Blog post #5

This semester, I have been surprised by the literacy levels of my students. They are able to design and write a fitness program using content vocabulary that describes in detail how to implement a program. They understand and can explain physics terminology and how it relates to performance in sports and other physical activities. They can work together and think critically to solve-problems and develop strategies for a variety of sports and physical activities. Some students have difficulty with spelling and grammar. Diary September 30, 2013 My literacy rich classroom looks different than others because as a physical education teacher, I do not have the luxury of working in the classroom. However, my class provides for rich literacy development. Students are taking notes on key vocabulary terms in the content area. Students are collaborating with one another to critically think and solve problems. My students are engaged in activities that relate to the key vocabulary terms. Students apply concepts during lecture into game-like activities. Students are engaged in simple writing assignments that talk about the five components of health-related fitness such as what benefits does cardiovascular training have on their heart. Students are reading articles about a variety of topics in physical education. Students are reading about nutrition, sports, ergogenic aids, etc. Students are also reading from the text book about similar topics. Diary December 15, 2013 My literacy rich classroom looks like a combination of key vocabulary terms and application of those terms. When students are in the weight room they are writing down their ENS fitness goals. Students read the print outs that are posted along the wall, which explains how to perform the exercise and also provides a picture. Students work together to solve physics questions. Students are designing and writing a fitness plan that can be implemented for 6 weeks. My students are learning about and engaged in various activities and sports. Students are learning about self-defense, volleyball, and weightlifting. Students have plenty of opportunities to practice and develop the skills for each activity. My students are reading various news articles about incidents that have occurred in the San Diego area that deal with self-defense. Students read and analyze the article and discuss how they can learn from these incidents to make sure that they are safer. Diary May 30, 2013 My literacy rich classroom looks like students being able to seek out information from various sources such as textbooks, school library, internet, etc. to write a life-time fitness project that includes a fitness program, nutrition plan, and physical activity plan that lists various activities that they would participate in for a life-time. Students are engaged in a variety of activities such as gymnastics, yoga, soccer, and weightlifting. Students continue to apply concepts that they learned from previous units and applying them to the present activities. My students are capable of independent learning in the following areas: being able to read about, plan, design, and write out a lifetime fitness plan. Students are capable of independent learning by being able to read the various print outs that talk about how to perform drills and activities and perform them without asking the teacher. Students are able to teach each other and learn how to perform a variety of skills.

EDSS 521 - Blog post #4

1. Report Learning in the 21st Century Mobile Devices + Social Media = Personalized learning – Summary - The report provided some data that showed 50% of 9th-12th grade students own a smart phone and 21% own a tablet. With this increased access to mobile devices, there are more personalized learning opportunities for students. 85% of parents feel that it is important to be able to involve technology in an effective way to help their child be successful. However, some principals have concerns about allowing students to use mobile devices. Some of those concerns are: theft, untrained teachers, and can cause a distraction. Reflection – After reading the report, I feel that technology will be a great way to engage students in the class. Something that really surprised me was the amount of parents that felt using technology effectively in the class is important for their students’ success. What didn’t surprise me was the amount of 9th – 12th grade students who own a smart phone. I recently worked with elementary school students, and most of the students had an iPhone or an iPad. I will use this information by starting to implement technology more in the class. More specifically smart phones and tablets. Any type of phone or tablet can be used to videotape a performance and students can analyze their performance right there in class. 2. Video Response – Students Speak Up to President Obama about how to improve their schools. - Summary – Various high school students from the east coast, discussed what they would do to help improve education if they were President. Some of the suggestions were to increase the amount of technology used at the school and inside the classroom. One student had a great idea to require at least two courses that teach students how to use technology. Students also discussed that they wanted more hands-on experience and that their teachers provide challenging activities. Reflection I thought this was a good video because I was able to hear from a variety of perspectives on what the students would like to see change in their schools. It is much better to hear from the students rather than teachers or administrators because we are there for the students. I think some of the ideas that students provided are out of the teachers’ hands. However, I feel that teachers can make a difference with some of the ideas that the students had. Something that surprised me was one of the students talked about wanting to be challenged. Most students I talk to pick certain classes because they are easier. Something that did not surprise me was the amount of technology that students wanted to be implemented in their schools and their classrooms. This will inform my teaching in a few ways. I will try to implement more activities that use technology in my class and also provide activities that will be challenging for the students. 3. YouthTeach2Learn – I think this first step would be to approach the administrators of the school. I would discuss with them what the program is about and what benefits the program has. The administrators can work with the administrators at the elementary school to organize the program. Next, I would have to talk to teachers and students who would be interested in becoming part of the program. I would have students sign up for the program. I think the benefit of this program is it gets high school students involved in their community by enriching the learning experience of elementary school students. The elementary school students look up to the older students and they would be really excited to have the high school students teach them. The high school students benefit because they are teaching the material to the students. The best way to learn the subject matter is to teach it. This program is also another way to get high school students involved with their school. Some students may not go out for athletics, drama, dance, and other extra curricular activities. So, this program can be a great way for them to get involved. The video talked about students teaching math and science. I think it would be great to be able to include other content areas. Students may want to join the program, but math or science may not be there strongest subjects.

Unit Plan

Michael Corle EDSS 511 Unit Plan Unit Topic – The unit will cover a variety of concepts and activities based on improving the five components of health related fitness (muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, cardiorespiratory endurance, and body composition). Each day will be a new activity starting with Pilates. 1. Unit Context Subject – Physical Education Course – ENS 3/4 Grade Level – 9th grade Length of Unit – The unit will be one week long (five class periods). The unit is composed of various mini units. Each day, students will be focusing on a different activity. For example, on Tuesdays, students will be engaged in activities that focus around personal fitness. This lesson will be focused on Pilates. Wednesdays are cardiovascular days where students will engage in running or swimming activities to help improve cardiovascular fitness. Thursdays are designed for students to improve muscular strength and muscular endurance through weight training. Fridays are lifetime fitness activities. Lifetime activities are designed to teach students various sports that they could engage in to be physically active throughout their life. Each class period is an hour and a half long. 2. Facts about the Learners Number of students in the class – There are 44 students in the class. Ethnicity – The class is diverse with White, Asian, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, and Indian students. There are 27 females and 17 males in the class. There are no students who are on a free or reduced lunch. There are two female students who are English language learners. There are two students with an IEP. There are two bilingual students who speak English and Chinese. There are two bilingual students who speak English and Spanish, and there is one bilingual student who speaks English and Russian. The class does not have any students labeled as gifted. Developmental Needs Readiness Level – Students have been introduced to Pilates, swimming, and football in previous weeks. Students demonstrated the basic skills needed to progress in the football unit and are ready to engage in more difficult exercises in Pilates. Students have not been introduced to the weight room, weight room procedures, or how to properly lift weights. Students will need to know each part to ensure safety in the weight room. This unit will cover weight room protocols. Interests – Interests are varied among the students. There are some students who play water polo and they are really excited for the swimming day. Most of the female students are really in to Pilates and are looking forward to the Pilates lesson. There are five students who are on the freshman football team. Then, there are a few students who mentioned that really wanted to start weightlifting. So, the class has varying interests, which is the rationale for changing the activity each day. By implementing multiple activities, hopefully more students become engaged. Rather than doing one particular activity everyday for 3-5 weeks, which might become repetitive and boring for the students. Learning Profile – The learning profiles of the students vary as well. I talked to one student in particular and asked the best way he learns. He said he likes being able to engage in the activity. Students appreciate the demonstrations that we give before we have them start the activity because it is much better seeing it then just listening to the teacher explain it without a demonstration. Some of the