G5/G4 Create and Develop A Simple Game (My Learning Journey) Pt.1

This is my learning journey about how we created and developed a "Create and Develop A Simple Game" unit for Grades 4 & 5.

For Grade 3's I've been working on a similar "Create and Develop A Simple Game" unit, they didn't document their rules on paper, but they did make a 30-90 second movie explaining/playing  their game for their blog/digital portfolio.

Please note: I am a firm believer of keeping the students physically active during PE lessons. All descriptions and photos of the students sat planning or documenting is kept to an absolute minimum. Most of the planning time was spent by the students trialing their games. During this unit I would usually start with a whole class game like Yoshi and finish with either Yoshi or a game the students had created themselves and wanted to play again.

As a department we had decided in order to hit the Grade 4 Enduring Understanding (EU)*: Behaving appropriately ensures fair play and the Grade 5 EU*: Good sportsmanship is essential to all activities we would create and develop a "Create and Develop A Simple Game" unit.

*These EU's are under the Learning Journey of Ethics in our Physical Education Matrix.

Tuning In: Rules! 

Tag Games. Both Grade 4 & 5 have played a abundance of tag games throughout their school lives. Though they don't realize it, they have a huge collective knowledge of tag games and how they are played.

I started the first lesson with a game of tag (obviously), but that's all the information I communicated. With a huge amount of excitement the students immediately jumped up and rush out into the center of the gym. Some even start playing! Very soon it dawned on them that they need to clarify "who was the tagger?"

Great! So I quickly call them back in and we identified who was and how many taggers there should/could be. Again with great excitement the majority rushed back out and start running from the taggers. 

Shortly, more questions inevitably followed: "what happens when we're tagged?" and "how do we get free?"

Each time I brought the class back in and we discussed the adding of new rules.

Takeaways: We need rules and an objective to be decided upon and communicated to everyone before the game starts!

Over the next couple of lessons I experimented with dividing the class into two (approx 9-10 students per group) in order for them to come up with their own tag games with the guidelines that it had to be simple, fun and have a hint of originality. 

Some classes found this relatively easy, while others struggled. For myself, I wasn't necessary looking for an end product (though it would have been nice). I was more interested in observing the students going through the processes. I wanted the students to try ideas, reflect and if necessary change them to something that fitted.

Planning & Explaining the rules to the rest of the class

What we did notice was the students got bogged down during the initial planning stages, particularly when we organized them into large groups. Looking at this experience positively it did create an excellent opportunity to bring Guy Claxtons Essential Competences into play. Reminding the students to be open minded, that it is important to respect others, resolve conflicts and come to a consensus. 

Suddenly rather than the unit revolving around Ethics, it seemed more and more to have a foothold in the Learning Journey of Relationships.

Would it be possible to teach through two Learning Journeys simultaneously? Letting the students identify under which Journey their learning/understanding is falling under?

Finding Out: Creating a Tag Game.

Through the questions the students had asked in the previous lessons they had already identified the components of a simple tag type game: the need for a tagger(s), what happens when you get tagged and how do you get released.

By identifying these components of a tag games we divided the students into three areas/groups:
Movement: How do the tagger(s) move? How do the runners move?
Consequences: When you get tagged, what happens?
Rescue: Who and how do you get released?

With classes of approximately 18-22 students I divided my class into groups of 3-4 students, making a total of 6 groups (two groups dealt with Movement, two with Consequences and two Releases).

Once they'd had a minute of ideas sharing I then randomly teamed up a Movement, Consequence and Rescue group. Again they had a couple of minutes to share ideas, listen to each other and resolve conflicts if necessary.

The 3 Groups (Movement, Consequences & Rescue) coming together - Then explaining (& demonstrating) to the rest of the class their final game.

I was really excited about the process they were going through. The smaller groups sharing their ideas with the bigger group in order to develop a final product etc.

I should note here, it was important for me to remind a couple of the groups on occasion that they could not just poo poo the 'consequences' group idea (for example) just because it didn't fit their idea. That the 'consequences' group had the final decision regarding that area. I do remember using the word 'compromise' a lot during those lessons! Yet saying that, if an obvious or popular theme was suggested (by a group) the others would usually work well developing their area from that idea. One such example was the idea of the runners being bananas (running with both arms straight up above their heads - palms touching) and the taggers being monkeys (moving with monkey type movements) and if the bananas got tagged (they had to dance on the spot (dancing bananas?!)) until another free banana comes up and peals them (bringing both their arms down until they are at their sides).

All groups again experimented with their games in order to identify strengths and weaknesses before sharing it with the class.

Again some classes had more success than others. Though this time around all classes were able to produce a simple tag game that everyone got to play.

Sorting Out: Adding Equipment.
I decided that I needed to pick equipment that wouldn't distract too much from the task. After some talk and a little experimentation I eventually decided that bean bags, polyspots and bibs were a sensible choice.

