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Prior Skills: Students should be competent at a range of FMS after first year PE. Although some students still have difficulty with some FMS such as vertical and horizontal jump. One student has cerebral palsy so has difficulty with balance and co-ordination. 

 

Prior Attitudes: This class have several students in the group who have a negative attitude towards PE and who struggle to participate. These students have a lazy attitude towards PE so need to be encouraged but not pushed or they will not participate. There are behaviour issues with some students in this group.

 

With responsibility being one of the wellbeing indicators as outlined by the NCCA for the new Junior Cycle, students need to experience what it means to be responsible, both for themselves and to be socially responsible for others and the people around them. As depicted by Hellison (1996), being responsible involves being willing to experience new things, work by oneself to develop one’s wellbeing. While being socially responsible understands that you respect and understand the feeling and rights of others. This is something which can be taught through physical education where students will eventually put these skills into practice outside the PE hall. For students to learn responsibility, they must first be given responsibility where they will develop attitudes, beliefs, values and intentions through HRA. 

As students completed a fitness module last year but did not engage in HRA, I felt this was a good place to start with and use the fitness testing that they completed last year again this year while incorporating HRA into this block. All students are also being entered in the Schools Fitness Challenge so ties in nicely to this unit or work as they have a goal to work towards and can work through the levels of responsibility. This model has been selected for this group of students as they vary greatly in attitude and beliefs. By working through this model, those students who have a poor attitude will recognise this and work towards being personally and socially responsible, carrying this outside of school and into their future lives. Health related activity and physical activity for health and wellbeing for adolescents is of extreme importance for their lifelong participation in physical activity. It is vital students understand the importance of physical activity for their physical health, social and mental health. Beginning with this topic for the second years will engage them for the remainder of the school year regarding physical activity as they will understand the benefits and importance by the end of the seven weeks. Over the weeks, students will “acquire positive values and attitudes towards health and well-being and the promotion of lifelong participation.” (Luttrell & Chambers, 2013) 

 

 

This module will take place in the school hall for the duration of six weeks, with the final lesson in the local gym. Each lesson will begin with the role call and housekeeping. At this moment, it will be important to have relational time with students, for example asking how they are or how their game went at the weekend. Students then have ten minutes to get changed into their PE gear. Once students are sitting on the benches, we will go through the learning outcomes for the lesson, as well as recapping on last weeks lesson. This will make students aware of what they are going to learn, leading to taking responsibility of making sure this is what they have learnt by the end. The lessons will begin with a warm up before engaging in activity. Students will choose what they want to do out of a selection of tasks for the warm up at their own level. With the guidance of the teacher, students will brainstorm individually, in pairs and in groups to come up with ideas for the topic of the lesson in guided discovery through activity. This will be included in the main body of the lesson. They will choose whether they want to work individually, in pairs or in groups for the circuits.  Over the few weeks, students will: 

 

Each lesson will finish with a cool down and recap on the lesson, reinforcing learning. It will also be imperative at this stage to allow students self-reflection time and pose reflection questions to the class along with group discussion.

 

Learners will set weekly activity and fitness goals in their activity diary. They will also manage themselves in working towards improving their individual fitness.

 

Students will work together for team activities. They will also work together and communicate effectively during peer work and assessment.

 

Learners will explore the benefits of physical activity both physically, socially and mentally for a lifelong participation in physical activity.

 

Learners will think critically and creatively when exploring physical activity for health and wellbeing. They will gather information and ask questions regarding physical activity.