drills can be difficult to follow with just verbal directions. I think the students learn best from demonstrations and being engaged in the activity. Affective Management Strategies – Students know the classroom routines, rules, and expectations. To gain the students’ attention we say “eyes,” which means the students clap twice and focus on the teacher. When we say “ears” the students stomp their feet twice and focus on the teacher. We have students sit down when explaining instructions and we provide a time limit to transition from one activity to another. Students have engaged in previous team building units as well to promote a safe learning community. Classroom learning environment – My cooperating teacher and I have promoted a positive and safe learning community. We discussed at the beginning of the year about the importance of promoting positivity to everyone in the classroom and being respectful of everyone in the class. We are reinforcing this concept with a team-building lesson using affirmations in this unit. The students work well with one another. I have not had a student come up to me and ask to switch partners. That tells me students are comfortable working with one another. Individual Student Information and Differentiation Strategies ELL Students 1. Elizabeth – Elizabeth is at an intermediate level. Elizabeth is a Latina, she grew up in the U.S.A., but her parents are from Mexico and Elizabeth grew up speaking Spanish. She is a 9th grade student. She had an interesting design on her hand that she drew with a marker. I asked her what it was and she said it had something to do with her culture. She didn’t go much into detail about it. Her learning goals are to improve her writing skills. She has a difficult time spelling words. I noticed this on a recent test that the students took. She reads well and doesn’t have trouble understanding texts. Her PE health goals are to improve her flexibility and muscular strength in her upper body and core. Readiness level – Elizabeth is at an intermediate level for ELD. She has previous knowledge of the various activities that students will be engaged in. Learning Profile – Elizabeth benefits from visual demonstrations. She mentioned in the past that sometimes her teachers speak too fast and they do not give a demonstration to show them how to do the activity. Interests – Elizabeth likes listening to music and hanging out with her friends. Differentiation: Content – To help Elizabeth, I will provide a demonstration of how to perform a skill or how to perform an activity. I can also explain and demonstrate the activity to the class, and once I send the students out, I can work with her one on one incase she needs further help. Process – Elizabeth has no problem completing the activities. However, to further help her with explanations of the activities I can place her in a group and her peers can help guide her through the activities. Product – For written assessments, I will not count misspelled words against her grade. As long as it is close enough and I can understand what she is trying to spell I will count it. Then, as the year progresses, I will have her try to turn in assignments with fewer errors in spelling. Other than that, most of the assessments are based off performance, which do not need to be modified for her. Affect – The activities can be modified to make them easier or harder for the student depending on their skill level. Having the student work with a partner or a group can be beneficial to help guide her through the activities. In terms of feedback, I can provide positive specific feedback that is congruent to what the student is doing. Learning environment – There is a lot of space to work with in our PE class since it is mainly outdoors. Since Elizabeth learns best through visuals, I can have her sit in the front when I am providing instructions and demonstrations. As mentioned earlier I can have her work with a buddy or a group. Progress Monitoring Assessment – The progress monitoring assessment that I would use would be teacher observations. Since all of my formal assessments are summative assessments, the best way for to see if she is reaching learning goals is to observe her during activities. I can also check for understanding and have her self-assess her progress. This would be a good way to assess her because most of our assessments are performance based and I can watch how she performs and determine if she understanding concepts and developing the skills I have taught. I can provide her with feedback based off the football rubric on days we are playing football. I can also read her worksheet answers. Next step to facilitate learning – I would continue to scaffold previous learning and make sure to tie in concepts into future lessons. I would like to add music of her choice as long as it is appropriate for school since she likes to listen to music. I will continue to monitor her progress through observations and checking for understanding. 2. Kamilla – Kamilla is also at an intermediate level for ELD. She is a 9th grade bilingual student. She speaks English and Russian. At the beginning of the year, Kamilla was very quiet. I could not tell she was an ELL student until I was talking to her about one of the activities. Her accent was not very thick, but I could tell she had an accent. She was born here and has lived in San Diego and her parents are from Russia. She discussed that she has more of a connection with the U.S. than Russia since she grew up here. She has more of an American culture. She is not that much into sports, she never grew up playing any sports. She does like to exercise and go on walks with her parents. Kamilla’s learning goals are to be able to speak more fluidly and improve her word pronunciation. Her PE fitness goals are to improve her mile time, and be able to do more sit-ups. Readiness level – As mentioned earlier, Kamilla is at an intermediate level. Learning profile – Kamilla benefits from verbal and written directions. Interests – Kamilla enjoys exercising, hanging out with her friends, and walking with her parents. Differentiation: Content – To help Kamilla, I will give verbal and written directions. For written directions, I will provide written explanations of each Pilates exercise. I will do the same for weightlifting. There will be cards posted around the weight room that explains how to perform each exercise and a visual of how to perform the exercise as well. Process – During the activities, I can provide written cues that Kamilla can look at incase she needs to refer to the directions on how to perform a skill or drill. For example, there will be cards posted around the weight room that she can refer to that explains and demonstrates how to perform an exercise. Product – Assessments will not need to be modified for her. She has no difficulty with performing any of the activities. Affect – I can modify activities to make them harder or easier. I will also walk around and provide positive specific feedback based on Kamilla’s performance. Learning environment – Kamilla will have plenty of space to work in. I can have her work with a buddy or group depending on the activity to help guide her through the activities. Grouping will also be beneficial to help her develop her language acquisition since she wants to improve on her speaking ability. Progress Monitoring Assessment – I would use the same progress monitoring assessment that I used for Elizabeth. Teacher observations are a quick and easy way to determine if she is developing an understanding of key concepts and starting to learn basic motor skills. In terms of evidence to collect, I would collect her worksheets and use her football performance rubric. Facilitate student learning – I would continue providing instruction that meets her learning profile, which is verbal and written directions. I will also allow her to bring appropriate music to school to help facilitate her learning. Since she enjoys fitness, I think the activities will be enjoyable for her and she can use these activities outside of school to be physically active. Students with IEPs 1. Omar – Omar qualifies for 13 IDEA categories. Omar is of Middle Eastern decent. He grew up in America, but his parents are from Palestine. He is very honored by his grandfather’s military service in Palestine. Both of Omar’s parents are educators. He understands the importance of getting an education, but he does not see the point. After high school, he wants to move to Palestine and join the military. His family is really into soccer. He joked that his dad will lock himself in his room until the world cup is over. His parents speak Arabic and English. He used to be able to, but as he got older, he started speaking mostly in English. He can understand Arabic when his parents use it. His reading and writing goals are to develop better comprehension when he is reading. His reading scores for the CSTs were low. His writing skills scores were low as well. He wants to improve both of those. Readiness – Omar is at a basic level for the CSTs. He scored lower in reading comprehension and writing. However, he is knowledgeable about the activities that I will implement in our class. Learning profile – Omar has a severe health disorder (attention issues), which adversely affects his educational performance. He told me he benefits the most from showing him what he needs to do, and then being able to do it. Interest – Omar enjoys boxing and wrestling, and wants to start playing football next season. Differentiation – Content – To help Omar with the content, I will provide a white board at roll call that will explain what we are doing for the day. I will have him sit in the front so that he is not distracted by anyone. I will demonstrate the skill or activity and allow him to practice the skill. Process – To help keep Omar focused during the activities, I will have him work with a buddy. His buddy will help him keep on task. I will also walk around and monitor him during the activities to make sure that he is on task. Product – For written assessments, Omar will just have to write a few sentences. Most of the written assessments require only a few words. So, Omar should not have difficulty with the assessments. The performance assessments do not need to be modified because Omar has no physical disability. Affective – The best way to help Omar during activities is to provide him with reminders about staying on task. He thanks me every time I remind him about staying on task. Learning Environment– Due to his attention issues, to help eliminate distractions, I will have Omar sit in the front when I am providing instruction and demonstrations. Readiness – Since Omar has trouble with reading and writing I will provide assignments that do not require breaking down difficult text or having to write long and difficult assignments. I will assign simple readings where he will just have to answer using a few complete sentences. Interests – Since Omar is really into boxing and wants to start playing football I can emphasize the importance of weightlifting and cardiovascular endurance. Also, since he wants to join the military, I can emphasize the importance of being able to work as a team. The football lessons will also help engage him. Progress Monitoring Assessment – To monitor Omar’s progress I will collect his worksheet during the weightlifting unit. This will demonstrate to me if Omar has an understanding of the biomechanics concepts as well as if he is making improvements with his writing skills, which is one of his goals. Also, to assess performance I will observe him during activities. Facilitate Student Learning – The next step to facilitate the student’s learning is to develop more strategies that will help Omar stay on task. I think this is what keeps him from learning the most. I will try and develop activities that gear more towards Omar’s interests. 