Linking swimming to the UoI

This is a post I’ve been itching to write because of the successful lesson I had doing this last year. The grade 6 central idea focused on ‘Understanding of scientific knowledge is constantly evolving and has an impact on people’s lives’ and our PE unit was swimming.

Students had been swimming in their swimming suits with their goggles and caps, as well as having the opportunity to use different types of swimming aids. For students to understand how swimming has evolved due to the understanding of scientific knowledge, I asked the students to swim fully clothed (non swimming suit). They did not know why at the time but they started getting the idea as the lesson went on. For some reason that lesson, I had quite a few students who were not participating, so I asked them to create 5-6 interview questions about their classmates experience in the pool. This way, none participants could also understand the experience through their friend’s responses.

During the lesson, students were commenting on how difficult it was to swim and how tired they were becoming. I stood there with a rise smile on my face, rubbing my hands as the plan was working perfectly. They continued to cover the content of the lesson, but I cut the lesson shorter than usual, so we could have a class discussion.

I asked the question, how has scientific knowledge helped evolve swimming? and bam, all the students had their hands up and were sharing their answers by backing it up with their experience in the pool. As a group, we categorised the changes in swimming to several key areas (venue, safety, clothing, equipment and coaching), which led them to research further (homework task) by looking at the difference in swimming before and after scientific knowledge and how it has had an impact. We also discussed about swimming performance and how that has evolved because of scientific knowledge, but I also made reference to the type of swimming suits, as that caused some controversy in the sport itself.

Below are some examples of student’s work that was produced from the lesson. So proud of them 🙂

  

Bringing the Learner Profiles alive!!

When I walk through my school, I see so many different versions of the learner profiles that are displayed. Some are directly taken from the handbook and some are personalised to the subject. There were many that I found hard to understand, therefore I think teachers should personalise them for the students, so they can relate to them.

Below are examples of what our PYP PE department have created. We sat down and discussed the type of photos we should use and rather than giving a definition of the learner profile, which we generally see around the school, we thought it would be better to use questions. Using this method, the students can use the questions to reflect on how well they did to display that specific learner profile in the lesson. They always bring a smile to my face when I see them.

Teaching idea: Examples of linking athletics to their UoI

   

I finally got the time to scan some of my students work, which I have used to link their PE unit to the Unit of Inquiry (UoI). In the classroom the grade 6 central idea is ‘Persuasion as a method for altering perspectives and initiating change in the world’ and as we are covering Athletics for their PE unit, I saw this opportunity to link both units together.

I asked the students to persuade me or anyone else to join one athletic discipline that we have covered in our unit or any other discipline they are interested in. For example, we don’t have any Javelins, so the students did a ball throw and we compared this to a Javelin throw. We also used ‘welly wanging’ as another throwing activity, which is something we use for our sports day.

The students discover the technique in the lesson and my only real input is the safety aspect of the lesson. We agree (usually by the middle of the lesson) and then they have the chance to go and practice.  We discussed about what you would include in a poster, leaflet, video of how they would persuade someone to join their athletic discipline and it’s great to see that students use what they have learnt in PE and in their UoI to produce a piece of work that demonstrates their learning from both sides. All my students produced a poster apart from one who created a video (which I am still waiting on).

In hindsight, I should have collaborated with the homeroom teacher at an earlier date to see if our assessments could be combined, as their application of knowledge could be assessed through their persuasive task they are doing in their UoI. Something to improve on for next year!