| Dear Parents,
I consider physical education to be one of the most important courses that
your child will have during their school years. In PE class your children
learn the importance of keeping their bodies healthy. They learn how to
move, they learn the science behind the movement, and most importantly they
learn exercise is one of the best ways to stay healthy. The curriculum I
use to achieve this goal is called Moving Into the Future, National
Standards for Physical Education. These standards were first introduced in
1995 by the National Association for Sports and Physical Education (NASPE).
The original seven standards were revised in 2004 and two of the standards
were combined into one.
Why do I use the National Standards? They were written by many top experts
in physical education after collaboration with many teachers. They have been
tested by thousands of teachers all over the United States and revised. They
have grade level benchmarks that are a road map for me to follow. These
standards and benchmarks give me goals to set for my students. There are
numerous textbooks, also written by experts based on these national standards
that are available with lesson and assessment ideas for use in planning and
assessing. Most importantly I feel the body of knowledge prescribed in the
standards sets high expectations in a wide variety of activities and topics
for all students. These are the standards and how I use them in my teaching.
Standard 1: A physically educated person demonstrates competency in motor
skills and movement patterns needed to perform a variety of physical
activities. Skill development is the backbone of the Florence Sawyer School
physical education program. Students are taught age appropriate skills in a
sequential manner. Fun activities are used to learn and practice skills,
during which all students can be successful and gain confidence. I use many
types of assessments to record and gauge the progress of each student and to
drive the lesson planning for the group. I use assessments during skill
practice activities, skill use in authentic situations and for older students
I assess multiple skill usage in small sided game situations.
Standard 2: A physically educated person demonstrates understanding of
movement concepts, principles, strategies, and tactics as they apply to the
learning and performance of physical activities. I incorporate the
understanding of concepts of skill performance into the teaching of an
appropriate skill. Force is taught with basketball dribbling, or passing a
football to players that are different distances away. Fitness knowledge is
incorporated into activities such as aerobic games. I teach children as
young as in grade one to feel their carotid pulse after an active game.
Older students count the pulse rate and learn about target heart rate.
Unfortunately because of the limited time students have physical education
class I can only scratch the surface of the knowledge we need to teach our
students. I use written tests and work sheets as well as informal
questioning to assess student mastery of understanding of some of the
concepts.
Standard 3: A physically educated person participates regularly in physical
activities. I try to show students that I value their participation in
physical activity outside of school. One example of this is by asking
students to bring in sport photographs to put on the bulletin board. I have
also had our school participate in Exercise Across Massachusetts two
separate years. It is a program run by the Governor’s Council on Physical
Fitness that involves recording activity outside of school, and receiving
small plastic tokens. I have even called some individual parents to
encourage them to find activities outside of school for their child so that
they can become more physically fit. These children were not able to keep
up in PE class with classmates because of the low fitness levels. I have
also run a before school jogging club for second graders. When they arrived
at school in the morning they would come to the gym to run laps to music for
fun.
Standard 4: A physically educated person achieves and maintains a
health-enhancing level of physical fitness. Fitness testing is how schools
are able to assess student fitness level. I do give my students in grades
four through eight a physical fitness test twice a year. My goal is that
students understand the components of fitness and how their body measures up.
I encourage them to strive to improve their personal performance from test
to test. I show students their prior scores so that they can use that as a
goal to beat. I explain the importance of each component of the fitness
test andteach students activities they can use to improve scores. I also
assign class activities that will help improve scores. During the spring
when I teach the tumbling unit I focus attention on upper body strength as
well as overall stretching to increase flexibility.
Standard 5: A physically educated person exhibits responsible personal
behavior that respects self and others in physical activity settings. Social
responsibility is a major part of my curriculum. Students learn to respect
each other and the equipment starting on day one in kindergarten.
Sportsmanship is integral to every fun or sport like game that is played. By
fifth grade students know that top grades are only received if consideration
and compassion are shown for less skilled classmates. Proficiency in sports
skills is valued but that is not enough, for example in mixed ability game
situations strong players are encouraged to pass to less skilled players
instead of scoring at every opportunity. I have just this year started using
assessments that measure some aspects of respectful behavior. Students fill
in a quick questionnaire about their partner’s behavior during the activity.
When I assess things I value I know it shows the students that I feel it is
important.
Standard 6: A physically educated person values physical activity for
health, enjoyment, challenge, self-expression, and/or social interaction.
One of my main goals is to have all children love to move. Success and
confidence are
necessary for this. I want my students to love physical education. I want
all of my students to say that physical education is their favorite class. I
make every effort to make practice activities fun and challenging. Children
spend a class with practice activities and because they are fun they do not
even realize that they have been working. Children that develop good social
skills when working together will have better skills to work together in
other activity settings or even in work situations. Adventure activities as
well as dance create opportunities for social collaboration.
In this day and age of increasing childhood obesity and decreasing daily
activity levels of children PE is not just fun and games any more, it is a
life saving curriculum that can teach children healthy habits. My goal is to
bestow children with the information, skills and habits to live long healthy
lives and the NASPE National Physical Education Standards are the key to this
goal.
Sincerely,
Karen Cavaioli
Physical Education Teacher
Florence Sawyer School
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