There is no precise formula for going about planning. Different teachers will approach planning in different ways. Various factors, including personal beliefs, values and preferences influence the process. The guidelines in this section are intended as suggestions only.
Prepare a balanced year plan using a year planning calendar, indicating:
Develop units, that outline planning considerations and materials under the following headings:
Caveat: Following the introduction of skills and initial practice, students should revisit skills over time (called "distributed practice").
Caveat: Unit planning is a key step in the preparation for teaching but it does not replace the need for teachers to prepare individual lessons carefully.
Prepare lesson plans that take into account the following factors:
Caveat: There may be a tendency to over-emphasize the Movement perspective in the program, however, there are very good reasons to utilize Active Living and Personal-Social-Cultural concepts as the dominant organizers for units and lessons
Factors To Be Considered :
Number of Students in the Class
Total Time Available for Physical Education
"Core Curriculum guidelines recommend that 150 minutes per week be allotted to the instructional physical education program. Daily physical education is preferred. This makes the goals of Quality Daily Physical Education (QDPE) very feasible in Saskatchewan schools."
Policy for Instructional Physical Education: Kindergarten to Grade 12., Saskatchewan Education, September 1992, p. 12.
37.5 weeks of school x 150 minutes/week = 94 hours per year
How many hours have in fact been allotted to the teaching of physical education?
Frequency and Duration of Lessons
How often will physical education be taught each week (or cycle-e.g., six-day cycle) and how long will each lesson be? Learning experiences in a 30-minute lesson may have to be limited to the study of one concept whereas learning experiences related to several concepts may be included in lessons lasting 45-60 minutes.
Special Events, Field Trips, Etc.
Will special events such as the Christmas concert make the gym unavailable and require that lessons be conducted elsewhere? Will some physical education classes have to be cancelled because of scheduled school outings? Are some of these outings considered part of the physical education program (e.g., swimming lessons, skiing, camping) and if so, how many hours of the total allocated to physical education for the year will they take up?
Available Equipment, Facilities and Resources
After doing an inventory of the equipment, facilities and resources available to them at school, teachers should investigate other possibilities in the community and elsewhere.
Are there other schools that would be willing to lend or exchange equipment for a period of time? These times would have to be taken into account when planning the program.
What is available in the community? When can community facilities and/or equipment be used? When are resource persons available?
Does the school division have equipment that circulates from school to school? If so, when is this equipment available? Which provincial sport associations provide equipment, guest instructors or other resources and services?
Can arrangements be made to have older students, teacher aides, parents, etc. assist with some aspects of the program? (e.g., supervision, assessment, instruction, equipment set-up and/or take-down).
School Policies and Regulations
Do students have to wear gym attire? If so, time required for students to change will reduce instruction time. Are there certain safety regulations or standards that prohibit the use of certain equipment or facilities?
Program Orientation
How much emphasis will be placed on each of the perspectives-Active Living, Movement, Personal-Social-Cultural? For example, a teacher may want to familiarize students with Hellison's (1985, 1995) levels of personal and social responsibility at the beginning of the school year. These levels are the dominant organizing concepts of the Personal-Social-Cultural Perspective. He or she would therefore place more emphasis on the attainment of the objectives of this perspective during the month of September.
By the end of September, the teacher will have a better idea of the needs of the students. For example, the teacher may have had students participate in selected activities in order to assess their physical fitness levels, their attitudes toward active living and their level of movement skill competency. The emphasis accorded each perspective may then change in accordance with the results of this assessment.
Student Characteristics, Interests and Movement Skill Levels
The level of responsibility of the students, level of understanding of concepts, cultural backgrounds, preferred learning styles, attitudes toward physical activity, level of physical fitness (strength, endurance, flexibility) and their movement skill level must all be taken into consideration when planning the program, units and lessons.
Formal and informal assessment of students will have to be done during the first few weeks of the school year to determine some of these factors. The program plan and units that have been prepared may then have to be modified to better match the students' needs and interests.
Curriculum Guidelines
Suggested time allotments for each of the Activity Areas, foundational and learning objectives, Core Curriculum Components and Initiatives, and other curriculum guidelines will also influence the planning process.
