Teachers...Good to Great! 

Barbara F. Adams 

Educational Consultant & Trainer
      Turning Good Teachers into Great Teachers!

.
.
.
Guiding the Way to Success...so that
Teachers Can Teach & Students Can Learn (c)
.

Barbara F. Adams Educational Consultant & Trainer
5347 Creekside Lane
Geneseo, NY 14454
United States

ph: (585) 200-8769
alt: Teachers...Good to Great!

Supporting Literacy through Physical Education

Bridging the Gap

betweeen the

Traditional Classroom and Gym, 

Dance Studio, Athletic Court, Field 

and the Pool

   Supporting Literacy through Physical

Education, Athletics and Dance

What Do Effective Readers, Writers, Listeners, Speakers, and Viewers Do? 

(Examples)

What Do Effective, Physically Fit Individuals, Athletes, and Dancers Do?

 

 

(Examples)

Connect: past learrning and life experiences to the new reading, , listening, and/or viewing

Connect success and challenges of past contests/performances/workouts to future contests/performances/workouts—individually and/or as a team/ensemble.

P   Predict:

  • What will happen next in the text
  • What conclusions the author will draw
  • Whether the content has value to your thinking

Pr Predict: what

wo   would happen if:

  • You wrote a letter to the principal about your concern regarding the school lunch program
  • A woman wins the presidency

Predict the cost/benefits of…

  • Of jump roping for 20 minutes each PE class on your level of muscular endurance
  • Strength training during the off-season
  • Having the team choose the team captains rather than the coaches making the choices
  • Changing the starting line-up
  • Teaching a peer how to swim
  • Choreographing a solo v. group ensemble given time constraints, etc.
  • Playing for a Division I college/university and the impact of that game schedule on your career choice
  • The effectiveness of swimming laps 4 days/week on cardiovascular system

      Visualize and explain:

  • The spectators’ reactions and interactions when the bomb exploded
  • The scene in which the protagonist crossed the line of acceptable behavior

Visualize and write:

  • The world in twenty-five years if Congress passes a Global Warming Bill
  • From the point of view of an African-American if an African-American wins the presidency

 Visualize      and explain:

  • What your body will look like after 6 weeks on the school’s fitness and nutrition program
  • What the dance will look like with lighting and costumes
  • What the (basketball) play will look like if we add a hand-off to our center instead of the forward
  • What your swing should look like when you rotate your hips before you begin your arm movement
  • Your most mechanically efficient flip turn at the last swim meet
  • What you will see, hear and feel when we win the next game!

 

SuSummarize...

…In your own words, explain/write:

  • What has taken place in the chapter or the story to support the plot (fiction) or to support the thesis (expository)
  • The process that you used in writing your editorial; in solving the math problem or science problem
  • How the strategy that each General used at the Battle of Gettysburg contributed to success or failure

Summarize

 ...In your own words, explain/write:

  • The effectiveness of the President’s Physical Fitness program on your overall health
  • Describe the effort that your team demonstrated in reaching team goals
  • Explain your rationale for why the other dancers used ______ in their choreography
  • Justify the winning swimmer’s reasons for his training methods, etc
  • Your mental attitude this season as opposed to last season, and the impact that your mental attitude had on your performance each year
  • The effect that weight training had on your performance this past season
  • Your goals for next season

 

Pose questions

  • About the characters, conflict, resolution of the plot, future, etc.
  • What you would ask a prospective teacher who has applied to teach your science class
  • Whether the text is suitable and effective for the audience and purpose
  • That you would ask President Bush about his reasons for going to war in Iraq

Pose questions

  • To your doctor about your current level of physical fitness and his/her recommendations for maintaining or improving your fitness level
  • To the fencer to help her analyze why she lost her match
  • To your coach as to why s/he made the decision to take out the starting quarterback
  • That demonstrate your understanding of the nutritional program on which the trainer put the team

