Blog Archives

Inquiry and Maths at Work in Athletics (Grade 4)

04/26/2012

In preparation for our elementary sports day at Nanjing International School, I am preparing the students by having them work at improving their technique in various events. In today's PE class, the grade 4 students had to put on their thinking caps and show some inquiry and math skills as they had to predict, record, and figure out differences based on their personal results in 4 events: 400-meter run, 50-meter sprint, boot throw, and standing long jump.

At the start of class, we had a general discussion about the 4 events and talked about which strategies were best. They spoke about it with their peers, coming up with ideas and sharing these ideas with the class. I then handed out the worksheet you see in picture below. You can see the central idea that is at work in this unit on the sheet as well.

After handing out the worksheets, the students had to predict their results in each of the events that they were going to take part in. We discussed the importance of putting thought into these predictions and to really think about the concept of time in minutes and seconds, as well as, the concept of distance in meters and centimeters

Is predicting a form of inquiry?
As the students are making mental connections to time and distance, thinking about relevant units of measurement and how to apply these units of measurement to athletics events, I do believe that true and authentic inquiry is at work. You can see from the picture on the left that the students were engaged in conversation with one another, sharing ideas, and helping each other to make predictions.

How is maths involved in this lesson?
Maths is at work right from the get go as the students are thinking about time and distance, units of measurement, and having to record predictions and actual results. To complete this process, the students had to figure out how far off their prediction was from their actual result and record this in the last column of their worksheet.

Example Student Assessment From This Lesson........

To Sum Up
The lesson was very interesting in the fact that the students not only worked very hard running, jumping, and throwing, they loved it when their result and prediction were close. Some remembered some of their results from last April and wrote these numbers in as predictions only to find that they were much improved since last year's Athletics unit.

A fun class to be a part of today!!!

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Personal, Social, Physical Education Scope and Sequence (PSPE) Posters

04/22/2012

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I made it one of my professional goals this year to create more of a rich PYP environment in my teaching space in PE. As the personal, social, & physical education scope and sequence plays a big role in my PE program, I thought that I would make up some posters to help the students better connect to the 3 strands (identity, active living, and interactions). On each of the posters are descriptive statements that sum up what each strand encompasses. If you are interested in a copy of these posters, I would be happy to send them to you. Let me know. Thanks.

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The Inquiry Process at Work in PYP PE

04/17/2012

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Inquiry in PE continued.......

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PYP PE: Athletics Unit Central Ideas and Lines of Inquiry

04/15/2012

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PYP PE: The Learner Profile in Action

04/15/2012

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PYP PE Job-a-Like at Nanjing International School

04/13/2012

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PYP job-a-likes are a great opportunity to get together with other good practitioners in order to share best teaching practice. I was fortunate to be able to host a PYP PE job-a-like today at my school, Nanjing International School. Although there were only 3 other PE teachers attending, the day was a great success and we all felt as though we walked away having learned something new about our practice. As there is no real formula for job-a-likes, I am going to blog, in detail, about the day to show what we did.

A Bit of Background.....

The first PYP PE job-a-like in our region this school year was hosted by Ryan Matopodzi from Taihu International School in Wuxi. It was great to sit down at a table with a number of different PYP PE teachers and discuss our thoughts, ideas, and general teaching practice. We all did a mini-presentation on practices that we feel work well for us professionally. One of the teachers attending this session, Doron Gringorton (Suzhou Singapore School), opened up discussion about the potential of changing up the job a-like next time around. What he suggested was that we actually teach mini-lessons to students that can be observed by the other PYP PE teachers. Although sitting at a table discussing good teaching practice is valuable, we all agreed that actual observations would be much more beneficial to us professionally. With this in mind, I volunteered to host a job-a-like of this nature at my school and am happy to have done so.

The Day at a Glimpse.....

The teachers who attended: Andy Vasily, Doron Gringorton, Annmaree Butler, and Ryan Metopodzi

Team Teaching Lesson Plan Breakdown

Main Concepts: Cooperation, Teamwork, Strategy
Essential Skills: Passing, Catching, Skipping

Resources Needed: floor hockey sticks, puck, soccer ball, handball, skipping ropes, cones, numbered dots, whiteboard, bibs

1) Class divided into 2 equal teams

2) Each team member given a number that would be theirs for entire game.

3) Each team had its own set of ten numbered dots (1-10). The numbered dots were placed on the floor along the side of the gym and each team member had to sit on their respective numbered dot.

4) The 5 Activities to be played: Soccer, Handball, Floor Hockey, Skipping, and a Shape Creation Cooperative Challenge

5) Hockey sticks and enough skipping ropes for each student were on far side of gym. The lead teacher was in possession of a soccer ball, handball, skipping rope, and puck

6) At this point, the teacher would shout out 3 numbers (for example, 9, 4 and 2)

7) The students whose numbers were 9,4 and 2 from each team had to immediately jump up and run into playing area. At this point, the teacher would place down one of the balls or puck. If it was the puck, the students would race across, get a floor hockey stick, and then play a very quick 3 vs 3 floor hockey game. The game was played until a goal was scored or time ran out (about 2 minutes)

8) If a goal was scored, both teams raced back to their dot and sat down. If a goal wasn’t scored and 2 minutes had expired, a whistle was blown and they raced back to sit down(returning sticks of course!!)

9) A point was awarded for scoring a goal and a point awarded to the team that could sit down the fastest.

10) For floor hockey, handball, and soccer this format was followed. However, if a skipping rope was shown, the students would have to race across the gym and get their own skipping rope and skip as enthusiastically as possible for about 1 minute. The most enthusiastic team was given a point. A point also to the team who sat the fastest.

11) In the shape creation cooperative activity, the students were shown a shape, letter, or object on the whiteboard. At this point, they had to run into the playing area and form the shape, as a group, using their bodies. Again, a point was awarded to the team that completed the task the fastest, as well as a point for the team who sat the fastest after the task.

Ready for action!

Lesson Format:

A) Play numbers game first time for about 10 minutes
B) Allow students to have a break and discuss a team strategy to be used in the next session (ideas generated: better communication, more defense, spreading out)
C) Play numbers game a second time using newly created strategy (10 minutes)
D) Allow another opportunity for a group discussion in order to evaluate the effectiveness of their team strategy and to make any necessary changes to the strategy.
E) Play game a last time ensuring that the students use their latest strategy
F) Whole class discussion on what types of strategies the teams used and whether or not they were effective
G) Students complete an assessment task

Examples of Student Assessment

PYP PE Job-a-Like Final Reflection

All four of us felt as though the day was an excellent experience professionally. We learned new things from one another and engaged in meaningful discussion about the role of PE in the PYP, how to make more genuine and authentic connections to key transdisciplinary skills in our lessons, how to embed more inquiry within our lessons, and finally opportunities to better highlight the Learner Profile in PE. I am grateful for the chance to have been a part of such a great day. Thanks Doron, Annmaree, and Ryan!!!

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