Year End Blog

Over the past semester I have had the pleasure of participating in one of the funnest university courses that is offered here at TRU. With this class, I have had the opportunity to learn and play new games, that I will definitely take with me throughout my own teaching career. This class has given me the opportunity to work with people that I would probably not normally have worked with (ie first group project) and step out of my comfort zone in doing so. PHED 1280 also gave me that extra confidence with my public speaking/presentation skills, with having to present 2 group presentations to the class.

The 2 models of teaching games, that this class focused on were, the social and personal responsibility model and the teaching games for understanding model.

The social and personal responsibility model has 5 main levels of focus. They are:

1. Respecting the Rights and Feelings of Others
2. Participation and Effort
3. Self Direction
4. Helping Others
5. Incorporation Outside of the Gym

The main focuses of the model listed above will really help children or students of any age take what they have learned in their PE class and apply these fundamentals outside of the gym class and into their everyday lives. I believe that this model is an essential tool for children to learn skills that can be beneficial to many aspects of their lives.

The teaching games for understanding model has the emphasis of teaching game appreciation and decision making for the game before even playing the game. This approach allows students to really understand the concepts of the game and play modified versions of the game before having to actually participate in the full version of the game. This model allows children to learn how to make practical decisions and appreciation for the game before the emphasis of skill execution is emphasized.

These two models of teaching, though different, when used simultaneously can be very beneficial. By using each of these models as an instructional method in a PE class, a teacher is now giving the students an opportunity to learn how to make practical decisions of a game, while at the same time they would be learning skills that could benefit them outside of gym class.

 

Maintain Possession of the Ball

In this entry I will focus specifically on the tactical problem of maintaining ball possession. This tactical problem occurs when player's on offense are attempting to keep the ball out of possession of the defending players; whilst the defending players are trying to regain possession of the ball.

To overcome the tactical problem of maintaining ball possession in the game of basketball, a coach and/or instructor could play numerous games that would help players of all levels learn to overcome this common tactical problem.

One game that can be played to help players overcome this tactical problem is a game called "Corner Spray".

To play this game you must first divide the players up into groups of 5. There will be 3 players on one team and 2 players on an opposite team. The objective of this game is for the 3 players to maintain possession of the ball while the 2 defending players are trying to intercept the ball amongst the other team and regain the possession of the ball. This game requires the use of 4 pylons, that will be used to mark off a square like in the image below:

 

The team that has possession of the ball is not allowed to dribble or run with the ball. They must pass only to their other teammates if they are at a corner of the square at a pylon and only 1 player is allowed at a pylon at a time. This game is played for 2 minutes or until the defensive team regains possession of the ball, than the defensive players are switched out and new defenders take their place.

A few questions that you could ask the players after playing this game to help with their understanding of this game and to help with their understanding of this tactical problem are:

1. Who should you pass the ball to in order to maintain possession of the ball?

2. When should you pass the ball? Is the player open? Not open?

3. How can the player with out the ball move to support the player that has the ball?

 

A second game that could be played to help players work on this tactical problem is a game called "Hoop Ball".

To play this game you will need to split the players up into groups of 6. This game will be played using half of a full sized basketball court. You will also need 4 hula hoops to play this game as well. 1 group of 6 players will be a team who is on offense, while the other group of 6 players will be on defense. The goal of this game is for teams to try to pass to their teammates who are standing in a hula hoop in order to score a point. However, you may only remain in a hula hoop for no more than 3 seconds. Dribbling could be allowed or not, depending on the instructor/coaches intentions. Once the ball is intercepted by the defensive team, the 2 teams switch. So now the team that was on defense is on offense, and the team that was on offense is now on defense.

The setup of this game could look like this (the placement of the hula hoops can be varied):

 

There is no time limit on how long this game is played. The coach could do a maximum points tally, for example the first team to achieve 15 passes to a player inside the hula hoop wins. This would give the players the incentive to maintain the possession of the ball for as long as possible. 