2. Monica – Monica is a 9th grade student. She is a Latina, but she does not speak Spanish. She grew up in San Diego and attended the local elementary and middle school before attending this high school. She is very shy at times, but she gets along well with her peers. Monica’s parents speak Spanish, and she enjoys celebrating her Spanish culture with her parents. Readiness level – Monica has previous knowledge of the activities that she will be engaging in this week. Just like the rest of the students, Monica needs to be introduced to the weight room protocol. Learning profile – Monica has an IEP for memory issues, which adversely affects her educational performance. She benefits best from verbal, written, and visual demonstrations. Interests – Monica enjoys listening to music and playing soccer. Differentiation Product – To help Monica prepare for assignments and activities, I will provide Monica with a white board at roll call that will list the agenda for the day. Monica will have a binder with graphic organizers and handouts that will explain how to complete assignments. That way, she will not have to memorize any of the assignments. Process – I will provide Monica with a peer buddy that can help guide her through assignments and activities. I will also walk around and check for understanding and provide positive specific feedback. Product – For written assessments, Monica will be able to use flashcards and she will be given extra time to complete tests or writing assignments. Affect – I can modify the activities to make them more difficult or easier. I can provide positive specific feedback based on Monica’s performance. Learning environment – I will provide Monica with a group or a buddy depending on the activity. Since there are no seats, Monica has the freedom to work in a space where she feels comfortable. Progress Monitoring Assessment – To help monitor Monica’s progress, I will observe her during activities using a rubric and check for understanding. I selected the same rationale for choosing these assessments as I did for Elizabeth. Student of choice Cadin – Cadin is a sophomore transfer student from Colorado. His parents are divorced and he is now living with his dad. His father played professional soccer in England. So, soccer is really important to Cadin. His dad wants to make sure that he does well in school. It is hard to motivate Cadin when the activity does not interest him. Regardless of the activity, He is trying to turn it into a soccer game. He is one of the more outspoken students in the class, and since he is a sophomore, the freshman students look up to him. Readiness – Cadin has experience in all of the activities. He has been involved with weightlifting before as well due to his club soccer experience. Learning Profile – Cadin benefits the most from engaging in activities. It is hard for him to sit through lectures and discussions. Interests – He loves to play soccer and listen to music. He always asks to bring in his music or if he could bring his headphones in. Differentiation Content – Cadin does not have difficulty with understanding instruction. However, he does interrupt students while they are trying to listen. So, I will have Cadin sit in the front of the class. Also, since students look up to him, I will have Cadin be part of the demonstrations. Process – Cadin has no problem with the activities. However, it can be challenging for him to be motivated. So, I am going to provide challenging activities that fit is high athletic ability and skill level, which will help to motivate him. Product – Cadin does not have problems taking any written or performance assessments. So, the product does not need to be differentiated. Affect – To prevent Cadin from becoming disengaged, I will have him sit in the front of the class and have him be part of the demonstrations. Since he is a higher-skilled student, I will provide him with more challenging activities. Then, I will provide him with positive specific feedback based on his performance and engagement in the activities. Learning Environment – I will have Cadin work in groups of students where he can act as the leader. Since he is a higher skilled student he can work with lower skilled students and provide them with feedback. Progress Monitoring Assessment – To monitor Cadin’s progress towards a learning goal or objective I would use the rubric provided for the activity. Also, I will collect his biomechanics worksheet. These assessments are useful because it shows me that he is able to demonstrate to me the knowledge of concepts during gameplay and cognitively. Facilitate Student Learning – To help facilitate learning, I will try and develop activities that will motivate and challenge Cadin. 2. Unit Rationale: Enduring Understanding & Essential Questions. The importance of this unit is to provide students with a variety of activities that focus on improving their overall fitness. The activities that they will engage in during this unit will be able to be transferred to their daily lives. Also, certain activities are geared towards promoting team building. This is important because students are going to have to be able to cooperate and communicate with people for their careers. This unit matters because it provides students with the skills and concepts necessary to be successful at a variety of activities that they can engage in to be physically active for a lifetime. This fits into the overall theme and big picture goals for the students because the overall goal of the class is to teach students a variety of activities that they can use to improve their health-related fitness levels. Each of the units builds upon one another. For example, for one lesson students are introduced to the basic skills of throwing and catching for football. Then, the next week students are introduced to more advanced skills such as offensive and defensive strategies. So, each lesson progresses from the last one and allows students to build on past experiences and improve in their performance. Enduring Understanding Students will understand that team building, more specifically communication and cooperation are important to be successful in team sports and in life. Students will understand that it is important to understand biomechanics and muscle terminology and how proper biomechanics can help prevent injury in sports and weight lifting. Students will understand that it is important to apply offensive and defensive strategies in a football game and various activities, which allow them to be more successful in the game. Students will understand that it is important to maintain strength in the abs, hips, lower back, and buttocks because it helps prevent injury and Pilates can help to strengthen those areas. Essential Questions 1.Why are affirmations important during group and team activities? 2. How do you recognize when a peer is giving a genuine affirmation? 3. How can rotary motion on the shoulder joint have an affect on performance in a variety of activities? 4. If a person’s core is weak, what affect can that have on the rest of the body, and how will it affect performance? Reason for Instructional strategies and Student Activities – At the beginning of each class, the teacher will introduce the skill or concept the students will be learning about. If it is a skill, I will explain how to perform the skill, demonstrate how to perform the skill, and provide activities that the students will practice the skill. Instruction will be short and concise so that most of the time can be dedicated towards student activities. If it is a concept, I will explain the concept and provide activities so that students can apply those concepts. The activities are designed so that students get to practice or apply concepts in authentic settings. For example, during football students will play modified games rather than static drills because when students are playing football outside of school, it will be in game form not a drill. Allowing students to apply skills in concepts in hands-on activities, will give them a better understanding of the material. 3. Content Standards Day 1 Affective Domain 1. Standard 2.2 – Participate in enjoyable and challenging physical activities that develop and maintain the five components of physical fitness. 2. Standard 3.1 – Accept personal responsibility to create and maintain a physically and emotionally safe and non-threatening environment for physical activity. Fitness Domain Standard 2.5 – Improve and maintain physical fitness by adjusting physical activity levels according to the principles of exercise. Day 2 Psychomotor Domain 2.1 –Participate in moderate to vigorous physical activity at least four days a week. Fitness Domain Standard 2.2 – Participate in enjoyable and challenging physical activities that develop and maintain the five components of physical fitness. Cognitive Domain 1.10 – Analyze situations and determine appropriate strategies for improved performance in aquatic activities. Day 3 Cognitive 1. 1.6 – Identify and apply the principles of biomechanics necessary for the safe and successful performance of weight training. 2. 1.7 – List the safety equipment required for participation in weight training describe and demonstrate the use of such equipment 3. 2.4 – Use physical fitness test results to set and adjust goals to improve fitness. Affective 3.1 – Display safe and responsible behavior while training. ELD standard – Listening and Speaking Cluster 5. Level – Early Advanced – Participate in and initiate more extended social conversations with peers and adults on unfamiliar topics by asking and answering questions and restating and soliciting information. Day 4 Psychomotor Domain 1.1 – combine and apply movement patterns from simple to complex, in team activities. Cognitive Domain 1.10 – Analyze situations to determine appropriate strategies to use in team activities. 3.5 – Evaluate and refine personal goals to improve performance in physical activities. Fitness Domain 2.1 – Participate in moderate to vigorous physical activity at least four days a week. Day 5 Affective Domain 3.1 – Accept personal responsibility to create and maintain a physically and emotionally safe and non-threatening environment for physical activity. 3.9 – Recognize and evaluate the role of cooperation and positive interactions with others when participating in physical activity. 