It was at this point I decided that even smaller groups were necessary and that giving them roles wasn't required. I split the class into four friendship groups (approx 4-6 students per group). I showed them the equipment and gave them two minutes discussion time (brain storming). When they had come to a loose agreement they could start experimenting with the equipment and the layout of the game etc. I emphasized that trialling a mini version of the game was important so if they encountered any questions or problems they could quickly reflect, re-plan and try again.

I did start off with safety cones and bean bags, but changed it to polyspots and bean bags.

Going Further: Testing and Feedback.
Once they were pretty confident they had a presentable game I arranged for one of the other groups to visit to test the game. After about 5-10 minutes explaining and play time the students got into circles as the visiting group talked about what they really liked about the game and suggested possible tweaks were/if necessary. I explained to the class that the suggestions for possible improvements were just 'suggestions' and it was up to the designing group what they chose to do with the presented feedback.

The last job of the group after making any suggested tweaks was to record the final version of their game onto blank butcher paper so that any other classes could come and play their game.

Groups receiving feedback and then recording the final version of their game on butcher paper.

Finally as a class we got to play each others games and we rated them for Fun, Fitness and Originality. 

Essential Agreements 2016 - 2017

Slightly different approach this year... 

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.

The Game of Badminton Volleyball

This is a game I was introduced to at an Achper conference. As soon as I played it I loved it and have been incorporating it into my PE lessons ever since (when I’m teaching Badminton that is!).

One of the reasons I like it so much is it works really well if you haven’t got loads of space. In our gym we have three badminton courts marked out on the gym floor which is perfect.

I’m lucky enough to have smaller classes, but I’ve played this with 3 - 4 students on a team.

Basically the game is badminton, but with the majority of the rules being taken from volleyball.

I’ll endeavor to explain the game using the 3 vs. 3 format.

I usually divide the class up myself, having a range of development within a team.

With the 3 student format, I have 1 student in the middle of the court at the net, and the other 2 mid court, one left, one right. If you looked from above they would be stood in a triangle formation.

After rock. paper. scissors and serve is decided, the server, servers as to the rules of badminton, behind the line (because I teach primary, I usually say the serve can travel anywhere over the net, not necessarily diagonally or even over the service line).

Once the shuttlecock is in play, each side have the option to play the shuttle a maximum of 3 times before it has to travel back over the net, and a single player can’t hit the shuttle consecutively. 

Like volleyball when a team wins service back, the students rotate. This gives everyone practice on their serve and it make sure everyone gets involved, so often one piece of the court gets to see a lot of action and rotating helps everyone get more involved.

We play until 21.

The game tends to be a lot more inclusive of everyone's individual skill, the students get to team with peers, and it is a good use of limited space.

Developing a Conceptual Matrix in Physical Education Pt. 8 (The Concept of Evaluation)

Links to previous posts on 'Developing a Conceptual Matrix...'

My original idea, Development Pt. 1, Development Pt. 2, Development Pt. 3, Development Pt. 4, Development Pt. 5, Development Pt. 6, Development Pt. 7

As Development Pt.7 for Ethics and Pt. 6 for Health & Fitness, the Evaluation Concept (Development Pt.8) has been referenced to the New Australian Curriculum for Physical Education. Our conceptual curriculum Key Concepts, Enduring Understandings and Compelling Questions can be seen on the strand for each of the year groups.

G5 Elements of Sportsmanship MTV: Agree/Disagree

In a couple of my G5 classes this semester we've encountered issues concerning a small handful of students not being able to cope with being on the losing team. 

Personally, I believe that students should care if they win or they lose. Some just need help to get a bit of perspective on the mater, particularly when controlling their emotions.

For example, I don't want a class that's so laid back that the result doesn't matter. When and if they lose, I want them to lose as sportsmen/women with a bit of dignity. I also want them to reflect and recognize the areas that require improvement and to come back better for the experience. What I don't want are students that don't self reflect, don't care and never develop. 

In retrospect, I am glad that students feel passionate about a game/sport. For some it might be the only subject that that emotion bubbles up from inside! 

 

 A Plan

 

The next step was to come up with an idea that helped the students reflect on who they are with regards to competition, and to help them develop strategies to keep their emotions under control.

I thought about maybe organizing a couple of games or even role playing in order to highlight bad sportsmanship, but I couldn't think of how I could make it genuine.

Thinking back to the MTV course (Making Think Visible) I had the idea of getting big sheets of butcher paper and drawing a number of continuum's each with their own questions. The plan would be to have the students initial where they were on the continuum and we discuss the results.

The idea developed. I would use the butch paper to write the questions on, but the continuum would be a line on the gym floor. I liked this idea because the students would be active, it still involved self reflection and they could see where their peers stood in comparison to themselves.

