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Journalism Lesson on Sports Feature Writing

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Journalism Lesson on Sports Feature Writing

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OWP: Non-Traditional Sports Response: Esports

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Nontraditional Sports_ Cheese Roll - Sandy H.

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Cheese Rolling: Not just for Blockheads?!? 

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Cheese Rolling: Not just for Blockheads?!? 

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Cheese Rolling: Not just for Blockheads?!? 

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Coming from someone who is part of or has been part of several of these non-traditional sports, I really want to beg everyone to avoid this whole, "Is [x] a sport?" debate as a writing challenge in your classes. It really sucks to be a person involved in the sport and hear your classmates (who are ignorant about the topic) debate about whether or not the thing you pour your blood, sweat, and tears into is valid. Unless you are willing to take on the role of pushing back against your students stereotyping, examining your own biases surrounding the sport, and learning enough details about it to understand it, you may want to take on a different writing prompt. I think we, as educators, need to understand what it's like to be someone involved in whatever scene it is and listen to your peers debate whether or not you should be taken seriously...because ultimately, I think that is what the "Is [x] a sport?" debate ends up being about (and that's a difficult discussion to have if you don't know anything about the sport in the first place).

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"Bruise Lee" (roller derby team name) - all about ROLLER DERBY!

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"Bruise Lee" (roller derby team name) - all about ROLLER DERBY!

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Well. This is wild. I had never taken the time to learn how you do Roller Derby. It is intense. It involves a TON of hip checking. The scoring system involves a jammer to try to pass a certain # of players through strategy within a restricted period of time. It is very physical (it did remind me of rugby).

In an article I read, "roller derby has one of the highest percentages of participants with advanced degrees of any sport."

Studies consistently show that a huge portion of derby players are teachers, librarians, social workers, nurses, and other helping professionals. The sport attracts intelligent, independent women who want an outlet that's completely different from their day jobs.

One interesting thing about Roller Derby is that a common misconception is that it is only for "alternative or tough women" and that it's not fake (like professional wrestling).

My dad remembers there being a Roller Derby presence in Cincinnati and it being televised on Sunday afternoons. So I looked up the Cinci Rollergirls and they have a presence in Cincinnati, KY and Columbus, Ohio.

I think that with any topic in any classroom, it is so imperative to introduce students to things they may have zero schema or prior knowledge about. I would often use things like a random roller derby video or a chess competition and have students write in their journals about it. It's an opportunity for students to think outside of themselves, hear from classmates who may be connected to it, and a way for them to grow a more global perspective. I love exposing my students to things that aren't "mainstream!"

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Ryan L. Ighnat-Read Me! Underwater Hockey and Hooverball

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Ryan L. Ighnat-Read Me! Underwater Hockey and Hooverball

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Hello all,

I had a lot of fun with this one!

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Cherry Bomb - (AKA - Lily in English class)

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Roller Derbyyyyyyy! (Pic is of 1 of my students from last year) Cincinnati Junior Rollergirls! 

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Roller Derbyyyyyyy! (Pic is of 1 of my students from last year) Cincinnati Junior Rollergirls! 

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Linked my paper here because I wanted to show off my student above! What an amazing program. Hope link to my paper works...

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Lesson Plan: Exploring Racial Stereotypes through Sports Related Film

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Lesson Plan: Exploring Racial Stereotypes through Sports Related Film

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Lesson: Sports and Restorative Discipline/Restorative Justice 

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Lesson: Sports and Restorative Discipline/Restorative Justice 

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I've thought about the idea of sports and restorative discipline since I saw the "San Quentin Giants" Op-Doc. I created a mini-unit based on that concept. Note: I tried to include a counter argument with this topic, but it's difficult to find anyone arguing against recreation for prison inmates.

I'm imagining this assignment as one for an elective course. This wasn't an easy lesson to build. Suggestions welcome.

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Exploring Restorative Justice through sports

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I was largely inspired by the lesson in the PDF by Kathy Garland, "Exploring Racial Stereotypes through Sports-Related Film" with the framework of this lesson. I started losing some steam near the end because I need to watch the film again to have a better idea of what I am talking about. It's been a few years since I've watched it.

Overall, I would love suggestions on assessments for this. I am trying to avoid a lot of essays, etc. My principal has encouraged the new junior teachers (our only junior teacher retired last year, so I and my colleague are picking up a few classes) to do whatever it takes to keep them engaged and butts in seats. Juniors are our toughest class in terms of attendance right now, especially for college prep English. We essentially have free rein to watch movies, incorporate music, etc. as long as it is standards-based.

My biggest struggle is feeling worried/nervous about exploring social justice topics. I push the envelope a lot at my school, but race always gets parents screaming at our principals and superintendents. I want to explore these ideas in the classroom despite all of that, but I think maybe my anxiety about such things got in the way of creative ideas. I talk some more about this in the doc.

