EDEL453 Spring2013 GinaBOGDEN Unit4 Geography DAY 2

Title of Unit: Nevada Geography

Title of Lesson: Nevada Counties Submitted By: Gina Bogden

A. Summary of the Lesson Plan : This social studies lesson is designed for fourth grade students to learn about the counties and county seats in Nevada. This lesson uses the textbook Nevada – A Journey of Discovery by Michael Green.

B. Target Population: Grade Level: 4th grade Skill Level: students at all learning levels Grouping: whole group – introduction, reading, discussion; small group – discussion

of questions; partners – research and poster presentation, closure; individual - assessment

C. Materials: Nevada a Journey of Discovery by Michael GreenElmo MarkersLarge construction paperWorksheet of blank Nevada map

D. Objectives: o NV State Social Studies Standards

G6.4.5 Locate the counties and county seats of Nevada.

o Student-Friendly Standards

I can locate the counties and county seats on a map of Nevada.

E. Procedure: 1. Introduce the topic.

Ask the students to think about all the different classrooms that are located in their school. Lead students to conclude that each classroom is part of the school as a whole.

Introduce vocabulary (county). Explain to students that just as a school often has many classrooms, a state can be divided into separate districts called counties.

Tell students that in this lesson they will learn about the counties of Nevada and the county in which they live.

2. Teacher will display p. 214 of Nevada – A Journey of Discovery by Michael Green on the elmo and will call on one student at a time to read aloud while the rest of the class follows along. They will read up to the last section titled “Government Services”.

Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2013 Karen Powell- Instructor page 1



3. Teacher will display the following questions on the Elmo, and students will discuss them with their table group (consisting of 4 students):

What are the different levels of government?

What are some similarities among all the levels of government?

Define county and county seat?

How many counties does Nevada have?

Using the map on the bottom of page 214, what county do we live in and what is our county seat?

What county has Fallon as its county seat?

Why do you think a state is divided into counties?

4. After a few minutes, Teacher will call on different students for their answers to the above questions.

5. Activity - Students will work with a partner and be assigned a county to research on the computer. They will make a poster with their partner listing the county name, county seat, interesting fact or what that county is known for, and a trick for remembering where the county is on the map. Depending on the number of students in the class, some counties will not be assigned, so the teacher will do those counties.

6. Students will present their posters to the class.

7. CLOSURE: Students will work with their shoulder partner and verbally quiz each other about the location of the different counties using the worksheet that will be used for the assessment.

F. Assessment: What will you use to measure student understanding?

Students will complete the worksheet of a blank Nevada map and fill in the counties and county seats. They will be allowed to look at the posters for assistance.

Explain how you will know students understand the concepts from the lesson.




Students must “locate the counties and county seats of Nevada.” Completion of the worksheet will clearly show that the students are able to do this.

G. Reflection:

1. Which part of the lesson do you think will be the easiest for you to teach?

I think the introduction and reading the book and discussing it will be the easiest to teach.

2. Which part will be most challenging for you to teach?

I think the activity in which the students make a poster of their assigned county will be the most challenging because they might have a hard time coming up with a trick for remembering where the county is located on the map.

3. How will you follow up or extend this lesson?

As an extension to this lesson, I would give the students more time to practice identifying the counties and county seats, possibly making flash cards and puzzles that they could work on with a partner.

4. What will you do for students who don’t grasp the concepts?

For students who don’t understand the concepts in this lesson, I would go over each poster with them and show them on the map where each county is located.

Which part of the lesson, if any, do you think might need to change?

I think this lesson might need to be a two day lesson because it might be too long.

5. When you were writing this lesson plan, what was the most difficult part?

The assessment was the difficult part of this lesson because I wasn’t sure if the students had to have the counties memorized or not. It seemed an unrealistic expectation in just one day, and that’s why I let the students use the posters during the assessment.







The following map was copied from yellowmap.com/maps/img/US/blank-county/Nevada_co_lines.jpg.





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EDEL453 Spring2013 GinaBOGDEN Unit4 Geography DAY 2