CH 9: Developing the Content

Developing the content refers to the process of helping children learn the various motors skills that are typically taught in physical education.  As part of this process, teachers decide how long students should practice a given task, which cues are most appropriate for refining the task, and how to challenge the students to improve.  Imagine you are five minutes into a lesson on dribbling a basketball.  You have tasked the students to dribble in a clockwise path around the gym.  You already have to start making decisions about when and how to change the task, provide a cue or offer a challenge.  In a typical class some students would be performing below the expected standard of being able to dribble without losing control while others are speeding around the gym dribbling easily with either hand, in and out of traffic.  What goes into your decision to change the task, provide cues to refine performance, or offer challenges to those who need them before they get bored? 

The beginning teacher might arbitrarily assign a new task every five minutes under the assumption that five minutes is about the limit before boredom sets in.  The experienced teacher, on the other hand, considers the goals of the lesson and that there is always a progression between tasks in order to arrive at proficiency.  How to design this progression is the teacher’s key challenge.  Merely changing from one dribbling activity to a different one is not necessarily a progression.  Progression in lesson design can consist of making tasks easier or harder, of changing them from static to dynamic, altering the number of required movements, changing the number of children involved (size of the group), modifying the equipment, or using defenders. 

In addition to the progression of tasks, refining through the use of teaching cues is another important aspect of practice.  Cues are a lot like feedback.  It’s all about the quality.  Saying “Keep practicing – you’ve almost got it,” to a student who is trying to dribble without “spanking” the basketball is fairly useless from an instructional standpoint.  Whereas, “Touch the ball with your fingertips – it should feel springy,” is a cue that is more likely to help the student progress.  Some cues are used too often or too indiscriminately, like “Keep your eye on the ball.”  Graham makes an interesting point that a parent who has minimal background in physical education often uses this cue for many skills: batting, catching, kicking, punting, tennis, etc., and it is occasionally the right cue for the situation. “But the skillful physical educator, in contrast to the uninformed parent, is able to provide the child with an appropriate cue that enables the child to concentrate on an aspect of the movement that will lead to an efficient motor pattern for that skill.”  This is where the art of teaching is evident.  That ability to isolate a small piece of the skill that the student can give their complete focus to is the key to unlocking the larger skill.  What is the right cue for the child who does not step with the opposite leg when throwing but rather with the same side leg? “Step with the other leg,” “You’re a righty, so step with the left leg,” “Keep your right foot back and step and throw with your left leg.”  All are bound to be ineffective.  The key is for the child to get the feeling of shifting all his weight to the back (right) leg to the point where they are standing on one leg only.  That is the essential piece – the tipping point at which the correct motion becomes inevitable.

While two thirds of the class works on static or dynamic dribbling tasks, one third will need additional challenge to ingrain their skill and bring it to a new level.  Introducing defenders is one possibility.  But that might demand too much reorganization of the space.  A good alternative would be to introduce a piece of equipment that would increase the challenge.  You might offer the choice of tossing a scarf while dribbling, or a set of bean bags that have to be picked up and dropped in a bucket while maintaining the dribble.

How does the reflective teacher improve his or her teaching in this area?  One way is to have an observer record data about the type and frequency of teaching cues you give.  Graham provides examples of templates that allow the observer to capture information about statements that the teacher makes to the class about motor skills (not behavior).  The key is for the observer to capture the intent of the statement as being in one of the three categories:  extending/changing tasks, refining tasks, applying challenge.  The observer totals the frequency of statements in each category so that patterns become clear.  This is helpful information for a teacher, but it’s at least as important to assess the quality of the tasks, cues and challenges in terms of results in student performance.  Some key questions to ask are:  Did the students understand and use the cues being emphasized?  Was the cue appropriate – was it the right cue at the right time?  Was the progression of tasks to easy or too hard?  Were tasks changed unnecessarily or too quickly?  Did the challenges motivate students to practice longer?  Were the tasks appropriate for accomplishing your objectives for the lesson?

