| I don’t know about you, but sometimes my head spins when I look at my state standards for physical education. Even when reduced to performance indicators or “benchmarks," I still have some trouble figuring out how to match my activities, exercises and skills to the appropriate standards. Sometimes my activities match up with every single state standard.
For instance, how about this one:
“Consistently uses basic manipulative skills initial form alone, with a partner, and in small groups.” (Standard 4,6,9 12)
Or, here’s another:
“Use basic movement concepts related so space, time, effort and relationships.” (Standards 1,2,3,4,5,6)
One more:
“Students apply movement concepts and principles to the learning and development of motor skills.” (Standards 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9)
In my second year of teaching physical education (15 years ago), the head of our department stated one of the standards something like this:
“Students need to move at multiple levels, sizes and shapes at various speeds, moving through space and time gracefully.”
Now, I don’t begrudge this fine lady who had her PhD in Physical Education. Until now, she was the finest physical education teacher I have ever met.
But, I want to confess something here. I’m not the smartest human being in the land, or in the gym, the court, and field. I would prefer to read benchmarks that I can immediately visualize and am able to assess as immature, maturing, or mature. If you don’t know what I mean, let me give you an example. The Jumping Jack is one. Now I can see a jumping jack in my mind. I can also see the forward roll, a punt, or a curl-up.
My students try hard to pass the annual physical fitness test. Why? I think it is because it is very clear. At the age of 13, girls and boys must do a certain number of pull-ups or run the mile in a set time for their age group. They try because the goal is clear. It is black and white.
So, why can’t we make it so black and white with other physical skills? If it is something that can not be measured in time or number, like the jumping jack, we can always put together rubrics for when a student has mastered a skill or is on the way to doing so.
I would be ecstatic to see physical education standards that are hard and fast and easily measured. And my guess is that students would try harder to pursue mastery over easy to understand skill sets for their age group.
I haven’t yet found that clearly stated physical education skill progressions guide for age groups that allows us to easily measure student progress. I’ll bet it’s out there somewhere. If you know where I can find it, please let me know. Spending a great deal of time looking through various states’ physical education standards, I certainly can’t find it at the state level. They’re just too vague for me and many of the standards are in such a grey area. If we are to really be accountable to our students and community, we must be able to easily assess student performance.
At this time, I can go to my principal at the end of the year and say that students indeed passed state standard #4: “Students enjoy physical participation.” The funny thing is, my principal doesn’t even get up in arms asking me how to prove this, other than possibly using student surveys. Is this what they call the soft bigotry of low expectations?
Shouldn’t students have mastered the jumping jack by the time they leave the primary years? I think students should be able to perform a forward roll by the time they leave elementary school. I also think that by the time students leave middle school; they should be able to kick a soccer goal from 50 feet out. Yet, there really is no accountability to have students master these skills because I have yet to see a hard and fast state standard that says so. I think that from K-12, there’s probably a couple hundred easily measured skills that students should master, maybe more, maybe less. If it’s clearly written in black and white, I think students may even be motivated by it.
Am I the only one who feels this way?
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