Yearly Overview and Calendar
How much time will you spend teaching the concept Space (levels, directions, etc.) to your grade one students? How many hours will you spend teaching your grade five students how to strike with short-handled implements such as paddles and racquets? The first step of the planning process involves preparing a yearly overview of the program that indicates how the total number of hours available for physical education will be allocated. The Sample Yearly Planning Calendar provided in this curriculum guide may be used for this purpose. (A template is provided at the end of this section.)
The following information is to assist teachers in using the calendar:
1. In rows one and two of the Yearly Panning Calendar, indicate the day and dates of your physical education classes for the year.
Note dates when, for example, students will be going to the swimming pool for lessons, equipment from other schools will be borrowed, etc.
2. Row three is used to indicate which of the three perspectives you will be teaching.
How many of the total hours available for physical education will you use to attain the objectives of the:
· Personal-Social-Cultural Perspective?
· There are no prescribed time allotments for each perspective nor any precise formulas for determining how much time should be allocated to each one. Teachers have to rely on their professional judgment.
3. In the fourth row of the Yearly Planning Calendar, indicate the Activity Area(s) for each physical education class. To do this, the suggested time allotments for each Activity Area presented in Part One may be used as a guide.
Note: The total number of hours in this sample calendar is based on the Core Curriculum guidelines recommending that 150 minutes per week be allotted to the instructional physical education program.
(37.5 weeks of school x 150 minutes per week = 94 hours)
When these 94 hours are divided according to the suggested time allotments, the minimal amount of time to be devoted to each activity area is as follows:
Alternative Environment Activities
Rhythmics and Dance
Educational Games
Educational Gymnastics
Individual and Dual Activities
The Optional 14.1 hours (15% of 94 = 14.1 hours) may be used to increase the number of hours allocated to one activity area (or to several).
The Optional 14.1 hours may also be used to provide learning experiences that will contribute specifically to the attainment of the objectives of the Active Living and Personal-Social-Cultural perspectives. Entire lessons and units may be organized around Active Living or Personal-Social-Cultural concepts.
In the Sample Yearly Planning Calendar, to keep it simple, we have assumed the following:
· The program emphasizes movement skill learning (Movement Perspective).
· Learning experiences that contribute to the attainment of the objectives of the Active Living and Personal-Social-Cultural
· perspectives will be incorporated into the units and lessons prepared for each Activity Area-including the 12 hours of Optional time.
· A total of 94 hours.
· The 94 hours available for the instructional physical education program have been distributed as follows:
· Physical education is taught five days per week (QDPE-Quality Daily Physical Education).
· Each lesson lasts 30 minutes.
Although you indicate in the calendar that a lesson will be primarily carried out in the context of a particular activity area, this does not preclude having students engage in activities associated with other activity areas during the same lesson. For example, in an Educational Games lesson you could:
Devote ten minutes to Educational Gymnastics activities. Having students perform landings on the hands, supports and swings would provide opportunities for the upper body strength and endurance development that games often do not provide.
_ Have students engage in aerobics or rope jumping during the warm-up portion of the lesson. These are Individual and Dual activities that also contribute to the attainment of the Rhythmics and Dance objectives.
You may want to have blocks of time (e.g., 5 consecutive lessons) devoted to activities from one Activity Area. For example, one 5-lesson block for Educational Games is scheduled during the month of September, a 3-lesson block is scheduled for the first and third weeks in October, another 3-lesson block in November and so on.
4. In the fourth row of the calendar, indicate the dominant concept for each lesson.
In physical education programs that emphasize the Movement perspective, Basic Movement Patterns and Movement Variables will most often be the dominant concepts. However, you may believe that a program where more emphasis is placed on the Active Living or on the Personal-Social-Cultural perspectives would be more beneficial for your students. You can then use concepts related to these two perspectives as the dominant organizers for some of your lessons.
