Chapter Two Summary

Chapter 2 Summary: Planning to Maximize Learning

There are many reasons why lesson planning is important.  Without plans, the PE teacher is simply “rolling out the ball” and expects nothing more than for kids to have fun and get exercise.  But, as argued in chapter 1, if we are to be able to justify keeping our jobs as PE teachers, we need to shoot much higher than that.  We need to demonstrate that our students have learning objectives and are meeting them, as they do in gen. ed. classes.  If we want our students to perform more complex tasks, we have to plan how to accomplish that.  Perhaps the most persuasive argument for planning is the fact that PE time is so limited.  With 30 minutes, twice a week, there is a total estimated PE time of only 32.4 hours per year when one considers interruptions like assemblies, snow days, testing, etc. Graham estimates that “actual learning time” represents only 50% of the total PE minutes.  Therefore, I would only have 16.2 hours in a year to teach all of my skills.  Using the state of Virginia’s instructional objectives as an example, Kindergarteners have 23 skills to learn.  Divide 16.2 by 23 and you get 43 minutes per skill.  Lists of PE essential learnings or standards are long – whether we go by the state’s or NASPE's. If we are to accomplish all that we want to, planning is essential.  Another reason planning is essential is that all classes and all children are not alike.  If we consider that a PE teacher may see 500 students in the course of a week, the only way to insure that our lessons will be tailored to students’ needs is to think about individual students and plan how best to support them with explanation, demonstration and practice. 

- Bill