Effectiveness in Physical Education

There are six characteristics emphasized in the SaskatchewanPhysical Education Curriculum that are components of an effective physical education program.

“Student Learning is supported by a program that:

·         focuses on achieving physical literacy

·         provides meaningful contexts, key idea, and questions for Elementary Level students to explore

·         teaches students how to use critical, creative, and powerful learning strategies

·         see teachers planning to meet the needs of all students

·         is planned purposefully based on the curriculum

·         is defined by the grade specific outcomes.”

Now what does physical literacy in a physical education class actually involve? At first I was thinking does that mean having the students read articles or books about physical education? Well that seemed rather silly. So as I am trying to understand what physical literacy is, I read about it in the curriculum documents. I find out that physically literate students are those who can move properly and with confidence in a range of physically challenging situations, can read the physical environment, anticipate movement and responding appropriately. The students can identify and articulate the essential qualities that influence the effectiveness of their own movement performances, and a sense of understanding of a whole health lifestyle. Taking this information (found in the curriculum document) into what my original thoughts about physical literacy meant, is completely different. These qualities make sense to having students become physically literate in your physical education program.

The second point, providing meaningful contexts, key ideas, and questions, reminds me about inquiry learning. Inquiry learning in physical education can lead to students having a deeper and enriched understanding of why physical education is important to their education and for themselves.

The third characteristics, teaches students how to use critical, creative and powerful learning strategies, means for students to be able to make decisions about movement, offensive/defensive skills and plan, and also about other’s movements. These will help students understand the quality of the game or activities they are playing and help them achieve greatness in that area. This will lead to feelings of success and lead to lifelong fitness.

The fourth of which is seeing teachers planning to meet the needs of all students. I have talked about inclusion in another blog post, but in recap, if you allow opportunities for everyone, everyone will have a chance to feel involved, be part of a team, and have feelings of success. These opportunities are important and making them happen for meeting the needs of everyone is of utmost important to my physical education philosophy.

The fifth characteristic, is planned purposefully on curriculum, well this makes sense. Curriculum is made for a reason, it is to lay out the things all students should be able to do, know and understand by the end of each grade. These outcomes are not only important for education but important for the students. They will help develop skills and movement, active living, and building relationships.

Found in the Saskatchewan Curriculum

The last characteristic which is defined by the grade specific outcomes; it is important to recognize at what point in a student’s physical education program do certain skills and movements are possible for physical development of the children you are working with, and know at which grade the students should have the outcome explored, progressing towards, have control or utilization of. These developmental progression help identify where students are at each outcome and help plan for what needs need to be met next.

I believe that these six characteristics are important for having an effective physical education program and effective teaching style for all teachers in a physical education classroom.

Structured Recess?

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As I was rummaging through growingyoungmovers website I came across a question posed under daily physical activity, it asked, “What do you think of the idea of a structured recess for elementary students?”

Well I will tell you what I think…

We are told by many active lifestyle programs, like Saskatchewan in motion, that kids need 60 minutes of physical activity or more every day and more is always better. Many suggest structured play during recess will help kids achieve those 60 minutes a day, because in some cases kids are not getting any minutes of physical activity during a school day. I do not think having structured recess is the answer for this problem. I think we have to go back to the roots. We should ask ourselves, “Why are kids not achieving any physical activity minutes in a school day?” It states in the Saskatchewan Education Curriculum that physical education should be 150 minutes of instruction per week. (Break that down into approx. 30 min a day) So the problem is not about having a structured recess but having a structured/organized school day.

If we look at a structured recess what problems can that create? One, many students dislike physical activity, because it is forced upon them during the time of day where normally students would have some freedom. Second, does the social aspect of recess time get pushed to the side? Having a structured recess would leave less time for kids of similar age to discuss topics of interest to them. Third, forced physical activities during recess might turn kids off of physical movement completely.

We must also look at the positives of a structured recess. One, structured recess could in fact decrease bullying because students are engaged in a physical activity while supervised/instructed. Second, it would guarantee active movement. Third…well frankly I cannot come up of a good reason to support this…

I believe that recess should be a time for kids to have a break from the structure of a school day, to release energy on their own terms, and socialize with their friends. Students that are structured too much will lose their sense of adventure and lose chances for exploring their curiosities.  

What are your thoughts about a structured recess?

Discover Hantis: Physical Activity or Physical Education

During my regularly scheduled twitter time I came across this tweet by @ThaxtonMarshall “@phys_educator I teach students Hantis 101 & 102 from YouTube, then set up tables and watch the magic happen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQY-7soDS6M&feature=youtube_gdata_player”

I thought to myself what is Hantis? So I watched these videos and found out.

In class we discuss the difference between physical activity and physical education. Is Hantis a physical activity or can it be part of physical education? Let us look at the curriculum to see if it can connect to any outcomes.

What Movement Activity could Hantis fall under? Is it a target game? Or could it be low-organizational and inventive game? There is a target in which the tennis ball must hit to ‘score a point’ but it also requires little organization. (4 tables and 1 tennis ball) I personally would classify Hantis as a target game because there is a target in which must be met in order to ‘score a point’ against the other team. The reasoning for the quotation around 'score a point' is that I believe that this game can be done without keeping score and can be done to build relationships with all those members playing.

 In the Grade 5 Physical Education Curriculum outcomes

ü  5.5 Complex manipulative Skills: Refine manipulative skills used in increasingly complex movement activities such as lead-up games, including: hand dribbling can be seen in the video.

ü  5.6 Performance Refinement: Apply performance cues, movement variables, tactics, and principles of practice in complex movement activities to improve the performance of self and others.  The body fakes, change of speed, change of direction, keeping the body low while moving are all examples of successfully achieving this outcome and is done by involving your students in a game of Hantis.

ü  5.7 Skillful Play: Refine, alone and with others, selected movement skills, tactics, and strategies while participating in: small sided and lead up target games. The students during a game of Hantis must distinguish between effective and ineffective individual and small group offensive and defensive tactics.

After successfully connecting Hantis to the SaskatchewanCurriculum I would say Hantis could be part of Physical Education classroom. This new discovery of a game involving hand eye coordination, defensive/offensive strategies and movement variables, such as Hantis, can create a new environment for your students that move away from the regular sports (volleyball, basketball, table tennis, etc.). Hantis can be a lead activity to other movement activities such as net/wall games. It could be a developmental area for table tennis, badminton, etc.  Hantis can be very valuable in my opinion to any physical education classroom.

Do you think Hantis can be part of physical education classroom or would you classify it as a physical activity?