incorporate more 21st century technology in the lesson, the students can use tools (excluding PowerPoint) such as Visme, Prezi, and Moovly to present their information. The students can discuss authentic audiences that will view their presentations online and discuss the importance of designing presentations with a specific target audience in mind.

Communication: In this lesson, the students learn about the effectiveness of communication by first watching a video about "Communicating Ideas." Then, the students must plan and create a presentation that they will present to the class. One of the biggest aspects of this lesson is the idea of tailoring a presentation for it's intended audience. The students will specify the number of people in the audience, they will modify the timing to cater to the audience, and they will use appropriate dress and media based on their audience. The lesson plan also provides an opportunity for students to make real-world connections. This is important because 21st century learners are concerned about the "bottom line." They want to be involved in activities that are meaningful and relative to the real world.

Emotional Intelligence: This page is an archive for lesson plans that fit the theme of "Emotional States." The site provides activities for exploring emotional states in the context of arts and trades, English, health, math, science, social sciences, technology and innovation and values. Although the page doesn't provide specific, detailed lesson plans, I think it is an incredible resource for teachers who are looking to incorporate fresh, 21st century activities into their lessons. Several of these activities are 21st century oriented because they allow the students to be the creator and the producer. For example, some of the activities include: "create a mosaic... celebrating a whole range of emotions," "using your art medium of choice, express how you are feeling at this very moment," "create a professional-level piece to teach people of all ages about emotions and how to express them in healthy ways." Even more technology-related, teachers can find resources specifically in the technology section. Several activities include: "find an app... that helps one deal with negative emotional states" and "create an audiovisual piece that would help someone when they were stressed or feeling another negative emotional state."

Entrepreneurship: This project-oriented lesson is centered around learning about entrepreneurship through the lens of a start-up business person. Based on the concept of the famous television show "Shark Tank," the six day lesson plan guides students through the process of selling a product. The students begin by watching a segment of "Shark Tank" to become familiar with the concept. Then, the brainstorm a product, research how to create a business, create their own business, and finally present it to the "sharks." The students will create models, design advertisements using digital devices, create a commercial for their product, and participate in a market day where they will present their product to peers, teachers, and parents.

Global Citizenship: The lesson explores the concept of fair trade on a global scale. The students learn the importance fair trade and the impact that fair trade has on the global market. The students will also learn about the people who are involved with and affected by fair trade goods. The lesson involves students choosing a fair trade product and researching production, costs, and the social and environmental impact it creates. An extension of the lesson is asking students to look for fair trade items in their local grocery store. This activity makes the learning relevant to students because they can discover how fair trade items directly impact their lives, especially if they are consumers of these goods.

Problem Solving: The egg-drop lesson provides students with an opportunity to use problem-solving strategies through an exploratory activity. The lesson includes an illustration of the seven steps involved with solving problems. This process includes steps such as: gather information, think of solutions, etc. However, instead of simply explaining these steps and asking the students to take notes. The students have the opportunity to practice the steps first-hand by exploring different ways to safely dropping eggs into glasses of water. Even further, the activity is related to a real-world event. The students are told to pretend as if the eggs are full of radioactive material and they need to be safely dropped into the water to cool down and avoid any potential health risks. The lesson is hands-on, exploratory, and meaningful for all students as they learn the steps to the problem solving process.

Team-Working: With project-based learning, it's important for 21st century learners to be the designers, creators, and producers of their own work. The process of creating and producing objects makes learning more meaningful and engaging for students. In this lesson, the students are given the opportunity to practice team work strategies to work together to build a newspaper tower. As 9th graders, the students are familiar with what it means to work as a team. For this reason, they now have the opportunity to put their knowledge to work by using their skills.