Contextual Factor

IPS #84 Center of Inquiry (CFI), part of the Indianapolis Public School system, is home to 300 students, ranging in age from 5-14 in grades Kindergarten through eighth. CFI is a magnet option school. It is centered on ways to address the needs of students and to sustain continued inquiry engagement. IPS #84 CFI stresses a constructivist philosophy of education. The school’s mission statement (“To develop a community of respectful, lifelong learners, who use inquiry, critical thinking, and problem solving skills, to be socially responsible contributors to a changing global society”) recognizes that its students are part of the greater world. IPS #84 CFI is a 2009 Blue Ribbon National Award nominee, was a recipient of the Magnet School of Excellence Award in 2009-2010, and is an International Baccalaureate (IB) school.

The aim of all IB programmes is “to develop internationally minded people, who recognizing their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet help to create a better, more peaceful world.” IB supports schools “by offering a recognizable common educational framework of how to develop international mindedness”.

At IPS #84 CFI, I taught physical education to grades K-8. I saw each class twice a week. I had two Kindergarten classes, four first/second grade classes, two third grade classes, three fourth and fifth grade classes, two sixth grade classes, one seventh grade class, and one eighth grade class. The first and second grade as well as the fourth and fifth grade classes were combined. Each class was 40 minutes in length with the exception of Kindergarten, which lasted for 30 minutes. The smallest class size was 15 (sixth grade); the largest was 30 (4/5 and 7 grade classes). The schedule was unique: I began and ended each day with elementary students. I had middle school students in the afternoon.

One of my third grade classes at IPS #84, Center For Inquiry.

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Learning Outcomes:

I taught 3rd grade students a unit on volleyball. Given that IPS #84 CFI is an IB school, it was important that the volleyball unit incorporate the learner attributes as noted in the IB learner profile. These attributes are “inquires, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, risk takers, balanced and reflective”. It was important that the students meet learning objectives for the psychomotor, cognitive and affective domains as well. I had the students focus on the forearm and overhead passes, and the underhand serve. The students had to learn three key rules of the game, and learn how to work as team players. The following were the unit objectives:

Psychomotor: TSWBAT play a line volleyball game (at the end of the unit) [using a beach ball, and keeping score accurately] (3.1.1).

3.1.1 Demonstrate mature fundamental locomotor and manipulative movement skills with variations.

Cognitive: TSWBAT identify three key rules of the volleyball game (individually) [by answering 3 out of 3 questions correctly (100%) about the rules on an exit slip] (3.2.2)

3.2.2 Describe movement principles and apply mature movement patterns in various manipulative challenges.

Affective: TSWBAT work with peers of various skill abilities and be a team player (at all times) [by showing good sportsmanship, being respectful and encouraging to their peers, letting everyone on their team get a chance to hit the ball, and by playing by the rules] (3.5.1 and 3.5.3)

3.5.1 Work cooperatively with others to obtain common goals in a game situation.3.5.3 Demonstrate respect and compassion for the individual differences of others while participating in physical activities.

A volleyball team I created of students with varying skill abilities.

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Assessment plan:

In assessing student learning objectives for the volleyball unit, I felt it was important to include a variety of opportunities for formative, ongoing assessments.  This would allow me to see specific areas of improvement in students' skill progress from the pre-test at the beginning of the unit to his/her skill level at the conclusion of the unit.  

Here is a list of all the different types of assessments used throughout the unit: Pre and post tests with checklist rubrics for the forearm pass, overhead

pass, and the underhand serve (psychomotor domain) Pre and post test quiz about the rules of volleyball (cognitive domain) Exit slips which asked students to list what they knew about volleyball, what

they wanted to learn, questions about rules of the game and goal setting questions (cognitive and affective domains)

KWL charts (what do the students know, what do the students want to know, and what did the students learn) (cognitive domain)

Informal assessment: thumbs-up, thumbs to the side, or thumbs down if they were working well with their classmates as well as if their classmates were encouraging and motivating to them (affective domain)

Brainstorming ideas on board to collect background knowledge (cognitive and psychomotor domains)

Informal observation to assess what they remembered about the learning cues or the forearm pass, overhead pass, underhand serve, rules about the volleyball game, and how to be a good teammate/what makes a good teammate (psychomotor, cognitive, and affective domains).

This is a brainstormed list of what the students thought the forearm pass in volleyball looked liked on day 1. This helped me gear my instruction on the forearm pass to the students.

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Design for Instruction:

Acknowledging the objectives of the unit and the skill level of my students was the reason why I chose to design the unit the way I did. A key aspect that I kept in mind was accommodating each learning style. I also wanted to make sure my students would be physically active for at least 50% of my lesson. The following is an example of what day one of my five day volleyball unit looked like. This is an example of how the lesson activities, assessments, and lesson objectives were aligned and connected to the content standards.