Chapter 7: Motivating Children to Practice

Teaching Children P.E. Ch. 7 Summary: “Motivating Children to Practice”

The word “motivating” is a key term in the title of this chapter.  While the chapter ostensibly describes a number of ways that successful PE teachers organize the lesson so that students can practice skills and tasks, really the focus is on designing practice with students’ motivation in mind.  How can I design this activity so that my students will maintain interest, not reach their frustration level right away, be challenged, feel successful?  These are the questions a teacher should be asking himself.  Graham describes a wide variety of approaches, and admits that they don’t work equally well in all classes and with all teachers.  It’s up to every teacher to determine which approaches work best with his students, but the starting point is to design activities for success. 

Self-adjusting activities are designed in such a way that they provided a challenge to students of different abilities, and therefore virtually guarantee success for all.  For example, the “slanty rope” provides a variable difficulty range by having one end high off the ground and the other low.  Jumpers can choose the spot they want to cross at.  Basketball nets set at different heights provides the same kind of choice.  While some teachers may be tempted to create one standard for all, it’s important to remember that lower skilled students who reach their frustration level very quickly, are not only unsuccessful, but also apt to become behavior problems and develop a negative attitude toward sports and fitness – which no one wants. 

Students are also likely to enjoy and persevere at tasks that provide intrinsic motivation.  An important way to do this is to avoid comparisons with other children, classes or norms.  Instead, teachers should guide students in the process of comparing their current and past performances to recognize how they are improving and to show them that practice eventually pays off.

For students to remain motivated, it is necessary to keep activities developmentally appropriate.  There is no one “right way” to do this. “Intratask Variation” is the slightly pretentious label that Graham uses for differentiating instruction.  The teacher plans activity options that will challenger different skill levels and decides which students should do them.  For example, in a volleyball unit most students may be able to strike a ball over the net.  Those who cannot, perhaps because of poor footwork or poor understanding of anticipation, can be sent to a wall station where they can set a ball off the wall to themselves.

For students that read, task sheets are an excellent way to allow for more independence so that the teacher can step back, observe and evaluate.  A task sheet might be a list of weight lifting or resistance tube stations.  It also might be a template for a jump rope routine where students make choices about the steps they will perform and record those choices.  Task sheets can provide students with higher success rates because they can proceed at their own pace.

Student-designed activities might seem risky to the teacher who has not tried them, but they can bring out enthusiasm, creativity and leadership in ways that other activities don’t.  Two such activities that I traditional do are hula-hoop castles and Invent-a-Game.  Hula hoop castles are structures designed and built by small groups.  Teachers may offer some design hints and should pre-teach methods of cooperating, but otherwise design and construction is left up to students.  For Invent-a-Game, set up several stations with different equipment stockpiles.  Small groups rotate through the stations with 8 to 10 minutes  to plan, set-up, and play a game using that equipment.  While student-designed activities are admittedly a challenge for more self-centered and immature students, the majority relish the opportunity to feel “in charge.”

Finally, making the home to school connection is a very important way to get parents to support their child’s interest in sports and fitness.  Fitness Calendars where each day describes a different activity or form of exercise that a student does at home are great ways to do this.  Parents initial each box that their child completes.  Design as many days as you want for tasks that the children share with a parent or sibling such as a game of catch, a hike or yardwork.  With parents participating in fitness with their children, motivation is almost guaranteed.

Chapter 12 Review: Building Positive Feelings

Teaching PE:  Chapter 12 Review – Building Positive Feelings

 

Participation in physical activity can create powerful and lasting impressions – both painful and joyous.

Effective teachers constantly focus on promoting positive attitudes.

Goal – help students feel good about themselves as they participate in physical activity.

