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Clarifying what you are teaching and building relevance for students

This is an excerpt from K-12 School Wellness Education by Hannah Holl,Randy Nichols.

Part 1 of the SWE lesson plan template allows the teacher to clarify why they are teaching the content and build relevance for the individual student, as well as to build confidence that what they are teaching is indeed relevant, connected to each student, and needed by society.

Instructor Information

Instructor information provides some demographic information for the lesson, which can help in the planning process; the date enables the teacher to be clear in the sequencing of their lessons; class location enables the teacher to review the teaching space they will have for this lesson; grade level allows the teacher to plan and prepare content that is grade-appropriate and connected to grade-level standards; and the number of students allows the teacher to have materials and assessments ready for the entire class.

Goal Statements

The lesson plan starts with the teacher creating a goal statement for this lesson and what they hope its outcome for the students’ well-being will be. The SW educator is then asked to compare this lesson’s goal statement to their own why for becoming an SW educator to ensure the relevance and importance of this lesson.

As discussed in chapter 1, SWE emphasizes the why of a PE program (the individual student and their well-being) rather than the what or how (the game, sport, or workout), which have traditionally been the focus of PE. This is true of each lesson as well. This section allows the teacher to plan a why-focused lesson and to build their confidence that this why is centered on the individual student and their well-being. We have modified the concept of starting with why and building lesson goal statements from the books by Simon Sinek, Start with Why (2009) and Find Your Why (2017), to fit a lesson-planning format.

Lesson goal statements apply to both Living Well content and physical activity content. These lesson goal statements also have two parts: “to” and “so that,” both of which are written in a comprehensive, forward-looking manner. Thus, the “to” portion states what the teacher plans to do or teach, and the “so that” portion is what the teacher hopes will result.

Table 4.1 provides examples of Living Well and physical activity lesson goal statements.

Lesson Focus

In the lesson focus area the teacher provides a broad view the Living Well component and the physical activity to be covered in the lesson. Note that the next section on National Education Standards allows teachers to review content standards to ensure the developmental appropriateness of this lesson. While a lesson focus is included in most traditional PE lesson-planning templates, the SWE lesson focus is unique in being twofold—that is, it includes a Living Well focus and a physical activity focus and both are connected to Element 2, Living Well, and emphasize the student and their well-being. In SWE, the five Living Well focus areas to choose from are

1. Nutrition
2. Social and emotional wellness
3. The human body and responses to physical activity
4. Health-related fitness
5. Injury prevention (secondary levels) and safety (elementary levels)

Here are some examples of the dual lesson focus at various grade levels.

Elementary Level

• Living Well focus: safety
• Physical activity focus: locomotor activities, learning activities placing emphasis on locomotor skills

Middle School Level

• Living Well focus: social well-being
• Physical activity focus: Outdoor activities, bicycling

High School Level

• Living Well focus: Nutrition
• Physical activity focus: Group activities, disc golf

More Excerpts From K-12 School Wellness Education

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