Evaluate…

  • The manner in which the characters dealt with conflict
  • The authenticity of how the protagonist related to the antagonist
  • The criteria that you have developed for assessing your lab partner’s project
  • Your Letter to the Editor to determine if you have met the criteria for publication in the local newspaper
  • An author’s choice of information to prove their position or persuasion
  • An author’s success in proving their position or persuading their audience

Evaluate

  • The consistency of my efforts to jog 3x/week and the effects on my overall fitness level
  • The effectiveness of my workouts by comparing my skin-fold test in September to my skin-fold test in June.
  • Our win/loss record and justify your explanation using game stats
  • The dance program at our school based on these stated criteria…
  • Your performance this season and compare it to last season
  • The manner in which you mentored the JV and Modified team player you were assigned to this past year, and the effects that had on their athletic and school performance

Supporting Literacy through Physical Education, Adams & Martin, 2008

 

Photo by Barb Adams (c) 2007

 

  

Co

  

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 


Too often School Improvement Days do NOT include the physical education teachers in the district's academic initiatives. This denies the district valuable insights and active reinforcement of district goals. It also leaves PE teachers out of touch and undervalued.

"Linking literacy to special areas creates strategic and personal connections for students and teachers that allows both groups to see possibilities they never had imaginied."

Patricia Martin, Former Director of Literacy and English Language Arts, East Irondequoit CSD, Rochester, NY.

 ***

My colleague and friend, Pat Martin brings over 40 years of experience in the field of literacy to the table. We were administrators and teachers within the same district for over two and a half decades. I came to appreciate and respect Pat's knowledge and skills, and began attending numerous literacy training sessions that Pat conducted as well as those outside of the district, which she recommended. I felt it important to be able to have meaningful conversations with my teachers and students so that I could be an effective instructional leader.

Pat Martin has taught me much about literacy, as have my ELA teachers. When I became intent on developing a workshop where physical education teachers could be validated and supported, I turned to Pat for input. The result is the workshop entitled, Supporting Literacy through Physical Education, which we will be co-presenting in Schenectady City School District at the end of March, 2008.

Please contact us for details so that we may bring this highly interactive workshop to your district. 

***

BRING US TO YOUR DISTRICT TO CONDUCT THIS VALUABLE WORKSHOP AND EMPOWER YOUR P.E. TEACHERS AND COACHES!

Barb Adams photo by        Roz Pullara (c) 2007

 

As a former physcial education teacher, I clearly remember being left out of the equation by the administration when they were working toward their goal of increasing the academic ability of our students. I knew the need and importance of helping students improve their physical fitness levels and of introducing them to the gamet of physical activities, but I also innately felt that there was a valuable contribution that those of us in the field of athletics and physical education could play.

 As an Interim Director of K-12 Health & Physical Education later in my career, I planned a staff development session with my PE teachers during School Improvement Day, while the health teachers were engaged in adding their contributions to the District Wellness Policy under the guidance of the curriculum leader.

The workshop that I developed was intended to help my physical education teachers see the immediate connection between physical education, athletics and dance to the literacy initiative in which our district was well immersed.

To my satisfaction...yet not to my surprise...the physical education teachers, many of whom were also coaches, immediately connected the dots.

By writing some of the literacy skills on the board (without labeling them so) I asked the room full of PE teachers if the list of traits had anything to do with their field of teaching. Without a moment's pause, they chimed in with their insights. As I shared with the teachers the correlation, (similar to that posted on the left of this article), they generated empowering statements.

After numerous activities, which reinforced the workshop objectives, my request of the physical education teachers/coaches was to use the language of literacy in their classes, on the field, court and in the pool.  By using the terminilogy and reinforcing the concepts of literacy, the physical educations and coaches would be actively contributing to the literacy initiative WITHOUT compromising the integrity of their subject matter!

Photos by Barb Adams 2007(c)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright Barbara F. Adams Educational Consultant & Trainer All rights reserved.

 

 

Barbara F. Adams Educational Consultant & Trainer
5347 Creekside Lane
Geneseo, NY 14454
United States

ph: (585) 200-8769
alt: Teachers...Good to Great!