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A Mini-Study of Adaptive Sports Athletes 

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A Mini-Study of Adaptive Sports Athletes 

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Not gonna go too in depth here, but this topic is very near and dear to my heart. My eldest son was a 4 sport athlete and unexpectedly began limping. The limp wouldn't subside and then pain in his hip and knee entered the picture. X-rays diagnosed him with a rare childhood disease - Legg-Calve-Perthes-Disease. It rocked our world, our finances, our hearts, his dreams. Surgeons, surgeries, extended stays at out-of-state hospitals and Ronald McDonald Houses, more PT than I can count. One moment your son is the QB and the next minute he is snapping the ball to the backup QB from his walker. Gave me new perspective as I began to learn more and more about adaptive sports, the athletes, and their families.

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I chose to write a lesson plan involving the gender stereotypes presented in the novel Tangerine, by Edward Bloor. This novel has so many avenues in which to take social justice issues. I chose to just stick to the gender stereotypes for this lesson, but this novel could easily be used to show economic, racial, and ability biases.

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Social Justice Lesson Plan: Gender Equality in the Olympics

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Social Justice Lesson Plan: Gender Equality in the Olympics

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The Olympics & Gender Equality Lesson Plan - Google Docs

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Here is a loose unit outline. I hope you like it. It's an ambitious week-long unit involving presentations on many different issues and analyzing how we can participate in the dialogue and action around them.

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Exploring Racial Stereotypes through Sports Related Film: Race (2016)

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Exploring Racial Stereotypes through Sports Related Film: Race (2016)

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This would be a great way to conclude my subunit on Jesse Owens.

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2025 ESPYs: Did they choose the best athlete? 

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2025 ESPYs: Did they choose the best athlete? 

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Teenagers love to argue, so why not get them to argue about the ESPY's? To tie in argument (and maybe a little math/statistics), I thought it might be cool to have students look at who won (and maybe who should have won) various ESPYs this year.

As usual, comments/suggestions are welcome.

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ESPYs debate: Did they choose the best athlete?

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Choose Your Own Adventure_ Aztec Sports - Google Docs

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Informational Writing - Your Sport/Hobby 101

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Informational Writing - Your Sport/Hobby 101

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Please tag me if any links don't work; I get a notification when I'm tagged and can respond a lot faster :)

I thought about this lesson because I am looking to get into the WNBA world since the Golden State Valkyries are brand new and tick all my boxes: bay area team, purple and silver colors, and Valkyries? come on. so cool. But I know jack about basketball and especially the WNBA, so I'd love some kind of WNBA 101 spectator guide. So many of my students are "experts" on their sport/hobby/etc. and it would be fun to see how they'd explain things.

Feedback I'd love: Is this overly complicated? I am sure I could make this a simpler assignment, but I love the mentor text approach so much.

Also, if anyone has any resources for "101" style articles, podcasts, or videos, I'd love to hear them. I'm working on finding my own right now and crowdsourcing from friends.

I welcome anything you can think of!

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Teaching the Class: Your Sport/Hobby 101

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Sports-Related Lesson: Your Highlight Reel

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Sports-Related Lesson: Your Highlight Reel

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I had shared this lesson as part of the Crowd-Sourcing Doc, and it was something short that I came up with then as a fun, short assignment. However, I decided that I wanted to dive into it further, and I'm glad that I did! I think that this is a great potential way to bring sports into my classroom, while also leaving room for other important things about my students to shine. And it's an even better way to incorporate narrative writing, which I'd love to spend more time doing in my class. It deserves more time and space than I have given it in the past. In my class, I imagine this being 5-6 days. Hope you all enjoy!

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Hey there, sports fans! I got into some bad veal this afternoon, and I've been lethargic and sick to my stomach ever since. My head hurts and it's very hard for me to concentrate. This is just to say that my work on this particular assignment probably won't be up to my normal standard of work. I'm very sorry about this. I will claim solace in the fact that the schedule specifically tells us to write a "very rough" lesson plan. Got to love semantics! In any event, I'll probably be returning to this at some point so that I'll be able to turn it into a more polished series of lesson plans. For now, it's just in paragraph form with some broad ideas. Any suggestions or insights would be greatly appreciated.

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I love football and I LOVE reading, so when I came upon Malcolm Mitchell's story a few years ago, I made it a point to include his interview and super short student discussion follow-up every year, but that's it. This assignment, allowed me to take it deeper and wider, which I so appreciate. I beg of you to watch this his short interview! It makes me and my students emotional. Would LOVE feedback and suggestions!

Side note - I am in awe of the incredible lessons, thinking, pushback, and feedback you all have shared this week. Just WOW!

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Portfolio Piece: Lesson Plan for Reading Like a Writer

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Portfolio Piece: Lesson Plan for Reading Like a Writer

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Reading Like a Writer & “Try-on” Writer’s Craft

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Molly Straw shared a poem in the crowdsourcing doc that I thought would pair really well with my personal narrative unit. I created a lesson using it as a mentor text.