 

To help kids enjoy physical activities:

• Provide alternatives
• Interact positively with all = interactive analysis
• Audiotape to evaluate your teaching
• Let students know that mistakes are okay
• Encourage persistence – I can’t do it… yet!
• Select activities carefully
• No captain-picking
• No elimination games
• Relays can also be damaging

 

Competition can damage self-esteem

Don’t keep score.

Change the scoring system to encourage cooperation and support.

Ask students to design own games.

Avoid physical tests.

Compare individual’s current performance to past performance.

Have students keep personal log/journal.

Hold discussion circle to discuss feelings.

 

Reflection:  How do I foster positive self-images?

Chapter 10 Review: Providing Feedback

Chapter 10:  Providing Feedback

Purpose = to describe and analyze various types and uses of feedback

feedback:

1.  Encourages kids to continue practicing
2.  Means teacher is moving around
3.  Helps kids assess own performance
4.  Lets teacher assess to determine how quickly and correctly kids are learning skill

Good feedback is specific, congruent, simple, and positive or neutral.

General feedback promotes positive atmosphere.

Specific feedback provides improvement technique.

Congruent feedback corresponds to idea just presented.

Simple feedback focuses on one component at a time.

Positive or neutral feedback is best.  Negative rarely good unless tempered.

Best to provide feedback equally to everyone.

 

Effective praise is delivered continually; is specific; is spontaneous, varied, and credible; rewards attainment of specific performance; provides information about their competence; orients student to appreciate own performance; relates student’s previous performance to current; recognizes noteworthy effort; attributes success to effort and ability.

 

Reflection:  When is general feedback okay?  Can too much feedback be detrimental?

Chapter 5: Getting the Lesson Started

Chapter 5: Getting the Lesson Started

“When the child is greeted with the same old calisthenics and laps, lesson after lesson, there is a message that perhaps these classes are to be endured rather than enjoyed.”

Instant Activities are a way to get kids moving as soon as they come into class.  Most PE teachers I know have some kind of protocol for letting students know what they do as soon as they enter the gym.  The whiteboard at the entrance is where my students find quick directions for what to do.  This is not a time to write lengthy instructions or activity descriptions involving many steps.  Instant Activities or warmup routines should already have been taught and practiced.  Once the students are familiar with an activity, then it becomes a good candidate for a warmup routine.  Certain tag games are good candidates, as are cardio stations.  Add a level of complexity by requiring students to form teams of a certain size for a relay, or for volleyball popcorn or circle-soccer popcorn.

Jogging laps are certainly quick and easy, but students are soon bored by them.  If you want students to jog, add interest by doing a Jog and Chat.  I was taught this by a very experienced track coach friend who uses it as a warmup with his runners.  The idea is that if students can talk while they’re running, they remain in the aerobic zone at a medium intensity level.  Without the direction to “chat,” younger kids often automatically accelerate into a run that will eventually take them beyond the aerobic zone and into exhaustion.  It’s rare for a PE teacher to have time to chat with students one-on-one, and I find that I can spend a nice chunk of quality time with two or three students every time we do a Jog and Chat.

Another benefit to writing warmup instructions at the gym entrance is that it reinforces the importance of reading and of paying attention to instructions.  When we reinforce reading and math skills in PE class, students get the message that academics have an application elsewhere in the “real world.”  

Set Induction, AKA Anticipatory Set or Cognitive Set is the strategy for getting kids focused on and interested in what you’re planning for them to do next.  This is an area where teaching is part art form.  What can I say or do that will get my kids really interested in doing this next activity? 

One approach is to totally impress the students with your amazing ability.  If, for example, you’re starting a unit on paddle sports, you might volley a ball against the wall 25 times without a miss.  Right away kids start counting and cheering.  Or you could take the opposite tack.  (This might come more naturally!)  Demonstrate how you’re unable to do a forward roll, and while doing so, make sure to pinpoint the parts you’re having trouble with.  Within seconds, dozens of students will be offering to show you, and everyone else, how it’s done.  Another approach is to introduce some emotional content, and this is easily done by starting a discussion on conflict and fairness in games.  For example, “Yesterday I noticed a lot of heated debate and angry voices on the field at recess – and not so much actual playing.  What was that about?”  That would be your lead-in to a discussion of game rules, and then game time.

