I absolutely loved this week’s group’s instant activity! It was entertaining, active, and inclusive. We were able to go around the gym and act silly while having fun – something grade 2 students would love especially considering how much I enjoyed it as well! Pamela, Sonya, and Emily had a good idea of breaking down the skills needed to play baseball as a grade 2 class. I also liked playing their next activity because there was a little bit of friendly competition on finishing the fastest. It gave students the opportunity to throw and catch a ball while working as a team and moving on to the next hula hoop and finish as quickly as possible, skills that are evident in a baseball/softball game.
I also enjoyed the discussion as they thought of interesting questions that made me think back to assessment while I was in school and considering the appropriateness of it. I don’t remember receiving a letter grade in my elementary school’s PE class, but I do remember receiving them in high school. It never made sense to me and I thought it was unfair, which is what developed my satisfactory opinions of PE after that. I loved PE in elementary school and always tried very hard. When I got to high school, I continued to try hard, but was never at the top of my class, thus, only received a B on my report cards. And honestly, I realised that even if I only put 70% of my effort into PE, I would still receive the same grade and so I slightly gave up in the course unless we were doing an activity I enjoyed. My discussion group had good ideas and we all agreed that assessment should be on a student’s improvement and effort in PE and not his or her’s athletic ability.
Thanks for the post Brianna! I definitely agree that Friday’s class was really fun! Sonya, Emily and Pamela got us moving a lot and the flow of the game went really well! I particularly liked that they gave the breakdown and the basic of baseball and were very clear about the basics. Personally, I find baseball utterly confusing; I can only imagine what it would be like to teach it to a Grade 2 classroom. I think they created a very good introduction to the sport!
In terms of grading for PE, I also never really thought about how we were graded in elementary school. I was never one to be all that athletic; therefore I thought I was a low-graded PE student. PE in high school though was different, in that they gave letter grades. I completely agree with continuing to grade students based on their progression. However, I’m not entirely sure if the letter grades are based of effort. I feel like it is something worth looking into!
Well put Brianna and Clarissa! I thought Sonya, Emily and Pamela had a great layout. The activities were great foundation games for baseball. They involved throwing, catching and running in an inclusive way. I found these games to be very age appropriate and easily modifiable.
Their group brought up great discussion questions! The group I was with got lost in the discussion question of how should P.E be assessed. I believe everyone needs to be able to do the fundamental movements but how each student preforms these movements can be very different. Therefore, having letter grades can be appropriate as long as it is base upon effort. As my group went off on this question, Emily was great at redirecting our conversation to make sure we stayed on target.