Teaching and Learning

Cara Stewart and Lyndsay Ruckle

Teaching Experience

SECTION 1: Needs Assessment

Our audience are children between the ages of seven to nine years old. There is
a relatively even mix of boys and girls. There are a variety of disabilities among the
children including cognitive impairments, hearing disorders, and speaking impairments.
The children have a wide range of learning styles. Some children prefer demonstrations,
models, and visual representations while other children prefer schedules, simplistic
explanations, and positive reinforcement. The majority of children enjoy competition,
music, and learning activities that are fun and engaging.
A majority of the children have cognitive limitations so their level of
understanding is more relatable to that of a five to six year old. Thus, meaning the
children would be considered novices with their understanding of exercise. The children
are familiar with general activities and games, but unaware of what exercise is and the
benefits it has on their health. The children are expecting to have a fun afternoon filled
with activities, games, and competitions while also learning something new. They want
to learn about their favorite games and activities and how to make exercise fun.
Some of the children have ADHD, autism, and cochlear implants. The needs
include schedules, a variety of activities, and a fun and engaging environment. The
children will need kindness, words of encouragement, and positive attention to develop
a sense of trust. They will also need us to be compassionate and take the time to get to
know them.

SECTION 2: Learner Centered Objectives

The following are the learner centered behavioral objectives:
Cognitive:​ A
​ fter this session, the seven to nine year old children will be able to
understand and independently explain two benefits that exercise will have on their
health.
Psychomotor:​ ​After this session, the seven to nine year old children will be able to
demonstrate two different activities that are beneficial to their health with minimal
guidance.
Affective: ​After this session, the seven to nine year old children will be able to feel
excited about exercise and they will be able to explain one way to make exercise fun
without any guidance.
SECTION 3: Content
The content will be displayed to the children in the form of exercise bingo. Before
the game, we will teach the children different exercises. Therefore, the model to be
followed is skill acquisition. The children will receive the content, and then get to
process with an activity. Multiple different exercises will be written on a card. Each child
will get to take a turn drawing a card, then everyone will do the exercise together. The
exercises will be chunked by area of the body as well as a particular color; all arm
exercises will be expressed in orange, all leg exercises will be in green, stretching
activities will be blue, cardiovascular exercises will be represented in red, and full body
activities will be addressed in yellow. This will make it easier for us to review all of the
exercises with the children since they can have the material organized by area of the
body as well as color.
After drawing the cards and teaching the children the exercises, the bingo game
will begin. Each child will get a bingo board and a sheet of stickers to use on the board.
The boards will be chunked just like the cards were so that the corresponding body part
exercises will be written on the bingo sheets in the same color. We will call out an
exercise and then all of the children will have to perform the exercise. Once completed,
they will get to place a sticker over that exercise on the board.

The following are the sources we used to prepare for teaching:

1. Murphy NA, Carbone PS. Promoting the participation of children with disabilities,
in sports, recreation, and physical activities. ​American Academy of​ ​Pediatrics.
2008;121(5):1057-1061. doi:10.1542/peds.2008-0566
2. Plack MM, Driscoll M. ​Teaching and Learning in Physical Therapy - From
Classroom to Clinic. S ​ econd edition. Thorofare, New Jersey: SLACK
incorporated; 2017.
3. Estigarribia B, Clark EV. Getting and maintaining attention in talk to young
children. ​Journal of Child Language. ​2007;34:799-814.
doi:10.1017/S0305000907008161
4. Martin-Denham S. ​Teaching Children and Young People with Special
Educational Needs and Disabilities​. First edition. London: SAGE; 2015.
5. Ginsburg KR. The importance of play in promoting healthy child development
and maintaining strong parent-child bonds. ​American Academy of Pediatrics.​
2007;119(1):182-191. doi:10.1542/peds.2006-2697
6. Fedewa AL, Ahn S. The effects of physical activity and physical fitness on
children's achievement and cognitive outcomes. ​Research Quarterly for Exercise
and Sport​. 2013;82(3):521-535. doi:10.1080/02701367.2011.10599785
SECTION 4: Motivational Hook
One motivational hook will be pictures. The cards with the exercises listed on
them will also have a picture of what the exercise looks like. This will give a visual for
the children to see the exercise, while also making the cards more exciting so it is not
just words on paper. Pictures will likely be useful for this audience because they will get
the children more excited to look at the exercise cards.
Another motivational hook we will be using is demonstrations. After a child draws
an exercise card, we will demonstrate the activity. This will be useful for the children
because it can help keep them engaged. Once they see us performing the exercise,
they will be likely to want to try it as well.
A third motivational hook will we be using is props. Each child will receive a sheet
of stickers as well as a bingo board. The children use the stickers to place on their
boards. This will be a useful hook for these children since using the stickers will excite
them, and in order to get to use them they have to perform an exercise first.