4. Unit Objectives Day 1 - After instruction and demonstration, students will be able to perform a variety of Pilates exercises safely and correctly which will help improve strength and flexibility in their abdominals, lower back, gluteus, and hips. Meets standards 2.2, and 3.1 for the affective domain and standard 2.5 for the fitness domain. Day 2 1. After instruction and demonstration, students will help improve cardiovascular endurance and muscular strength during a competitive pool game. Meets fitness standard 2.1 and affective standard 2.2. 2. Before and during game-play, students will be able to strategize with their team on how to improve performance in the game. Meets cognitive standard 1.10. Day 3 1. After instruction, demonstration, and lab activity, students will be able to describe rotary motion, pivot point, and lever arm and the effects they can have on the shoulder joint during physical activity and weightlifting. Meets cognitive standard 1.6 2. After instruction and demonstration, students will be able to list the safety equipment required for participation in weight training and describe and demonstrate the use of such equipment. Meets fitness standard 1.7 3. After instruction and demonstration, students will be able to display safe and responsible behavior while training. Meet fitness standard 3.1. Day 4 1. After instruction and demonstration, students will continue to practice and apply defensive and offensive strategies during modified football games. Meets psychomotor standard 1.10 2. After instruction/demonstration and during game-play, students will progress from simple to more complex movement patterns during modified football games. Meets psychomotor standard 1.1. 3. During gameplay, students will participate in moderate to vigorous physical activity by playing in modified football games. Meets fitness standard 2.1 Day 5 1. After discussing affirmations, students will be able to affirm one another during the activities: champions challenge and pig ball. Meets affective standard 3.1 2. After lecture, reading Fill a Bucket, and engaging in a variety of games, students will be able to describe why giving affirmations are important and why it is important to be positive during all circumstances. Meets affective standard 3.9. 5. Assessment Plan Day 1 Objective 1 - After instruction and demonstration, students will be able to perform a variety of Pilates exercises safely and correctly which will help improve strength and flexibility in their abdominals, lower back, gluteus, and hips. Assessment – Students will self-assess their performance at the end of the lesson. It will be a formal summative assessment for this lesson. Students will assess themselves on a 5- point rubric: safety, overload, participation, maturity, and positivity. Each area is worth one point. Students will assess themselves based on their performance. Teacher will observe students as they are performing each exercise. I will provide positive specific feedback based off of how the students are performing. Day 2 Objective 1 - After instruction, students will help improve cardiovascular endurance and muscular strength during a competitive pool game. Meets fitness standard 2.1 and affective standard 2.2. Assessment – The teacher will informally assess students during a competitive pool game. It will be a formative assessment based off of student performance. I will provide positive specific feedback based off of how the students are performing. Objective 2. Before and during game-play, students will be able to strategize with their team on how to improve performance in the game. Meets cognitive standard 1.10. Assessment – The teacher will informally assess students by observing gameplay. The assessment will be formative and the teacher will assess students on their knowledge of offensive and defensive concepts. During closure, teacher will ask students about how they worked together to come up with strategies to improve their performance. I will provide feedback through verbal responses. Day 3 Assessment Objective 1. After instruction, demonstration, and lab activity, students will be able to describe rotary motion, pivot point, and lever arm and the effects they can have on the shoulder joint during physical activity and weightlifting. Meets cognitive standard 1.6 Assessment – The assessment will be an informal formative assessment for the end of the lesson. Students will fill out a worksheet that assesses their knowledge of the concepts: rotary motion, pivot point, and lever arm and the effects they have on the shoulder. Teacher will use the worksheet as a formative assessment to develop future lessons. I will provide feedback on the worksheet and I will provide positive specific feedback based off of how the students are performing. Objective 2. After instruction and demonstration, students will be able to list the safety equipment required for participation in weight training and describe and demonstrate the use of such equipment. Meets fitness standard 1.7 Assessment – The assessment will be an informal formative assessment. The assessment will assess students’ knowledge of safety equipment needed for participation in weight training by filling out a fitness log, and teacher will observe students during weightlifting to make sure students are using equipment properly. Objective 3 - After instruction and demonstration, students will be able to display safe and responsible behavior while training. Meet fitness standard 3.1. Assessment – The assessment will be an informal formative assessment. Teacher will observe students during weight training and assess their performance on displaying safe and responsible behavior. I will provide positive specific feedback based off of how the students are performing. Day 4 Objective 1. After instruction and demonstration, students will continue to practice and apply defensive and offensive strategies during modified football games. Meets psychomotor standard 1.10 Assessment – The assessment will be an informal formative self-assessment. Teacher will observe students and will provide positive specific feedback based on students performance as well. This lesson is building towards the students’ summative assessment for the football unit. Students’ performance will be based off a rubric (rubric is provided in the resources at the end of the unit plan). At the end of the lesson, students will go over the rubric and discuss how well they felt they did. Objective 2. After instruction/demonstration and during game-play, students will progress from simple to more complex movement patterns during modified football games. Meets psychomotor standard 1.1. Assessment – The assessment will be an informal formative assessment based on the students’ performance during drills and modified football games. Teacher will observe the students’ performances and provide positive specific feedback. Objective 3. During gameplay, students will participate in moderate to vigorous physical activity by engaging in drills and modified football games. Meets fitness standard 2.1. Assessment – Assessment will be an informal formative assessment. Assessment will be based on students’ engagement level in the activity. Teacher will monitor the amount of time students are engaged in moderate to vigorous physical activity. I will provide positive specific feedback based off of how the students are performing. Day 5 Objective 1. After discussing affirmations, students will be able to affirm one another during the activities: champions challenge and pig ball. Meets affective standard 3.1 Assessment – Assessment will be an informal formative assessment. Teacher will observe students and look for students using positive verbal comments and positive non-verbal comments. I will provide positive specific feedback based off of how the students are performing. I will conduct a closure session asking students to discuss some examples of affirmations that they gave, heard, or saw someone do during gameplay. Objective 2. After lecture, reading Fill a Bucket, and engaging in a variety of games, students will be able to describe why giving affirmations are important and why it is important to be positive during all circumstances. Meets affective standard 3.9. Assessment – Assessment will be informal formative assessment. Teacher will ask a variety of questions concerning affirmations during closure. Teacher will assess the students’ verbal responses to determine if students are starting to develop the knowledge of what an affirmation is and its importance. 6. Steps of Instruction Into: First day objectives/standards, students activities and assessment. Standards Affective Domain 1. Standard 2.2 – Participate in enjoyable and challenging physical activities that develop and maintain the five components of physical fitness. 2. Standard 3.1 – Accept personal responsibility to create and maintain a physically and emotionally safe and non-threatening environment for physical activity. Fitness Domain Standard 2.5 – Improve and maintain physical fitness by adjusting physical activity levels according to the principles of exercise. Objective - After instruction and demonstration, students will be able to perform a variety of Pilates exercises safely and correctly which will help improve strength and flexibility in their abdominals, lower back, gluteus, and hips. Meets standards 2.2, and 3.1 for the affective domain and standard 2.5 for the fitness domain. Assessment Students will self-assess their performance at the end of the lesson. It will be a formal summative assessment for this lesson. Students will assess themselves on a 5- point rubric: safety, overload, participation, maturity, and positivity. Each area is worth one point. Students will assess themselves based on their performance. To create a hook and gain the interests of the students I will start off with a warm-up activity that relates to what they will be learning for the day. I will discuss some of the history of the activity and how the students can use the activity in their daily lives to improve their overall health. To help students focus as well, I will discuss the five point rubric that students will self-assess their performance on. To draw on previous experiences, I will tie in the relationship between yoga and Pilates. A lot of the students were interested in and enjoyed yoga, which was taught the previous unit. To access prior knowledge I will have students discuss with their peers about what yoga focused on and what they think Pilates will focus on. That way, students can see the relationship between the two. The activity I will have students engage in is a Pilate’s session. The Pilates session will resemble what students would engage in if they were to go to a Pilates class. The steps to begin the activity are to have students sit down ready for instruction. We will be in the gym and cones will be evenly distributed across the basketball court. After we explain the instructions and the grading rubric, we will send one row of students at a time to a line of cones. The line of cones organizes each group of students so that every student has enough space to move around. There will be no student grouping for this activity. The Pilates