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Social and emotional involvement by the pupil is another area which I turned my attention to during my time I spent observing in the primary school. From the outset I noticed that Student 7 did not mix well with other students in the class. While speaking with this student I asked if he preferred to learn on his own or with others. Interestingly, he confirmed my initial hypothesis by informing me that he preferred learning on his own that in groups.  Interpersonal skills are the life skills we use every day to communicate and interact with other people, both individually and in groups. It is vital that students develop these everyday skills. I believe PE could prove very helpful to this student in this regard. For example, through Dance or Team Challenges this student may get the opportunity to work as part of a team. Another option I would consider is peer teaching. I think it's important to note however the significance of grouping/pairing this student with appropriate peers, who will help this student in developing these skills and are interested in what Student 7 has to input in the decision making process. This student may realize through these activities that he enjoys working as part of a team and thus may be motivated to join a sports team which would help promote him to move often.

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As I observed Student 7’s behaviour during the lesson, I noticed how Student 7 focused most of his energy on watching other students and trying to imitate what other were doing which suggest that he might be a visual learner. Therefore, if I was teaching student 7, I would incorporate visual demonstrations into my instruction accompanied with simple teaching cues. Another pedagogical tool that I would employ when teaching Student 7 is the use of a learning wall to display the structure of class. This could ask as a reference point for both myself as a teacher and the student. I would give a brief overview at the beginning of the lesson by highlighting activities such a warm-up, main activities and cool-down so that Student 7 could visualize the lesson and wasn't totally obvious to what was going on during the lesson.

When following up this demonstration with focused feedback I would employ the ‘sandwich approach’: mention one thing they did well, one thing to improve, and end with another positive comment. Asformentioned, I suspect that Student 7 has low levels of self-efficacy. I believe this approach would ensure that his self-esteem isn’t effected when given correction.

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From observing Student 7 it was clear that he had a poor basis of Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS). He was keen to participate in the activities, however his quality of movement was poor especially when it came to the six skill related components of fitness.(Agility, Balance, Coordination, Power, Reaction Time, Speed.) These are important fitness components, not just for sporting ability, but for use in everyday life. Therefore, I would always include easier variations for this student when planning my lesson. As weeks go on I would help him develop on what he can do through progressions. While encouraging him to move well, this will also maximise his opportunity for success.

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I wanted to get a better picture of his activity levels so I asked him questions on how he travelled to school every day. He replied by telling me that his mother drove him. He told me he liked PE class as it was fun. When I asked did he have any hobbies outside of school. He hesitated to answer so I rephrased the question by asking he did he play any sports. He explained that he played soccer with his brother but not with any organised team. He told me he supported Man united. When I asked why, he said his brother supported them. He explained that he went horse-riding with his brother and cousins every week. I sensed that his brother is a big influence not only in his sporting interests but his life in general as he seemed to open up when he began to talk about him.

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During my time in Bishopstown Primary School I was asked to observe Student 7.Throughout the case study I will focus on this student’s background and interests,  his social and emotional involvement and his physical movement ability and finally provide an approach I to help this student move well and often.

At the end of the lesson on the second week of teaching in the primary school I got the opportunity to meet with this student. Immediately, I noticed that Student 7 was shy and reluctant to answer my questions. I began with general questions to settle the conversation, for instance, "Do you like school?” Student 7 replied by saying "yes" and I soon found out that geography was his favourite subject as he liked 'looking at maps'. However, it was evident from the speaking to Student 7 and observing his body language that he lacked confidence.

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Another important point to note is the importance of adapting the vocabulary to the age group/literacy levels of the class. A helpful question to ask yourself is, 'Who are  the learners?' At the beginning of this module, we were critiqued by our peers as we used of subject-specific literacy (Chambers & McCarthy, 2016) in our lesson wall which was too complicated as our lesson was targeted at first years.

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Designing a learning wall that enhances student learning:

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Designing a learning wall that enhances student learning:

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When designing any learning wall it is vital to keep it simple and stick to a few key teaching cues that you reinforce throughout the lesson. Another important point is to make it big and eye-catching. Of course, this is not the 'bee all and end all' but colour helps. Another way capturing and maintaining attention of adolescents or children is by making the content relevant to the student’s life outlined in the example of health- related fitness below. Kyriacou, (1997) noted that if an activity presents itself in a manner that fails to provoke their interest and lacks relevance to their lives, most students will become disengaged

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Where does the learning wall fit into a PE class?

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Where does the learning wall fit into a PE class?

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Every week we supported our lesson plan with a learning wall. Throughout this module, I recognized the importance of introducing the learning wall at the beginning of the lesson and allocating adequate time at the end of the lesson to reflect on the lesson
using the learning wall.

According to Luttrell & Chambers(2013), a learning wall serves many purposes. It can:

Track student learning.

