Instructing Physical Activity Lessons
As most teachers know, even the most well planned and detailed lesson plans can quickly go south without proper and successful classroom management techniques put in place. This causes a lot of fear for teachers who are preparing to teach a physical education class. These classroom management techniques become even more of a concern in a physical education class as safety risks are often greater in a gymnasium or out on the field than they are in the classroom. Throughout this portion of our adventure, we will explore not only how to maintain successful classroom management using a variety of techniques, but also, how to teach and instruct specific sport and movement skills.
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Teaching Styles for Physical Education
Just like many teaching styles can be found in a classroom, there are a variety of teaching styles that can be found in a gymnasium. There is not one correct way to instruct a physical education lesson. In fact, there are a variety of styles each with their own list of pros and cons for varying lessons. Julie Meuller (2013) describes these four different teaching styles in a document titled, "Considerations in Health and Physical Education Instruction". These four styles include direct teaching styles, inquiry teaching styles, free exploration and cooperative learning strategies. Each style varies in the amount of direct instruction a teacher uses to foster physical literacy and successful development of sports and movement skills. For more information regarding these learning styles, refer to the following document written by Professor Julie Meuller (2013).
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Class Organization
How you organize and set up your physical education class has direct correlation to how successful your class will be. CiRA Ontario has put together a document regarding strategies that address multiple issues that can occur during a physical education classroom. These strategies address methods to successfully divide classes into teams or groups, ways to avoid a 'loser', ways to avoid elimination, issues around cutting players and strategies for addressing improper attire. For more information regarding specific strategies for addressing these class organization issues, check out the link to the full CiRA document below.
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Essential Elements of Instructions
One fantastic resource out there for teachers is a book called Dynamic Physical Education for Elementary School written by Robert Pangrazi and Sandra Gibbons. Within this text they have created a list of essential elements for instruction. The essential elements are as follows:
1. Learning Outcomes that are observable and clearly define content to be learned 2. Determine Instructional Entry Level and develop a progression of learning activities that lead to final outcome 3. Use Anticipatory Set designed to focus students on learning outcomes 4. Deliver Meaningful Skill Instruction that maximizes three key points; limits instructions to 30 to 60 seconds; presents information in easy to understand form; and separates management and instructional episodes 5. Monitor Student Performance ensuring students are on-task and practicing correctly 6. Use Teaching Cues which are precise; short and action-oriented, and integrated 7. Demonstrate Skills as teacher or using students 8. Check for Understanding using hand signals; asking questions answered in choral response; direct forthcoming activities to all students; and use peer-assessment techniques 9. Offer Guided Practice that allows students repeated opportunities checking for correct form immediately after instruction 10. Bring Closure that reviews learning asking for key points, demonstrations or reflections |
Effective Instruction in Health and Physical Education
What does effective instruction look like in a physical education classroom?
1. Motivates students and instills responsible risk taking 2. Based on the belief that all students can be successful and that learning in HPE is critical 3. Based on diagnostic assessment of prior knowledge and skills 4. Provides appropriate level of challenge 5. Balance of both direct instruction and inquiry based instruction 6. Encourages higher-order thinking, critical and creative thinking 7. Includes participatory exploration and hands on activities 8. Provides wide range of activities 9. Includes developmentally appropriate activities (Julie Meuller, 2013)
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How do I Teach Fundamental Movement Skills?
Once you have effective classroom management strategies and organization in place, you can focus on methods to teach specific fundamental movement skills to ensure the development of physical literacy. There are many documents available through OPHEA and CiRA to support teachers in breaking apart the fundamental movement skills. Another resource that is available for teachers is an Australian document called "Fundamental Movement Skills: A Manual for Classroom Teachers". Throughout this document, fundamental movement skills such as catching, kicking, jumping, throwing, leaping, dodging and many more, are broken down step-by-step to allow teachers to provide appropriate scaffolding when teaching these skills. Understanding how to appropriately teach these skills is vital in fostering physical literacy in our classrooms.
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