SECTION 5: Content Boosters

One active learning strategy we are choosing to use is a game. We have created
an exercise bingo game with sixteen different exercises. The game will be a way to
teach the children about exercise while also making it a fun environment. Some of the
children enjoy a competitive atmosphere, so the use of the game will allow for some fun
and friendly competition.
Another active learning strategy we are choosing to use is visual aids. The cards
that each child gets to draw in the beginning of the activity will have pictures of the
exercises on them. This will give a visual representation for the children to look at to get
a better understanding of what each exercise looks like.
For a third active learning strategy, we will be using a concept map of all sixteen
exercises. The exercises will be grouped together by area of the body (and
corresponding color) and given to each child to take home with them. The concept map
will have the exercises all laid out and chunked together for the children so they can
look back at it on their own time.
We will also be implentening demonstrations throughout the activity. We will both
be demonstrating the exercise after each child draws a card so that they can visually
see it and learn how to do it correctly. We will also be performing the exercises
alongside the children to increase overall excitement and participation. Additionally, we
will provide constructive feedback to the children on proper form for each exercise.
A final active learning strategy that will be implemented is colorful handouts.
Each child will receive a colorful bingo board with all of the exercises listed in the
corresponding color. At the end of the exercise session, each child will receive a colorful
concept map with the all exercises chunked by body area and color. Choosing to add
color to the bingo boards and concept maps will help to enhance learning by allowing
the children to organize the information as well as have fun with a variety of color.

SECTION 6: Formative
We will be implementing a formative assessment during the exercise bingo
game. After teaching the children the exercises, we will draw a card and call out a
exercise. We will ask the children to demonstrate the exercise that was drawn. This is a
great way to assess the children without them realizing it. If we did an effective job
teaching the children the exercises, the children should be able to remember the
exercises and demonstrate them when the card is drawn for the bingo board. The
children will just think they are performing the exercise so that they get to put a sticker
on their board, but it is also our form of assessment to see if they remember what we
taught or if we need to guide them.

SECTION 7: Summary
The information we received about the children prior to teaching was very
beneficial for planning the activity. The most useful information to be informed about
was their learning styles. We were informed that most children enjoy demonstrations
and activities that are fun and engaging, while some prefer simplistic explanations and
positive reinforcement. This information was beneficial so that we could cater our
teaching to all of the different learning styles. For the colored flash cards, we listed the
name of the exercise and also had a picture of the exercise so that there were words,
pictures, and colors. This helped to encompass multiple different styles of learning
among the children. Overall, we received adequate information to prepare our teaching
activity.
The children were all able to attain the psychomotor objective since they could
each demonstrate more than two exercises. They were also able to achieve the
affective objective since they stated the activity was a fun way to get moving and they
could use these activities in the future to make exercise more exciting. Our activity took
up most of the time so we did not have too much time at the end to assess if the
children attained the cognitive learning objectives. However, throughout the exercise,
we continually asked them to explain why each exercise we were doing was important
and they were able to answer with minimal guidance. The most challenging part of
writing the objectives was knowing the children’s prior level of knowledge before
participating in the activity. It was difficult to tailor the objectives to make sure they were
challenging while also being attainable.
Being completely honest, we reflected a great amount on how well we chunked
the information after the teaching experience was over. We feel that we did a good job
of chunking the information by body area and adding the use of colors. The children
responded very well. When we drew a red card for example, we asked “who can tell us
what the red card means?” Almost all of the children raised their hands and were able to
answer that the red meant cardio which meant that these exercises are good for the
heart. Therefore, we do not feel that we would need to change anything if we taught a
second time. We would try to stick to the same idea of chunking with colors and body
area since this worked very well for the children.
The stickers were the most successful motivation hook we used. The children
were very excited to receive stickers to get to use for their bingo boards. They became
even more excited to complete each exercise so that they could then place a sticker on
their board. The demonstrations and the pictures were also very successful at keeping
the children engaged and interested in learning about different exercises. Maybe next
time we could incorporate videos for an additional visual aide. We could also
incorporate music to keep the children engaged and keep the energy level high.
The active learning strategies we chose were all successful. The bingo game
was successful because it was a way to teach the children about exercise, while also
engaging them in a game. The visual aids were also very successful because the
children were excited to get to draw a card and see what picture was on each one. As
soon as they saw the picture, they started to do the exercise (if it was one they knew) so
the visual aids helped to keep them engaged and excited. The concept maps and
colorful handouts were other successful strategies because the children were excited to
get to take something home with them and they enjoyed all of the colors.
Furthermore, the demonstrations were fairly successful because the children
were able to watch us do the exercise to see how it was done. However, the
demonstrations were not as successful as they could have been since the children were
very eager to start trying some of the exercises before we had the chance to give a
demonstration for them. Something we could do differently next time would be to start
with a demonstration before stating the name of the exercise. That way the children
would have to watch the demonstration first in order to see how it is done correctly.
Then, we could ask if anyone knows the name of the exercise before we all try it
together.
The outcome for the formative assessment was positive. We called out an
exercise and had the children complete it without guidance before they could place a
sticker on their bingo boards. After we called out the exercise, most children were able
to start performing the exercise immediately. However, there were a few children that
needed assistance recalling how to complete the exercises. This tells us that we were
successful in teaching the content to most of the children but not to all of them.