This week I entered into a discussion on twitter about increasing pupil engagement in PE. Twitter threads are not normally my thing but as it was something I had been meaning to write about for a while I thought it would be a good opportunity to get a little bit of external feedback on my thoughts.
At my previous school we had a significant number of students who were not engaged in PE. This was largely due to the family background of the students, as well as their prior experiences (many had come from a primary school which had been in special measures previously- this school had replaced PE lessons with additional literacy and numeracy sessions to enable it to improve- a whole other story I could spend a long time discussing!). Consequently many did not value PE, Sport or Physical Activity and did not see themselves as 'sporty' or 'active' individuals.
In order to combat this, my colleagues (I am in no way taking responsibility for this idea- it was brilliant and definitely not mine) came up with the idea of assessing students in lessons based on their effort levels. This was based on the principle that if students were working as hard as they could, not only could we ask no more of them but also the consequence would be that they *would* improve more (both in terms of their physical and cognitive ability) as they would be pushing themselves each lesson.
We often had very able students who would coast through specific lessons- if it wasn't their favourite activity for example- but would be able to achieve outcomes due to their natural talent rather than hard work. I had done as assembly with my year group on hard work vs. talent a few months before so this point especially resonated with me.
So, our Head of Department bought us all 4 highlighter pens and I created a sheet to record pupils effort each week. We used colours as it was simple and created a really easy way for pupils (and parents) to see how they were doing in lessons.
Green: Outstanding
Orange: Good
Yellow: Satisfactory
Pink: Concern (I ended up very rarely using this colour)
An example is included below-
With a significant number of pupils with English as an Additional Language (EAL) and parents who often did not speak much English at all, this was a great tool to communicate pupils' progress in lessons as well as being a good talking point for individuals during lessons.
The example above was for a Year 7 group who took to this approach very well and despite being a group of below average attainment in PE previously their progress over the course of the year increased markedly- so much so that my Head of Department, popping into my Badminton lesson to speak to me about something else remarked 'These girls have got so much better I think they're better than my boys now'. Additionally, many of the girls in this group went on to take part in extra-curricular clubs due to their change in attitude towards PE. A few even brought their parents straight to me at parent's evening as they were so keen for them to hear all of the good things I would say about them and to show them all of the green squares they had on their Attitude to Learning sheet.
I also included a couple of additions to my assessment of attitude to learning (AtL) in lessons, this was to reward those who consistently worked very hard (you can see a few on the sheet above) as well as to motivate those who may not otherwise stand out in class.
The first was to use postcards as a reward for consistently outstanding effort (3 lessons in a row, sometimes extended to 4 in a row if they had already had a postcard home that term). This worked surprisingly well - I think it is a technique underestimated by many teachers- and enabled parents to get feedback on how well their children were doing without having to wait for a parents evening.
The second was my choice of 'Legends' each lesson. These were 4 students who had done something particularly brilliant that lesson. I often tried to reward pupils for success in the three domains (Cognitive, Affective, Psychomotor) for things such as giving great answers to questions (or volunteering to answer one if they were normally shy), working well as a leader or coach, or successfully completing a skill they had been working hard on etc. This was very successful (it still is- I use it with my First and Second year students in Dance lectures and they still ask at the end each week who I have chosen!) as it enabled me to reward those who may not always stand out, as well as being a motivator for those who may have previously been disengaged during lessons. I was able to say quietly to them 'I want to give you a legend today so if you lead this group really well I can do that'. The only reward, other than legendary status, was to be first in the line to go and change and not have to help put any equipment away. A really simple addition to my lessons which had a really big impact.
Of course, attitude to learning is a very subjective method of assessing students and it requires you to teach in a way which allows you to really see what the students are doing in the lesson. We used the peer teaching model within our KS3 lessons which allowed me more time to identify which students were working hard and support those who may be struggling. It also relies on the curriculum being one which focuses on students' mastery of skills - this is particularly difficult given the tendency for schools to use data from KS2 tests to inform students target grades. Our students were often given very high targets (considering their starting point for PE) due to their English and Maths grades from year 6. This often created a contradiction for parents who saw the numbers on their child's report card as very low but the feedback from me was very positive. This often meant there was some confusion unless children or parents came to speak to me to ask why this had happened.
Overall, I would highly recommend using assessment including attitude to learning- not only does it increase motivation but it allows you to develop positive relationships with your pupils through rewarding them for their hard work and, in my experience has allowed students to change their perception of PE as a whole. If anyone would like to know more about this please let me know!
