Common Core, Mass Customization, 21 st Century Learners, Physical Education and ……….S.P.A.R.K.

Common Core, Mass Customization, 21st Century Learners, Physical Education and ……….S.P.A.R.K. Dr. Patty Hacker South Dakota State University PETE Program AAHPERD National Convention, St. Louis, MO. Saturday, April 5, 2014

INTRODUCTION • Teaching is no longer just about passing on information and teaching skill. • It also is no longer acceptable to think that if you were an athlete you can teach. • Teaching has become a profession where those who are in the classroom working with students are expected to understand learning styles, integrate content from other subjects, use co-teaching strategies, customize learning for every student in the classroom when and where necessary, assess learning, and have a variety of other skills. • AND we have our K-12 National Standards to consider- and to meet one or more of in each lesson. • We should make sense of all this, sooner rather than later, so that we can continue to deliver quality lessons to our students. • So training new teachers has become quite complex!

Outcomes of this presentation • My goals for this session are: • Discuss how co-teaching strategies can be used to optimize planning/teaching/analyzing experiences of teacher candidates. • Look at the Common Core Standards (and Next Generation Science Standards) and 21 Century Learning Skills as tools to enhance meeting K-12 National Standards. • Look at Mass Customized Learning and what it means in physical education in terms of lesson preparation and assessment. • Look at materials that are already available to teachers and teacher candidates that will help make planning and teaching go more smoothly in terms of presentation and analysis.

Let’s start with Co-Teaching • You may be familiar with a list of the co-teaching strategies we teach to our teacher candidates and use in class. Candidates are required to use two of these in methods class, and also use these during student teaching with their cooperating teacher. Strategies • In elementary settings (one teacher), of course this would be, what, difficult? But how might you get one or more of these strategies to work? • In middle school and high school setting these are more easily implemented. How can that be accomplished?

Common Core Standards • The next web site is http://www.corestandards.org/read-the-standards/ (link). Each state that has adopted the Common Core has its own page similar to this, that delineates how the state interprets each standard. Here is South Dakota’s page, which is what we work with. (SDCC). Your state page probably looks much the same. • What is the goal? Rigorous content, application of knowledge through higher-order thinking skills, clear, understandable and consistent standards. • And all of this is research and evidence-based, just like our national standards.

To meet our national standards we have used content from other subjects; we teach math when working with heart rate monitors and step counters, we teach Newton’s Laws when teach trajectory of serves in volleyball and badminton, and when teaching about force when throwing a ball (NG science); we help teach reading when we have tasks cards at stations that students have to read, or letters that students have to put in order to make spelling words for language arts. • Lesson planning doesn’t need to change; we do get to add one more step, and that is to pair up a Common Core Standard (for example, teaching jump rope rhymes in a jump rope unit pairs with reading standards Foundational Skills Phonological Awareness, recognize and produce rhyming words). • And we do the same for the Next Generation Science Standards.

Partnership for 21stCentury Skillshttp://www.p21.org/about-us/p21-framework/259 • We all know that what we teach is about more than just performing physical skills. We are about physical literacy, and that includes health literacy- because we deal with health AND wellness as well as physical skill. • HEALTH LITERACY is one of the core components of the 21st Century Framework, which includes learning, understanding, interpreting and using information and services in ways that are health-enhancing. • That includes information that helps one make decisions about proper diet, nutrition and exercise, to make appropriate health-related decisions. • Partnership for 21st Century Skills has been around since 2002, but it isn’t as highly visible as Common Core and the Science Standards (21st. CentSkills).

Mass Customization- What is This? • How many of you have read the book Inevitable? In this book the authors talk about redefining education and schools so that every student is successful in a program that is tailored to that individual’s needs and desires. • So in physical education we would develop a program whereby each individual student has a program that is prepared just for that student. • This is VERY complex; in some ways we already do this. We create activities where students can select the ball they want to use and the level of the activity they want to work at. We create stations where students self-assess, working at a level where they feel they will be successful. • Can we do this for all students all the time?

Let’s recap: • Co-Teaching Strategies • Common Core Standards • Next Generation Science Standards • 21st Century Learners • Mass Customized Learning • NOW WHAT?

