People watch athletic events for many different reasons. Some people watch for the pure sake of competition; others watch because it’s their favorite sport or athlete. Many people may not realize it but they also might be watching because the athletes are so good and their movements so fluid. When the expression “poetry in motion” comes to mind I tend to think of Walter Payton or Barry Sanders. When either person touched the football something exciting always happened. I believe John Madden said of Barry Sanders, “I’ve never seen a run for a loss of five yards be so exciting.” When you watch these two athletes run the ball your eyes see what they do, but sometimes your brain doesn’t believe it. The movements of their body are so fluid and fast, and then they can change speed and direction so fast just like poetry. There is beauty in movement and sport, and there are authors who have captured this beauty and motion and they have put these movements into words. Students will be read a variety of poems that relate sports or Physical Education. The book that is going to be used is called
American Sports Poems
by R.R. Knudson and May Swenson. The poems that the students will be exposed to are
Patrick Ewing Takes a Foul Shot
and
Analysis of Baseball
. These two poems were chosen because they deal with two of the most popular sports in school, basketball and baseball. These two poems are also easy for the students to understand. This book contains a multitude of poems relating to many different sports. After certain selections are read, I will ask the students for their feedback orally, as well as a written response in their journals.
Title:
Action Poems
Content: Language Arts
Purpose of the Activity:
To reinforce the students’ knowledge of Physical Education terminology. Another purpose of the activity is to enhance the students’ creativity with words.
Materials Needed: Paper, pencils, crayons
Description of Activity:
This activity will be used as a cool-down exercise for the students. Each student receives one blank sheet of paper and a box of crayons. Next have the students write their last name
vertically
down the left-hand side of the paper. Encourage the students to be creative and used different colors for each letter.
Next after each letter of their name is written, they must spell out a word that is related to Physical Education, sports, or athletics
horizontally.
So each letter of their last name will be the first letter of the word that is spelled out.
Variations:
Students may use their first name instead of their last. Once the students are used to the format of the poems I will have a central theme that the students need to follow. For example, everything must relate to baseball or hockey. Post the students’ work so administrators and parents can see what they have done.
Example:
J ogs
O utside
E very day