After each question, I would bring the students back in and we would briefly discuss the results, their thoughts and observations.

I decided upon 8 questions, that became 9 in the lesson. The questions are by no means perfect, and next time I would definitely take more time to refine them.

It is worth noting that question 7: shouting at my team helps them perform better - was explained that the 'shouting' was being done in a negative way.

and question number 8: Losing affects my mood during/after the game - developed into question 9 where the question was readdressed to the 'PE class'.

I hope that all makes sense.

Developing a Conceptual Matrix in Physical Education Pt. 7 (The Concept of Ethics)

Links to previous posts on 'Developing a Conceptual Matrix...'

My original idea, Development Pt. 1, Development Pt. 2, Development Pt. 3, Development Pt. 4, Development Pt. 5, Development Pt. 6

As 'Development Pt.6' for Health & Fitness, the Ethics Concept has been referenced to the New Australian Curriculum for Physical Education. Our conceptual curriculum Key Concepts, Enduring Understanding and Compelling Questions can be seen on the to strand for each of the year groups.

G5 Athletics (Track & Field)

This is a great unit for the G5's.

It's a great individual pursuits unit, we explorer body mechanics, they time and measure, set PB's and future goals. Plus we get to visit the high school track and field facilities which are outstanding - using the facilities motivates and inspires the G5's to really push themselves and be the best that they can be. 

The unit itself is split between the primary school gym and the high school track & field facilities. We usually explorer the mechanics and techniques the lesson before in the gym and then take it up to the track the following lesson to time/measure.

The unit fits under the learning journey of the elements of movement.

The enduring understand for this unit: Movement techniques impact our performance.

The compelling questions are: 

How do we move our body to develop our running for speed and distance?

How do we move our body to develop our jumping for height and distance?

How do we move our body to develop our throwing for accuracy and distance?

I usually start with sprints, move into jumps and throws and then we extend the running distances, exploring pace and strategies. We finish the unit with an all-out assault on the Mile. 

What I do notice (and love) is that before the unit, you mention the mile run and you'll get one or two students let out a small groan. But, by the end of the unit, attitudes have changed and myths put to bed. The mile run isn't seen as this near death experience, it's seen as a challenge, and each student now has a good idea of how that distance feels and they have a strategy on how to run it.

This year the events we inquired into were: 100m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, Mile, Long Jump, High Jump, Indoor Javelin & Indoor Shot Putt. For the G5's we classified the 100 & 400m as sprints and took the 800, 1500 & Mile as middle distances.

Over the years at JIS I have been diligently collecting the data from the events, so when a student asks 'what should I be aiming for' etc. I can give them rough targets to aim for (an informed answer), but as I tell the students at the beginning of the unit, this is all about setting personal targets and challenging yourself. Though a little friendly competition is good for them.

Reflections on the unit 

Again I return to the MTV (Making Thinking Visible) reflection of 'I used to do/Now I do'

I really emphasized that I wanted the students to pullout just one of the learning journeys they have be on during this unit and to write about it...

Some "Now I Know/Do's"

Fitness Testing in Primary Schools - YES or NO?

Fitness Testing in Primary Schools

I will now attempt to put an argument for not testing in primary PE... 

For myself, the word testing is enough to make me let out a little grown. For some students, when it's used in conjunction with the word fitness it's enough to make them limp off to the nurse, or in some cases have sleepless nights. Now this definitely isn't all students, as you will always have a handful of athletes willing to compete who just love the tests. But I'm guessing they are the handful of students that excel at fitness testing.

Fitness testing does have a time and a place, I'm just not sure it should be done during primary school PE lessons. Don't we preach that play and inquiry are key to the development of the child and yet we make them sit through tests that were originally designed for adults and are incredibly prescriptive?

But, you do the test. You record the students heights and weights and you put them through a series of designer challenges in order to collect data. Why? So you can let the overweight or unfit child know they are overweight or unfit? I'm kinda guessing that the child already knows, and doesn't need a beautiful printout stating the obvious.

 

What's Just Happened

Personally, as a professional physical education teacher I think I can recognise if my students need to improve their fitness or lose weight. Hopefully I can target these issues by promoting a healthy active lifestyle, and by making the most of the time I have within PE. Additionally, you always have to keep in mind that there's a good chance that over the next couple of years as students grow their body types change. The slightly overweight child in grade 5 could become the class athlete by grade 7 or 8. Particularly if you've given them a love for being active and staying healthy!

 

Missing Our Primary Audience

I think we're missing our audience by fitness testing in primary school.

The top athletes love the multi stage fitness test because they do well in it! But they are not the students we want or need to get up and running, because they are already internally motivated.

Our target audience are the ones that don't do particularly well in the tests, the ones that need help in getting motivated, and/or are too shy about being tested in front of their peers.

