By Matthew Basset
As physical education teachers, it is often our goal to maximize movement time for students. Ideally, we would like to have one piece of equipment for every student. Sometimes, this is difficult and thinking outside the box can help with this dilemma. Using additional equipment can help maximize students’ movement times.
Recently, I completed a scooter board lesson with my elementary students. I had one scooter board for every two students. The students who were not on the scooter boards were standing around and started to become off task. I pulled out some jump ropes during the class to help with my classroom management. While half of the students were off on scooter boards, their partners were jumping rope. This cut down on students being off task and they were not bored waiting their turns.
There are four benefits for splitting activities with your classes.
1. Maximize participation. The split allows you to deal with limited equipment or limited space. As group A is working, group B is working in a different area with different equipment. Since most people don’t have enough equipment for everyone to be working at the same time we have to modify our activities. Having students wait their turn can be unproductive. Adding a secondary task helps them become more active during class time.
2. Keep idle hands busy. I have found that students who are required to be patient soon find opportunities to keep themselves occupied in less than desirable ways. Giving a secondary task allows those students to focus their attention on the activity instead of doing something that makes me want to take early retirement. Those hands are no longer idle and they stay on task more often.
3. Focus on Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity (MVPA). This is an easy way to incorporate another standard into your lesson. For me, having the kids jump rope while they were not on the scooter board helped them keep their heart rates up. The students didn’t have time to relax and cool down. I even had students comment on the fact that sweating was such a bad thing. This “teachable moment” allowed me to explain the sweating mechanism. Spending lesson time on MVPA activities is sometimes difficult. By adding a secondary activity, like jump rope, it allows me to help focus my students on their heart rates and keeping their heart rates up during class.
4. Review. Secondary activities can also be used to review an activity that was previously taught. For me, jump rope was an activity that I’ve already taught. I was able to review my expectations for the students and they already understood what they needed to accomplish. I was able to give minimal instructions before allowing the students to start the activities.
With a little work and extra preparation you can easily add more movement time into your classes. Use your equipment and space to maximize your student movement. Try to find ways to add in extra movement to get students MVPA.