6. Reading, Writing, and Oral Communication

Rationale: This was a lesson plan that I wrote and taught at Coal City Elementary School called "Frog Pond." The game was similar to that of musical chairs but with a physical education spin. There were two or three less hula-hoops as there were students spread out in the center of the gym "lily pads" in the "frog pond." Students were given a locomotor movement to use as the frogs to travel around the gym. The students would continue going around the gym until I said "ribbit ribbit." At which time they had to go to the pond and get on a lily pad. The students who were left came up to the board and chose the next locomotor movement but they had to full in the blank and read the following sentence; "Little frogs, little frogs please ______________(locomotor movement) off of my lily pads."

It is important to incorporate literacy within the disciplines. Getting students moving and reading is a great accomplishment. The teacher needs to be on board with inspiring students to read. Reading is a huge part of everything that we do.

This lesson was a great way to get our students reading in PE. I learned that little things like this can make those cross connections in the brain and improve students learning by ten fold. Knowing that the PE teacher and English teacher are working together also creates an improved environment for learning.

Rationale: This activity was complete in my Adult Literacy Course. We were required to find a young adult novel and share this with the class. We also wrote up some questions that we could/would use if we were to use this book as part of our curriculum.

Having multiple options of books that students can read is always beneficial to creating a learning environment. As teachers we can get these ideas for books from each other and introduce them to our students. The content in the books may be so interesting that you inspire a student to go get the book and pick it up to read.

In this course I learned that as a PE teacher, health teacher, and possible future coach, I can use books to make connections to the content through literacy. There is nothing wrong with having studnets read a book on their free time that connects to the curriculum in some way. This is also a great way to improve the value of physical education. Students also do not just have to read books, there are options for gaining information through articles, podcasts, and of media forms. The goal is to get students inspired to use literacy to gain knowledge.