Among the units being assessed are: Individual Pursuits II for EC 4/5, Adventure Challenge for EC 5/6, a gymnastics unit for Grade 1s, a dance unit and a games unit for Grade 2s and Health-Related Fitness and Individual Pursuits for Grade 3s. At the beginning of the year, I created a PYP Programme of Inquiry and a schedule for when we teach the different units. (I don't teach Grade 4 so I've not included them in my post about assessment.) It's been a really helpful tool to help organize us (mainly me) for the year and so I know what's coming up - of course, there were mishaps (as with any schedule) so it's not completely accurate to how/what we've taught this year! I'm looking forward to doing next year's plan soon so that I can add in some activities that worked really well (such as wii just dance recordings on YouTube for dance) while they're still fresh in mind. Speaking of freshness, I've been busy working on PYP planners for PE (it's my mission to get them done before I leave) so they've occupied me from 'blogging' on a more regular basis; I'll be sure to post one when I figure out which one is best!
So, back on track, assessments:
The EC 4/5 group this year has been a challenge for me to teach. Last year, they were my favourite group, they were the best listeners, they were on the ball and awesome. This year hasn't been quite the same experience. There is a higher boy:girl ratio so most of the time, I find myself dealing with boy on boy fight action. For this unit (individual pursuits part 2), I taught them some ball and racquet skills but when they requested the floor hockey sticks, how could I refuse? We have benchmarks (that need to be revisited, I feel) for the different age groups and the units so I refer to this but for the most part, I stick to verbal self-assessments with these guys.
The EC 5/6 group is doing my favourite unit of all units but because of bad weather (and their unpreparedness for the weather) we didn't have so many chances to go outside and explore in nature. For this unit, I like to set up scavenger hunts along with other outdoor team relays, activities and games; I still focused on these but in an indoor space which was quite small as the big gyms tend to be in use during my classes (the joys of a cross school department). The assessment task for this will be a choice of smiley faces to circle regarding how students thought they worked in teams, how many people they worked best with and a check box for the team activity they liked best and I make note of how well I thought they worked in the teams - this is an important unit for social skills and it's something that really needs to be emphasized in PE, in my opinion!
For gymnastics with my Grade 1s, I've been team teaching with a colleague which has been very helpful to ensure safety but also to maximize the stations that students can participate in. We also have two exceptional student helpers that help us out with doing these stations so we've been lucky - and the Grade 1 students reap the benefits. We had the students do a self-assessment of their skills (smiley faces to colour) and then we'll go on to look at their abilities and grade them ourselves sing the benchmarks that have been in place since before my arrival at MIS.
With the Grade 2s in their Games Unit, I'll be doing the same assessment that I did last year (and that I posted on here): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlCbSC0T-o4
I'm really excited to see what the kiddos come up with this week and I'll be sure to post a new video of their awesome games creations!
Because of a mess-up, my other Grade 2 class is doing their Movement Composition - Dance Unit which is meant to tie in with their "How We Express Ourselves" UoI and a performance (talent show) that they put on for the whole school and their parents. What I've been doing is playing sounds/music to evoke different emotions along with using an emotions booklet thing that I have. Students then take turns showing us dances/movements that are meant to represent different emotions and we guess what emotion is shown. At the end of the unit, and for 'assessment', we will choose four emotions as a class and create a sequence that we can then perform for the parents on the performance day.
Finally, with my Grade 3s, we worked on Fitness Appraisals for the first bit of the unit but then the rest was very inquiry-based as I asked them what activities they'd like to do - as long as their heartbeats were up and they were exploring different kinds of physical activity (conventional or not), then I was happy. We did a Zumba class, step aerobics, Judo and just played some other games (they love games) that had them working up a sweat. I haven't thought of an 'assessment' task for this though...but if they were participating, having fun and sweating, is that not assessment proof enough?
The other class doing basketball, demonstrated their understanding of skills as I went around with a checklist observing them. I have to note as well, I have a 3rd grade student who can hit 3-point shots (at least 1 in 10) which is pretty impressive!
And this is how my units are wrapping up this week BUT I've got some great resources to share that I'm keen to try for next year with assessing. I'm most keen to try the Easy Portfolio App (see here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZPbq_D355E) and work on getting digital portfolios set up for students with evidence from all their units right there for their parents and everyone to see.
Here's where I need your help! What sort of things are all you bloggers out there using to assess in PE? I'm excited and open to trying new things and hope that I can share some great ideas with you readers as well!
WOW! As I posted this, I just saw that http://www.iphys-ed.com/inquiry-in-pe.html has set up a blog sharing option for PE educators and I'm really hoping to learn a lot from those who are sharing on here...and to get some feedback on assessments that are happening in other schools! Awesome, awesome, awesome! :)
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