Dates: 27^th August – 1st October 2018

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

Students have little knowledge in relation to athletics. Some students have competed competitively while others only know the basic components of the different track and field events. Athletics is the first strand which my first year group will be introduced too. For this reason, is due to the fact that all students participate in a sports day event during a day in the month of October and students need to understand the basic rules and techniques needed for each event. 

Students have good fundamental movement’s skills such as running, jumping, throwing and catching but find it difficult to interpret the key components of throwing and jumping in association to their specific events, i.e. long jump and shot put. With good fundamental movement skills, students are confident and competent in relation to movement in a variety of athletic specific events. However, even though with their confidence and competency, the level pf skill level varies as certain students find it difficult to perform different tasks related to specific events. Students tend to struggle with the given instructions. 

In the classroom setting, the majority of the students enjoy participating in the different events related to athletics. To keep them interesting and enjoyable, composing a competitive element makes them slightly more involved each week, i.e. Olympic Games. Most of my students participate in after school activities and are willing to participate and engage in the learning process of different events. Only a hand full of students need extra encouragement which they are either motivated by myself or other classmates. Encouragement and motivation are important aspects throughout this strand as students may find different topics boring, lose interest and become bored. 

‘’Athletics allows students to strategize, think critically, act selflessly and work towards a common goal individually and as part of a team’’. (Nitti, 2018)

When teaching the strand associated to athletics, a consideration related to two aspects is ofparamount importance. The first aspect is, sporting interests and different events in which certain students may not get the opportunity to try outside the school environment. It allows students to gain opportunities in relation to the different sporting events and see if they enjoy the sport, but also enhances their prospects to see if they would like to continue certain sports outside school hours. The second aspect is, knowing your body movement and either developing skills which students never knew existed or for others that enjoy the sport, enhance on the skills which you have a passion for. Finally athletics gives students the opportunity or extra-development associated to a variety of skills, both physically and mentally in order to have a healthy lifestyle and personal awareness to help them succeed in school. From attending ScoilMhurieganSmál, Blareny, I have begun to realise that the school mission statement should not just be linked to the school’s pastoral care or academic achievements. From a physical educator’s opinion and according to the National Federation of State High School Associations; 

‘’activities correspond and support the academic mission of the school, that there will not be a diversion, but rather an extension of a good educational program’’.(Madisoncountryday.org, 2019)

 From this indication, if students participate in activity programs or physical exercise, they tend to process higher grade-point averages, better records, lower drop-out rates and fewer discipline behaviours than students generally. By incorporating athletics into the first year program, I think students will get an understanding of the fundamental skills which human beings should endure in, which hopefully will give them an insight and enhance them to pursue in physical activities both inside and outside school hours to improve these components.

The Personalised System of Instruction was generated and developed by Fred Keller, hence its other name ‘’The Keller Plan’’ in the 1960’s. This type of teaching methodology was a form of programmed instruction which employed students to an adequate structure, student-centred design course. The PSI module is based around distinguishing features upon a course for students to proceed through the course at their own pace, and teaching materials and other communications between teachers and students are highly text-based. (Keller 1968; Keller and Sherman 1974, pp. 24–25)Kulik, 1989, counterparts with Keller’s module by subsequently delivering varieties associated to discipline and academics stating; 

‘’the body of literature that attests to the broad effectiveness of PSI based courses in comparison with conventional lecture based courses, both an objective criteria such as academic performance and a subjective criteria such as students course evaluations’’ (Kulik and Kulik 1989; Kulik et al. 1979).

When I first arrived in Scoil Mhuire gan Smál, I was given a template associated to the layout of strands throughout the year. Athletics was the first strand due to the fact that in the middle of October the school’s sports day takes place.As athletics is a very complex sport, with different elements associated to it, at this point of the year (meaning beginning of the year), I wouldn’t have a good understanding or knowledge of my student’s range of abilities. With this in mind, I referred to this module because it will help me adapt and cater for all students. This is demonstrated through the module as Keller describes, providing students with tutorial support and assessment details relating to their individual components of achievements but also motivation demonstrations rather than just delivering the core message/content. (Keller 1968; Keller and Sherman 1974, pp. 24–25)

 

As my students range in physical and academic abilities such as confident and competent movers to moderate/mild learning disabilities which may comprehend them in struggle with the instructions related to individual tasks, I had to consider these aspects which is why I choose this module for this particular strand. As I have mentioned above, athletics is a very complex sport which incorporates a range of skills. This PSI module is ideally suitable for this class group. The dominant students can help their less dominant classmates by moving at their own desire pace while enhancing personal-social skills associated to the educational process. I started to prepare my students for sports day, by allowing them to participate in the athletics strand. I decided to start them off with easy activities of sprinting and long distance running, later moving onto the spot-put and hurdles. In relation to this layout, I choose to do these particular events first because students will be participating in these events during sports day. By students beginning with this unit of work, it also gave me an insight associated to student’s level of fitness and physicality.  