Some questions that you could ask the players after playing this game to help with their understanding of the game and to help with their understanding of the tactical problem are:

1. Who should you pass the ball to in order to maintain possession of the ball?

2. When should you pass the ball? Is the player open? Not open?

3. How can the player with out the ball move to support the player that has the ball?

Creating Space

 

Some common tactical problems that occur in the invasion game of basketball on offense are  maintaing possession of the ball, attacking the basket, creating space in the attack and using space in the attack. Some common tactical probelms that can also occur in basketball while on defense are defending space, defending the basket area and regaining possession of the ball. 

 

In this entry I will focus specifically on the tactical problem of creating space. This tactical problem occurs when an offensive player is trying to make more space available for themselves and/or others on their team in order to create a scoring opportunity.

To overcome the tactical problem of creating space in the game of basketball, a coach and/or instructor could play numerous games that would help players of all levels learn to overcome this common tactical problem.
 

One game that could be played to help players overcome this particular tactical problem is a game called "Keep Off".  

For this game you split your players up into groups of 3. There will be 2 players on offense and 1 player on deffense. Once the players are divided up into teams of 3, designate smaller areas that they will have to play in; for example, the basketball key would be a good size. However, the emphasis is not to try and score a basket in this game, it is for the offense to maintain the possession of the ball for 2 minutes, while the defense is trying to regain possession of the ball. In order for the offensive team to maintain possession of the ball in this game they need to create and utilise open space around the one defender.

A diagram to illustrate what the setup would could look like is as follows:

The x's being the two players trying to keep the ball away from the 1 defender "o".

So questions that you could ask the players after playing this game to help with their understanding of this game are:

1. Who should you pass the ball to?

2. When should you pass the ball?

3. How can the player with out the ball support the player with the ball?

 

A second game that could be played to help players overcome the tactical problem of creating space is a game called "Tag Ball".

For this game you split the students up into groups of 6. There will be 4 students who will be the attackers and 2 students who will be the "taggers" (defenders). This game will be played in one quarter of a basketball court (or half a court of a half court basketball game). The taggers will try to attack the player only when they have the ball. A point is rewarded to the defenders each time the successfully tag the attackers ball during an attempted pass. Each pair of taggers gets 1 minute to see how many tags on the basketball they can achieve.

A diagram to illustrate what the setup would look like is as follows:

The x's being the players who have possession of the ball and are trying not to get the ball tagged by the o's who are the defenders.

Some questions that you could ask the players after playing this game are:

1. What is the best way to pass the ball to other players?

2. What is the best method to achieve the greatest number of tags?

3. How can the interceptor position their body to pressure a passer and reciever into error so that the interceptor can touch the ball?

 

 

 

Game Performance Assessment Instrument (GPAI)

Below is the GPAI (game performance assessment instrument) that I had found is for the sport of basketball.  

A GPAI is intended to assess the performances of a sport and give the performances a rating depending on how well the performance was done. I liked this GPAI the best out of the ones that I had found because it was an assessment of not only 1 tactical problem but for 4 common tactical problems that occur in the game of basketball. The tactical problems assessed in this GPAI are how well the players were able to perform:

 

1. Decision Making

 

2. Skill Execution

 

3. Support

 

4. Prevent Scoring

 

The components and criteria for each common tactical problem can also be very easily identified right on the GPAI itself. As well, this GPAI in particular has very clear evaluation guidelines which are labelled under the "Scoring Key" and "Overall Performance Key".

 

The way that this particular GPAI works is that, each player is recorded by their name and/or number and their tactical problem is evaluated by a letter from the scoring key (either A or IA, E or IE). As well as having their tactical problems rated by a numerical system by the overall performance key (numerical ratings from 1 to 5).

 

There is also space on this GPAI for the evaluator to include comments or suggested improvements, which I think is a great area to include in a GPAI assessment.

Tactical Problems

One common tactical problem that occurs in the popular invasion game of Basketball is creating space while on offense.

 

One game that would help to solve this tactical problem would be playing a modified version of the basketball game. You could divide children up into smaller teams and have them play half court instead of full court. For example, a game of 3 on 3 basketball on a half court setting would allow children to realize that in order to receive possession of the ball they will have to work harder to get open to receive a pass. Children should soon realize that in order to receive the ball, they need to find an adequate space away from others in order to get possession. They may also soon realize that adequate spacing amongst themselves and their team mates is also a key factor in their teams success. If they all group together and just follow the ball around it is harder for them to pass amongst each other because it is easier for the defensive team to defend when all the players are clumped amongst each other.