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My portfolio will be updating and revamping my existing Inquiry and Research Unit from my 10th grade textbook, Advanced Language & Literature from Bedford, Freeman, and Worth publishers. Their introduction to the inquiry process is actually about the role of sports in high school, but I always expand it to just extracurriculars in general to be more inclusive of my non-traditional kids. I am just linking my whole portfolio draft since I plan on doing it in tabs on Google Docs, but my polished piece is Lesson #1. I am still working on the infographic I reference because it's a handdrawn piece and I am being a perfectionist lol.

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I updated and fine-tuned this from yesterday. I really like this lesson plan for this mini-writing unit. I found a mentor text to use with the students, and I also created a graphic organizer (which looks weird in Google Docs, but will print well) to help students in the planning stages! I definitely want this to be a part of my portfolio because I think it combines a lot of the work that I have put into my courses this summer, and demonstrates ideas and concepts that I am taking away from this course!

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Portfolio Piece: Chapter of my Sports Story 

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Portfolio Piece: Chapter of my Sports Story 

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This is an Ervick-inspired chapter for my sports story (my sports participation in college). Instead of trying to summarize an era in a paragraph (like my original draft did), I'm trying to zoom in on more specific moments in each one. I'd love to know if this approach works and is more engaging.

I also dabbled with the visuals like Ervick had, although it's going to be difficult to do that for each "section" of my sports story.

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Sports Story - Writing, Curling and Heckling

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The students that I teach are in a special program called Just Words that is aimed at students with Dyslexia and executive functioning deficits. It is pretty formulated in many ways, but there is also a lot of room for creativity after the reading / rereading of the text is completed. I used the Just Words text, "Bathtub Racing," to identify unusual sports as we discussed in class. The students will work in groups to create a unusual sport of their own. They will have the creativity to create any sport they want, but will follow the slide format to create rules and ways to play the game.

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Unusual Sports_ Just Words Lesson Plan 1

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Portfolio Piece: A'ja Wilson- Lesson Plan

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Portfolio Piece: A'ja Wilson- Lesson Plan

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Ryan L. Ighnat-Polished Sports Story and Try-ons

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Ryan L. Ighnat-Polished Sports Story and Try-ons

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Hello,

I bridged my sports story with my two try-on's from this course. I did some heavy editing, added a few interesting ideas, and condensed many of the recurring ideas into more discrete, articulate sentences. I want to know how it turned out. Do you think it's clean? Can you see the "seams?" Does it need a different conclusion tacked onto the end? Does it work well as a unified piece? Any other suggestions would be very appreciated.

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I'm super appreciative of the feedback on this piece. I went in and modified and added some pieces, so feeling better about it. I have a very strong reading culture in my classroom and Malcolm's story beautifully marries reading and sports, which feels like a superpower! Excited to roll this way better version out this year!

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Portfolio Piece: Op-Docs Assignment for Journalism / Broadcasting classes

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Portfolio Piece: Op-Docs Assignment for Journalism / Broadcasting classes

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Journalism / Broadcasting Project: Op-Docs Assignment

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The next lesson is under the Lesson #2 tab. :)

I welcome any and all feedback on lesson sequencing and the timing. I do like how my textbook breaks this stuff down, and I always add my own thinking in. A lot of what I do is modeling on the whiteboard or through the document camera.

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The Power of Perseverance: A Study in Adaptive Sports

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The Power of Perseverance: A Study in Adaptive Sports

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This was inspired from our social justice lesson. It's especially dear to my heart. I generally spend a very small time sharing how this topic has impacted my family, but this class has allowed me to dig deeper and look closer at the power and possibilities of perseverance through adaptive sports. Your feedback helped me go back in to add essential questions, a write-in opener, an esports adaptive athlete, my personal story, and how UC is making a major difference in this space. This has been a labor or love for sure as it had just lived in my heart -- until now.

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I revised the ESPYs assignment as a group project based on the feedback I received. I also linked drafts of a grading rubric and a template for students who need help structuring a presentation.

Feedback is welcome!

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Lesson Part 2: A'ja Wilson-Using Art & Design to Tell Her Story- Nike

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Lesson Part 2: A'ja Wilson-Using Art & Design to Tell Her Story- Nike

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OWP-Lesson Plan - A'ja Wilson's Story Part 2 Google Docs

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Autumn Leaves: Personal Writing Piece (Significant Coaching Moment)

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Autumn Leaves: Personal Writing Piece (Significant Coaching Moment)

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This writing piece features storytelling about a significant coaching moment from my sports journey, told in my strongest writing style: memoir. I loved reliving this moment, and love sharing it because if you have coached a sport, you know how it feels to get to the moment where there is nothing more that you can do, and it's all up to your athletes. This is a moment and a piece that I'll cherish for a long time. I hope you all enjoy. It has been a pleasure learning and working with all of you!

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Ryan L. Ighnat-Polished Non-traditional Sports Essay

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Ryan L. Ighnat-Polished Non-traditional Sports Essay

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Here we are, sports fans: the end of the rope.

You've all been amazing. I have nothing but love for all of you and wish you the best of luck as you move on with yourselves into whatever may come.