Basic Movement Patterns (BMPs)
Although it is possible to teach each BMP in each Activity Area, some areas are more conducive to the development of certain BMPs than other areas. For example, Sending and Receiving skills are usually more effectively taught and learned in an Educational Games context than in a Gymnastics or Rhythmics/
Dance context. Rhythmics/Dance, however, provide a better environment for teaching and learning certain Accompanying and Locomotor skills and concepts. Educational Gymnastics is undoubtedly the preferred setting for engaging in learning experiences aimed at the development of Landings, Rotations and Swings.
The following information can be used as a guide to determine which BMPs will be developed during the time that has been allocated to Educational Games, to Educational Gymnastics and to Rhythmics/Dance.
You may want to modify this distribution of hours based on:
· the results of your assessment of students' movement skill and physical fitness levels
· your facilities and equipment
· etc.
In the fourth row of the calendar, indicate when the hours allocated to each BMP will be used. For example, where amongst the 48 Educational Games lessons will the 12 hours (24 lessons) devoted to Sending be located? During which Educational Games lessons will Receiving be the dominant concept? In which Educational Gymnastics lessons will Landings be the dominant concept?
Depending on how you have distributed the lessons for each BMP, you might have units that begin in September and end in June. For example, Sending has been allocated 12 hours (24 lessons). Three or four of these lessons could be in September, two or three in October and so on.
Units that distribute the practice of a skill over time have a far greater potential to enhance learning. Yearly programs, particularly with young children whose abilities are changing at very rapid rates, have a greater potential to enhance skill development if the teacher revisits skills and ideas throughout the year. (Rink, 1998, 34)
5. In the fifth row, indicate the sub-concept.
A sub-concept is the particular aspect of the dominant concept that will be emphasized during the lesson. It is related to the dominant concept (see examples #1, #2 and #3 below).
Example #1: Basic Movement Patterns
Where the dominant concept for a lesson is one of the Basic Movement Patterns, the sub-concepts are the movement skills associated with that BMP. For example, landings on the feet is one of the sub-concepts of the BMP Landings.
To ensure that students will be provided with opportunities to work on each of the three sub-concepts of Landings, the 10 hours allocated to Landings could be distributed as follows:
Example #2: Movement Variables
Particularly in the early grades, some lessons may have Body, Space, Effort or Relationships as their dominant concepts. In a lesson that has Space as its dominant organizing center, `Levels' would be a sub-concept of Space.
Example #3:
In a lesson where the dominant concept is Landings (could be safety (Active Living), or respect (Personal-Social-Cultural), or levels, or pathways, or any other concept that is not directly related to Landings.
6 In the sixth row, indicate the focus of each lesson.
· In a lesson where the dominant concept is Landings and the sub-concept is Landings on the hands, the focus could be Landings on the hands forward.
· In a lesson and Directions is the sub-concept, clockwise and counterclockwise could be the focus.
7. The seventh row is used to indicate the Common Essential Learnings that will be emphasized in each lesson.
Yearly Calendar Abbreviations
|
Activity Areas Alternative Environment Activities AE, Rhythmics & Dance RD, Educational Games GA, Educational Gymnastics GY, Individual & Dual Activities ID, Optional OP |
|
Concepts Active Living (AL) (AL 1) Regular participation in physical activity (AL 2) Positive attitude toward physical activity (AL 3) Benefits and effects of physical activity (AL 4) Personal growth and development (AL 5) Nutrition and physical activity (AL 6) Physical activity in a natural setting (AL 7) Safety while engaged in physical activity Movement (M) Basic Movement Patterns (BMP): Sending Send, Receiving Rece, Accompanying Acco, Evading Evad, Locomotions Loco, Landings Land, Statics Stat, Rotations Rota, Springs Spri, Swings Swin Movement Variables (MV): Body Body: Actions Act , Parts Par, Shapes Sha Space Spac: Areas Are, Directions Dir, Levels Lev, Orientations Ori, Pathways Pat, Ranges Ran Effort Effo: Force For, Time Tim, Flow Flo Relationships Rela: Body Parts BoPa, Partners and Groups PaGr, Equipment Equi Movement Principles (MP): Stability Stab, Force Forc, Other Othe Movement Strategies (MS): Cooperative Coop, Offensive Offe, Defensive Defe, Other Othe Personal-Social-Cultural (PSC) (PSC 1) Respect for the rights and feelings of others (PSC 2) Participation and effort (PSC 3) Self-direction (PSC 4) Caring about and helping others (PSC 5) Using these values outside of physical education classes (PSC 6) Work and leisure |
|
Common Essential Learnings Communication C, Numeracy N, Critical and Creative Thinking CCT, Technological Literacy TL, Personal and Social Values and Skills PSVS, Independent Learning IL |
Year ______ Month September 16-30 No. of lessons: _11_
(Duration of each lesson: 30 min.)
