Learner Profile in Action in PYP PE

Making important connections between net games

I had one of those great teaching moments this week when a student of mine, an English as a Second Language learner, came up to me at the end of class to say he realized a connection between volleyball and tennis in regards to the need for ball control. I had designed an activity for the students to work on touch in both volleyball (using a beach ball) and tennis. It was a simple activity that required students to work in groups with the main aim being to see how many times in a row they could keep control of the ball.

At first most students were using way too much force, but through discussion and practice we worked to refine how much force we used. We started with tennis and then moved to volleyball before returning to tennis once again at the end of the class. The student in the picture below had an AHA moment when he suddenly had total control of the ball in tennis. This is when he came over to me to explain what he had learned. I immediately took a picture of him and explained to him that I was going to give him a recognition award for being a 'Thinker'.

I created a recognition poster for him and shared it with his ESL teacher, so she could present it to him back in his homeroom class. I also emailed the poster to his parents to let them know what a great job he had done. It was rewarding to see how proud of himself he was. So important to recognize these special moments in PE as they definitely serve to motivate students to stay engaged in the activities that we do in class. Thanks for reading.