Questioning and reflecting are two things that we as teachers must constantly be involved in as it relates to all of the decisions we make. Questioning often leads to reflection. Reflection often leads to questioning. It is a cycle that perpetuates thinking and digging deep into the “why.” In education, teachers tend to question a lot of things. Some teachers engage in the questioning/reflection process in more of an introverted way, while others are more outspoken on the issues at hand. We question beliefs (our own or those of others), systematic constructs, “the status quo”, etc. and in turn reflect on how we can make changes for the better. This questioning/reflection process is derived from passion, because we as teachers ultimately want to give our students the best possible experience in our classes while working to achieving the mission we have set out for them.
In the PE world, the mission we are working towards is one of physical literacy. We want our students to have the knowledge and skills to be competent and confident movers for life. A very noble mission indeed and one that will take a lot of hard work, dedication, advocacy and more on behalf of PE teachers, students, parents and policy makers. With so many different moving parts and pieces to this mission, the question that arises is how can we best achieve this mission? The answer to that is most likely not so cut and dry…
I began thinking about this question a lot over this past summer while reflecting upon what my teaching/PE program looked like in the past. As I reflected and questioned my own practices, I realized that my program had a VERY heavy emphasis on the psychomotor aspect of PE. I would say that 95% of the assessments I gave my students were directly tied to Standard 1 GLOs. My guess is that this was/is probably very in line with the overwhelming majority of PE teachers/programs from across our country that actually assess their students. After all, when looking at our GLOs, it is easy to see which standard is prioritized the most in our profession in terms of outcomes. If you don’t believe me, take a look at the table below:
Upon reflecting on this, interacting with people I would describe as leaders in our profession via social media and doing some reading myself, I realized that there is much more to PE than just the psychomotor domain and if the psychomotor domain is all we are teaching towards, we are very likely doing our students a huge disservice. So, before I even saw my first class for the 2017-2018 school year, I made the decision to try and focus more on the standards that easily get labeled as “not important” or even just "forgotten" in PE (mainly Standards 4 and 5) and a little less on Standard 1 for my older students.
As a result, I have shifted my teaching for them more so towards project based learning rather than focusing so heavy on skill acquisition. I introduced group projects to my students such as “create your own fitness warm up” where my students had to create an activity designed to enhance a particular area of fitness by using equipment of their choice in a 15’x15’ area. During our long handed striking unit, they were asked to work together in groups of 4 or 5 to “create their own mini golf hole” using the Engineering Design Process (EDP) where they had to design a hole using certain equipment that was challenging, but not impossible, while meeting certain criteria. Right now, my 4th and 5th graders are using the “jigsaw” process to learn individual cardio drumming patterns, teaching them to the others in their group and slowly starting to piece them together to create their own group routine. During all of these group projects, the intent was/is not so much on looking at their psychomotor skills through a microscope to dissect it for an assessment, but rather more so highlighting teachable moments related to character traits that fall within the realm of Standard 4 (teamwork, cooperation and acceptance).
My students’ reactions to this project based learning approach has been overwhelmingly positive and early on in the year I realized that reflection on the part of the students was key in this process as well and it was worth capturing. I began having my students using their Plagnets, Plickers and exit tickets more so for the purposes of focusing on Standard 5 (how they felt about what we were doing in PE, their attitudes towards things, their perceptions of how they were working with others, etc.) rather than using them to solely quickly assess their knowledge on a topic. At the end of all of these group projects, I always have my students fill out a reflection form about what they liked best about the process, what they didn’t like and how well they thought their team worked together. I encourage them to be honest in their reflections because I want to know their true feelings on the things we did and the methods I decided to have them use. It has been an eye-opening experience to say the least.
Now that I am halfway through this year of change and am once again reflecting on the topic of physical literacy, I have posed another question to myself: Could the key to physical literacy and a lifelong love for movement be found more so in Standards 4 and 5, rather than in Standard 1? I’m not sure, but let me try to answer it with another question. Why do you choose to do anything that you do with your leisure time? Probably because whatever you are deciding to do during that leisure time provides you with enjoyment. Whether you use your free time to decide to read, watch a movie or go swimming, you are making that choice based on enjoyment of the activity. So how can we foster the concept of “enjoyment” in PE to help our students progress more toward a culture of CHOOSING to be active and move when they have that leisure time of their own? After all, that is the end goal of physical literacy and the answers may lie within the often forgotten Standards 4 and 5…
**Special thanks go out to Justin Schleider, Jorge Rodriguez, Dr. Justen O'Connor and Mike Ginicola for the recent discussions that lead to this blog.**