Chapter 8:  Observing & Analyzing

Purpose = to offer practical techniques to observe and analyze student movement to guide instruction

Child-centered program:  lesson designed for particular classes of children

                Selections of tasks and activities and time spent is based on teacher observations

Subject-centered program:  one lesson fits all

 

Don’t only observe entire class, but individuals as wwell

 

Observation Techniques:

1.  Back to the wall
2. Scanning
3. Visitor observation – what would a guest see?
4. One component at a time

 

4 key questions:

1. Are the children working safely
2. Are the children on task?
3. Is the task appropriate?
4. How are individuals using the crucial component

 

Reflection:  It’s often difficult to observe students ability to perform a specific skill because many times it takes several seconds to do so.  In the meanwhile, it is often necessary to look away to monitor the rest of the class.  So the critical observation is missed.  It can be very difficult to analyze student growth because of so much activity going on at the same time that also needs to be watched.

Chapter 6:  Instructing  & Demonstrating

Students must have learned to pay attention first

Instructing = providing information by talking

Organizational instruction = what to do, with whom, where, and with what equipment

Informational instruction = how to do

          4 guidelines: 

                1.  one idea at a time

                2.  keep it brief

                3.  develop a reminder word or phrase

                4.  adapt/correct based on observation

 

Demonstrating

1.  Location is important
2.  Whole or part – start with whole, then break it down
3.  Normal speed, then slow

Have students do the demonstration if you can’t

1.  Check for understanding
   1.  Recognition check – did I do it right?
   2.  Verbal check – students identify the concept you are teaching
   3.  Comprehension check – ask students to explain the concept
   4.  Performance check
   5.  Closure – review

Analyze how much time is spent managing, activity, instruction, waiting

Pinpoint – select 1 or 2 students to demonstrate their correct skill

Play – Teach – Play:  play, then teach to enhance play, then play again

Use video and CD for instruction

Chapter 4 Review:  Minimizing Off-Task Behavior & Discipline Problems

The purpose of this chapter is to describe and analyze some of the ways teachers prevent off-task behavior. 

Here are some effective strategies:

1. Back-to-the-Wall:  stand out the boundary of the activity for better and quicker monitoring
2. Proximity Control:  move around, get close to students to prevent misbehaviors
3. With-it-Ness:  Convince students that you’re on top of the activities.
4. Selectively Ignoring:  Not a problem behavior if it isn’t adversely affecting others.
5. Overlapping:  Focus on several things simultaneously.
6. Learning Names:  Easier to discipline a child from a distance.
7. Positive Pinpointing:  Acknowledge and announce desired behaviors.

It is important to have a discipline system in place in order to have a structure for making disciplinary decisions.  It may be more effective if it is implemented school-wide.

 

Canter’s Assertive Discipline Model has the following points:

1. All students can behave responsibly.
2. Firm control is fair.
3. Reasonable expectations should be clearly communicated.
4. Teachers should expect appropriate behavior.
5. Appropriate behavior should be reinforced.  Inappropriate should have logical consequences.
6. Consequences should be clearly communicated.
7. Consequences should be consistently reinforced without bias.
8. Communication with students should be firm with teacher-student eye contact.
9. Teachers should mentally practice expectations and consequences.

Reasonable consequences may include (in order): Warning. 5-minute time-out, 10-minute time-out, teacher calls parents, child sent to principal.

Some teachers use extrinsic rewards.  They must have value to be effective.  Some use intrinsic rewards.  Students are encouraged to practice self-responsibility.

Three important components of any disciplinary system:

1. Carefully explained at the beginning of the year to develop understanding.
2. Consistent implementation by the teacher.
3. Support from principal, classroom teachers, and parents.