session will last the entire period. Therefore, there will be no transition from one activity to another. For student misbehavior, we will ask students to refer back to the rubric, which talks about maturity. If the problem continues, we will have the student sit in the front near us. A time-out will be given if the student continues to misbehave. The same will be done for other activities in the unit. Some questions we will ask is during the exercises is what muscles the exercise is targeting and if it is working on flexibility, muscular endurance, or muscular strength. We will preview the unit by discussing what we will be doing in the upcoming days. We will connect the different activities by relating them all to the five components of health related fitness. Each activity focuses on a different component, which will improve the students overall fitness levels. Since each day of the unit focuses on a different activity, I will follow the same procedure I just mentioned based on the activity. I will introduce the skill or concept, demonstrate the activity, and have students work in drills, games, or activities. For group activities, I will allow students to select their groups. They will have a certain amount of time to find their partners. If they cannot find a partner they will come to me and I will find them a partner. Transitions will be done in a certain amount of time. I will have all the students freeze. I will explain what they will be doing next and have them transition. To assess the students learning, I will ask a series of questions during and after the Pilates session. The assessment will be an informal formative assessment. The questions will demonstrate to me if the students understand what the purpose of Pilates is and how it can help improve muscular strength, muscular endurance, and flexibility. Students will verbally respond to the questions by engaging in a think-pair-share with their peers and then I will call on individual students to answer the questions. Students will also assess themselves on how well they feel they did during the Pilates session based on the 5-point rubric. Through – Unit Calendar Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Content Standards Standard 2.2 – Participate in enjoyable and challenging physical activities that develop and maintain the five components of physical fitness. Standard 2.5 – Improve and maintain physical fitness by adjusting physical activity levels according to the principles of exercise Standard 3.1 – Accept personal responsibility to create and maintain a physically and emotionally safe and non-threatening environment for physical activity. 2.1 –Participate in moderate to vigorous physical activity at least four days a week. Standard 2.2 – Participate in enjoyable and challenging physical activities that develop and maintain the five components of physical fitness. 1.10 – Analyze situations and determine appropriate strategies for improved performance in aquatic activities. 1.6 – Identify and apply the principles of biomechanics necessary for the safe and successful performance of weight training. 1.7 – List the safety equipment required for participation in weight training describe and demonstrate the use of such equipment 2.4 – Use physical fitness test results to set and adjust goals to improve fitness. 3.1 – Display safe and responsible behavior while training. 1.1 – combine and apply movement patterns from simple to complex, in team activities. 1.10 – Analyze situations to determine appropriate strategies to use in team activities. 2.1 – Participate in moderate to vigorous physical activity at least four days a week. Standard 3.1 – Accept personal responsibility to create and maintain a physically and emotionally safe and non-threatening environment for physical activity. 3.9 – Recognize and evaluate the role of cooperation and positive interactions with others when participating in physical activity. Learning Objectives 1. After introduction, students will know who and when Pilates was created. 2. After instruction and engaging in a Pilates session, students will be able to perform a variety of Pilates exercises that will help improve strength and flexibility in the abdominals, lower back, gluteus, and hips. 1.After cardio activity, students will help improve cardiovascular endurance and muscular strength during a competitive pool game. 2. Before and during game-play, Students will be able to strategize with their team on how to improve performance during the pool activity. 1. After instruction Students will describe rotary motion and its effects on the shoulder joint during physical activity and weightlifting 2. After lecture, students will be able to explain basic muscle physiology. 3. After instruction and demonstration, students will identify and demonstrate the rules of the weight room. 4. After instruction, students will be able to demonstrate weight room protocol while weight training. 5. After instruction and demonstration students will learn and demonstrate the proper technique for a variety of lifts. 6. After gathering baseline fitness data students will develop a weight lifting/fitness plan to improve fitness. 1. After instruction, students will continue to practice and apply defensive and offensive tactics in game-like situations After instruction on demonstration, students will progress from simple to more complex movement patters during game-like situations. After instruction and demonstration, students will demonstrate the concept of spacing. 1. After discussing affirmations, students will be able to affirm one another in all circumstances (e.g. physical activities). 2. After lecture, reading Fill A Bucket, and engaging in a variety of games, students will be able to describe why giving affirmations is important and why it is important to be positive during all circumstances. Student Activity Pilates – students will perform various Pilates exercises that focus on strengthening the core. Line Up! – The class will be split in half, one team throws the water polo ball any where in the pool. Defensive team has to swim to the ball and form a strait line. Four students on offense swim up and down the pool to earn points. Physics Lab – focusing on rotary motion. Students will work in groups and apply the concept of rotary motion using weights to move their shoulder joint. Weight lifting – exercises for the upper body, legs, back, and abdominals. Students will select a specific muscle group they want to work on. They will select at least three exercises and perform 1 set of 15 reps for each exercise. Instant activity – groups of 3 – QB/receiver/defend. QB must throw the ball to the receiver to score a point. Defender scores a point by knocking the ball away. Lecture – Offensive and Defensive strategies. 3 person Cops and Robbers with ball. Two people will start out in a grid. One person will be the cop and one person will be the robber. One person will be on the outside of the box with the ball. The robber must try and get away from the cop so that the person on the outside can complete a pass to them. 2 Progression offensive movement drill. Students will play 2 vs. 1 in a small-grid. Students will work on offensive and defensive strategies. 1. Champions Challenge. – Students will play rock, paper, scissors. The person that loses becomes the winners entourage. They start chanting their name and cheering for them when they go to challenge the next opponent. If they win, then their opponent and the opponent’s entourage becomes the winner’s entourage. Students play until there is one champion. 2. Pig ball. – Students will get into groups of 5 and will try and get a football into a basketball hoop. Assessment Formal summative assessment for this particular lesson. It will be a self-assessment. Students will assess their performance on a five-point scale based on: 1. Safety – shoes and socks are off. 2. Maturity – Students act in a respectable manner. 3. Positivity – Students maintain a positive attitude throughout the lesson 4. Overload – Students add more stress to their body than usual to gain a positive effect. 5. Participation – Students are performing the exercises that the teacher is demonstrating and they are not sitting around. Informal formative assessment. Teacher will observe students during activity to make sure students are constantly exercising as well as communicating with their teammates to be more successful. Assessment will be based off of performance. Informal formative assessment – Students will turn in their biomechanics worksheet. The worksheet has questions pertaining to the concepts. The purpose is to determine if students are developing the knowledge of the key concepts. Students will turn in written responses. Criteria will be based off the answers in the worksheets. Informal formative assessment– Teacher observation. The teacher will observe students and provide feedback to make sure students are properly lifting weights and following weight room protocols. Assessment will be based off of student performance. Informal formative assessment – Offensive and Defensive rubric. Students will self-assess their performance based off of an offensive and defensive rubric provided at the beginning of the football unit. Students will provide verbal responses. Informal formative assessment – Teacher will observe students during the activity to ensure that students are utilizing the offensive and defensive strategies that they were taught. Assessment will be based off of student performance. Informal Formative assessment – Teacher observation. Teacher will observe students during the activities to make sure students are affirming one another. Assessment will be based off of student performance. Informal Formative assessment – closure questions. Teacher will ask a series of questions to determine if students understand the importance of using affirmations. Assessment will be based off of verbal responses. The activities are designed to allow students the optimal amount of time to practice applying key concepts and skills. All the activities are designed for independent learning so that I can walk around and provide positive specific feedback to the students. Closure/Beyond 1. To have students summarize and make meaning of their learning I will provide a series of open-ended questions where students will think-pair-share with a partner. Students will engage in a class discussion as well. 2. Students will take an end of unit test for Pilates to demonstrate their knowledge of Pilates. Students will demonstrate their knowledge of offensive and defensive strategies during a modified football game for the end of the unit assessment on football. 