Asking the right questions – #2
Empire State Pigeon by ZeroOne CC BY SA
A few weeks back I started blogging about the journey that I am on as I evolve from an ‘old-school’ PE teacher into what I believe (and have for some time) is the PE revolution – concept based learning embedded in physical activity. I am working with some very talented people and this is fuelling my intrinsic desire to be a better teacher, and to learn more from those around me. I am not an expert, but am enjoying learning more and feeling more fulfilled on this journey.
I want to look at the questions and the question progression that I am using with my students and analyse whether this progression actually allows them to achieve the top end of my PE assessment rubrics and more importantly if the inquiry that comes from their learning is rich and engaging and leads to problem solving in their teams.
Today I gave the first of three little assessment pieces that have been carefully put together and scaffolded for my students using Visible Thinking Routines. We have played a lot of little small-sided games and looked at game skills within these – inquiring into when/how to pass/move etc, we then moved to questions that are about strategies or Game sense and we have looked at these in our games and how variations to our games can cause different outcomes. This week we have focused on offensive play and on effective game sense in our tasks and next week we will look at the defensive side with other games that really address defensive work.
I wanted to share the task and see if it resonates with anyone and also solicit some feedback to see what others are up to and if this would work in your MS classrooms too.
I have also included the top band of the Task Specific Rubric (from MYP PHE Next Chapter) so you can see how we were grading the students on their work. For the next assessment, I am planning to open the second strand up so that I am grading really carefully their ability to ‘support’ their claim with evidence.
TASK:
Claim Support Question – Assessment
Criterion A – Knowing and understanding
Word Bank
| Space, Predict, Aware, Anticipate, Rapid, Plan, Sense, Strategy, Thinking, Analyse, Move, Dodge, Lead-Off, Fake, End Line, End Zone, Wing, Side Line, Centre Court, Boundary, Bounce Pass, Chest Pass, Lob Pass, Technique, Agile, Footwork, Vision, Effective, Drawing Defenders, Creating Space, Marking, Tagging, Staying Tight, Man to Man, Zone, Losing your marker, Pass and Move, Communication, Closing Down, Over-Lap |
How can the offensive team use Game Sense to best effect in this game?
1. Make a claim about the topic
Claim: An explanation or interpretation of some aspect of the topic.
2. Identify support for your claim
Support: Things you see, feel, and know that support your claim.
3. Ask a question related to your claim
Question: What’s left hanging? What isn’t explained? What new reasons does your claim raise?
Task Specific Rubric
2 Comments
mhamada
Thanks Ken for taking the time to share. The intention is to ask them a transfer question in the last assessment once they have nailed the Visible Thinking routine. We have decided to add a ‘title’ to the work so that they only make one claim as they are struggling with choosing one theme and sticking to their thought process. I agree that they will need this higher thinking question, but I want to save it until the routine is well understood so they can do it justice as the final assessment. Great to see we are thinking of the same things!
Ken
Interesting framework. The overarching question is broad and the 3 sub questions provide clear scaffolding through the components of the task. There might be scope to include opportunity to extend the task by demonstrating their understanding of transfer between specific activities.
i.e. “In the small games we have played you have been introduced to a range of Game Sense topics. Describe how these concepts could be applied to a specific activity or sport you are involved in.”
This is probably where you are hoping they go in the “claim” section, but I would make it more explicit as a higher level question.
K