I have to argue that if fitness testing is the way we are introducing a love for life long fitness into primary schools, we are doing the majority of our students a disservice.

Instead we should be promoting the understanding that fitness and exercise are fun! As PE educators we talk about how we should be developing a love for exercise, games and sports that should be with students a lifetime.

Case in point, when I was at university we worked closely with Great Ormond Street Hospital, helping medically obese children. Our number one priority was to get them back to enjoying being active: playing tag, capture the flag etc, not sticking them through boring fitness tests that already told us what we already knew.

I could go on about fitness testing in primary schools, and I certainly could play devils advocate. 

My belief as a PE specialist is that we need to introduce healthy life style concepts at an early age.  We need to make fitness and exercise fun so they become positively integrated into students lifestyles. Then, as students grow and develop the introduction to more commercialized fitness tests, particularly when linked with sport makes more sense.

G3 & G4 Striking & Fielding

Learning Journey: Relationships

Key Concepts: Cooperation, Collaboration, Safety, Communication, and Roles

Enduring Understanding:

Situational awareness impacts our decision making and movement responses.

Compelling Questions:

G3 What skills do we need to develop in order to improve our play? (Individually & as a Team)

G4 How does situational awareness help our decision making?

In both year groups we explorer Kwik Cricket, a Baseball type game (3 bases and a home plate) and Danish Long-ball with all games stepping up in sophistication as age and skill level develops.

I Just Love It When A Plan Comes Together!

A fantastic realization is that they need to be just as good at fielding as they are at batting if they want to be competitive in their games. In Kwik Cricket we play until everyone's had a go at batting and then we change (batting team becomes the fielders etc.) BUT as soon as we get onto my baseball type game and we play '3 out all out' and the fielders are struggling to work as a team, the reality of them not getting into bat (& scoring points) eventually dawns on them! Over the course of this unit and particularly my G4's their fielding has grown and developed in bunches (particularly the teamwork and the reality that even-though you're fielding, you still need to pay attention! (LOL)). The need to get back into bat has become a driving force for great teamwork, communication, and paying attention to the play! (they particularly mentioned this part in their reflections)

This didn't happen overnight, and at times I had to bite my tongue... but as soon as the penny dropped we've had some real fun, fast, high spirited games!

As a note, I start with Kwik Cricket as I feel the Cricket bat is easier to handle for the beginner (even if the delivery is bad eg. a grasscutter etc. for the most part the ball can still be played). When we switch to a Baseball type bat I usually lead the pitching to start, but at the beginning I always try to give them an option of Cricket or Baseball bat. I try not to use T's, because I really want the students to develop their underarm pitch.

We end with Danish Long-ball. This game is just FUN and the students love it! It also gives them the chance to transfer their tactical play, skills and knowledge to another striking and fielding game. I set the bases over the whole length of the gym... it's amazing how far and how often you can get the students running that distance under the disguise of scoring runs! LOL 

That is a brief summery of what's turned out to be a fantastic educationally fun unit!

A little bit of batting & bowling

Making Thinking Visible: Reflection (I used to do/think - I now do/think)

This is an important reflection because the students get to choose and tell a particular learning journey they have been on across the different sports.

Grade 2 Net Games Unit (Tennis & Badminton)

Net Games - Learning Journey: Elements of Movement

 

Enduring Understanding: Constantly returning to the ready position in Tennis or Badminton is necessary for long term success.

An introduction to Net Games: Tennis & Badminton.

In the unit we explored the concept of the "ready position" and it's importance in letting the player move between the ground strokes in tennis or from offensive to defensive shots in badminton.

Essential Questions:

"What does being 'ready' look like?"

"Why do we want to consistently return to the 'ready position' in-between shots?"

 

Ground Tennis

A new game I did experiment with in this unit that I want to highlight is 'ground tennis'. Having already talked about the ready position the students we then get into a friendly and/or a competitive game of 'ground tennis'. Ground tennis is exactly what it says it is (obviously without a net).... you play tennis with a tennis ball along the ground. Everyone one can play, and you can tailor the games to the needs of the students. For example you could have a friendly rally, or a blistering competitive match, or you could make it more technical by having them try to keep the ball on a line or add in a ground shot. What you do need to stress is that after every shot they return to their starting ready position. 

Ground Tennis

During the unit we used tennis balls when focusing on technique, but we would always bring out the big bubble gum balls to have a fun rally.

Volleyball Badminton

One game I do enjoy is volleyball badminton. Again, it's exactly what it says it is. Volleyball rules but played with badminton equipment. I usually go 3vs.3 as that still leaves lots of space on a badminton court. At times the whole, you continue to serve until you loose a point is a bit hard to understand for the overly keen, but the students seem to love it! You can also play this game with or without net.

 

Reflections on their Adventures in Tennis & Badminton