Day |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
Mon |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
Mon |
Tue |
Date |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
26 |
29 |
30 |
Perspective |
|||||||||||
Activity Area |
|||||||||||
Dominant Concept |
|||||||||||
Sub-concept |
|||||||||||
Focus |
|||||||||||
CEL |
HOURS REMAINING | |||||
|
OP: /12 |
AE: /10 |
RD: /14 |
GA: /24 |
GY: /24 |
ID: /10 |
Year ______ Month ______________ No. of lessons: ____
Day |
|||||||||||
Date |
|||||||||||
Perspective |
|||||||||||
Activity Area |
|||||||||||
Dominant Concept |
|||||||||||
Sub-concept |
|||||||||||
Focus |
|||||||||||
CEL |
HOURS REMAINING | |||||
|
OP: |
AE: |
RD: |
GA: |
GY: |
ID: |
Units are organized in keeping with the yearly plan that has been established.
There are a variety of ways to go about planning a unit but regardless of the planning methods used, all units share some common elements.
In planning units, teachers should incorporate the following procedures:
· Review curriculum requirements and grade-specific expectations.
· Consider student learning needs, abilities, interests, cultural and experiential backgrounds.
· Consider facilities and equipment available.
· Select a unit focus. The major concepts of the physical education program identified in Part One of this guide should serve as the dominant organizers for most of the units.
· Determine a rationale for the unit.
· Consider the unit focus as it relates to other subjects. How might it be linked to topics, concepts or themes in other subject areas? How can learning experiences in other subjects extend or reinforce the unit focus? Consult curriculum guides from other areas of study for webbing and integration possibilities.
· Select appropriate foundational and learning objectives from the curriculum guide.
· Select appropriate foundational and learning objectives for the Common Essential Learnings.
· Consider how to incorporate the Components and Initiatives of Core Curricula.
· Identify the instructional strategies.
· Identify vocabulary to be developed.
· Gather related resources.
· Consult curriculum guide bibliography.
· Enlist assistance of students, librarian, colleagues.
· Consider school and community resources-print materials, electronic, audio-visual, human.
· Consider applicability of resources from other subject areas.
· Select, design, adapt and modify activities. Ensure that activities are appropriate for the facilities and equipment available.
· Consider each activity to determine how it might be linked to topics in other subject areas. Modify the activities to strengthen these connections. Integrate with other subjects where appropriate.
· Organize the activities into lessons. A lesson need not be a specific length. A lesson may be only 15 minutes long or it may extend over a number of days or weeks, using a variable amount of time each day.
For example, if a total of ten hours has been allocated to a unit organized around the concept theme Landings, instead of having students practice landings for four weeks (5 days per week x 30 minutes per day) and then not perform landings again until the following year, it would make more sense to introduce landings over three consecutive days (1.5 hours) early in the school year, and then to revisit this concept for 10 minutes at the start of lessons for the remaining 8.5 hours (51 lessons) throughout the year.
Landings contribute to the development of strength and muscular endurance of the upper body (landings on the hands) and of the lower body (landings on the feet) and to flexibility (landing while rotating). Landings could therefore be incorporated into many lessons not only for skill development and to reduce the possibility of injury due to falls, but also for the development of physical fitness.
Statics, swings and springs are other Basic Movement Patterns that could be incorporated regularly into many lessons for short durations as a means of enhancing students' physical fitness.
