Complete Physical Education Plans for Grades 5 to 12, 2nd edition
Description: Book/CD 872 pages
Price: regular price: $54
Author: Isobel Kleinman

Reviewer: Ted Scheck

Where, oh where, was this book years ago when I started teaching and writing lesson plans? I don’t know how you feel about this ‘type’ of book, and by ‘type’ I mean someone else’s long, hard, arduous work as a professional in the field of Wellness/Physical Education (the tippy-top of the large mountain that is the field of P.E. and all its various slopes and pathways) compiled into one massive volume.

I will tell you how I feel about this book: Fitness is completely covered as well as FitnessGram norms, and something I was unfamiliar with - The New York State Physical Fitness Norms - which I am dying to research and find more about. I got excited when I read something new that I want to try with my squids next week. Fitness Testing is covered. Rubrics litter this book like paper at the side of a rest stop. There are rubrics everywhere.

Dance and Educational Gymnastics is thoroughly covered. And then we get to the 8 team sports and 6 individual sports. We should collaborate and share ideas - us Wellness/PE People - and that is what this extraordinarily talented writer does. She shares decades of her own experience, trial and error, and wealth of knowledge into one giant compilation of lesson plans. How do I feel about this book? I wish I’d bought it when it first came out.

Treat this book like the frame and foundation for your house. Good, solid frame, good materials to work with, and good craftsmanship, and you’ve got yourself a house that will last. The house in the analogy could be you, the beginning teacher, or the student you’re trying to encourage to put down those chips and grab his/her sneaks and a ball or racquet, head to a nearby park. Get out there and be healthy and have fun. This book is huge - nearly 900 pages long, with nearly everything you see in the book on the CD-ROM for you to print.

Not a negative, but an ‘Oh Darn’ in that copyrighted material cannot be cut and pasted, so when I tried to do that, to insert the PDF files into Microsoft Word, it would not allow me. I understand the legality here, but it would be nice. Soon, Wellness teachers within Indianapolis public schools will be submitting their lesson plans on an online program, and I was hoping to be able to cut/paste, but alas, no. I’ll have to do my lesson plans the old-fashioned way - by hard dedicated and concentrated effort. This book has pre-packaged lesson plans that make that job a little easier.

I took one lesson on upper-body muscular strength, and modified it to suit my own personality and my own high-ability students. If that lesson was a house then, in thirty minutes, my 4th graders and I got a pretty good house built. I added equipment, a gym, music by Michael Jackson (his music is soaring in popularity - play some and see if I’m right) and the house practically built itself. My principal watched this lesson (‘observed’ being the correct term), and he was impressed with the lesson.

Buy these books. It’s one book, on the surface, but behind the back flap lies another fabulous resource: the CD-ROM. Get a laser printer. Take the time to print on both sides of the paper. Get one of those hole punch-out thingys that turn a bunch of white 8.5"x11" paper into a binder. Oh, get a thick binder. Print ‘em off. Organize them. Add your own sugar and spice and everything nice that makes your teaching you. I’m mixing metaphors and analogies but we’re talking about food, so it’s okay. You will have with you one great resource, the book, and your own spin on that one great resource - A frame for the house that will be your successful PE/Wellness teaching career.