Activity Assessment Lesson Objectives StandardsIntroduce Volleyball unit

Teach forearm pass motion

Students practice forearm pass with balloon

Students set goals

Pre-test on three rules of volleyball game (written)

Pre-test on forearm pass (teacher checklist)

Ask students if they know what the forearm pass looks like? (Teacher write responses on board)

See how many times students can forearm pass the balloon in 30 seconds (Record results on paper)

Exit slips onparticipation and on what students know about the game of volleyball and what they want to learn (Written and the K and W from the KWL exit slip)

Psychomotor: TSWBAT perform forearm pass using the correct form (individually to a wall) [by holding thumbs together, bending knees, and hitting the ball on forearm, while keeping elbows straight at least one time]. (3.1.1)

Cognitive: TSWBAT identify the motion of a forearm pass (individually at end of class) [by showing teacher the proper motion, thumbs together, knees bent, and having their elbows straight]. (3.2.1)

Affective: TSWBAT participate in class (at least 75% of the lesson) [by coming to class prepared and ready to participate]. (3.5.1.)

3.1.1Demonstrate mature fundamental locomotor and manipulative movement skills with variations.

3.2.1Describe various balance forms utilizing base of support concepts.

3.5.1Work cooperatively with others to obtain common goals in a game situation.

Instructional Decision Making:

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Based on my informal and formal assessments and observation, I had to change the way I taught parts of my lessons in my volleyball unit. Initially, I used a lot of guided instruction. I changed to more direct and some independent practice as I felt that the students needed more learning cue reinforcement and assistance in keeping on track. I recognized that the students needed time to practice more rather than start and stop every few minutes to listen to me explain things. I know that start and stop was not beneficial to those students who were doing the skills correctly. When I had the students do more independent tasks, I noticed that they were working hard. I noticed that they would ask a peer to help them if they were struggling with a task. I was very pleased that the students were helpful to one another and were good teammates to their peers (that fit with my affective domain). Another change that I made dealt with the organization of the gym, and student positioning. On the first day, all the students faced the same way, but were allowed to go anywhere in the gym as long as they had their “own space”. When they practiced forearm passing with a partner using balloons, the students ran all over the gym trying to catch them. Fortunately, no one got hurt. No one ran into each other. For the remainder of the unit, I told students where to stand to avoid interference or injury or distraction. This change proved beneficial. I also allowed more time for students to review each skill every day. I was flexible with my pacing; if I thought students needed more practice with their overhead set, I allowed them the time to practice that skill than I had originally planned.

Pictures of independent practice:

Students working on forearmpass motion.

Student working on underhandserve, after instruction was reorganized.(5 feet away from nearest peer and behind red line.)

Analysis of learning:

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In comparing the pre- and post- tests’ results, it was evident that there was improvement. The improvements were a direct result of my teaching. I provided the students with information; I reinforced their learning with demonstration and learning cues. I provided feedback during their practice of the movement skills. I quizzed the students about the game’s rules and had them play the game. More students were able to demonstrate proper form; more students were able to state key volleyball game rules.

Psychomotor results PRE- and POST-tests:22/22=100% Everyone improved or stayed the same (had the correct form during the pre- and post-tests of the forearm pass) on at least one part of the forearm pass skill motion. 19/22=86% improved or stayed the same (had the correct form during the pre- and post-tests of the overhead pass) on at least one part of the overhead pass skill motion.17/22= 77% improved or stayed the same (had the correct form during the pre- and post-tests of the underhand serve) on at least one part of the underhand serve skill motion. * Below is a chart of some students’ pre-tests for the forearm pass checklist and their post-tests results. The yellow highlighted words suggest student improvement. Pre-test forearm checklistName Feet

Shoulder width apart

Thumbs together and even

Bumps ball with forearm

Keeps elbows straight (no bend in elbow)

Sam Yes No No YesHenry Yes No No NoTalia No No No No

Ikia Yes Yes No No

Ella Yes No No No

Post-test forearm checklist (yellow indicates improvement)Sam Yes Yes Yes YesHenry Yes Yes No YesTalia Yes No No No

Ikia Yes Yes No Yes

Ella Yes Yes Yes YesThe Cognitive Assessment Results:

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Sam

Talia

EllaSa

rah

BenCec

eIsa

belEth

anAnya

Airian

a

Sydney

0

1

2

3

PretestPosttest

Student

Scor

e

Sam

Talia

EllaSa

rah

BenCec

eIsa

belEth

anAnya

Airian

a

Sydney

0

1

2

3

PretestPosttest

Student

Scor

e

Cognitive Pre-test results: Cognitive Post-Test results:No questions right= 2, 2/22=9% No questions right= 0, 0/22=0%1 question right=13, 13/22=60% 1 question right=2, 2/22=9%2 questions right=7, 7/22=32% 2 questions right=2, 2/22=9%3 questions right= 0, 0/22= 0% 3 questions right= 18, 18/22= 82%

20/22 =91% of my students improved. They got at least one more question correct on their post-test quiz about the rules.

