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Lesson Plan - Are Apps Following You?
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Learning Objective
Students will learn why the apps they use might collect data about them and what they can do to protect their privacy.
Text Structure
Problem/Solution
Content-Area Connections
Media Literacy
Standards Correlations
CCSS: RI.3.1, RI.3.2, RI.3.3, RI.3.4, RI.3.5, RI.3.6, RI.3.7, RI.3.8, RI.3.10, L.3.4, SL.3.1, W.3.2
NCSS: Individual Development and Identity
TEKS: Social Studies 3.16
1. Preparing to Read
Watch a Video: Digital Decisions: Pause Before You Post
Ask: Which situation in the video do you think is the hardest one to handle? Why?
Preview Words to Know
Project the online vocabulary slideshow and introduce the Words to Know.
Set a Purpose for Reading
Point out the “As You Read” question. Have students think about why some apps might collect information about people.
2. Close-Reading Questions
1. Why does the author talk about a company called Pixalate? The author mentions Pixalate because this company discovered that many apps track what kids do online.
(RI.3.8 AUTHOR’S PURPOSE)
2. According to the section “Information for Sale,” what are two reasons companies might collect information about kids?Some companies collect information about kids to make kids like their apps more. Companies may also collect this information to make money. They sell the information to advertisers.
(RI.3.2 MAIN IDEA AND KEY DETAILS)
3. What are two things kids can do to protect their privacy online? Sample response: Kids can protect their privacy by downloading only the apps that their parents approve and never lying about their age.
(RI.3.1 TEXT EVIDENCE)
3. Skill Building
FEATURED SKILL: Informative Writing
Use the Skill Builder “App Awareness” to have students write a public service announcement about apps and privacy..
(W.3.2 INFORMATIVE WRITING)
Multilingual Learners Use the Skill Builder “What I Learned” to assess comprehension. Sentence stems and other question formats help scaffold understanding.
Striving Readers Provide striving readers with the lower-level version of the article. Read it together in small groups.
Small Groups Group students who need support in finding the main idea of a text and have them collaborate on the “What’s the Main Idea?” Skill Builder in our free online Graphic Organizer Library.