Curriculum and Grading Overview
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Grade Level Benchmarks and OutcomesWhat is a skills based classroom model?
At the elementary level, our goal is to teach students basic skills and concepts that will become the foundation for a lifetime commitment to health and well-being. Towards this end, we have adopted a skills themes approach to physical education (Graham et. al. 1993). The goal of a skill themes model is to design lessons that help children to practice and develop fundamental skills and movement competencies that enable them to participate in a wide variety of physical activities with success and enjoyment. As basic skills are learned they are applied to a wide variety of games, dance, gymnastics, fitness, and adventure activities. As students become more skillful, they begin to develop positive attitudes about themselves and about physical activity. It is our hope that this will lead them to choose to be physically active for a lifetime. |
What do the numbers 1-4 mean for the 1st grade-5th grade report card?
You may click on the links above to see the specific benchmarks for psychomotor skills (movement concepts and skills), effort/participation and personal/social responsibility for each grade level. Once students enter first grade, they are graded on a number scale of 1-4 on their report card in these 3 areas during the first and second marking periods. The chart below is a way that I explain to the students what the numbers mean. So when I see a student perform a skill, I am looking for consistency along a wide range of activities during that unit, but I also use skill check station work to watch each individual student perform the various skills from our curriculum. This enables me to check their understanding of key concepts. Students in Kindergarten are not graded in physical education.
You can also think of it this way:
4= always
3= consistently
2= occasionally
1= rarely/never
4= always
3= consistently
2= occasionally
1= rarely/never
Physical and Health Literacy
The video featured on this page is a wonderful explanation of our teaching philosophy and why a "skills based" program helps learners of all abilities. It explains a term called "Physical and Health literacy". In essence, this is what we strive for each year. We value quality instruction and lesson development to help create confident learners. Each grade level has fundamental skills that are targeted based on age and development levels such as locomotor skills (e.g. walk, run, jog, hop, leap, gallop, skip, slide), throw, catch, strike with long and short handled equipment, educational gymnastics, creative movement & dance, dribbling with hands, and dribbling and kicking with our feet. Some skills are chosen to be assessed and recorded on the report card and serve as benchmarks for learning.
A quality physical education program has a definite purpose, helps to support both short and long term goals, and is developmentally and instructionally appropriate; in short, for children it makes a difference that lasts a lifetime. At the John Eliot school we hold physical education classes twice a week for 40 minutes in Grades 1-5. Our Kindergartners visit one time per week for 40 minutes and begin to explore the core movement concepts and skill themes. |
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What it takes to create a quality Physical Education Program........
Here are the Grade Level Outcomes in the Physical Education setting:
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Why is Quality Physical Education Important?
The bottom line is that quality physical education programs help all students develop:
As defined by SHAPE America |
SHAPE America is a national professional organization for health and physical education. SHAPE America is committed to empowering all children to lead healthy and active lives through effective health and physical education programs