Each class will take place either in the sports hall or outside (field or court) and will commence for 80 minutes. Students have 10 minutes to change into their PE uniform where they will be brought outside or in the sports hall. The roll will be taken, notes of student absence or leaving early will be sign, 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. This unit of work will commence with an introduction, as it is the students first physical education class of the year. In the remaining classes for this scheme, students will revert to the learning wall, where I will explain and take questions associated to the learning outcomes. By students focusing on the learning outcomes at the beginning of each lesson, they will retain the knowledge or skills which are acquired by the end of each lesson. They will begin to understand why the knowledge and acquired skills are useful. Noel Entwistle describes this term as; 

‘’the essential nature of their discipline and so defines learning outcomes more broadly than is typical in the current specification of intended learning outcomes’’.(Entwistle, 2005)

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 end up asking students what they learned during the class. 

 

This scheme consists of a six week course, but the first lesson only consists of an introduction class incorporating classroom rules, student profiles and checking/signing uniforms. The remaining five weeks will insight students’ knowledge related to the importance of the structure and reasoning behind warm-ups and cool-downs. Students will be exposed to areas and fundamental concepts related to athletic skills and activities, for example; running, jumping, throwing and balancing throughout the six weeks. The element of competition inherent in athletics is presented in each lesson, but particularly in week four as student’s participation in ‘Olympic Games’. By adding the element of competition students will learn to understand the importance of quality and function as well as personal goals. The NCCA website indicates; ‘’students experience of competitive situations is in the context of personal goals rather than relating performance to that of others’’. (Curriculumonline.ie, 2019)

‘’FMS learning opportunities can be an integral part of most school days’’. (Hands, B. P. 2012)In relation to this statement, FMS should not be only implemented in physical education classes, but they should be incorporated and transitioned into other subject classes, for example; Maths and English, students can use body parts to make number, letters and shapes in pairs or in groups. In association to the duration of this scheme the students will be developing and improving their fundamental movement’s skills through various activities and events. The athletic strand provides opportunities for students to engage in activities such as such as sprinting, relay, hurdles and shot put in which will allow them to explore and experiment their fundamental movements skills associated to running, jumping and throwing. During these lessons, students will be enhancing their movement competency through a variety of different physical activities which will incorporate their locomotors skills, stability skills and manipulative skills, but also targeting health and skill related components of fitness which will be elaborated more on when progressing into the HRA unit of work. 

Literacy skills 

·         Key terminology associated to the different athletic events will be displayed to students through visual and written aids.

·         Students will complete written task cards to track their progress.

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

·         Once all events have been carried out and practiced an ‘Olympic 2018’ Competition will be held, where students will compete in each event in groups of 4/5 and battle it out for champion.

·         Numeracy skills will be targeted in every lesson as students have to record their progress.

·         In each events the use of students numeracy skills will vary depending on what event they’re par-taking in:

1.      Sprinting: Calculating the distance, success rates, and time and referring to a right angle while running in association with arms and legs in order to get more power and control in stride. 

2.      Relay: Calculating the distance, success rates, and time and referring to a right angle while running in association with arms and legs in order to get more power and control in stride. In exchanging the baton, students have to anticipate when to hand it off to inform faster time.

3.      Long Distance: Calculating the distance of the jump made, success rates and angles referring to the body for making the jump most effective.

4.      Shot-put:  Calculating the distance as to where the shot-put landed, success rates and body angles and rotations with arm and hips. 

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.

-         Worksheets                                          - iPad
-         Video-clip                                              - Apple TV
-         Visual aids – picture                           -  Clip-boards
-         Cones                                                     -  Measuring Tape

-  Coloured paper

Madisoncountryday.org. (2019). [online] Available at: https://www.madisoncountryday.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/The-Case-for-High-School-Activities_2013.pdf [Accessed 6 Feb. 2019].

 

Nitti, M. (2018). [online] National Federation of High School Association. Available at: https://www.nfhs.org/articles/classroom-with-a-scoreboard-important-role-of-athletics-in-education/# [Accessed 6 Feb. 2019].

 

Keller, F.S. (1968). ‘Good-bye, Teacher . . .’, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 1, 79–89. 

 

Keller, F.S. and Sherman, J.G. (1974). The Keller Plan Handbook. Menlo Park, CA: W.A. Benjamin

 

Entwistle, N. (2005). Learning outcomes and ways of thinking across contrasting disciplines and settings in higher education. Curriculum Journal, 16(1), pp.67-82.

 

Curriculumonline.ie. (2019). [online] Available at: https://curriculumonline.ie/getmedia/ca078585-b4e2-4146-9d22-9fada4bd2478/JCSEC21_Physical_Edcuation_syllabus.pdf [Accessed 7 Feb. 2019].

 

Hands, B. P. (2012). How fundamental are fundamental movement skills?. Active and Healthy Magazine, 19 (1), 14-17