 

 

Another game that could be played that would teach the importance of creating space while on offense is by modifying another important aspect of the game of basketball. For example, a modified game that would help emphasize the importance of creating space in basketball is determining how many a passes a team makes before they can shoot. The rule could be that everyone has to at least touch the ball once, or the team has to successfully complete 5 passes before they are able to shoot and they can only score points if they do these rules. By modifying the game in this way, will allow for children to work even harder when trying to get open. The more important emphasis would not be on trying to score baskets but to try and complete the passing requirements. Children will realize that adequate space amongst everyone on their team will allow them to complete the number of passes required more easily. It will also allow children to see the court more and to get them to try and find those empty spaces in relation to where the ball is on the court. Therefore allowing children to begin cognitively thinking of where they should be positioning themselves on the court to get open to receive a pass in relation to where the ball is on the court.

 

Teaching Games For Understanding

The idea behind the "Teaching Games for Understanding" model is that it provides a learner centered approach that puts the needs and abilities of the participants first over the importance of the game. Created by David Bunker and Rod Thorpe, who had identified that far to often students were leaving the education system with very little knowledge of how to play games effectively and how to transfer the technical skills back into games. This approach was intended to provide learners with an understanding of the technical and tactical skills necessary to be successful across a wide variety of games and the motivation to continue participation.

The four different categories of games that are discussed within the "Teaching Games for Understanding" model are:

1. Target
2. Striking
3. Net/Wall
4. Invasion Games

The first game category in this model is "Target Games". The main intention for "Target Games" is to send away an object to make contact with a specific stationary target in fewer attempts than the opponent. The main concept for this category of games is the sending away aspect and the skills that should be emphasized is the drive, release and deliver. Some examples of a target game could be archery, bocce ball, bowling, croquet, curling, darts, golf and pool.

The second game category described in this model is "Striking Games". The main intention for "Striking Games" is to place the ball far away from fielders in order to run all of the bases and score more runs than the opponents. The main concepts for this game are the placement of the ball in the field, decision making, covering bases and base running. Skills that should be emphasized in this game category are striking, body positioning, hand positions on bat, observation, listening, receiving, throwing, sprinting, ready position, moving sideways, and sliding. Some examples of "Striking Games" are baseball, cricket, kickball, and softball.

The third game category described in the model is "Net/Wall Games". The main intention of these type of games is to send the ball  back to the opponent so that they are unable to return it back or are forced to make and error. The only time that the ball is held, is when someone is serving. The concepts that should be inferred are spatial awareness, positioning on court, position of body, trajectory, depth and angles. The skills that are emphasized in this type of game are throwing, catching on bounce, volley, serving, receiving serve, running, stopping, changing directions, balance, footwork, hitting the ball, hitting with specific force, lob shot, drop shot, spin shots, drives, digs, control of racquet, angle of racquet, forehand and backhand. Some examples of "Net/Wall Games" are badminton, pickle-ball, tennis, volleyball, racquetball and squash.   

 

 

The fourth game category described in the model is "Invasion/Territorial Games". The main intention of this game category is to invade the opponents defending area to score a goal while at the same time, trying to protect your own goal. The concepts that should be associated with this type of game is divided up into Defensive and Offensive Concepts. Some offensive concepts are, keeping possession, penetration and invasion. Some defensive concepts are, zoning, defending players in an area, defending a specific player and transition. Skills that should be attained playing these type of games are sending, receiving, travelling, passing, dodging, change of speeds, running in different directions, footwork, peripheral vision and quick change of direction. Some examples of this type of game category are basketball, field/ice hockey, lacrosse, football, rugby, soccer and ultimate Frisbee. 

 

 

A tactical problem is a game plan or tactic that does not work and will need to be changed in order to meet the specific needs of the moment. A tactical problem that could arise in a target game would be the inability to throw the bowling ball straight. Therefore, the person having difficulty will have to go back and take a look at their release tactic of the ball in order to correct the accuracy of their throw. A tactical problem in net/wall games could be the inability to overhand serve the volleyball. The individual will have to breakdown the specifics of skill and figure out which they are performing incorrectly. A tactical problem that could occur in a striking game would be the inability to hit the ball far out into the field. A person having difficulty in this would have to consider where they are hitting the ball on the bat or how their body is angled and try to figure out how they could change this problem. A tactical problem that could arise with invasion territory games is the inability to maintain ball possession on offense. The player or players having trouble with this will have to each look at individual tactics that could be contributing to this tactical problem.