When misbehavior occurs, remember it is not personal.  Calmly and quietly explain the rule violation.  Describe the predetermined consequence.

Assertive communication: 

1. Describe behavior without judgment.
2. Express feelings as a teacher.
3. Acknowledge the child’s feeling.
4. Explain the effect of the misbehavior.
5. State expectations for future behavior.

Reflection questions:

1. How effective are you?
2. Which strategies appeal to you?
3. Do you prefer intrinsic or extrinsic rewards?
   Response:  I prefer intrinsic rewards.  The idea of providing prizes for expected behaviors doesn’t appeal to me.  That being said, singling out and praising well-behaving students can encourage intrinsic rewards.  But I try to encourage kids to first think about their behavior and its effect on themselves and others, then act accordingly.
4. Have you ever gotten angry?  How would you handle it differently next time?

Chapter 1 Review & Reflection

Chapter 1 review:

Book purpose:  to describe and analyze the techniques, behaviors, and approaches of successful PE teachers who develop and teach lessons that are developmentally appropriate while enjoyable and beneficial for children.

PE is different than other subjects:  Kids are moving.  5-year-olds may be followed by 11-year-old.  Wide range of content.  Often poor or sparse equiopment.  Frenetic pace.  May interact with more than 350 kids/week

There is no precise formula to become a successful PE teacher.  Teaching is too unpredictable.  Classes and students have many variables.  Teaching should be challenging and dynamic.  A successful teacher has a bag of tricks plus flexibility and understanding.

Teaching PE is more than keeping kids busy, happy, and good.  Success = kids learning and developing positive attitudes.

 

Reflection:  What are the challenges I face as a PE teacher?

I also teach music and library.

It is difficult to find time to plan.

It is difficult to find time to coordinate with Bill.

MPR is not well suited for teaching PE>

Difficult to move equipment back and forth.

Kindergarteners are often less structured.

Chapter 3 Reflection:Creating a Positive Learning Environment

QUESTION: When you think of yourself teaching, which of the protocols is the easiest for you to develop?  The hardest?  Why?

This chapter is about the importance of creating a positive learning environment in a PE class.  Having protocols is an important component of a positive learning environment.  When students are familiar with protocols, less time is wasted with the teacher having to explain, demonstrate and reinforce everything s/he wants the students to do.  The teacher designs protocols to maximize use of time, to insure tasks are done correctly and to minimize conflict and off-task behavior.   A result is a positive environment - students are happier when there is less friction, more on-task time and less teacher nagging.  The correct way to enter the gym, start and stop signals, warmup routines, “Home Base” behavior, grouping methods, equipment management – these are examples of things that can be routinized and practiced.  When the typical PE class is only a half hour long, protocols are not just advisable, they are a necessity!

I have a relatively easy time designing protocols for the things mentioned above.  These areas involve moving and organizing people and things in the most efficient ways.  For example, what is the easiest and quickest way to create groups of students: have them built-in, ready-made.  With students sitting on a number grid, you can easily pick by row, by odds and evens, by multiples.  Labeling vertical and horizontal rows with letters or colors gives more possibilities.  Each spot also has a shape (triangle, square, diamond, etc.) which yields yet another way to call out groups.  Protocols should originate in the planning stage as the teacher thinks about an activity.  The key is to visualize every step in the process that will be required of students and to think of ways to streamline and avoid confusion.  These are logistical challenges – not rocket science.  However not all things that we’d like to routinize are as easy.  For example, how do you make a routine of students showing appreciation and spirit in a competition without having to constantly repeat a reminder to “High Five!”  What about protocols for strategizing?  And most difficult of all, protocols for student self- and formative assessment during drills and games?  These are behaviors that don’t simply require students to line up in pairs, or drop the red balls in the red buckets.  They require students to think and perform multi-step tasks.  Possibly the best approach is to break them down into small pieces.