To help the students start thinking, collaborating, and developing our Essential Agreements, I used the visible learning routine of 'think, pair, share' and based the initial leading questions around our five senses.
If you were going to have an environment that would help you be the best that you can be in PE, what would that (environment) PE lesson look like? What would that PE lesson sound like? What would that lesson (make you) feel like? What does your PE lesson smell like? AND finally if you could make your PE lesson into a pie, or if it was a flavour of ice cream, what would your PE lesson taste like? (The students love this one - lol).
After some discussion, the students write down their thoughts and ideas on what will make the PE lessons 'work' for them this year.
The next step was to highlight the Essential Agreements the students felt were important. Again I used the visible thinking routine of 'think, pair, share' to start (students read peers contributions).
Then I had them place 3 pins in the Essential Agreements that they thought applied most to them and their idea of a good learning environment. There were a couple of rules to follow when choosing the 3 Essential Agreements they liked the most. Rule 1, was they shouldn't pick there own. Rule 2, was they shouldn't pick 3 EAs with the same theme and finally, Rule 3, was don't follow the crowd, be honest with yourself and pick 3 EAs that mean the most to you!
(Why pins? Because it takes the minimum amount of time away from the physically active part of the PE lesson).
Finally, I merged EA's with similar themes together in order to construct a list of agreed upon attitudes and values that the students felt they needed to create a safe learning environment in physical education.