At my previous school we had a significant number of students who were not engaged in PE. This was largely due to the family background of the students, as well as their prior experiences (many had come from a primary school which had been in special measures previously- this school had replaced PE lessons with additional literacy and numeracy sessions to enable it to improve- a whole other story I could spend a long time discussing!). Consequently many did not value PE, Sport or Physical Activity and did not see themselves as 'sporty' or 'active' individuals.
In order to combat this, my colleagues (I am in no way taking responsibility for this idea- it was brilliant and definitely not mine) came up with the idea of assessing students in lessons based on their effort levels. This was based on the principle that if students were working as hard as they could, not only could we ask no more of them but also the consequence would be that they *would* improve more (both in terms of their physical and cognitive ability) as they would be pushing themselves each lesson.
We often had very able students who would coast through specific lessons- if it wasn't their favourite activity for example- but would be able to achieve outcomes due to their natural talent rather than hard work. I had done as assembly with my year group on hard work vs. talent a few months before so this point especially resonated with me.
So, our Head of Department bought us all 4 highlighter pens and I created a sheet to record pupils effort each week. We used colours as it was simple and created a really easy way for pupils (and parents) to see how they were doing in lessons.
Green: Outstanding
Orange: Good
Yellow: Satisfactory
Pink: Concern (I ended up very rarely using this colour)
An example is included below-
With a significant number of pupils with English as an Additional Language (EAL) and parents who often did not speak much English at all, this was a great tool to communicate pupils' progress in lessons as well as being a good talking point for individuals during lessons.
The example above was for a Year 7 group who took to this approach very well and despite being a group of below average attainment in PE previously their progress over the course of the year increased markedly- so much so that my Head of Department, popping into my Badminton lesson to speak to me about something else remarked 'These girls have got so much better I think they're better than my boys now'. Additionally, many of the girls in this group went on to take part in extra-curricular clubs due to their change in attitude towards PE. A few even brought their parents straight to me at parent's evening as they were so keen for them to hear all of the good things I would say about them and to show them all of the green squares they had on their Attitude to Learning sheet.
I also included a couple of additions to my assessment of attitude to learning (AtL) in lessons, this was to reward those who consistently worked very hard (you can see a few on the sheet above) as well as to motivate those who may not otherwise stand out in class.
The first was to use postcards as a reward for consistently outstanding effort (3 lessons in a row, sometimes extended to 4 in a row if they had already had a postcard home that term). This worked surprisingly well - I think it is a technique underestimated by many teachers- and enabled parents to get feedback on how well their children were doing without having to wait for a parents evening.
The second was my choice of 'Legends' each lesson. These were 4 students who had done something particularly brilliant that lesson. I often tried to reward pupils for success in the three domains (Cognitive, Affective, Psychomotor) for things such as giving great answers to questions (or volunteering to answer one if they were normally shy), working well as a leader or coach, or successfully completing a skill they had been working hard on etc. This was very successful (it still is- I use it with my First and Second year students in Dance lectures and they still ask at the end each week who I have chosen!) as it enabled me to reward those who may not always stand out, as well as being a motivator for those who may have previously been disengaged during lessons. I was able to say quietly to them 'I want to give you a legend today so if you lead this group really well I can do that'. The only reward, other than legendary status, was to be first in the line to go and change and not have to help put any equipment away. A really simple addition to my lessons which had a really big impact.
Of course, attitude to learning is a very subjective method of assessing students and it requires you to teach in a way which allows you to really see what the students are doing in the lesson. We used the peer teaching model within our KS3 lessons which allowed me more time to identify which students were working hard and support those who may be struggling. It also relies on the curriculum being one which focuses on students' mastery of skills - this is particularly difficult given the tendency for schools to use data from KS2 tests to inform students target grades. Our students were often given very high targets (considering their starting point for PE) due to their English and Maths grades from year 6. This often created a contradiction for parents who saw the numbers on their child's report card as very low but the feedback from me was very positive. This often meant there was some confusion unless children or parents came to speak to me to ask why this had happened.
Overall, I would highly recommend using assessment including attitude to learning- not only does it increase motivation but it allows you to develop positive relationships with your pupils through rewarding them for their hard work and, in my experience has allowed students to change their perception of PE as a whole. If anyone would like to know more about this please let me know!
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