· Analyze how the Common Essential Learnings can be developed within the activities of each lesson. In some cases the activity will dictate which Common Essential Learnings are developed. In other cases, the activity may be such that the instructional approaches used to guide the student can be selected to emphasize particular Common Essential Learnings.
· Create a time schedule for the unit that shows the lesson structure within the unit. (The Sample Yearly Calendar that appears in this document could be used for this purpose.)
· Concepts should be revisited in different ways, contexts and/or environments at various times throughout the year.
· Consider splitting the unit into sections that can be done at various times during the school year. A four-week unit on gymnastics in January will not be as effective as one week in each of October, December, February and March.
· Focusing on a concept (e.g., Rotations) only once during the year is not as effective as revisiting the concept regularly throughout the year.
· A general guideline to follow when scheduling a unit-especially units that involve movement skill learning-is to mass the practice in the beginning of the year and distribute it later. When a concept is first introduced, students may need several lessons in a row (massed practice) to grasp the main ideas. Thereafter, the concept is revisited for shorter periods of time; the remaining hours allocated to the concept are distributed throughout the year. For example, for a unit organized around the concept Sending, the 7 hours allotted to the study of the sub-concept Throwing could be distributed as follows:
Note: These are lessons or parts of lessons where throwing is the dominant concept-where the objective is the development of some aspect of throwing. Students will of course be throwing in many other lessons, but at these times throwing is not the dominant concept.
Consider having students revisit concepts through assignments to be done at home and in the community. (e.g., revisiting the Active Living concept of "Positive attitude toward physical activity" by participating in a physical activity that they enjoy at home or in the community.)
· Develop an evaluation plan for the unit that includes assessment strategies, observation and record-keeping procedures, selecting or designing assessment and evaluation instruments, etc. Help on this aspect of planning is available elsewhere in this guide and in Saskatchewan Education's student evaluation handbook. Just as a variety of activities will have been chosen to accomplish the objectives of the unit, a variety of evaluation strategies should be employed so that various aspects of learning can be assessed.
· List possible unit adaptations and modifications to accommodate individual needs, interests and abilities.
Consider planning units based on the students' level of movement skill learning rather than according to age or grade level.
A beginner is a beginner regardless of his or her age or grade.
It is very likely that in any one class, there will be students at different levels of movement skill learning. For a particular movement skill (e.g., landing on the hands backward), some students may be at the beginner level, while others may be at the intermediate or at the advanced level. Units that focus on the development of movement skills should therefore include activities appropriate for students at each level. As explained elsewhere in this document, the Movement Variables can be used to, extend, refine and challenge learning experiences.
· Consider collaborative teacher-student planning of the unit.
There are many ways to go about planning a lesson and a variety of lesson plan formats. However, most physical education lessons share the following elements.
· Dominant Concept
e.g., Landings
· Sub-concept(s)
e.g., Landings on the hands
Respect
· Focus
e.g., Landings on the hands-forward
· Level
Beginner
Intermediate
Advanced
· Objectives
Related to the concept(s)
Related to the Common Essential Learnings
· Instructional Strategies and Methods
· Materials and Equipment
· Organization and Management
Organization of students, use of space, safety considerations, location of large equipment, rules, routines (protocols), etc.
This information may be in the form of diagrams, stick figures or other graphics.
· Introduction
Sets the tone for the lesson-provokes students' interest.
The `What' and `Why' of the lesson-may also include some `Hows'.
An introductory movement activity may serve as a warm-up, as a lead-in activity for the lesson or both.
· Learning Experiences
Concord with the objectives of the lesson.
Include adaptations, extensions, refinements, challenges and applications.
· Closure/Assessment Strategies and Instruments
Review of the key points of the lesson stated in the objectives and emphasized throughout the lesson; why students are engaged in certain activities.
May be in the form of questions-students' answers provide insights regarding the extent to which the lesson objectives have been attained.
· Reflection
Were the lesson objectives realistic?
Which learning experiences contributed the best to the attainment of the lesson objectives?
Which needed to be changed?
What do I need to emphasize the next time I revisit this concept?
A template for planning lessons has been provided in the Sample Lesson Plans section of this guide.