G4 Touch Rugby: Visible Thinking Routine

A visible thinking routine inquiring into the concept of 'support' in touch rugby

As you can read in previous blogs, introducing touch rugby in the Elementary school, when they have never played anything like it before, has at times been a little challenging.

This year, armed with visible thinking routines I really wanted the students to think about the concept of "support" in touch rugby. The idea that you have to be behind the ball carrier if want to receive the ball and get in on the play.

The concept of getting behind and/or looking for/to pass the ball backwards is always a little mind blowing when all you've played before are games where a forward pass towards a goal is the preferred option!

During the 1st-3rd lessons I wanted to get a glimpse of my students prior knowledge and if they were having any takeaways from the 'tuning in' part of the unit...

I divided the page into three sections:

Support:

• What is it?
• Further questions
• What did it look like in today's lesson? 

Grade 3 Inquiry into the importance of Teamwork through the Learning Lens of Rugby Skills

In this unit we are particularly focusing on their ball handling skills and movement concepts, with the underlying theme of the role of support for the ball carrier and how to evade a tackler.

• What is the most efficient way to carry and pass a rugby ball?
• How do we know when are partner/team mate is ready to receive the ball?
• What does support look like in rugby and how is it different compared to other invasion games you know?
• How do you evade a tackler/tagger?

G1: Inquiring into Teamwork through the Physical Education Learning Lens of Striking & Fielding (Kickball)

What Are Striking/Fielding Games?

Players on the batting team strike an object and attempt to run between two points before the fielding team can recuperate the object. Tactical Problems related to Striking and Fielding Games include striking the object, fielding the object, running the points.
Examples: Baseball, Softball, Cricket, Kickball

G2 Relationships in Team Sports through the Physical Education Learning Lens of Striking & Fielding II

The G2 Striking & Fielding Unit II will focus on the concept of Relationships.

Taken from my conceptual map for Primary Physical Education

Striking and Fielding Unit II is about transferring the skills, knowledge and understanding the learning in Unit I and applying it to a different Striking & Fielding Game. This Unit we are inquiring into Baseball, via Cricket.

Grade 2 In Action

In the photographs you will notice we are still using the cricket wickets as bases and a cricket bat. The thinking behind this is by using the wickets it still gives the students a bigger target to aim at when fielding (and when running) and the cricket bat makes it easier for the students to hit a bowled/pitched ball (with a cricket bat you can hit the ball even when it is bowled along the ground). 

In the photos you will see I am the pitcher, these are early photos within the unit (I pitch because I want every student to have success with the bat). In later lessons I will turn the pitching duties over to the students. Being the pitch also puts me right at the center of the game and in a position to teach within the game, both the rules and game sense.

MTV: Reflection - I Used To Do/ Now I Do

G5 Relationships in Team Sports through the learning lens of Football (Soccer)

I started the unit with a BIG question.... "What is Football?"

With my first class I used a big piece of butcher paper to get the students to record their understanding and knowledge of what they believe/think football is. From their answers as a class we created 5 essential questions that will be the driving force behind the direction of the unit. 

Whilst working with the class in developing the 5 essential questions, I felt some students were not getting the chance to contribute to the conversation as much as I would of liked, so...

With the second class I decided that rather than the class coming up with the 5 essential questions, I would get them working in small groups that would develop their own essential questions first and then we would agree or disagree as a whole class as to which ones would be included. Letting the students work in smaller groups helped give the more quiet or shy students a chance to contribute to the possible direction of the unit.

Some of the second classes small group essential questions:

Examining the essential questions I created with the help of the first class and using the second classes own small group essential questions we have come up with the following 5 essential questions for this unit.

What is important to note in the following 5 essential questions is that the first three questions are very much about the game itself, the skill and control required to play and understand a very basic game of football. The last two questions are the ones I personally love! The big picture questions that could be considered lifeworthy learning, the ones that are transferable across subjects and that could be used throughout their lives, whether they continue to play football or not.

1. What skills do you need to play football? The students identified: dribbling, passing, heading & shooting
2. What skills do you need to be a goalkeeper?
3. What are the rules and regulations of football?
4. What traits and dispositions do we need to develop to enable us to work and learn together, with a focus as peer learners and peer coaches?
5. What are the relationships in playing team sports? The concepts of roles, responsibilities, of space, to a team and to the opposition?

Scooters & Balls - Team Games (Grades KG - 1)

Click to enlarge!

G3 Relationships in Team Sports through the Physical Education Learning Lens of Striking & Fielding

This unit will be touching on a number on concepts linked with relationships

What does Fielding mean to you?
Prior Knowledge & Burning Questions: Identifying understandings, burning questions and possible misconceptions...

What does Batting mean to you?
Prior Knowledge & Burning Questions: Identifying understandings, burning questions and possible misconceptions...

