“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn”
– Benjamin Franklin
This is to become my transparent and accountable partner in crime, as I test ideas centering around student agency. As a specialist subject teacher, time with my enthusiastic young learners is unfortunately short and infrequent. It is my hope that in fostering student agency as a central theme, my lessons will serve as the building blocks to meaningful and productive learning experiences throughout the entire day, week and year. Experiences that will allow students to take ownership of their learning while developing essential transferable life skills.
So, where am I thus far…
Starting Class ~ Inquiry Based Warm Ups
Until very recently, students would always enter the gym and sit down to greet me and await instructions. This simple routine alone can potentially take 5 to 10 minutes! I’m so fortunate to teach a popular subject, however this translates to pure energy and excitement. Despite my efforts so far just having the class pipe down so they can know what’s going on is quite time consuming. Provided that classes actually arrive on time (and don’t have to leave early), this leaves about 30 minutes remaining.
Several weeks ago, grades 1 through 5 each spent one lesson discussing what I have come to call an ‘Inquiry Based Warm Up’ and from then on, been in charge. Unit specific equipment is available in the centre of the gym and upbeat music is pumping through the sound system, as the students enter they collect what they need, then begin to warm up as they see fit. This may be in the form of a simple drill on their own, some form of partner work, or a group game. In some instances I’ve seen classes organise themselves into a familiar game where everyone has been included and ‘on the ball’, pun intended.
In our most recent Net Games unit, several of the students requested to design a skills checklist that can be available on the whiteboard during the Inquiry Based Warm Up. Something to allow them to keep track of their progress and have ideas on what to work on next. This idea will hopefully evolve into a Personal Excellence challenge board for a variety of skills, but let’s save that for another post.
As for my Early Years learners I’m having much more difficulty stepping back and giving them more ownership of their PE experience. These classes begin with a formal routine of entering the gym, sitting to greet the teacher and usually, going through the motions of modeling our first activity which is usually in the form of a game. Being much less experienced with Early Years learners the structure and routine is almost like a form of safety net. There is of course always time alloted for inquiry and agency, however I’ve struggled to start off in this way.
So What’s Next? ~ Unit Flow Chart
I recently designed a Unit Flow Chart in the form of a board game. With this I hope to involve students in every step of the unit planning process. Starting each new unit with a provocation to get everyone thinking, the learners can take charge and decide what we need to learn and in what order. Once we have a simple plan created, each lesson (after the Inquiry Based Warm Up) will enter into a class discussion reviewing what we have talked about and learnt so far, and where we need to go from here. This approach will allow not only for agency to be the central component but also for differentiation, in the way individuals go about their learning.
The Unit Flow Chart will allow us as a class, to track where we have started and monitor our progress over the course of 6-8 weeks. It will also provide an interesting comparison between the other classes of that grade. In a Striking and Fielding Unit for example, one class may choose to focus primarily on striking while the other class explores fielding in more depth. Bringing the two classes together for a friendly match of Cricket or T-Ball for example, would allow for some fantastic pre and post game conversations.
A 70/30 split for example may be a good starting point, providing 70% of lesson time… no let’s say overall unit time, to student agency and 30% for a more teacher directed input. My input will most likely be in the form of one to one / small group instruction, and activity suggestions to challenge their developing skills in meaningful ways.
Stay tuned for more 🙂