InTASC Standard:  

Standard #8: The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop a deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways. (InTASC, 2013)

 

Brief Description of Evidence:

In the spring semester of 2023, in my EDUC 240 Introduction to Physical and Health Education for Elementary Teachers. We were split into groups of 2 to plan and implement a lesson plan for Physical Education or Health Wellness for the YMCA after-school students at Grissom Elementary School. My group was assigned a 4th-5th grade, and we chose to do a Physical Education lesson where we came up with a game of "Cops & Robbers." Students were to lay on their backs, and when the whistle was blown, they would jump up and either try to evade the other student or catch the student. This lesson encouraged students to be more active through a fun and engaging activity.

 

Analysis of What I Learned:

Planning this lesson taught me how to turn Physical Education standards into a lesson that benefited students in their physical wellness journey. I also learned how to collaborate with a partner to ensure the success of our lesson. I came up with solutions whenever we ran into an issue and used David Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory to teach students how vital physical wellness is through active participation (The David Kolb Theory of How Experience Influences Learning, 2022). I learned that students quickly become attracted to activities that have props to go with them. This, in turn, made it more challenging to keep the students on an activity that did not have any props. We overcame this by demonstrating how different strategies to evade can be just as fun as an activity with props. This taught me how to come up with solutions for unplanned situations.

 

How This Artifact Demonstrates My Competence on the InTASC Standard:

This artifact demonstrated my competence in InTASC standard #8 by using different instructional strategies, such as monitoring their progress throughout their gameplay to ensure they got the needed physical activity. I had to come up with ways that would interest the students so that they could apply the game to their knowledge of the importance of physical education. Once students can build the skills to play the game, they can apply those skills to succeed. Once they understood how meaningful physical education is to them, they could also talk with their friends to encourage them to play the game. In the future, I would do a review with the students to allow them to develop a deep understanding of physical education. David Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory states, "the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. Knowledge results from the combinations of grasping and transforming the experience" (The David Kolb Theory of How Experience Influences Learning, 2022). I used this theory by teaching students to transform their learning experience through physical education. I had to develop a connection with the students for them to trust that our game could be just as fun as the games with physical props.