 



 

PE Games

The first game that I found for elementary aged children is a game called:

 

Not in my Backyard!

The equipment that you would need for this game is:

• A LOT of Foam Balls (make sure they are soft and not too hard)

The first thing that you would need to do is divide the students up into two teams. Have one team at one end of the gym, and the other team on the other side of the gym. Line up the foam balls on a middle line in the gym. Once each team is ready, yell GO! Each team will than run to the middle line to grab the balls. The goal of this game is not to hit the other players on the other team but try to get all the balls off of their side of the gym and onto the other teams side of the gym. When the instructor yells STOP! Everyone must stop throwing the balls and count how many balls are on their side of the court (in their backyard). The team with the least amount of balls (or junk) in their "back yard" wins!

The second game that I had found for elementary aged children was called:

 

Moon Monster!

 

There is no equipment needed for this game. The teacher will secretly pick out the student who will be the "moon monster". The student will not know that they are the moon monster.The teacher keeps this a secret so that the other students do not know who the moon monster is. The teacher will than gather the class and start giving hints to the class of who the "moon monster" is. The teacher could say hints like "The moon monster is a girl!" or "The moon monster is wearing a red shirt!" The class will than try to guess who the "moon monster" is. Each time the students guess incorrectly who the "moon monster" is, the teacher adds to the "moon monster" description. When the students guess correctly, the teacher will than say, "The Moon Monster IS Melissa!" Then Melissa will have to try to tag everybody in the class. When the students get tagged by the moon monster they freeze. After a while of playing with one moon monster the teacher can call everyone back into the centre circle and repeat the process of picking a moon monster.

 

A game for high school students that I found that I thought would be interesting is called:

 

Body Part Freeze Tag!

 

This game does not need any equipment. This game is a variation of the popular tag game freeze tag. In this variation of the freeze tag game, the teacher must designate two players who will be "it." The players who are "it" must go and tag the other players and freeze whatever parts of their bodies they have touched. If they tag someones leg, that person must hop on one leg. If they tag the person's arm, the person cannot use their arm again.

A second game for high school students that I had found was the popular game called:

Ultimate Frisbee!

 

This game would need:

• a Frisbee
• 2 goals (like hockey nets) 
• 2 sets of different coloured pinnies for each of the teams

 

The instructor will than divide the class up into 2 teams. One team will be one colour of pinnie, and the other team will be the other colour of pinnie. The two goals will be set up on each end of the gym. The object of the game is to try and get the Frisbee into the opposing teams goal. However, you are only allowed to take 2 steps with the Frisbee than you must pass the Frisbee. You can do long passes or short passes. If you drop the Frisbee it is than given to the opposing team. This game encourages students to run a great deal and gives nearly every student an opportunity to throw or catch the Frisbee. To make the game less challenging, you could eliminate the use of a goal and just make a goal line. So once the Frisbee is caught across the goal line, the team receives a point.

 







Competition vs Cooperation

 

 

I do agree that cooperation should be emphasized more than competition but I do not agree that it is better than competition. To me, better means that something is more superior to others. Like if something is better than something else it should be emphasized more than things that are considered not as good.  I definitely do agree that children at a young age should learn how to work together with one another in order to achieve a common goal, and be rewarded once they have achieved that goal by working with others. However, I think some degree of competition is acceptable while working with children as long as it is integrated at the right time and monitored closely by the educator. The educator needs to make sure that the major emphasis is not only on the competition aspect itself of who comes in first, second, third or last, but the aspect of working together with others in order to succeed is the real goal.

So, yes I think there can be a healthy balance between cooperation and competition as long as it is monitored right by an educator who knows which should be emphasized more and when competition should be introduced. The educator needs to be able to identify, that it can be great when someone comes in first, but it can be even more of an achievement when someone helps another person succeed in activity, even if they do come in last.