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For an informal evaluation, I used exit slips. I asked students on the first day to write what they knew about the sport of volleyball. On the last day of the unit, I asked what they learned about the sport of volleyball. Here are some students’ responses:

On the first day:“I no nothing”- Henry“You have to get 21 to 25 points to wen and you can get 15 to wen and there are more rules and it’s fun”- SamPicture on the right:Day 1 exit slip (What do youknow about the sport of volleyball?) One student’s response.

On the last day of the unit“That there are 6 players on a side”- Henry“You can only hit the ball only 3 times before it absolutely has got to go over the net.”- BenYou have to score 25 points too win the game in volleyball. Can only have 6 players on one side of the game. You can only hit the ball 3 times on your side.”-Lucas

The above is a student sample of an exit slip completed on the last day of the volleyball unit. The question asked was, “What did you learn about volleyball?”

The above responses show that a number of my students learned the three rules of the volleyball game on which I focused throughout the unit. (How many players are on each side during a game? To how many points is the game is played? How many hits can a side hit before the ball has to go over the net?) Some students learned how to pass or hit the volleyball.

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I had each student write a realistic goal for how many forearm passes he/she anticipated completing within 30 seconds by the end of the unit. Most students’ goals were based on the number of forearm passes they did the first day in 30 seconds. At the end of the unit, I had the students forearm pass the ball in 30 seconds. I then asked if they achieved their goal or if they improved. I then asked them why they thought they did or did not achieve their goal. Here are some responses: “I think I reached my goal because I had a lot of practice and it was a lot of fun”- Sydney. “ I was able because I practiced more.”- Ethan. “Because I worked hard.” - Bailey. “I think I just relly paid Entension”- Maggie. One student who did not reach her goal or improve wrote this for her answer, “Because I didn’t practice enof.”- Cece.

Most students improved or reached their goal on the number of forearm passes they were able to complete in 30 seconds. They used their practice time efficiently: they practiced passing to the wall or to a partner when possible. Those who did not were content to chat with others and not stay on track.

Student sample of an exit slip question on the last day asking “Why do you think you were able or not able to meet your goal?”

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Reflection and self- evaluation:

In preparing for this unit on volleyball, I tried to incorporate IB principles. At times, I struggled with how to balance the principles with what needed to be taught about the game. It was only after I shared the basic information with the students on the sport’s rules and demonstrated the tasks that I was able to put the two together more seamlessly. It was when I addressed the students’ questions regarding some fine points of the rules did I recognize that they were striving to understand the necessity of a particular rule. As they helped one another perform tasks, I witnessed the beginnings of their working collaboratively. I now understand that not everything that I do has to address each standard; my responsibility is to create the opportunities for learning. I recognize as well the importance of being flexible. While I had my students practice for their final assessment on a daily basis, I needed to lengthen the time allotted to practice. One student even commented that having enough time to practice contributed to her success on the final assessment.

As I reflect on this experience, I am very pleased with my contributions.  I was rather nervous, thinking about all that I needed to do for the students to be successful.   I spent a great deal of time preparing for the unit, thinking about any number of possible issues that might arise.  My over preparation was a definite positive factor.   One area that I would like to revise the next time I teach this unit is the use of more challenging pre- and post-tests. I believe that students will rise to the occasion when expectations are high.  In my own classroom, knowing my students well will help gear my instruction and I will continue to create units informed by the zone of proximal development theory. In future, I might include

more rules or suggest different rotations. In thinking about ways in which to improve the learning experience, I might try to incorporate student journaling next time. Journaling has helped me better understand what has taken place and what I need to do in order to improve. Looking back at what I have written has shown me the progress I have made. This would be very helpful, especially if a student is frustrated that he/she has not progressed as expected. The journal might reveal what held the student back. I would have the students respond to a prompt for their reflection, be it about working with others with diverse skill levels or with those who are less interested in the class content. The writing might shed light on other student concerns. Journaling would be another affective objective source especially in regards to working with teammates, and on becoming a better teammate. I think that journaling would be very helpful for crosscurricular work as well.

The unit met my expectations. The students learned, worked as a team and had fun. I learned to be flexible: I moved from guided instruction to more independent practice. I in the moment changed the amount of time I allotted for practice. I was able to use the feedback I got (observation) to modify how I was teaching. I grew.

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