Basic Productivity Tools
Lesson Idea Name: Creating a Blog with Notion
Content Area: English Language Arts
Grade Level(s): 7th Grade
Content Standard Addressed:
ELAGSE7W6: Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing
and link to and cite sources as well as to interact and collaborate with others, including
linking to and citing sources.
ELAGSE7W1: Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant
evidence.
Technology Standard Addressed:
6b. Students create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources
into new creations.
Selected Technology Tool: [Link]
URL(s) to support the lesson (if applicable):
[Link]
Bloom’s Taxonomy Levels:
☐ Remembering ☐ Understanding ☐ Applying ☐ Analyzing ✓ Evaluating
✓ Creating
Levels of Technology Integration (LoTi Level):
☐ Level 1: Awareness ☐ Level 2: Exploration ☐ Level 3: Infusion ☐ Level
4: Integration
☐ Level 5: Expansion ✓ Level 6: Refinement
Universal Design for Learning (UDL):
This activity allows students to pick their own story, create their own questions based
on the story, and then research and answer that question, providing multiple means of
engagement. Notion also allows students to choose how they want to present
information, letting them link videos, music, Twitter, pictures, and much more. Notion
also provides a feature for students to organize their thoughts into different categories,
allowing them to self-regulate and visualize processes, giving student multiple means
of representation. Students can also display whatever information they need for this
activity, letting students use audio and visuals in their articles, allowing for multiple
means of action and expression.
Lesson idea implementation:
Hook: 10 minutes
- Students will read the example article created by the teacher, called “The Problem of
Ignoring Youth.”
- The teacher will ask students, “What was the theme of this article?” The teacher will
wait for a minute for responses. When a student says aging, wisdom, or something
about ignoring youth, write it on the board and circle it.
- The teacher will ask students, “What is some of the evidence that was used in this
article?” Give them a moment to think, and then have a couple different students come
to the board and write down evidence.
- The teacher will show students the graphic organizer they just created, showing how
they can map out how to write a research paper.
- The teacher will say, “Today, we are going to write an article or a blog post about the
books that we have been reading in our free time. Take time and think of a question
that your book made you think, or a theme that it had, and then elaborate or find an
answer to your question. Go ahead and brainstorm about this for 5 minutes.” Give
students 5 minutes to write down ideas on a sheet of paper.
Lesson: 40 minutes
- The teacher will say, “We are going to create a graphic organizer, either on
paper or on [Link], to map out our article. Look up evidence that you may
need, and remember, use websites that are credible. Take a moment and turn to
your neighbor. Come up with a couple different words that mean the same thing
as credible.” Give students 1 minute to do this. Ask for some examples and write
them on the board with the word “credible.”
- After this, ask students if they have any questions about the directions. Wait a
minute before moving on.
- The teacher will set a timer for 15 minutes, and then come around to check
individual progress and questions.
- When students finish their graphic organizer, they can begin writing and
working on their article.
- When the 10 minute timer is up, the teacher will ask students to turn their
attention to the board for a moment. On the board, the article from earlier will be
on the screen again.
- The teacher will ask the question, “What about this post makes it
appealing, or easy, to read?” Wait for a response. If none given, prompt
students by saying, “Is it only the words, or is there more than just words
in the article?”
- For all the assets that students bring up from the article, show them
everything they can include in Notion by typing “/”. A list of commands
should pop up. This shows how students can link videos, audio, pictures,
and more to their article. Tell them that whatever they add needs to stay
relevant to the article. Ask students what some synonyms of relevant are,
and write those on the board.
- After emphasizing how things need to be relevant, the teacher will tell
students that they can add 3 different things to this article, anything of
their choice, as long as it is relevant and adds to the point of the article.
- Students will work on this for the rest of class. The teacher will walk around the
room, check on progress, and help if anyone is stuck.
- In the last 5 minutes of class, the teacher will ask students to wrap up what they
are doing. They will then ask what they liked about class today, and then wait.
After some responses, ask what students would like to do differently in the
future.
Reflective Practice:
Notion is a fun website to utilize, just because it combines word processing and
presentation into one environment. It even has the same function as google sheets,
and it’s all just in one place. The design of the website is also intuitive, with most of its
features stemming from typing in a slash. Notion also allows the option to publish a
page that you make, letting students see each others pages after they have completed
their article. This idea was introductory, as students would have another class or two to
work on this. One way I would have added more to this project would have been by
letting students add voice recordings if they wanted to do a 2-3 minute podcast on their
book rather than an article. The actual writing would have been the script, which would
have completed the objective in the same way as just writing an article.