Physical Education for the 21st Century
Continued, lessons 8-13
Grade 5 Athletics
2016-2017 – Central Idea:
Success in Athletics requires careful planning and practice, effective reflection skills and the ability to overcome adversity
Learner Outcomes:
Active Living:
Plan, perform and reflect on movement sequences in order to improve
Exhibit effective decision-making processes in the application of skills during physical activity
Identity:
Recognize, analyze and apply different strategies to cope with adversity
2017-2018 Central Idea:
Overcoming adversity and having self-knowledge of ourselves can improve movement sequence executions
Learner Outcomes:
Active Living:
Introduce greater complexity and refine movements to improve the quality of a movement sequence
Exhibit effective decision-making processes in the application of skills during physical activity
Identity:
Recognise, analyse and apply different strategies to cope with adversity
Identify how their self-knowledge can continue to support the growth and development of identity
Lessons 8:
When marking reflections, I look for the following:
Creativity: Is it unique and engaging?
Application of knowledge: Are there elements of the lessons being presented?
Organization/logical presentation of ideas: Is it presented in a way that is logical and easy to read/view?
Key terms: Are our big ideas being presented?
Overall, my students did reasonably well and showed some originality with their work. You can see some examples of their formative and summative assessments at the end of this lesson plan.
We reviewed some aspects of the unit that seemed to be unclear in their reflections.
Afterwards, in order to help them with their practice, I asked them if they knew how to practice effectively. I heard, “practice a lot”, “know your event,” “focus,” etc.
I then showed them this video: How to practice effectively
We broke down the key points from this video:
Focus! Avoid distractions.
Start slowly then get faster
Practice frequently at different times of the day
Visualization
We then did an activity involving visualization. Each student sat on a chair and I gave blindfolds to each of the students and for 3 minutes I asked them to think of one event they really wanted to improve in for the carnival. I asked them to think of each step, imagine the track underneath your feet, feel the shot put in your hand, feel the wind in your hair. Imagine every detail of your event.
We went outside and tried to implement this technique into their training. We worked out several steps prior to them executing their events, i.e.: high jump:
Step 1: Take a deep breath, relax
Step 2: Visualize your movement
Step 3: Do it.
Some students really took this to heart and were reaching personal bests. Others, did not see the point but overall, everyone has been improving.
For the rest of the lesson, they continued training, applied the steps, recorded their training and did a few hot lessons.
Lesson 9:
This lesson was dedicated to the students having a solid training session after checking in with them on the big ideas of the unit. They also practiced the steps we worked out together from the last lesson: breathing, relaxing, visualizing and executing.
Lesson 10:
The students only have 1 more training session after this lesson, therefore I really wanted to emphasize the big idea of “overcoming adversity.” I showed them this inspirational story: Derek Redmond – Barcelona Olympics 1992.
Once the kids found out it was Derek’s dad running onto the track, tears all around. Such an inspirational story and one that really touched on our big idea. It is not about winning but of overcoming the challenges and never giving up.
The kids went out and trained their hearts out. A few of my 400m runners did the full training session listed in their Athletes Notes, it was incredible to see – it is not easy.
Lesson 11:
The final training session before the carnival. I opened the lesson with an introduction to the logistics of the day. The kids wrote down notes on Seesaw and uploaded them so they could refer to it on the day. They needed to know:
Their events
Their divisions
Timing
Rules
Structure of the carnival – knock-out
Points
Once we got through it all, they went out and did what they could to get in the best shape possible for the carnival.
Towards the end of the lesson, we reviewed the unit, the big ideas and visualization technique, etc. They finished entering in their training results into their logs and were dismissed.
Lesson 12:
The big day. The PE team and also the homeroom teachers have been pumping the kids up throughout the unit. The grade 5s and 6s had most of the school day for the competition, from 11:00 – 3:40. Organizing it has also been quite a headache but this is the second year that I have done this unit and it has been much easier to organize this year than previously.
You can see how I organized the carnival here:
First thing I had to do was collate all the student event choices. You can see the Grade 3 and 4 event choices here as an example.
Once the events were all confirmed, I randomly allocated each student to a division: Division A, B or C. Each division starts at a different event.
Afterwards, I organized the draw. Since our track only has 6 lanes, that is the maximum number of students I put in each heat. The format is a knockout draw with the top 1 or 2 athletes going into the next round. You can see the Grade 3 and 4 draw here as an example.
With the draw completed, I could get started on the scoresheets. You can find it here, along with the rest of the Athletics handbook I gave the volunteers on the day. For each heat, semi-final and final, the scoring is as follows: 1st place = 4 points, 2nd place = 3 points, 3rd place = 2 points, 4th place and remainder = 1 point.
To help with the scoring I used SportsTracker, a great piece of web-based software created by Jarrod Robinson, the PE Geek. I uploaded all of the student information onto it, created the event order and then populated the event choices.
After each rotation, the volunteers hand me their scoresheets and I enter them into SportsTracker. This automatically updates the individual scores and the team scores, which are projected onto a big screen the students can check out easily.
To help with the track timing, we used SprintTimer. It is quite battery heavy, so make sure you bring an external power source or multiple iPads, we went through a couple on the day.
I made a short video outlining the unit, you can see it here. Overall, it was a very successful day with awesome support from everyone in the school community. Stacks of teachers, younger students and parents came to witness the spectacle.
I also used this Athletics Carnival format for an interschool competition my school hosted where 6 schools took part with 96 students.
Lesson 13:
To wrap up the unit, we reviewed the day they had during the carnival, shared some success stories and anything else that was on their mind. I felt that the students really grew from this unit, since the big ideas were explicit and applicable. I then gave them their summative assessment:
Being creative with your work, tell me about your experience with the Athletics Carnival.
Upload your training logs and best results.
Think about your training, what choices did you make to improve?
What does adversity mean to you? How did you overcome it?
I utterly enjoyed teaching this unit. It does take a lot of preparation, particularly the carnival. Pulling out and packing away the high jump is frustrating but it is all worth it. The kids get a great experience and they learn some life-long lessons from it. If you have any questions or comments, it would be great to hear from you.
Below are some reflections my students made. Enjoy!
Grade 5 - Athletics - Assessment 1
Grade 5 - Athletics - Assessment 2
Grade 5 - Athletics - Assessment 3
Grade 5 - Athletics - Assessment 4
Grade 5 - Athletics - Assessment 5
Grade 5 - Athletics - Assessment 6
Grade 5 - Athletics - Assessment 7