In some ways, competition can increase self esteem but I can also agree that it can decrease self esteem as well. That is why there needs to be an incorporation of more friendly competitions. More competitions are needed, where the main goal is to not come in first, but to have the enjoyment of playing against others in a friendly atmosphere; where the main goal is fun and being with others, not who comes in first or last.

 

Like most things in life, I do agree there is a time and a place for competition. Take an elementary track meet for example, or a high school basketball tournament. Having competitions like these allows for children to set goals of their own and work towards trying achieving those goals later on in their lives. If children have had healthy competitions in the past where the major emphasis is not only winning, competitions throughout the rest of their childhood and teen years can actually be a positive experience for them rather than a negative one.

 

 

Games, Relays & Contests....

The first website that I had found was a website called Fun and Games.

This website offered a variety of different games all in on one web page. It not only had games that were centred around physical activity, which would be a great tool for physical education classes, but it also had games that didn't involve a lot of physical activity. Games that could be played in the classroom for other subjects and games that did not need a large space to play the games. I liked this website because it categorised all the games that it had under different links that you could click on. Having organised the website like this, would make it much easier for a teacher, camp counsellor or even a parent, to find the exact type of game they were looking for.

The second website I had found was a website based from a TV show called Zoom.

I thought I would include a website like Zoom because it was really geared toward children. It is a website linked to a TV show that is for kids, I even remember watching this TV show growing up and playing the games that they featured on each show. This website not only had an array of different type of games for children to chose from, but was super appealing to youth. The bright colours, the funky design of the website all made it a fun visual, which children really enjoy. I think that having a website that is appealing to kids and shows kids different types of activities they can play with their friends is a great tool for them to initiate their own participation in physical activity. Like the first website I found as well, this website is not limited to only physically active games. It listed other games like mind games and word games for children to chose from. Even though this website was geared towards children, I think this website could be a useful tool for educators to use as a resourcce for games.

The third website I had found was a website called Daily Physical Activity.

 

 

 

This website I think would be a great tool for physical education educators because it lists a variety of different games in alphabetical order. I also thought that having a search bar on this website would also be handy for teachers looking for a specific game or needing to look up some rules for a certain game. This website however, is definitely geared toward an adult audience. It is definitely not as bright and colourful as the previous website I had found. So, I think if children were to come upon this website they would not be too impressed by it. I also thought this website was a pretty good one because the number of different games it provided. The list that was provided on the website, had links for games starting with the letter A to the letter Z (the game list actually only went to the letter W, but still that's a large database of games to have!).

 

 

Finally, I had found this clip on YouTube of a polar bear going to the gym. If a polar bear attempts to go to the gym, I think everyone else can make that attempt!

 



 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Self Motivated and Self Directed Games

The first game that my group had developed needed 5 hula hoops, 5 hockey sticks and 1 indoor hockey ball. For this game, each person needed to have a hula hoop and a hockey stick. Four of the students would position their hula hoop about 3 meters away from each other and in the shape of a square and the fifth person would position their hula hoop in the very center of the 4 other hula hoops. Like so:

 

 

Each person would then grab their hockey sticks and stand inside one of the 5 hula hoops. The 4 students standing in the outer 4 hula hoops, would begin to pass the hockey ball amongst each other. The object of the game would be for the center person to try and intercept the passes from the 4 outside people and the 4 outside people would try to keep their passes away from the center person. The people in the outer hula hoops would have to keep both feet in at all times, while the middle person could have one foot out of the hula hoop and one foot inside the hula hoop.

 

 

If the middle person intercepted the pass between two people from an outside hula hoop the person to last touch the ball would than switch places with the person in the middle. If a person from one of the outside hula hoops had a bad pass to another person resulting in them having to step out of their hula hoop to retrieve the ball, the person who did the bad pass would have to switch places with the person in the middle.

This game I think would be a good game for children in grades 2 - 3, because it helps teach children hand eye coordination and does not require the pressure of much movement when doing it. A modification I think could be done to this game, would be to add another ball when passing amongst each other. Or by adding more players by making the playing area larger and adding more players on the outside and another person in the middle trying in intercept.

