Week 1:
In the first week the students will be introduced to the unit and be given a brief overview of the activities involved in the unit. The first week will be primarily devoted to the journal specifications and what topics are acceptable for inclusion in their journals. The specifications that I want the students to follow are the following: each entry must be relative to Physical Education or sports. If the students write about the activity of the day, I want them to write about what they liked and disliked about the activity. This will help me fine-tune the activity to make it work for everyone.
Week 2:
At the beginning of the second week we will review the journal process, in order to square away any problems that the students may have. During the second week I will have a list of words posted in the gymnasium that relate to Physical Education and sports. I will make copies of the words for the students to read over at home, and when they come to class we will use some of those words in a class activity. The class activity is called make a word; this is where students are split up into small groups and the groups must work together to unscramble the letters to make a word. This activity requires that the students work together and spell the word correctly; and it may be a word that they can use in their journals, when they reflect about this activity, or it may be used in their short stories.
Week 3:
During this week the students will read the poems
Patrick Ewing Takes a Foul Shot
by Diane Ackerman and
Analysis of Baseball
by May Swenson. I chose these poems because they are relatively easy to follow as well as easy to read. After reading these poems the students will each get a piece of construction paper and crayons, and then they will proceed to make an acrostic (See Lesson #2). An acrostic is a poem that reads vertically as well as horizontally, the students will use their last name to make an acrostic that relates either to a poem or to Physical Education itself. These poems can be found in
American Sports Poems
by R.R. Knudson and May Swenson. I believe these short acrostic poems are a good way for students to show their creative side and all of the work will be posted for everyone to see. The students will also be required to write a journal response.
Week 4: During week four I will read the two short stories to the students. The stories are
Casey at the Bat
and
The Gym Teacher from the Black Lagoon.
I chose these two stories because they are easy to read and most students are familiar with
Casey at the Bat.
After reading the stories I will explain to the students the various sections of a story such as, main characters, setting, and theme. The activity that goes with these two stories is called “Name that Part.” The students will be put into small groups, and the object for each group is to have one person at a time retrieve a laminated card from the other end of the gym. When the runner returns the group has to figure out what part of the story it is and hang the card under the proper heading on the wall. This is repeated until all sections of the story are retrieved. Students will write a journal response.
Week 5:
In week five the students will be practicing their data collection and processing skills. They will need these skills in order to participate in the Sportscenter interviews, which will be coming in the following weeks. The activity for this week is called “Scavenger Hunt.” In this activity each student will have a pencil and a sheet of paper, and each student must move inside the designated playing area until the signal to stop is given. Once the stop signal is given, each student will find a classmate that is close to them and write down their name and one or two facts about them. This process will be repeated until each student has information on at least five different classmates. At the end of the class the students will volunteer to share some of the information they collected about their classmates. Students will write a journal response.
Week 6:
In week six the students will participate in an activity called “Sportscenter Interviews.” I will show the students a few taped interviews from the television show “Sportscenter,” on ESPN. The students will be put into groups of two or three, and practice interviewing each other. They will write out a few questions and the students will also record the responses. I intend to have this activity going on at the same time as a school wide tournament. This is because I want the students to interview the athletes from the other classes after the tournament is over. I will pick the two students whose interviewing skills are the best, and then have those two students conduct their interview of the tournament Most Valuable Player during the morning announcements. Students will write a journal response.
