I really enjoyed this weeks lesson at the track! First, it was great to be able to go outside and utilize our schools resources. I had never been to this track before so that was lots of fun.
This group, in my opinion, found an excellent balance for a sport that is traditionally very competitive. While we have been learning throughout this course that we need to make sport and PE available to everyone, I have been struggling with how to do this. I find it easy enough to take out the competition of an activity but that also doesn’t respect the students who are more athletic and enjoy the competitive aspect of sport. I thought the relay activity we had to do captured an excellent balance. I found it to be a fun activity with a safe environment where there were no winners or losers, but it also allowed for that challenge and goal of trying to get the batons to reach each other.
Overall I now have some new ideas about how I might make a PE environment safe, fun and inviting for students from a number of athletic backgrounds.
I really enjoyed the gymnastics lesson from right before practicum! Gymnastics is one of those topics that I get a scrunched up face about, not feeling confidant I will be able to participate let alone teach it. This group did a great job of creating a safe environment where I felt comfortable. I liked that the group encorporated a range of activities in that allowed students of a number of skill levels to be working together.
This is lesson was very fun too! I think kids would really enjoy it and be excited to try out something new! I also appreciated that in our small group discussions, our group talked about what equipment we could use if we didn’t have that specific gymnastics equipment. This is very important as many of our schools just won’t have the extra equipment like that!
Textbook: Chapter 15
- This chapter shares ideas about, and proposes options on, how technology may be appropriately integrated into the school physical education program.
- PE is often not a teacher’s first thought when it comes to bringing technology into the classroom.
- Digital literacy: the skills and knowledge to use a variety of digital media software applications and hardware devices such as a computer, mobile phone and internet technology
- It is important that students are taught to think critically about online content and evaluate their own behaviour against a set of shared social values.
- Chapter 15 provides a number of useful apps that you may use to bring technology into your PE class. (See the handout provided for more detail).
- You may also want to consider using different devices in your class. Some might include:
- Pedometers, accelerometers, heart rate monitors (help with things that are often hard to measure)
- Geocaching: world wide game of hide and seek treasure hunt style. Great for outdoors in PE. Search for cache with GPS and find what people have left behind.
Article 1 & 2: Laying a foundation:Basic Building Blocks, and Teaching elements of Choreography
- These articles focus on what goes into a good dance lesson and some important skills for dancing.
- A good warm up
- Move each joint, aerobic movement that brings blood to a flow and stretching large muscle groups.
- Main activity
- Introduce a movement skill (ex.lunge), introduce a movement element (expression)
- Create a movement pattern or sequence using skill
- explore use of movement skills and elements
- Cool down
- Calm time to get breathing under control
- Students and teachers can reflect on the lesson of the day.
- When teaching choreography in dance it is important to have students understand that dance is a way to express yourself.
- Work on originality in your dance(ex. strike a pose and then change one aspect to be different)
- Transitions are important. Understanding how to get from one movement to the next
- Dances tell a story, there is a beginning middle and end and it is in the way you express yourself with your movements and facial expressions that give life to your story.
Article 3 Hip-Hop Sport Education
- Middle school teacher used a sports education model to teach a Dance unit.
- This meant that: Longer unit, students were members of a dance team, formal competition, kept records, festivity involved.
- Class was split into 3 dance teams who each came up with a name, poster and logo
- Positions given out were: coach, captain, publicist, judge and dance council
- Teacher gives initial instruction on basic skills and then turns it over to students to create a routine.
- Teacher offers help throughout, offers guiding questions such as “what possible formation could you start in? do you want to me close or far apart?” and as a last resort the teacher would demonstrate different moves
- Finally there was a competition.
- Teacher comments that students were so excited that they ended up petitioning to have a dance team at their school
Article 4 Self-assessment in creative dance
- There are 3 areas to consider when assessing creative dance
- Activating prior knowledge
- Must link current knowledge to new tasks
- Use ideas and interpretations students already have in their head
- Suggested that you might read familiar poems or picture books to provoke students creative thinking
- Facilitating active creation
- Must guide students and help them elaborate on their original ideas
- Offer open ended tasks and encourage a variety of creative movements
- Facilitating self-regulated refining
- Must engage students in problem-solving and critical thinking
- Teachers may provide cues that help make students movements clearer
- Students are also encouraged to self-evaluate to gain a better understanding of where they are at.
Discussion Questions:
- Have you seen teachers during your practicum use technology in the classroom? Was the technology used in PE?
2. Have you considered how you would like to incorporate technology in your physical education program? Ideas for your two week?
3. What do you think of using a sports education model to teach dance?
| Unit: Dance |
|
Grade: 3/4 |
| Date: October 30, 2015 |
Title: “Whip nae nae” |
| Lesson duration |
30 minutes |
| PURPOSE (Big ideas) |
To practice locating yourself in a safe space
To use movement skills to express our emotions and creative self through dance |
| PLO’s (Content)
|
Students will learn:
1. Proper technique for fundamental movement skills (locomotor)
2. Movement concepts (spatial and body awareness)
3. How to participate in different types of physical activities such as rhythmic activities
|
Students will demonstrate by:
1. Incorporating movements learned in activity 1 into activity 2
2. Being aware of the space around them and when it is safe to move
3. Using the fundamental skills taught (lunges, jumping jacks etc.) to relocate themselves in new spaces in the gym
5. Combining everything into a final dance |
| SWBAT (Curricular competencies)[students will be able to…] |
- Develop and apply a variety of fundamental movement skills in a variety of physical activities and environments
- Apply a variety of movement concepts and strategies in different physical activities
- Develop and demonstrate safety, fair play, and leadership in physical activities
|
| MATERIALS NEEDED |
- Rhythmic ribbons or scarves
- Music
|
|
| |
PROCEDURE |
| Elements of the lesson |
Estimated Time |
Instruction |
| Opener (the hook) |
2 Minute |
- Ask students if they know/ have heard about the whip nae nae dance. If someone does maybe they could should us a move..if not we may show a move as a hook.
