G4. Reflections in Rugby

Linked to an earlier blog: G4 Touch Rugby: Visible Thinking Routine

Here are the Grade 4's Reflections in Touch Rugby - I used the MTV (Making Thinking Visible) routine of "I used to think/do - Now I think/do".

G4 inquiring into the concept of support through the physical education learning lens of touch rugby. Exploring the reflections the main takeaway from this unit was the idea that you had to pass the ball backwards, and once you'd mastered that, hopefully the support will follow.

As I've mentioned in previous blogs, I though this unit was very successful, the students were able to master the rugby pass, run in support and use strategies and tactics to break the defenses line.

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 & 4 Touch Rugby

A summery of two years of hard work, introducing touch rugby into Elementary School.

Last year I made a decision to put touch rugby on the elementary curriculum for grades 3 and 4. The school plays rugby in middle school (MS) and in high school (HS). I coach the boys JV rugby team (contact) in HS and the boys MS touch team.

Last year in G3 I possibly set my sights too high, and introduced the full game from scratch. This proved to be really hard work. The concept that you need to give constant support from behind the ball carrier, blew a lot of students minds... The G4s grasped it a bit better, but it still wasn't plain sailing.

Reflecting on the units, I made some changes this year.

Rather than dropping the G3's straight into the full game, we focused on ball handling skills. There are loads of games to be played which really develop their ball handling/carrying skills.

A couple of favorites included:

Snakes: Split into groups of 4. The snake moves around the court/field, the front player scores a try by placing the ball on the ground, the second player picks up and leads the snake for about 5-10 paces before scoring another try (I encourage placing the ball firmly on the floor, so it doesn't roll away. and bending the knees to pick up the ball with both hands). After scoring a try the players must join another snake, with the idea of keeping all the snakes equal sizes.

Pass & Run: In pairs, pass to each other while moving around the court/field. The player that places the ball on the ground first, runs! the partner rushes to pick up the ball to give chase, their objective is to tag the runner with the ball.

Rugby Tag: The taggers carry a rugby ball each (both hands). Their objective is to tag as many runners with the ball that they can. Once tagged the runners collect a ball themselves and join the taggers. The winners are the last runners left.

Finally, the game the students all love is...
British bulldog/Shrimps and Minnows: This game is great for getting the students in the middle (taggers/tacklers) thinking defensively, making that line across the court in order to stop the runners breaking through. In preparation for touch rugby, I always insist the defense (students in the middle) to be back 5 paces, to walk backwards (face the runners), and to create an almost impenetrable defensive wall. Once they have those concepts, having them work as a team, slowly pushing forwards to squeeze the runners space is great development for the future games. The runners on the other hand work on their skills of avoiding being tagged: changing speed, changing direction etc.

With the G3's this year we never got to play a full game, but we did play lots and lots of fun and fast games that developed their hand-eye coordination, their concept of team and their communication skills.

For the Grade 4's I start with a couple of the ball handling games, and of course British bulldog, but by the 2nd or 3rd lesson we are looking at the concept of support and we are out on the field playing touch rugby.

We start the lesson with a brief handling drill, but the majority of the time is spent playing.

This year, touch rugby has really taken off! The students are playing hard and learning fast!

Below are collages from my three G4 classes this year.

 

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?

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 

G3 Touch Rugby Unit

A new unit at PIE: Touch Rugby.
Rugby in Indonesia is going from strength to strength and having a history of rugby both as a player and as a coach I thought it would make a wonderful opportunity to introduce it at PIE.

With the G3s I wanted to reinforce the idea that to be able to reflect on their learning is just as important as participating in the lesson. I gave each G3 class an opportunity to write one line on their learning after each of the lessons. As you can see from the results below, other classes embraced the opportunity to reflect more than others.

Reflections

Final Competition

To compete the unit of touch rugby the G3 classes met in the morning before lessons to play each other.

They played on Monday and Wednesday, with their respective classroom teachers coaching their teams.

This proved to be a really positive way to end the unit as the students showed their teachers, parents and each other that they could play competitive touch rugby at pace and with an element of flair - congratulations G3.