3. To help students continue to practice and transfer learning from this unit, I will reinforce ideas and concepts learned in these activities to other activities. For example, in football some of the offensive strategies we discussed were changing direction, changing speed, and using people. These concepts can be tied into a future unit with basketball. In basketball, players need to change speed and direction while dribbling a ball to get away from their defender. Also, using people in basketball would consist of using the pick and roll. Students will continue working on weightlifting and cardiovascular endurance throughout the year. 4. To prepare students for the next unit, I will highlight the main goals and objectives for the next unit and discuss the types of activities they will be engaging in. The objective of the closure is to determine if students are gaining an understanding or have learned a skill or key concept that was taught that is aligned with the state standards. For example, in the football lessons the standard was 1.10 – Analyze situations to determine appropriate strategies to use in team activities. The activities were designed to allow students to practice these strategies in modified games. The assessment is a rubric that lists the strategies that were taught to the students and the teacher checks them off based on their performance during game-play. Then I can look at the checklist to determine if the student is meeting that standard by using those strategies in a football game. 7. Material Resources Day 1 Resources The materials needed for this lesson are cones to designate where students will sit and the gymnasium. Students will need their notebooks to take notes. Day 2 Resources A pool will be needed to engage in the pool activities. Students need bathing suits, and water polo balls will be needed. Day 3 Resources The materials needed for this lesson are: White board, biomechanics handouts, notebooks, and weights. Student notebooks will have copies of all the concepts and terms that will be discussed in class. Day 4 Resources The materials needed for this lesson will be 22 footballs, 64 cones to set up football fields, and student notebooks. Day 5 Resources The materials needed for this lesson are: White board, jerseys (bibs), 12 footballs/12 whiffle balls, Fill a Bucket book by Carol McCloud and Katherine Martin. Each student is required to have a notebook. The notebook contains information for the entire semester. The notebook also has graphic organizers for each discussion topic. 8. Reflection In what ways have you differentiated instruction to meet the varying needs of your students including your high achievers? I differentiated instruction in a few ways. First, I made sure that I provided instruction in a variety of ways to make sure that I am meeting all of the students learning styles. For example, I verbally introduce a skill or drill. After discussing the activity or skill, I demonstrate what the activity or skill looks like. Then, students spend the rest of the class engaged in a drill or activity to work on learning the skill. Also, I differentiated certain activities so that the higher skilled students would continue to be motivated. For example, the football players already knew how to perform the skills that we were teaching. So, for them I had them perform more challenging strategies and had them apply it to a game-like situation. I can do the same for the lower skilled students. Some students may struggle with the activity. I can have them engage in an easier drill that still focuses on what they are learning in the class, but in a drill that will allow them to be more successful. I provided students with peer buddies that can help guide them through the activities. What strengths and possible limitations do you see in your plan? A strength of my plan is that my standards, objectives, activities, and assessments are all aligned. Each day is a different activity. Therefore, it is something new everyday and it keeps activities fresh for the students. The students have mentioned before that they like doing something new everyday. Each lesson is designed so that students are able to engage in hands-on activities. The lectures in the class are no longer than five minutes so that students have plenty of time to practice skills and apply concepts in authentic situations. There are a variety of assessments as well. There are summative, informal, formal, and self-assessments. A strength of this lesson plan may also be a weakness. Only teaching one activity a week may not be enough time to develop the skills to be proficient in an activity. For example, only teaching football once a week may not be enough time for lower and middle skilled players to develop the skills that equal that of the higher skilled players. Also, students may not get the full benefits of Pilates by only engaging in Pilates one day a week. What forms of data/evidence might you collect from this unit to measure its effectiveness - gauged by actual student learning? Some evidence that I might collect in this unit is: summative assessments and worksheets. The summative assessments would be a rubric based on the students’ performance during a modified football game. My cooperating teacher and I will observe students while they are playing and check off the strategies that they are using during game-play based on the rubric we provided them at the beginning of the football unit (I provided a copy of the assessment with this unit plan). Another piece of data that I would collect is the students’ worksheets that focused on biomechanics concepts. Lastly, I would also collect student tests that covers Pilates and also Yoga taught in a previous unit. Other forms of data would be gathered by observing students during activities. What have you learned about yourself, students, your unit plan topic, and/or planning in general as a result of designing this unit plan? Something I learned about myself is that I am constantly trying to make adjustments to make better lessons. I am looking at my unit plan and trying to determine if there is a better assessment that I could use or if there is a better activity to use. Something I learned about my students is that every student has a different learning style, and different needs. I need to be able to accommodate all those needs in a variety of ways. For my unit plan, I learned that it is important to align the standards, objectives, and assessments together. It is also important to tie in each lesson so that students gain a better understanding of why they are engaging in these specific activities. In terms of planning for the unit, I learned that it is important to think everything out. I found that it is easier to look at the standards first then determine what assessments I would use and then plan out my objectives and activities based on those standards and assessments. I also learned that it is a lot of work and I need to provide myself with sufficient time to plan all of my units for the year. What I know now that I didn’t know before was all the different ways that I could modify instructions, activities, and assessments to meet the needs of individual students. Before, I was just planning everything the same for every student and added a few modifications here and there. Now, I am looking at each aspect of the lesson and determining how I can differentiate it for individual students.

21st Century Skills

Creativity works in my class during class activities. When students have to complete an objective, they have the ability to work with their team and come up with creative ways to complete the objective. For example, during our team-building unit, students had to complete a variety of tasks. There was one task in particular where all the students had to stand on this board. Half of the group started on the left side of the board and the other half on the left side of the board. To complete the objective, students from the left side had to switch over to the right side and vice versa. Each group came up with a different way to get everyone across the board. Critical thinking and problem solving occur in those activities as well as other activities. When the students are not successful at one of the team building activities. They think about what worked well and what did not. Students test a theory and determine if it works. If not, they continue to problem solve until they come up with a way to solve the problem. Communication can occur before, during, and after activities. Before students start a game, they communicate with one another to determine their role on the team. During the game students have to communicate with one another to help the team be more successful. For example, if students are playing volleyball and the ball is coming over the net, students have to communicate who is going to get the ball. Without communication, the students may not go for the ball or both students may go for the ball causing the ball to drop. After activities, students can communicate and discuss what happened during the game and begin to come up with strategies that will help them improve before their next game. Discussions occur mainly at the end of the lesson. Discussions are used to conclude the learning of the day and to highlight key points. I think this can be done much better in my class. Discussions could be used to address a lot of topics that would be relevant to the students. Collaboration occurs daily. Students have to collaborate with one another to complete group activities. Students share their ideas with the group and the group bases their decisions off of what they think will work best. We have also collaborated with other teachers on campus. We had the physics teacher come in and give a physics lecture to the students about concepts that tie into physical activities and sports. Information literacy is taught in a variety of ways. Students are in the class on Mondays discussing key terms and concepts that they will learn during the week. Students are introduced to new terms in the weight room and during sports. Students bring in a favorite food or drink to class and they are taught how to read food nutrition labels. Media literacy is taught by discussing with the students about what is a reliable source for health and fitness and what sites are not. Students learn about ergogenic aids and how companies try to market them to make them sound better than they really are. Technology has not been used a whole lot in the class, and I feel like we could use it more. However, we have used technology before. We have had students bring in their phones with cameras on it and during the gymnastics unit, students film one another's performance and the performer is able to see how well they performed and they can get feedback from their peers. Ipads can be used in the same way. The teacher can film the student's performance and show the student and give them feedback based off of that. For research projects, students use the internet to gather and organize information. We try to provide as much independent practice as we can. When we introduce the students to a skill, we provide them with drills and activities that they can choose from based on their skill level. If the student is at a higher-skill level, they can choose the progressions that are harder. If students are at a lower-skilled level, students can choose the progressions that make the drill or activity easier. Students interact with their peers on a daily basis. Most of the activities that we do have students working together. Students are on teams and they work together to be successful in the sport.