- By the end of this lesson you will know a few moves for the dance!
- Safety instructions and whistle cues.
|
| Warm up activity
|
3-5 minutes |
- Everyone grabs a ribbon, scarf or shaker.
- Start off in a little ball (kernel) of popcorn
- Once the music starts, slowly start ‘popping’ as the music speeds up students begin moving to the beat of the song and expressing themselves by moving (dancing) around the gym.
|
| TRANSITION |
20 seconds
|
Blow whistle twice to signal that students need to meet back in the center of the gym. |
| Activity 1
|
5-10 minutes |
- Each corner will be given an animal and each animal will have an action.
– Bear: all fours crawl
– Starfish: jumping jack
– Lemur: high knees
– Tiger: lunges
- Ms. Ramberg will be calling out two different animals at once and students standing in those animal corners must then move to the other group’s corner.
- Students must only use the action that their corners animal does while moving.
- Students are encouraged to be expressive and portray the specific animal in their facial expressions, and body movement.
- If students hear the music come on. They are to stop where they are and practice the ‘whip nae nae’ move.
- Ms. Ramberg will demonstrate each action and move before the students are grouped off.
|
| Activity 2
|
8 minutes |
- Ms. Leclerc will be leading the class in the full dance routine.
- Students will be informed that we are looking to see them try each move that we learned at least once and after that they are welcome to follow along with Ms. Leclerc or interpret the dance they way they feel comfortable.
- It will be made clear that there is more than one right way to dance and it is about expressing yourself and doing what feels comfortable.
|
| Extension
|
3 minutes |
- Ms. Naka will split the group into two. (or 4?)
- Each group will be given 2 minutes to create a new action/move to replace the starfish jumping jack.
- Two groups at a time the music will be played and each group will show off their knew dance move.
|
| TRANSITION |
20 seconds |
Blow the whistle twice and students will return to the centre for the cool down. |
| Cool down and closure
|
5 minutes |
- Ms. Hall will lead the students in a cool down activity.
- This will involve stretching out the muscles used during class
- While stretching, reflection and further thinking questions will be asked to the students (I.e. Are there any other songs you would like to learn moves to? Did anyone have a favourite animal move today?)
|
Friday’s PE class was so much fun! I really enjoyed the ‘Teaching games for understanding’ model that both Steve and the group presenting demonstrated.
I think this approach to a new game can be extremely beneficial. It allows children to build upon their skills while keeping in mind the main point of the game. Teaching our students in this way forces kids to appreciate the game and can help them understand on a deeper level what the game is about. Kids may start to be able to see how to break down components of the game and recognize that each step, no matter how small, is important and has its own challenges. For example, I can imagine a child who has some experience with an invasion game not understanding the amount of teamwork involved. Breaking down the game using the TGFU model and playing a game, like the one used by the group on Friday, could be the eye opening moment that child needs. It quickly becomes clear in games like that, that everyones role is important and one student can not succeed on their own.
Games like this are also good for discussing carry over skills. The space invasion game used or the chicken game can be a great place for us as teachers to have students thinking critically about the skills involved and what sports or activities in their lives such skills would be useful for.
Each time I come to our PE class I get so excited thinking about what I am going to get to teach this year during practicum! I was especially pleased that we covered physical literacy this week. Physical literacy is such an important aspect of a child’s overall health and I really think that with a focus on this we will be able to encourage more children to participate in an active lifestyle and enjoy their PE experience.
I think physical literacy really ties in to some of the reaccuring themes in our other classes. In particular its focus on specific skills relevant for our everyday lives rather than just focusing on skills relevant for a specific sport. In our other classes we have talked about assessment and expanding from the traditional test based model to incorporate activities that allow a variety of students to excell. A focus on physical literacy feels like a step towards expanding assessment in PE. Although Whitehead suggests that physical literacy is not something we can assess, it gives us another ruler on which to measure our classes advances in healthy, active living and drives us away from just assessing how well students are able to play a given sport.
Lastly I really enjoyed the volleyball lesson that this weeks group of teacher candidates put on. The ‘shuffle monkey’ activity was a particularly good example of a physical activity that is useful in a variety of sports and also a variety of everyday activities!
My experiences in PE have, for the most part, revolved around the ‘main’ sports: basketball, volleyball, soccer etc. Fortunately I have always enjoyed most of these activities, however it has been a while since I have played any of them. Coming to class on Friday I was a little nervous about how well I would do if we had any skills games or drills.
I realize now, after playing mission impossible and chuck the chicken, that my experience in PE is not how it has to be. It had never occurred to me that a sport like baseball could be broken down into a game like chuck the chicken (it’s hard not to laugh as you throw a rubber chicken with no head across the room!). This game was fun, engaging and allowed us to work as a team in order to be more successful, while at the same time it was helping us with the basics of a sport.
This class made me so excited to start planning PE and health lessons! It is such an unique opportunity we have to change the way some children feel about being active and healthy. With the new curriculum and what we will learn in this class, I feel more confident that by the end I will be able to effectively teach PE and health. And now I am not nervous at all about coming to our next class!
UBC Health Outdoor and Physical Education
