Diana Colucci is a student in the Health and Physical Education, Concurrent Teacher Education Program at the University of Toronto. Diana was asked to reflect on a research article that guides or influences her practice. She was kind enough to share her work with us:
Reflection: Connecting Research to Practice
By Diana Colucci
By Diana Colucci
“The primary focus of this curriculum is on helping students develop a commitment and a positive attitude to lifelong healthy active living and the capacity to live satisfying, productive lives.” This quote is taken from the 1999 Health and Physical Education (HPE) Curriculum guidelines for the Healthy Active Living(HAL) course (pg. 2). I was familiar with this focus but this year I learned a term that encompassed all aspects of this objective, physical literacy.
“Individuals who are physically literate move with competence in a wide variety of physical activities that benefit the development of the whole person. Physically literate individuals consistently develop the motivation and ability to understand, communicate, apply, and analyze different forms of movement.They are able to demonstrate a variety of movements confidently, competently, creatively and strategically across a wide range of health related physical activities. These skills enable individuals to make healthy active choices throughout their life span that are both beneficial to and respectful of themselves, others, and their environment. ” (Mandigo, Francis, Lodewyk, & Lopez, 2009)
Physical literacy sums up the goal of educators in delivering HPE programs. It brings a greater meaning to the program and emphasizes outcomes leading to an increased quality of life, a lifelong commitment to physical activity, and prepares students to be physically active outside of the context of school.
Termertzoglou (2010) published an article that outlined what a physical literacy HPE program looks like and explained how to administer such a program. In his article, Termertzoglou spoke to his experience in implementing the program through this lens and the outstanding outcomes he achieved. By involving parents, the scope of teaching was widened to educate more than just the students, and provided opportunity to work together with the parents to include and empower more than one generation of individuals. Termertzoglou’s article serves to be an inspiration to physical educators everywhere and an exemplar for administering a HPE program.
Termertzoglou (2010) published an article that outlined what a physical literacy HPE program looks like and explained how to administer such a program. In his article, Termertzoglou spoke to his experience in implementing the program through this lens and the outstanding outcomes he achieved. By involving parents, the scope of teaching was widened to educate more than just the students, and provided opportunity to work together with the parents to include and empower more than one generation of individuals. Termertzoglou’s article serves to be an inspiration to physical educators everywhere and an exemplar for administering a HPE program.
During my internship and practicum I learned about the audience I am teaching, the students. I learned that each group of students will be different and as the teacher, I need to get to know my students, find out what their interests are, and used differentiated instruction and assessment to motivate and engage every student. I also tried to use every opportunity I had to covey to my students what I felt was important, physical literacy; promoting physical activity and health.
In the weight room portion of my grade nine girls HAL course, during practicum, I created an assignment to give students an opportunity to collaborate and create a book of at home exercises that could be done without any equipment, so students could have the information and resources to be active individually at home. For this assignment students were partnered up, assigned a muscle of their choice, and encouraged to think about how the muscle works when they were creating an exercise. Giving students the information they need to be independently active is what physical literacy is all about.
In the weight room portion of my grade nine girls HAL course, during practicum, I created an assignment to give students an opportunity to collaborate and create a book of at home exercises that could be done without any equipment, so students could have the information and resources to be active individually at home. For this assignment students were partnered up, assigned a muscle of their choice, and encouraged to think about how the muscle works when they were creating an exercise. Giving students the information they need to be independently active is what physical literacy is all about.
As an educator, providing opportunities for my students to develop as physically literate individuals and seeing the response from them as they are empowered is like a fire inside me. In the weight room example, when I heard my students talk about working out at home with their family members using the new resource we created, I broke a smile that I couldn’t get rid of, because this is what it’s all about. As a teacher candidate in the HPE field I look forward to graduating and having a class of my own with the opportunity to continue to share this message and administer a program that hopefully reaches all of my students.
The best part of it, after experiencing it, is knowing that I can! I returned to my practicum school in April for parent teacher interviews and got to speak with some of my students and their parents. A couple of the students and parents shared with me that they/their daughter was never the athletic type but enjoyed the grade nine HAL course so much they’ve chosen to take the grade ten course! I spoke to the vice‐principal that night after the interviews to learn that so many students have registered for the grade ten HAL course that they had to shuffle around the timetable to accommodate all of the students. This showed that the program the department was delivering (with three OISE student teachers at that time) was a superb HPE program.
The best part of it, after experiencing it, is knowing that I can! I returned to my practicum school in April for parent teacher interviews and got to speak with some of my students and their parents. A couple of the students and parents shared with me that they/their daughter was never the athletic type but enjoyed the grade nine HAL course so much they’ve chosen to take the grade ten course! I spoke to the vice‐principal that night after the interviews to learn that so many students have registered for the grade ten HAL course that they had to shuffle around the timetable to accommodate all of the students. This showed that the program the department was delivering (with three OISE student teachers at that time) was a superb HPE program.
This summer I am volunteering to coach my sisters little league soccer team, an under five co‐ed team. I played soccer growing up and was coached by my father who had little experience in developing children in the physical realm, the background of many house league coaches. I look forward to this experience and opportunity to work with this group of children and create and deliver a program that will serve to develop their physical literacy. This experience may be the first exposure to sport or organized sport that these children have, which makes it all the more important for it to be a positive experience. With one more year of university education to complete, for the time being this will serve to be my outlet to share what I know with young individuals to promote a healthy active lifestyle.
Bibliography
Mandigo, J., Francis, N., Lodewyk, K., & Lopez, R. (2009). Physical Litearcy for Educators. Physical and Health Education , 27‐30.
Ministry of Education and Training. (1999). The Ontario Curriculum Grades 9 and 10 Health and Physical Education. Government of Ontario.
Temertzoglou, T. (2010). Physical Literacy: Teach Them to Fish, Feed Them for Life. Physical and Health Education , 36‐39.
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