Group 1: Tuesday July 8th: Cam, Matt, Stephen & Louis – Invasion Games
Group 2: Wednesday July 9th: Susan, Shannon, Caile, Vicky- Dance
Group 3: Tuesday July 15th: Martina, Virginia & Georgia- Individual/Dual Activities *
Group 4: Wednesday July 16th: Corrine, Miguel, Kofi & Teng- Net/Wall Games
Group 5/6: Thursday July 17th & Friday July 18th: Cassie, Zack, Ryan, Wing, Brandy, Brianne, Lindsay
Group 1 will be presenting Tuesday and we will be covering Case Study #6: Too Many Problems in chapter 7 page 134.
Group 2 will be presenting on Wednesday, July 9th. Here is our Case Study.
Case Study: Increasing Participation
Miss Thompson is an intermediate teacher in the North Vancouver area. The majority of her class is caucasian with several ELL students and a student with physical disabilities. As well, there are more boys than girls. Miss Thompson has decided to begin a dance unit with her class. She has created a group of lessons that progress through a variety of dance moves with a culminating activity of creating a dance sequence.
On the first day of her unit Miss Thompson comes up against some unexpected problems. Some of her students were shy and therefore not comfortable expressing themselves. Some of her ELL students did not have the language nor experience of group dance. Some Persian students did not want to participate because they thought dancing was for girls. For example, when Miss Thompson asked the students to dance freely, using any movement of their choice, only a few students felt comfortable, others were silly and lost focus. When she attempted to demonstrate the first movement the student with physical limitations was unable to participate. Others did not see the value in learning how to dance.
As a result, the kids asked if they could just skip the unit and play games. It was clear that the students were uncomfortable and unwilling to take risks. While Miss Thompson had spent great lengths of time to plan the progression of her lessons she did not take into account the diversity of students in her classroom.
What activities might a teacher use to create trust in order to foster a safe environment to take risks?
What could be some possible reasons why the boys did not want to participate? What opportunities could the teacher have provided to encourage them?
How might she have engaged the students prior to the unit?
How might the teacher have adapted for the student with a physical disability?
In what ways would you incorporate culturally relevant PE into this teaching and learning situation?