PreparingTeacher Candidates • There are SO many “things” they need to know, have to be able to do………. Or so I think! But what does it really boil down to? • They have to know about standards- PE, Common Core, Science, and maybe be aware of the Danielson Framework for assessing teaching. And they have to know something about classroom management and planning. • So they need to learn what it means to work smarter and not harder (I haven’t learned that yet………).

Lesson Planning • “Less is more” was my planning mantra when I started teaching- even though I was taught better. I wrote “games” in that block in my lesson plan book……. • Now, 43 years later, I can think through all kinds of options and scenarios in a flash- but I have developed those habits of mind- from years of writing detailed lesson plans that were NOT those of my first 6 years of teaching. And along the way I would like to believe I became a much better teacher. • And I utilized my resources! Canned curriculum used to be really, really bad, based on the author’s idea of what was fun and entertaining for students. They weren’t necessarily what we should have been using, for many reasons.

Resources • So, to those resources. What’s available now? Archery in the Schools, Fly Fishing in the Schools, USTA’s school program, and then you have Cochran’s A Teacher’s Guide to Elementary School Physical Education (now out of print, but an entire year’s curriculum in one binder), lesson plan books to accompany the major texts used for both elementary and secondary methods courses. • But the best, I think, is what I stumbled on a couple of years ago, looking for something to help students with lessons, so they could concentrate on co-teaching and not worry so much about all the creation of the lessons.

SPARK materials • Methods class is K-12, but the main focus is 7-12. • I was looking for something that teacher candidates would KEEP and use after class was over, and saw the SPARK materials at convention. The high school set was still in production, and what they called middle school was grades 3-6 (our elementary), so I picked up the SPARKfit to look at. And, I decided, HMMMMMM- I am going to try this! • I am not going to say it worked like a charm (logistics of how TCs purchase the materials have changed- I am a real witch about it) is a bit of a stretch, but it worked. And now we use the high school materials, and TCs are assigned a unit the first day of class that they are responsible for teaching the entire semester- and all their work goes to that unit, and part of the fitness ASAP as well.

What is Special about SPARK? • I am NOT selling SPARK! What I am saying is that the materials help TCs work smarter and not harder. The national standards are there; they add common core and science standards. Assessment is already there- peer assessment, teacher assessment (both formative and summative). They have a year membership to sparkfamily.org web site and ALL the supporting materials that are on that web site- and there is so much there that can supplement what they are doing, or that they can use to help them create something else or use as a springboard for an idea of their own. As a resource, for what it costs them, it is one really good financial investment. And it is the same for the elementary and middle school materials.

Back to Writing Lesson Plans • So when these TCs write their lesson plans, the majority of the writing is already completed. What they have to focus on are the parts that are specific to our program requirements- in other words, they do not recreate the wheel. But they do have to understand that just because part of the work is done for them they cannot skimp on the rest- they must complete the rest of the planning, and it has to be complete and well thought out. And if they don’t understand what that means I refer them to the SPARK plan to check out what it contains and what it is missing……………..

Assessment • Student assessment is built in; this can be found in all the units in the SPARK program. • Teacher assessment (assessment of teaching) we are working on! What are the student learning objectives? Did you meet them? What evidence do you have? • I have trouble getting TCs to think ahead of the game- in other words, what questions will you ask yourself to answer those three questions above? They are tied directly to your student learning objectives- that is your assessment. Maybe I need to find a different, better , other way to ask?

The End? • It will never be, because something else will come along. TCs are videoed, and they analyze that video. They also have to do a lesson reflection that responds to questions about their objectives as a teacher as well as objectives for student learning and how both were met. • But I am not sure I am doing what I should be doing – for them, to help them. As my mother always said “the proof is in pudding,” but she also said it all comes out in the wash. I want our students to be knowledgeable- but more than that I want them to be able to USE this information, to be fluent in it, comfortable with it (and we do start them earlier than methods!)

THANK YOU!

Common Core, Mass Customization, 21 st Century Learners, Physical Education and ……….S.P.A.R.K.