Dates:5^th November – 17th December 2018

  Subject: Physical Education | Topic: Gymnastics
  No. of Learners: 24 | Gender: Mixed
  Average Age: 12 – 13 years | Year: 1st
  No. of Lessons: 6 | Duration of Lessons: 80 minutes
 

Students have a good standard related to gymnastics i.e, rolls, cartwheels and handstands, but in relation to the skills and techniques required to execute each task they only know a small portion of the content in regards to what they need to understand. Students will learn this content through investigating, reasoning and solving problems associated to the individual tasks. Students have completed various components of gymnastics while attending primary school. 

Students have good fundamental movement’s skills such as running, jumping, throwing, jumping and catching which were targeted in the previous scheme associated to athletics. In relation to gymnastics, they have good fundamental skills such as balancing, direction change and agility but they find transferring of weight difficult and incorporating this into a sequence a long with movements associated to flight and locomotion will be challenging. Mt students are competent movers which is proven through a variety of physical activities. As this strand is very complex and tactical, students have mixed abilities in regards to two students you excel in gymnastics and compete at a national level. 

In the classroom setting, the majority of the students enjoy participating in the different activities associated to gymnastics. To keep students interested and enjoyed throughout each lesson I will allow students to perform a sequence related to what component we covered in class. At the end of the six week scheme students will incorporate all components of gymnastics into a final sequence which they will be assessed on. With this sequence assessment, at the end students will know what their CBA’s (classroom-based assessments) entails for 2^nd year. 

Teaching gymnastics is an important strand to teach students about the different fundamental movements skills. Students can execute the basic skills such as running, jumping, skipping and throwing from participating in the athletics stand, but during this gymnastics scheme specific skills have to be targeted. This skills consist of balance, agility and co-ordination. Each lesson will consist of a different type of skill associated to gymnastics, for example; shapes or balances. By applying students with these different attributes, it allows students to gain opportunities in relation to the different gymnastic skills and see if they enjoy the sport, but also enhances their prospects to see if they would like to continue this sport outside school hours. Incorporating modified games and activities throughout my lessons, students will begin to understand the decisions they need to make for their own benefit and others to do well in an activity. With students thinking about this concept, they develop communication and team work skills which will benefit them in their group sequence performance. 

As classroom-based assessments don’t apply to my students until second year, but during this year’s PE programme I aim to develop students as knowledgeable, skilful and creative participants, in order for them to become more confident and competent movers when performing a range of gymnastics physical activities safely. In accordance to the JCT document, it states; ‘’to build students’ appreciation of the importance of health-enhancing and inclusive physical activity and a commitment to it now, and in the future’’, (Jct.ie, 2019), which is what I aim to achieve for my students. 

‘’Students are competent in that they are able to play the game with a required level of sport specific skill and tactical awareness, literate in that they recognize and value the rules and traditions associated with the sport and, enthusiastic in that they wish to develop and preserve the sporting culture through their participation’’. (Young et al., 2010)

In physical education, the sport education instructional model was developed by Daryl Siedentop in 1984 which introduced the linking elements of competency, literacy and enthusiasm. With these components linking, students are taught about the maintenance abilities of physical stamina, but also the habit of obedience, discipline and determination to win. Reasoning, mental development and vocational specialisation comes into practice associated to student academic education, which sport education plays an advantage as it develops student’s all-round improvements. 

With this model, six key characteristics are defined; seasons, teams, competition, festivity, record keeping and culminating events. At the beginning of the scheme, sports, in this case gymnastics, are usually organised into seasons which tend to be longer than six weeks, but as a school programme/module, six weeks is the limit. All students are divided into teams and remain together for the duration of the six weeks. During these weeks students will practice up until the final week where they perform in a competition. During this characteristic, an emphasis is portrayed on affiliation and competition which makes the season more meaningful and insightful as students have a goal to achieve. Festivity is of paramount importance as the physical element is not only important aspect to this scheme, social and mental experiences must be interlinked in order students to develop coordination, physical fitness and strength. Throughout the scheme, records are kept which are documented by video analysis which provides feedback and ends the scheme with a final group performance ‘culminating event’, which students work towards. 

Each class will take place inside the sports hall and will commence for 80 minutes. Students have 10 minutes to change into their PE uniform where they will then commence into the sports hall. The roll will be taken, notes of student absence or leaving early will be signed, behaviour notes will be written for no PE uniform, incorrect uniform or no homework done and personal belongings will be placed on the table where they can be collected after class. The class will then commence with an introduction of what the class will entail while reverting to the learning wall, where I will explain and take questions associated to the learning outcomes. Students will be asked to discuss what they learned from previous lesson, sharing their thoughts and opinions while leading into a fun warm-up to increase their pulse rates and mobility levels before commencing into the main topic of the class. Each week has a different topic which will be explained and demonstrated through different teaching methodologies and the class will finish by asking questions associated to what students learned during the class. 

 

In relation to this particular module, each week students will learn a different aspect associated to gymnastics.