 

Another game that my group came up with needed  some cloth potato sacks, 2 hula hoops, some plastic paddles and a foam ball. The paddles that we used were like ping pong paddles but larger and plastic. To begin this game you will need to divide your group into two teams. (You wouldn’t want any more than 5 people per team so that everyone would get an equal amount of playing time, so the number of participants you had would determine the number of teams you would get.) In our group we had an odd number of people so for this game we played boys versus girls, which worked out to be 2 versus 3.

 

Once everyone was divided into 2 teams, the 2 hula hoops were positioned about 7 meters away from each other. The 2 hula hoops were the goals in the game. Each team had to try to get the foam ball into the opposing team’s hula hoop. You could hit the foam ball on the ground, using the paddle like a stick, you could bounce the ball on the paddle or you could balance the ball on the paddle. You could only move the ball along with the paddle, players could not use any other body part to try and get the ball to the goal. All players must also be in a cloth potato sack.

 

Players may hop, shuffle or slide around, as long as both feet remain in the potato sack. To begin the game, the 2 teams had to be divided by a line and 1 player from each team would join in the middle to do a face off. Once the instructor yells “GO!” the foam ball is on the ground and the 2 players would face off and try and get the foam ball to their teammates and into the opposing teams hula hoop. 

This game I think would be a good game for children in grades 5 - 6 because, it does require strong hand eye coordination and balance. A good modification for this game would be to limit how you can move the ball. Either players could balance or bounce or hit the ball not all 3 choices. By limiting the ways that players could move the ball to the goals, adds a certain degree of difficulty to the game.

 

 

With each of these games, the main goal that we aimed to achieve was team work and equal participation. These games aimed to include every person in the activites and that they all had the same amount of playing time. However, the skill that these 2 games aimed to work on was, hand eye coordination. With the amount of passing that needed to go on, in either a stationary or non stationary position, these games needed correct passing amongst teammates in order for the team to succeed.

I personally enjoyed working together in groups to try and figure out new games. It was great having everyones input on your ideas, or just adding in their own ideas to make up a game. My group worked very well together, listening to each other and trying out whatever others came up with as a group. The one thing I thought was challenging was the amount of time we had to acctually come up with a game. The one station that was the most challenging was the one that had all the bean bags and the giant rubber bands. With only 6 minutes to create a fun game that included everybody proved to be a fun and exciting challenge!

Teaching Philosophy

 

When it comes to teaching elementary school children games and activities, my teaching philosophy would be to make sure to include an emphasis on a fun atmosphere, the importance of safety, and respect for one another.

I believe that it is important to include fun as a teaching philosophy in a child’s physical education class because it is important that kids learn how to interact with one another in a joyous atmosphere. Children can learn that games and activities, like in a physical education class, can be a fun time that they can interact with friends and also make new friends in the process. I also think that it is important to make sure children are having fun because children need to have that positive experience of playing games and activities at an early age. That positive experience that children have progresses on to becoming a positive memory for them. We need children to have positive memories such as having fun playing games and activities in physical education as they progress through school, so that these children will continue to be active throughout their lives and not be intimidated to participate in such activities.

I also believe that is important to include the importance of safety when teaching children games and activities because it allows for children to become aware of safety for not only themselves but for others as well. Having safety as a philosophy while playing games and activities teaches children boundaries of what is safe and not safe behaviour. By allowing children to realize and learn what safe behaviour is in games and activities, allows for the children to incorporate safe behaviour outside of the games and activities and into their everyday lives.

The third philosophy that I believe to be important when teaching games and activities to children is respect. I believe that by having children participate in games and activities with one another allows for children to learn how to interact with one another through teamwork. Children may come to realize that they may not like everyone on their team for a game or activity, but will realize that they still need to include one another and work together with everyone in order to succeed. This teaches children that they need to be kind to one another and not exclude people from participating. Also, with having a strong philosophy of respect, I believe respect becomes especially important when the children are actually participating in the games and activities. Children will need to learn through many games to respect other children and especially their personal space. For children, learning respect can be as simple as listening to their peers, following directions from the teacher or even playing the game fairly. Children could learn to respect each other’s space by learning how to properly tag each other in freeze tag or by passing the ball to everyone on their team in basketball. By learning respect for other people through games and activities that they play, children will learn behaviour that should be demonstrated toward others.