Study Guide

In a middle school physical education unit on personal performance activities, I would teach a creative line dance lesson aligned with the following learning objectives.

Psychomotor: Students will be able to demonstrate 3 out of 4 movement phases learned in the context of an original line dance sequence, within a three-minute time span. Technique and ability to move in time to music is preferred over speed.

Affective: Students will be able to rank on a four-point rubric how well their group collaborated, cooperated, and demonstrated respect for others while creating a dance sequence, as well as how successful their individual performance and group performance was.

Cognitive: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of line dance concepts and techniques by drawing a dance map or describing the steps, patterns, and transitions used in an original line dance sequence.

This response will focus on the cognitive domain's learning objective.

This culminating lesson would take place after students had learned and practiced basic line dance formations, steps, and sequences. For the main instructional activity, small groups of students would create an original line dance sequence to music. Materials would include musical selections with a 4/4 time signature, CD players or MP3 players, and paper and pencils.

Each student group would choose a song or piece of music from a selection of 4/4 music with different tempos. For two class periods, each group would collaborate on creating four eight-beat movement phrases for their sequence, drawing on line dance steps and techniques learned in previous lessons. Groups would be expected to devise transition steps between final movements and beginning movements to make one-quarter or half-turns for either two- or four-wall line dances. Once students choreographed their dance sequences, each group would perform its dance and teach it to the class. This activity would support the learning objective and foster student knowledge and skills by providing students with a direct, experiential way of using dance and movement concepts and techniques to create, practice, and document an original line dance sequence.

To assess student readiness for this activity, I would incorporate a whole-class review of prerequisite dance steps and techniques into a warm-up activity set to music. By naming and modeling line dance steps previously learned and observing students demonstrate and practice the steps, I would be able to evaluate students' knowledge of basic steps and their ability to move rhythmically. This strategy would allow for focused skill review, reteaching, and individual practice as necessary.

As students worked in their groups, I would encourage them to use strategies such as first listening, clapping, and counting to the beat of their selection; practicing footwork and individual steps first and then putting them together in a sequence; practicing starting together on cue; and recording group decisions and sequences of steps.

Students could choose to demonstrate their understanding of line dance concepts and techniques in a few different ways. They could make a dance map, e.g., for example,  a line drawing of footwork patterns, pathways, dance formations, transitions, and body shapes and movements used in the line dance sequence. Or they could choose to describe the dance steps, sequence, and pattern created by their group in writing, diagrams, or a combination of both. To address both the cognitive and affective dimensions of student learning, students could complete an exit slip that asked for an explanation of how group members practiced and learned the steps and the entire sequence, as well as which part of the sequence was easiest and most difficult to learn and why.

Grade Level: 10th grade

Psychomotor Learning Objective: students will combine and integrate locomotor, nonlocomotor, and rhythmic skills in various movement patterns to enhance personal fitness.

Affective Learning Objective: students will value healthful, active choices and their role in maintaining a positive self-concept and psychological well-being.

Cognitive Learning Objective: students will incorporate FITT principles into personal fitness plans and activities designed to improve cardiorespiratory fitness.

Activity: Students rotate in small groups through a circuit in the gym that includes the following stations: jumping rope, core strength workout, dancing/hula hooping/jogging to music, lower body workout, stationary bicycles, and upper body workout. Students spend 5 minutes at each station and move clockwise to the next one on a signal. Task cards at each station describe suggested exercises and tips for proper form.

In this lesson, as students work at the activity stations, I would focus on instruction to promote student achievement of the cognitive learning objective. Specifically, I would emphasize how to incorporate the FITT principle in the context of cardiorespiratory activities such as those at the cardio stations, and ultimately into a personal fitness plan. Knowledge of FITT principles (frequency, intensity, time, type) will be essential for students to understand as they engage in cardio activities and design fitness plans. It will be important to emphasize that the station activities offer students just a sampling of cardio activities, but that many others, such as running, hiking, cycling, or swimming, also target and improve cardiorespiratory fitness.

At a "rest" station near the water fountain, I would provide handouts on FITT and how to calculate heart rate and target heart rate, and fitness templates and schedules to serve as appropriate models and to aid students in goal setting and planning. Templates and models would include the cardio activity selected, how frequently the activity occurs, the length of the activity, and time spent in the target heart rate during the activity. It would also be beneficial to integrate resources of instructional websites and apps to assist students in understanding and applying FITT concepts.

This instruction supports students' knowledge in how to apply the FITT principles in the context of cardiorespiratory and in personal fitness planning. Understanding strategies for incorporating FITT principles into exercise enables students to create plans and schedules based on their own fitness levels and activity interests. This idea could be carried into different areas of health-related fitness as it relates to decision-making and goal-setting for healthful, active lives.

I would recognize student readiness once the students can successfully describe the different FITT principles, as well as demonstrate skills to take their pulse and calculate target heart rate. Furthermore, after follow-up lessons, I would ask students to submit an outline of a personal fitness plan. This would allow me to meet with each student individually to determine areas of FITT concepts that students may still be struggling to understand. I would have an opportunity to strengthen students' knowledge before they drafted a final fitness plan. I would also assess their understanding regarding the place that target heart rate has in their fitness goals.

Achievement of the cognitive learning objective would be measured using the knowledge demonstrated in the design of students' individualized fitness plans and how they incorporate FITT principles. Along with submitting fitness plans for teacher evaluation, each student would submit a self-assessment of what they learned about cardiorespiratory fitness. Students should be able to address ways to improve cardiorespiratory fitness using FITT principles such as increasing intensity, frequency, or duration.