Sociocultural Aspects of Schooling for ELs

An issue that one of my EL students has is her teachers tend to only provide directions one way (verbally) and the teachers often speak pretty quickly. The student has a hard time being able to process verbal directions especially when it is being spoken quickly. I am guilty of doing this as well. She came up to me the other day in class after I explained an activity and she felt really lost. She didn't know what to do. I realized that was my fault. The action I am going to take is providing more clear and concise instructions and demonstrations. After I explain the activity, I am going to demonstrate the activity. So, at that point even though she may not understand my verbal directions, she may get a better idea of what to do after the demonstration. After the demonstration, I am going to check for understanding. Once I have students start the activity, I can work with her and re-explain or demonstrate the activity again to help her. I think the verbal directions and demonstrations help the entire class as well as my EL student.

Brain-based learning

My lesson design is based on helping students develop their pre frontal cortex. This area of the brain utilizes decision making, planning, and social interactions. In order to help improve this area, I make lessons that have students work in groups where they must make decisions to solve problems or develop strategies for a game. Students must plan to solve objectives, and students have to be able to interact with one another to complete the activities. During lecture we discussed good chemicals in the brain. Dopamine is one of those good chemicals. Dopamine helps information flow to higher levels of the brain. Some strategies to help boost dopamine are achieving challenges, physical activity, kindness, interacting well with peers. My lessons are designed to incorporate all of these strategies. Since it is a PE class, physical activity is very important. Lectures and instruction time are limited so that students have the optimal amount of time for learning and being physically active. My lessons provide students with progressions. Each progression adds more difficulty to them. This provides challenges for the students. Kindness and interacting well with peers go hand in hand. Teamwork is very important in physical education. I emphasize respect and providing affirmations to one another, which promotes a positive and safe learning environment. Lessons are designed to have students engage in team building activities. Also, respect and affirmations are built and emphasized in every lesson. My overall lessons are designed to access memory lanes through procedural and emotional memory. When a skill in physical education it is important to provide numerous repetitions. This allows the students to become more proficient at the skill. Each lesson has a lot of movement involved, which helps procedural memory. For emotional memory, I add music into the lessons. I will let students bring in their own head phones that they can listen to. I also bring in a lot of enthusiasm. One of my students always comments about how she has never seen any as excited as I am about PE. So, I know my students see my enthusiasm. According to the power point, a student's brain grows through active participation, physical activity, and repetition in a variety of ways. As you can see from the examples provided, I implement all of those in my lessons to help students learn. Students are actively engaged in the learning. As mentioned early, 90% of class time is dedicated for students to be engaged in activities that help them learn a variety of skills. Students begin in simple drills to start learning a skill, and then students are progressed in more challenging activities where they can apply the skill in game-like situations. It does no good in physical education to lecture about how to perform a skill. In order to learn the skill, students must practice it, and must be able to have enough time to get plenty of practice.

Management Plan

I added a preventive and corrective management strategies. The new strategies are in bold Management Plan Introduction My management plan is based on my educational philosophy of essentialism. I think it is important that students are provided with a positive and safe (both physically and emotionally) learning community where students are able to learn. That is why it is important to implement a variety of management strategies that will maintain that positive environment. I want students to develop a sense of belonging in the classroom. I plan on using cooperative discipline, synergistic, and positive classroom discipline to develop the students’ sense of belonging in the class. In physical education, it is vital that students get plenty of opportunities to practice the techniques and tactics in a variety of sports so that they can be proficient in those sports. It is important that there are management plans in place that allow classes to run smoothly, which allow for optimal amount of time for active engagement. The other strategies I plan on implementing are assertive, non-coercive, self-control, and discipline through inner control. Preventive Management 1. Preventive class management is a great way to develop a positive learning community and establish rules, routines, and expectations for the entire year. One way to prevent disruptive behavior is using the assertive approach, which establishes a set of rules, positive recognition, and corrective action (Canter, 1976). With this approach, I will select three to five rules that focus strictly on the expected behavior of students in the class. For example, one of my rules will be: respect students and the teacher by listening attentively while others are speaking. When students demonstrate this rule to me, I will positively praise them for following the rules. If students break the rules, there will be consequences. This fits my essentialist philosophy. I believe that classroom discipline is important because students need to learn how to live in a civilized society that has rules and consequences. 2. When it comes to making the rules, it is important that I emphasize rules that will highlight the core values of the school (Curwin & Mendler, 1983). Highlighting the core values of the school not only reflect what I believe student behavior should be, but also the faculty/staff and the parents of the students (Curwin & Mendler, 1983). The rules are made as a collective group to ensure a positive and safe learning community in the school as well as in the classroom. Once the rules have been explained, I will model the behaviors that I expect of the students. This is what is expected of an ideal essentialist. Teachers are expected to be good role models for their students (Grant & Gillette, 2006 pg. 320). Then, when rules are broken I will have consequences that never go against the core values. 3. I want students to develop a sense of belonging and have ownership in the class. This is done through developing classroom synergy with the students (Charles, 2000). I think it is important students get to make decisions about how the class should be organized. This includes developing rules for behavior. Once decisions are made, students agree on their decisions by signing a behavior contract. Charles, 2000 notes that once that has been established, teachers should immediately begin developing a sense of family in the class. There are many activities that I would implement in the beginning of the year that would have students working together through cooperation, communication, trust (emotionally and physically), and problem solving. 4. As mentioned in the opening paragraph, it is important that classes run smoothly because students need plenty of opportunities to practice the skills. Glasser, 1995 explains one way to ensure that classes run smoothly is to implement a quality curriculum that meets the students’ needs. This type of curriculum would include activities where there is enough equipment that each student is engaged and is not sitting out. The curriculum should also involve activities that students enjoy. 5. Once the rules have been established, the way to help students follow the rules is by implementing an incentive program (Jones, 1970). Every student should have the ability to earn rewards for the desired behavior. There are consequences for students who do not follow the rules, but there are usually no rewards for students who follow the rules. In order to support good behavior, students should be rewarded for it. The rewards can be something very simple from school supplies, lunch passes, etc. 6. Along with having students develop a sense of belonging in the class through classroom synergy (Charles, 2000) I want to establish a “working with” classroom environment that is centered on students’ underlying motives to help them develop positive values and an enjoyment for learning (Kohn, 1996). Some of the strategies that Kohn provided about a “working with” classroom environment are better suited for classroom teachers. However, there are a lot of strategies that I could use in my physical education class. For example, Kohn describes a learning center classroom as one where the teacher is constantly moving around so that it takes time for students to find them, students are constantly talking about activities, the teacher’s voice is respectful, genuine, and warm. Students are engaged in discussions and frequently ask questions. Also, there are different tasks going on at the same time. I have applied a lot of these strategies in my class, and I think they are valuable in creating a caring classroom. Supportive – 1. Reinforcing good behavior throughout the year is to help students to counter fear of making mistakes (Albert, 1996). It is important to explain to students that mistakes will be made, everyone is going to make them, you can learn from mistakes, and there will be mistakes made in every process. It is also valuable to explain to students that teachers make mistakes too. This is especially true in physical education. I told my students during the first week that P.E. is one of the hardest subjects because everyone is going to see how well you perform. It is much different in a classroom, students never have to know what another student got on a math test, but every student in your class will know how well you can perform physical activities. That can be very hard for students and they can face a lot of ridicule from the students who have a higher skill level. So, it is vital to explain to them that it is ok to make mistakes. 