Act as a reference point for both teachers and student

Reinforce key teaching cues through text and visual aids

Method of assessment on exiting

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Comments included

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After reading the Primary School PE curriculum guidelines for teachers as a whole, I feel that there is always an opportunity to plan for literacy and numeracy in all six strands.  When planning our lessons we were mindful that student would be strong in terms of basic literacy therefore when relaying difficult instructions we kept the terminology simple. However we made a conscious effort to touch on all three categories (basic, intermediate and subject-specific) of literacy(Chambers & McCarthy,2016) in our lessons to broaden the students’ vocabulary. Such a consideration for literacy and numeracy is important outside the traditional lessons, after all, Ruairí Quinn, former Minister for Education and Skills stated “Literacy and numeracy are among the most important life skills that our schools teach.”("The National Strategy to Improve Literacy and Numeracy among Children and Young People 2011-2020")

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Another section of this curriculum I practiced during my teaching in Bishopstown Primary School was the ‘Providing for differing abilities’ section. Following our initial visit we were aware that our class was made up of pupils of mixed physical abilities. The reports stresses the importance of “placing an emphasis on a variety of stands, stand units or different activities within a strand”.(p.38) Each week we focused on a different strand or stand unit. This allowed for students with an aptitude for a particular activity to excel some weeks but work harder in other lessons when more challenged by the activities they were not as good at. Another strategy we developed from this section was “applying different levels of difficulty to tasks”. For example, during our Fundamental Movement Skills lesson we provided students with option of doing an easier variation of the same activity. Providing variations maximized students’ opportunity for achievement and also encouraged the same intention as above to encourage and promote participation and inclusion.

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Familiarizing myself with the Primary School PE curriculum before teaching in Bishopstown Primary School proved to be very helpful. Each week it informed and facilitated my planning. I found the ‘Consideration for the Teachers’ under Classroom Planning particularly useful with planning. This area highlights what primary school teachers should consider when implementing any programme of physical education. As the majority of my PE lectures are targeted at adolescents this section of the curriculum allowed me to adapt my lessons to make them more accessible and applicable to young children. For instance, the curriculum focuses on “the importance of enjoyment and play” (p.3).Therefore, when planning our lesson for Week 1, we decided to teach Health Related Fitness through games as opposed to circuits. We also implemented rules for example ‘every player in the team must touch the ball before they can score’. The intention of this rule was to encourage maximum participation and promote inclusion.

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Providing students with feedback both in peer and student teaching was something that I felt our group struggled with at the beginning of this module. We seemed to be happy once the students were doing what we asked them to without focusing on the features of quality. Although we were happy to give positive comments, for instance “Well done” and "Keep going" we failed to explain why it was good and ignored when students were performing the activity incorrectly.  Thankfully, our observing peers who critiqued our lesson spotted this early in the module and we had plenty of time to research and correct this.

On one particular occasion I failed to follow up on my demonstration and provide focused-feedback to the students. “Feedback is most effective when it stimulated correction of error through a thoughtful approach” (Moon & et al., 2002, p131). In the following weeks, I made a conscious effort to look for the quality of features and give suggestions for improvement.According to Moon & et al.(2002) suggestions for improvement should act as ‘scaffolding’, i.e. teachers should give students as much help as they need to use their knowledge but they should not be giving the whole solution. “What are the main elements of the hop?” This promotes students to think things through for themselves . Going forward I could also correct this part of my teaching by having a check-list with the features of quality at my disposal. Where appropriate, I could also set students a challenge of observing each others in pairs using a check-list(Reciprocal- Mosston's Spectum of Teaching Styles) which bring a social element into the classroom.

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Effective teachers employ a variety of teaching strategies to engage their students in a meaningful way so (Moon & et al., 2002). Throughout my teaching in Bishopstown Primary School I focused on developing an effective questioning strategy to achieve this. I asked questions at the beginning of class to see what prior knowledge students had. For instance, “Has anyone heard of the cha-cha slide?” or “Does anyone know what the 5 components of health related fitness are?”  I used questions during my teaching to monitor understanding. I strongly believe questions are the master key to understanding as they clarify confusion. It is vital that teachers notice when students are confused and help them to do something about it. For instance, when demonstrating.

I used open question to promote open discussion and allow for guided discovery (Mosston & Ashworth, 1990). The guided-discovery strategy can involve the teacher in designing a series of questions that will eventually lead to one or more appropriate answers and ultimately the discovery of a particular concept or ‘solution’.(primary) At the beginning of teaching, however, my use of questioning was very much closed ended, for example, “Did the number of heart beats increase? I also inherited structured questions, for instance, “Is that ok?”, or “Does everyone understand?” However as suggested my observing peer I should employ more open-ended questions as they are more intellectually demanding and stimulating. Thus, the following week I asked 3 simple, open ended question instead.

1.      “Did exercise effect your heart rate?”

2.     “What happened to your heart rate as the exercise intensity increased?”

3.     “Why do you think your heart rate increased?”

Throughout this module I learned the importance of timing my questions and the pause between questions. Also as Dr.Karen Gibson suggested to us ED2317. it is more effective not to name the student whom you want the answer until you have finished asking the question. In addition, if the student was finding it difficult to answer a question I rephrased it or gave a hint. At the end of my lesson, I asked affective questions(Bloom, et al., 1956) to  figure out how everyone was feeling and ask question to reflect and a means of formative assessment.

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A common misunderstanding about teaching is that if you are an expert in your subject you can automatically teach it well. However as Marilyn Leasks’ (1999) powerful analogy explains ‘delivering milk to the doorstep provides no guarantee that it will be taken into the house, similar to the subject content of a lesson.’ It is no longer about the accessing knowledge but about how knowledge is consumed (Capel, Leask, & Turner, 1999).