 

Batting, Bowling and Fielding Practice

As the lessons and the unit has progressed we've focused on batting, particularly the need to step to the ball and the mechanics of the drive. We've also examined the role of the wicket keeper and how vital their role is to the fielding team.

In addition we have also progressed our game, moving away from kwik cricket to a more elementary version of the true game. This includes adding a batsman, using two wickets that the batsman have to run between and the choice to run or not to run.

As a class we've been inquiring into, what is considered intelligent play in cricket?
This inquiry has lead us to a handful of key questions:

1. When do you run, when don't you run? 
2. How do you communicate with your batting partner?
3. Where do you want to hit (place) the ball?
4. How do you position your fielding team?
5. When you field the ball, who do you throw it to: Wicket Keeper or Bowler?

 

KG Obstacle Course, Teamwork & Problem Solving

This proved to be a lot of fun...

At this moment in time my two KG classes are both having issues with pushing, shoving, who goes first etc. without them really knowing why they want to go first...

After a little time working on an obstacle course, with the concept that the floor is quicksand (their decision) they had to travel as a class safely from point A to point B. I was interested in noting that the majority of the class would think nothing of pushing their fellow peers into the quicksand just to be the first to get up a ladder or be the first to jump a ravine etc...

In order to address this issue I placed an expanse of quicksand between the starting point and the rest of the obstacle course. I designed it in such a way that it would force the class to come up with a plan and work as a team. It also gave a couple of them the opportunity to demonstrate their leadership skills.

Their first attempt witnessed the class abandoning 5 class members to the quicksand as they rushed to safety! The second attempt proved a bit more successful with all students making it to the end of the obstacle course.

G5 Ethics in Sports through the Physical Education Learning Lens of Basketball

The G5 Basketball Unit will have a conceptual focus on Ethics in Sports, particularly Sportsmanship vs. Gamesmanship.

Taken from my conceptual map for Primary Physical Education

Burning Questions on Basketball

What do the students want to know about this sport?

Click to Enlarge

Using the questions above will help give direction/content when constructing the sequence of lessons within the unit.

But what do they understand by Ethics? Particularly the concepts of Sportsmanship vs. Gamesmanship...

I asked the following question:

What do you know and understand about Sportsmanship vs. Gamesmanship?

The student showed that the majority have an understanding of what is Sportsmanship/ Gamesmanship. Interestingly what the exercise did highlight was some common misconceptions between Sportsmanship, Gamesmanship and something else?

What are the G5s misconceptions about what is Sportsmanship/Gamesmanship?

1. Don't care if you win or lose

2. Not sharing the ball

3. Fun (Gamesmanship was deemed to be fun, and Sportsmanship wasn't)

4. Caring for the other team

5. Being competitive (if you show sportsmanship you are not being competitive?!)

6. Giving the other team a chance... (I guess I can see the logic in this one (e.g. not beating the other team 100,000 - 0))

7. It is when you are less competitive?!

8. Play as a team/Teamwork

9. Working together not playing to win (I guess there is a kinda logic there... The idea of playing for fun and not competitively)

Reexamining the others...

It is really important if the students are going to develop into a good sportsman/woman that they understand that if you follow the code of sportsmanship you do play competitively, have fun, strive for the best you can be (even if it's not winning), and you do care if you win or you lose, and if you lose, you do it graciously, but you learn from the experience and come back stronger next time and if you win you don't rub it in your opponents faces.

What the G5s did agree upon as examples of Sportsmanship and Gamesmanship

Addressing the Misconceptions

 

Two Key Questions

Why don't the remaining statements (the misconceptions) fit into either categories?

Can you think of other categories that some of these misconceptions would have a better fit?

Using Video Delay Feedback on the Set Shot and Jump Shot 

Some Truly Honest and Great Reflections from G5 

G4 Relationships in Team Sports through the Physical Education Learning Lens of Touch Rugby

The G4 Touch Rugby Unit will have a conceptual focus on Relationships within the Sport.

Taken from my conceptual map for Primary Physical Education

Burning Questions on Touch Rugby

What do the students want to know about this new sport/unit...

Click to Enlarge

Touch Rugby in Action

All of the photos are taken from the G4s warm up. What I loved about this warm up/photo is that the G4s took the concepts of monkey-in-the-middle and expanded them to incorporate the lateral pass. As you can see from the photos, it proved very popular with the whole class.

Modifying the rules to Touch Rugby really nailed it for this Grade group. I dropped the automatic turnover if the ball was dropped (I turned a blind eye to the odd accidental knock-on). The result was the students on the fringes who were not particularly big risk takers (worried about letting the team down if they missed a pass) got involved a lot more.

Reflections on Teamwork & Touch Rugby