2. To help students continue to maintain appropriate behavior in the class, I will use the follow up structure (Kagan et al., 2004). There are four follow up structures to choose from. The first one is to establish new preventive procedures. The second one is to establish moment-of-disruption for the next disruption. The third is to implement a follow up structure. An example would be a same side chat. The last strategy is to offer training in a life skill. I think the first strategy is good because it has you reflect on past experiences. This gets you to think about what you can do to be better, rather than keeping the same procedure. This fits into my essentialist philosophy because if students are going to be functional members of society, they have to know what is appropriate behavior and what is not. If you support students’ positive behavior, students begin to understand that this is how they should behave. Then students will transfer this to being a positive and well-behaved member of society. 3. As mentioned earlier, students will have ownership in the class. So, a good way to make sure students are being held accountable for their behavior is to hold class meetings that discuss future activities and behavior (Kohn, 1996). These class meetings well help me determine if I need to improve the activities to engage students more. Also, the meetings can be a way to ensure students are being held accountable for the behavior. 4. To continue supporting appropriate behavior, it is important to consistently give positive praise to students who are demonstrating the positive behavior (Canter, 1976). The positive praise will increase students’ self-esteem, continue to encourage good behavior, and continue to build a positive classroom environment (Canter, 1976). I can provide positive praise in a variety of ways. I can encourage students to continue the behavior, I can say thank you for maintaining appropriate behavior. Along with that, I can send positive notes and phone calls home to the parents. 5. Another way to help support students is to provide individual students with sufficient help (Jones, 1970). If students are not clear on the rules or need further explanation I should clarify them. As an essentialist, students should have the basic knowledge of the rules. If students do not know the rules, they will not follow them. I can help students before, during, or after class to develop strategies that will help them improve their behavior. Corrective 1.One way to handle consequences is allowing for students to develop responsibility for their actions. Consequences are handled by applying the three R’s of reconciliatory justice: restitution, resolution and reconciliation (Coloroso, 1994). An example of this would be students have to realize what they did wrong, what they can do to improve this behavior, and reconcile with the people they harmed. 2. Along with Coloroso, 1994 idea of applying the three R’s of reconciliatory, I think it would be valuable to implement genuine apologies (Kagan et al., 2004). Genuine apologies consist of three parts: a statement of regret or remorse, statement of appropriate future behavior, and the request for the acceptance of apology. This puts the responsibility of the consequence in the student’s hands. Having the student write these down could be a way to make students establish a behavior contract. The contract would include the student agreeing to the appropriate behavior in the future as well as consequences if the rules are broken again. 3. When students misbehave and the teacher becomes irritated, the situation can become much bigger than it should be. Therefore, it would be good to discuss the misbehavior with the student later (Albert, 1996). Curwin and Mendler, 1993 also feel that allowing time for both parties to cool down before discussing the issue. Bringing up the issue later in the day or the next day, the student and I will be calmer. This will make for a more respectable and sensible conversation on how to resolve the misbehavior. 4. There needs to be consequences for broken rules. If there are no consequences students will continue to misbehave. That’s why I plan to implement the discipline hierarchy (Canter, 1976). Each time a student breaks the rules, the consequence increases in severity. For the first offense, the student will be warned for breaking the rule. For a second offense, the student will be placed on a two-minute timeout. The timeout must not be too long because I do not want to take away from their learning time. For a third offense, students will get a phone call home. Fourth offense, I will arrange for a parent teacher conference. For the fifth offense, student will go to the principal’s office. This aligns with the idea of essentialism. Rules and consequences are a huge part of society. Students have to learn and understand that rules are in place for a reason and if they are broken, there are consequences for it. 5. In more traditional procedures for discipline, there is usually a winner and a loser. I think a more appropriate way to handle discipline is the no-lose conflict resolution (Gordon, 1989). This provides a solution that will have benefits for both parties. I think this would work really well when students are getting into conflicts with one another. When both sides feel like they were treated equally, everyone benefits and behavior can be improved. 6. Throughout the year, there are going to be times when students make a mistake. Students might break one of the rules of the class. They may not turn their HW in on time, etc. It is important that students realize that it is ok to make mistakes. A strategy that I thought would help correct a misbehavior is allowing students to redeem themselves and correct their mistakes (Jackson, 2010). This goes along with the supportive idea from (Albert, 1996) when it is explained that it is important to support students when making mistakes. If we are to emphasize to students that it is ok to make mistakes, then when should not punish them for making them. Instead, allow students to make up for their mistakes in a way that will not alienate them or make them feel bad for making a mistake. One way to do that is find common ground between the teacher and student. The example provided in the text explained that a teacher had a student come into class early the next day with his HW with a snickers bar for arriving late to class and not having his HW. The candy bar was common ground between the student and teacher. It was also a tangible way for the student to redeem himself. Some teachers may find common ground with less tangible items (Jackson, 2010). Conclusion There are a variety of management plans. No one plan is better than the other. I think I would benefit as a teacher by picking and choosing certain aspects from each plan and trying to come up with one management plan. As an essentialist, I feel that it is important that students understand rules and why we have them in place not only in the classroom, but in society as well. They also have to learn to accept responsibility for their actions and accept the consequences. With that being said, there are a variety of strategies that represent different philosophies. As a educator, I think it is valuable to apply a variety of philosophies and not just the one you relate to the most. References 1. Albert, L (1996). Belonging and cooperation. Discipline through belonging, cooperation, and self-control. 93-99. Retrieved September 20, 2012, from the World Wide Web: http://cc2010.csusm.edu/file.php/8866/discipline_through_belonging.pdf 2. Canter, L., & Canter, M. (1976). Discipline through assertive tactics. Twentieth- Century Pioneers in Classroom Discipline. 65-69. Retrieved September 20, 2012 from the World Wide Web: http://cc2010.csusm.edu/file.php/8866/lee_and_marlene_canter.pdf 3. Charles, C.M., (2000). The synergistic classroom. Discipline through synergy and reducing causes of misbehavior. 245-262. Retrieved September 20, 2012 from the World Wide Web: http://cc2010.csusm.edu/file.php/8866/discipline_through_synergy.pdf 4. Coloroso, B (1994). Inner discipline. Discipline through belonging, cooperation, and self-control. 99-104. Retrieved September 20, 2012, from the World Wide Web: http://cc2010.csusm.edu/file.php/8866/inner_self_control.pdf 5. Curwin, R., & Mendler, A. (1983). Discipline through with dignity. Discipline through dignity and hope for challenging youth. 168-172. Retrieved September 21, 2012, from the World Wide Web: http://cc2010.csusm.edu/file.php/8866/discipline_through_dignity.pdf 6. Glasser, W. (1985). Noncoercive Discipline. Retrieved September 20, 2012, from the World Wide Web: http://cc2010.csusm.edu/course/view.php?id=8866 7. Jackson, R.R. (2010). Start where your students are. Educational Leadership, 67 (5), 6-10. Retrieved October 12, 2012, from the World Wide Web: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational- leadership/feb10/vol67/num05/Start-Where-Your-Students-Are.aspx 8. Jones, F. (1970). Positive classroom discipline. Retrieved September 20, 2012, from the World Wide Web: http://cc2010.csusm.edu/course/view.php?id=8866 9. Kagan, S., Kyle, P., Scott., S (2004). Authoritative input. Discipline through same- side win-win strategies. 151-165. Retrieved September 20, 2012, from the World Wide Web: http://cc2010.csusm.edu/file.php/8866/discipline_through_same_side.pdf 10. Kohn, A. (1996). Beyond discipline. Three bridges to twenty-first century discipline. 84-89. Retrieved September 20, 2012. from the World Wide Web: http://cc2010.csusm.edu/file.php/8866/beyond_discipline.pdf 11. Kohn, A (1996). What to look for in a classroom. Educational Leadership. 54 (1), 55-55. Retrieved October 12, 2012, from the World Wide Web: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational- leadership/sept96/vol54/num01/What-to-Look-for-in-a-Classroom.aspx