The most important times that I used questions was at the end of the lesson. It was at this time where we could assess if they actually were learning or simply going through the motions.

I used the following questions throughout my placement

 " Has anyone here done some kind of Gymnastics before? " This was to get a general feeling of how competent my students would be.

 " Can anyone here remember which rolls we did last week? " This was a question with multiple answers to involve more students and also to link the two lessons. 

"Can ye remember the key points in performing a good teddy-bear roll?" This was a subtle hint to the students that they were not performing it fully correctly. When they could not answer in total I prompted them to help.

"What were they key things ye learned in today's class?" This was used as a form of assessment along with observation during the lesson.

At the ending of our last lesson I asked the kids if they enjoyed the lesson and received a great responses, I then followed up using a higher order question, "Why?"

(Black et al., 2003; Gardner, 2006).

I used constructive feedback with students in various occasions throughout this module. I would first compliment them on two aspects they had completed well for example "Well done guys ye had excellent movement in your sequence and responded to the rhythm of the music very well", then I would proceed and give them one thing to work on in the next attempt "but maybe next time ye could incorporate more levels into your sequence" This form of feedback provides them with praise but also presents them with a higher level to improve to.

When students were undertaking tasks but not completing them to a high standard I would provide them with quick corrective feedback, I would then pay attention to their next effort and be sure to praise them if an improvement was shown.

When dealing with a student who could not complete a task or not know what to do I would first show them a quick demonstration and follow up with " If you are finding the tuck roll difficult you might just try and pay more attention at the beginning of class when we show you". What is important here is not not sound patronising as it may end up demotivating the student.

When dealing with students who were quite competent in areas I would first praise them and then add " Can you add anything more to that sequence to make it even better?" This would boost their motivation and also encourage them to put even greater effort into improvement and development in that area.

When the school placement came to an end we had the students informally assessed through performing a sequence to their peers. After each group performed they received a round of applause and positive group feedback. This meant the majority of kids left with greater self confidence and a boost to their self esteem. On leaving the hall smiles we evident on all their faces .

 

It appears that Emma has a good building blocks for movement and because of this there will be many pathways open to her in her future life with regard to keeping active.

As Emma was competent in performing these skills, I asked her to demonstrate at times for the class. This allowed the rest of the class the view one of their peers performing the correct technique which makes the task easier for them to complete and also motivates them.

Emma also relayed to me that this is her preferred way to learn. She finds learning easiest when a skill is first demonstrated and then broken down into simple parts.

After three weeks spent observing and conversing with Emma I have assessed her personality type according to the Myers-Briggs model.

I would describe Emma as E (extrovert) ,I (intuitive), F (feeler) , and P (preciever). This is an estimate of her personality and to find out fully I would need to either spend more time with her or else have her complete the MBTI test. What we can gather from this is that Emma is someone who enjoys being around and working with other people ( this was evident in the group/pair work), she likes to use her imagination and to think outside of the box (expressed this when creating her sequence by adding elements of her own creation to the performance), she likes to develop positive relations with the people she is around and she  likes to try new things (this was made clear to me when she said her favourite lesson was the first one as she likes doing 'new stuff').Determining her personality will then allow us to discover how best she learns, 

If I were to be teaching Emma in future the strategies I would employ in order to have her moving well and often would be to allow her work with friend/group. She thrives in this environment and also helps the others in the group progress. I would provide her with a variety of different activities to keep her interested, If Emma were to receive the two elements of teaching I think she could develop into a very good student and also live a healthy and physically active lifestyle.

Ways of Learning
Learning theories
and learning styles
in the classroom,
Second edition,
Alan Pritchard 2009.

Essential teaching skills , third edition, Chris Kyriacou 2007.

 but in a small compact hall with 30+ people I found it hard to gain students attention. This could be combated with use of a whistle.

Overall I feel week one went well and Emma also said that it was her favourite lesson of the three

If we were to do this again we would do better to choose a different way of presenting the lesson to engage interest and learning. We saw that in week one they very much enjoyed the game in the warm up, I feel that if we were to incorporate the partner balances the students would engage more and we would end up with a more productive lesson.