The lesson that was
presented to the St. Mary’s 2nd grade class focused on catching and
passing in the unit of Lacrosse. A different skill theme was chosen to
substitute a lack of transfer of weight in the new unit. Miss. Fredrickson and
I felt it was appropriate to continue with the pace of Mr. Mack’s curriculum
plan. After assessing the psychomotor domain of the students we now turned our
attention to assessing the student’s cognitive and affective skills. The lesson
plan was created after observing and assisting Mr. Mack on the introductory
lesson of lacrosse. Since we were unfamiliar with the sport of lacrosse, Mr.
Mack was extremely helpful guiding us on what should be taught next and where to find information on the unit.
Prior
to the lesson, Miss. Fredrickson and I felt confident and comfortable after a
significant amount of preparation. The students were better behaved which I
believe was accomplished by better behavior management strategies and the
familiarity of myself and Miss. Fredrickson. The lesson itself went extremely
well. There was smooth transitioning and an opportunity to establish teaching
by invitation. Some students were also given an intra-task variation through
observation of seeing certain students struggle with the tasks.
The students began the lesson with an instant
activity of GB (Ground Ball) Frenzy. Students was handed a lacrosse stick and
divided into two teams that were positioned at each end line of the gymnasium. Before
we went any further with the instant activity we reviewed the safety rules of
space awareness and the student’s responsibility of holding their lacrosse
sticks. Balls would be scattered in the center of the gymnasium. When the
whistle blew the students would have to run to puddle of balls picking up one
ball at a time with their lacrosse stick and dropping them at their own ends
barrel. The technique for picking up a ground ball with a lacrosse stick was
demonstrated in a class prior to this lesson. The team that gathered the most
balls in their barrel would win that round. Since Miss. Fredrickson and I were
counting the balls in the barrels we made it so that each team won a round
regardless of the outcome.
After
the instant activity we established a responsibility task of putting away the
balls and sitting in their attendance spots. The lacrosse stick was the first
focus because it was more important to for the students to learn how to catch
the ball before learning how to pass the ball. Passing the ball with a lacrosse
stick before learning how to catch it would waste time with students having to
chase the ball around the gymnasium. I had asked all students to place their
lacrosse sticks in back of them and pay attention to the cues and the
demonstration so that there would be no distractions. I presented the cues stick in front, eyes on the ball and stick
head to shoulder while physically
demonstrating the procedure in slow motion. I then had Miss. Fredrickson
lightly toss a ball to me so the catch could be demonstrated in full speed.
Before starting a task I again briefly reviewed the safety rules that were
discussed during the instant activity. I partnered up the students and had them
spread out across the gymnasium with their partners across from them. The
students that were facing the stage of the gymnasium would be tossing the ball
to their partner across from them. Students would switch roles after 7 tosses.
After the first couple of minutes into this task I realized that students were
not tossing the ball accurately to the students with the sticks. I quickly
signaled for attention and had the students place their sticks on the ground. I
explained to the students that the accuracy of the toss was just as important
as catching the ball. I used a check for understanding as to why that statement
I had just made was true. I had them continue this task for another 5 minutes
before I introduced the focus of the pass. Teaching by invitation was used by
giving the students the choice of distancing themselves if the task was too
easy for them.
There
was not a whole lot of time left in the period so Miss. Fredrickson introduced
passing with a lacrosse stick using the cues
pointed toe step, elbows out, over head throw and a follow through while I demonstrated the
technique in slow motion. We then integrated the two skills together with a
demonstration with Miss. Fredrickson and I having a catch and pass with the
lacrosse stick. The same task procedure was used having the students with their
partner and catching and passing back and forth. This was performed only for a
couple of minutes because we needed to sit the students down and distribute the
cognitive and affective assessment. Knowing we may not have time to get into
the details of the pass I did not focus that skill on the cognitive assessment.
We had the students sit in back of one another in about four lines. The
students were about 2 feet away from each other all facing the same wall.
Reflecting back on this lesson, we
realized that we needed to do a better job of time management. We rushed the
second part of the lesson due to time constraints. Rushing is not an
appropriate strategy especially when a cognitive assessment is being given. Also,
the tasks involving the partners when passing was too difficult of a task and a
simple task should have been established before going into this task. Student’s
accuracy should have been a focus because students passing the ball to their
partners had students running around chasing balls all over the gymnasium.
Miss. Fredrickson and I came to the conclusion that this was one of our best
teaching lessons moving forward as teacher candidates. As beginning teachers we
will continue to learn strategies and organizational skills to better improve
ourselves and become effective teachers.
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