(Philosophy Link: Physical Literacy needs to be adapted into our students’ lives in order for longevity in being active)
I strongly believe that physical literacy is largely important due to its ability to inspire young students to become long-term agents of activity. It is a teaching strategy that not only teaches the student how to play a sport, but also the reasoning behind each skill and strategy involved. In a way this is a sort of inquiry-based learning for physical education in the sense that the student develops a deeper understanding of why each sport is different or relatable.
Photo courtesy of The Badminton Bible (2014). Retrieved from:http://www.badmintonbible.com/articles/grips-guide/grip-principles.php
Within PE I used a few strategies that involved the students to self-discover their own development of skill. For example, students experimented with holding a badminton racket. The challenge was to find a grip that worked the best for them and share it with the class. Each type of discovered grip was shared and tried by the class. As the lesson progressed you could see some innovative minds start to take action in trying to find a suitable grip that allowed them to increase their performance in badminton. It became a desire between each student to show his or her partner a new grip that they had just discovered.
A very important part of each PE lesson was to bring everyone back into a circle discuss what had just been covered within the session. Critical questions would then be asked as well as a few replayed demonstrations to make sure students were leaving with a direct example of the skill or concept that was highlighted that day. Reflection is also a key component of physical literacy since teaching physical literacy deals with a fair amount of information and has to be reflected on in order for the information to really take hold.
A critical approach to physical education like this is all it takes for learners to become interested and self –motivated to become literate in not just one sport but as many sports as they can try. As the become more literate this will hopefully inspire the desire for more activity as opposed to being inactive infront of a television set.