 

Week 1: Shapes, locomotion and flights
 
Week 2: Balances

 

 

 

 

 

Indicated by the NCCA, students learn to appreciate the importance of a healthy lifestyle while participating and engaging in physical activity. With the new short course in motion, it allows students to become more knowledgeable and make more reasonable choices about how physical activities should be a part of a healthy lifestyle. Nikos Ntoumanis 2001, backs up this statement by stating ‘’physical education plays an important role in enhancing public health by creating positive attitudes towards exercise and promoting fitness programmes’’. (Ntoumanis, 2001) By enforcing these initiatives students will receive perceived competence and intrinsic motivation which will improve their health and skill related components of fitness. 

 

In association to this gymnastics unit of work, as well as students working individually through warm-up activities, they will later be counteracted in pair and group work. Dean Baker et al 2016 believes that with the encouragement of group work, students are directed to collaborate ideas through their own learning. ‘’Group work is expected to shift some power from teacher to students and enable students to make decisions and co-construct meaning of their own’’. (Barker and Quennerstedt, 2016) For the duration of each lesson, both teacher and student centred teaching cues will be used in order for learning to take place. Students will be taught through skill cards, video-clips, demonstrations (student gymnast) and photos. With these learning cues, students will learn the essential components of gymnastics and by their final performance they will be targeting specific skills. 

For the duration of this scheme the students will be developing and improving different fundamental movement skills through various activities and events (sequences). The gymnastics strand provides opportunities for students to engage in activities relating to locomotion movement, shapes, balances, rolls and sequences. Highlighting these techniques, students will be able to explore and experiment different skills which they may have not been introduced to before. By implementing these techniques and activities, elements of literacy, numeracy and differentiation will be emphasised so students can relate their understanding of these skills, as some have been executed throughout the athletic scheme. Personal skills will be enhanced through their movement competency through modified tasks incorporating a variety of different physical activities implementing skills associated to locomotion, stability and manipulative.

 

‘’Mastering basic artistic gymnastics skills will provoke improvement of FMS and finally become a prerequisite for successful introduction of learning more complex gymnastics skills’’. A study by Zoran Culjik et al 2014 implied that inactive young children with increased unorganised daily activities can improve the mastering of the basic gymnastic skills and simultaneously developed skills related to FMS. (Culjik, et al 2014) Corresponding to James Rudd 2016, he suggested that children taking part in a gymnastic programme will enhance orientation and stabilisation skills leading to a better understanding of body special awareness. (Rudd, 2016) As gymnastics is a complex sport, not only does it develop concepts around physicality and improvement of FMS, it is a sport whereby students develop opportunities associated to character development and education that maybe hard to find in other sports as it test their mettle capacity against themselves and others. (Sands, 1999)

·         Key terminology associated to the different gymnastic activities and events (sequences) will be displayed to students through visual and written aids.

·         Students will perform a sequence related to the task covered in the lesson which helps track their progress.

·         The techniques associated to the different gymnastics techniques will be discussed at the beginning and end of the class through class discussion.

·         Students will perform and participate in modified activities associated to the tasks that correspond to the learning wall. 

·         Once all tasks and techniques have be focused on and completed, students will carry out and perform a final sequence which they are assessed on. This is improved students grades for their CBA next year but also they will be prepared. 

 

·         Numeracy skills will be targeted in every lesson as students will have to organise a designated area for them in order to practice their techniques. 

·         During each lesson numeracy will counteracted with students sequences when holding and performing each gymnastic move (shape or balance). They will be familiar with the 90° angle which they will have to implement with certain shapes and ensure they are holding the move for 3 or more seconds with a tight core. 

Working as a team: Students will be encouraging their classmates when the events are commencing and required to work together.

Managing wellbeing: Students will become familiar with their fitness abilities and begin to know how far to push themselves in order to reach their potential without getting hurt/injured. 

 

Communication:Listening and speaking for a crucial component during the PE class in order for teamwork to be expressed but also to make the lesson worthwhile and enjoyable.

 

Individual performance: Students will gain confidence and motivation as they perform each shape and balance individually which will improve their group sequence as students know how to perform them. 

- Video-clip                                              - Apple TV

-   Gym mats                                            - Clip-board

- Cones                                                     - Whistle
-    Whiteboard

Jct.ie. (2019). [online] Available at: https://www.jct.ie/perch/resources/shortcourses/cpd-booklet-physical-education-cpd-day-2-09-04-18.pdf [Accessed 6 Feb. 2019].

 

Ntoumanis, N. (2001). A self-determination approach to the understanding of motivation in physical education. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 71(2), pp.225-242.

 

Barker, D. and Quennerstedt, M. (2016). Power and group work in physical education. European Physical Education Review, 23(3), pp.339-353.

 

Young, A., Tindall, D., Deenihan, J. and Hosford, C. (2010). [online] Peai.org. Available at: https://www.peai.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Badminton-Sport-Education-Resource-Pack.pdf [Accessed 7 Feb. 2019].

 

Culjak, Z., Miletic, D., Kalinski, S. D., Kezic, A., & Zuvela, F. (2014). Fundamental Movement Skills Development under the Influence of a Gymnastics Program and Everyday Physical Activity in Seven-Year-Old Children. Iranian journal of pediatrics, 24(2), 124-30.