Playing Fair
296 Pages
Games, in the right environment and with the right guidance from teachers, offer students opportunities to grow as independent problem solvers, decision makers, and team players. In addition, students can learn a host of other skills, strategies, and concepts that can transfer not only to other games but also to other life situations.
Playing Fair shows teachers how to create the learning environments typical of the Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) approach. This text takes the TGfU approach to a new level, incorporating the development of group processes and democratic behaviors that promote personal growth as well as the ability to thrive in group situations.
Antisocial behavior and bullying are ongoing problems in schools today. The concepts and practical ideas for lessons offered in Playing Fair address those problems proactively as students learn about conflict resolution, inclusion, democratic decision making, leadership, and bullying. The topics in this book come together in developing the cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains, all primary goals of the physical education curriculum.
A Peek Inside Playing Fair
Playing Fair offers teachers these benefits:
• Practical classroom stories showing teachers how they can apply theory and learning situations to their own students and school context
• Activities that include modifications so teachers can apply the games with students of all developmental levels
• Learning checks consisting of questions for teachers to ask their students in order to assess their learning
• Key Concepts, a special element that calls out important concepts for readers
The first part of the book covers the process of inventing games and the democratic principles involved, how social justice can be taught and learned through games, understanding the TGfU classification system, curriculum design, and pedagogical principles. The remaining 10 chapters show how to implement the concepts presented in the earlier chapters. Readers learn how to invent and play a variety of games: target games, striking games, net/wall games, and invasion games.
What Your Students Will Gain
Implementing the principles advocated in this book will help learners in these ways:
• Better understand and appreciate the constructs of game play through external and internalized schemas
• Transfer concepts, strategies, tactics, and skills within and among game categories
• Improve their performance and become more engaged in their own learning
• Become more self-effective and empowered as they understand and value the processes of decision making
• Understand how democracy works from the bottom up
• Grasp that democracy is tenuous, that it breaks down in the absence of active social justice, and that we all have a role and responsibility in constructing and reconstructing it, moment by moment
Playing Fairwill help students gain a better understanding of themselves and others, and it will make them sensitive to issues such as social justice, collaboration, negotiation, inclusiveness, and fairneess. Students will learn to make informed decisions in the context of their invented games and to make intentional, reasoned inquiries about game situations, which they can then transfer to other areas of their lives.
Bringing Systemic Change and Facilitating Personal Growth
This book will help teachers and coaches teach the principles of game play and those of democracy and citizenship in concrete ways. They will contribute to systemic change in the school culture—a culture in which students learn to create their own games and gamelike situations wherein concepts, skills, and strategies can be learned in context through a process called democracy in action.
The bottom line is simple. Playing Fair brings out inherent qualities that have been part of games since the beginning of humankind: play, fun, challenge, inventiveness, teamwork, friendship, and quick thinking. Along the way, games offer opportunities for moral and spiritual development—and the games in Playing Fair offer all that and more.
Chapter 1 Play, Inventing Games, Democracy in Action, and Worldview
Reintegration of Play in Games
Process of Inventing Games
Democracy in Action (DiA)
Worldview of an Inventing Games Teacher: Ecological Complexity Thinking
Summary
Chapter 2 Teaching and Learning Social Justice Through Inventing Games
Revisiting the True Meaning of Competition
Teaching Social Justice and Democracy in Action
Summary
Chapter 3 Scaffolds for Learning: Schema, Transfer, Classifications, and Rules
TGfU Classification and Inventing Games
Understanding Game Constructs Through Inventing Rules
Structuring the Inventing Games Curriculum
Teaching for Transfer
Curriculum Organization
Summary
Chapter 4 Developmental Learning and Curriculum Design
Psychomotor Domain (Moving)
Cognitive Domain (Thinking)
Affective Domain (Feeling)
Conclusions
Summary
Chapter 5 Pedagogical Principles
Joy Butler and Linda L. Griffin
Teaching as Facilitating
Tactical Complexity
Modifications Through Representation, Exaggeration, and Adaptation
Assessment of Learning Outcomes
Summary
Chapter 6 Inventing Unopposed Target Games
Stage 1: Setting the Learning Environment and Setting Conditions for Democracy in Action by Developing a Decision-Making Agreement
Stage 2: Developing Target Game Constructs by Observing a Partner
Stage 3: Inventing and Playing a New Target Game
Stage 4: Refining the Invented Game
Stage 5: Refining the Skills Required in the Invented Game
Stage 6: Challenging Everyone by Adapting Rules
Stage 7: Showcasing the Game
Summary
Chapter 7 Innovative Approaches to Opposed Target Games
James Mandigo
Lesson 1: Accuracy to Target
Lesson 2: Avoiding Obstacles
Lesson 3: Using Obstacles to Get Closer to a Target
Lesson 4: Preventing Scoring (Offense)
Lesson 5: Preventing Scoring (Offense)
Lesson 6: Preventing Scoring (Defense)
Summary
Chapter 8 Inventing Striking Games: Danish Longball
How to Play DLB: Regulations and Rules
Guide for Teaching Stages
Stage 1: Setting the Learning Environment for Democracy in Action and Fair Game Play
Stage 2: Changeover Rule (Transitions)
Stage 3: Refining Rules and Establishing the Role of the Referee
Stage 4: Strategic Offense Concept 1 and Coach and Observer Roles
Stage 5: Strategic Offense Concept 2
Stage 6: Strategic Defense Concept 1
Stage 7: Strategic Defense Concept 2
Stage 8: Showcasing All Games and Standardizing One Through the Democratic Process
Stage 9: Playful DLB Competition Tournament
Summary
Chapter 9 Striking Game: Cricket
Kevin Sandher
Unit Plan Structure
Assessment
Lesson 1: Learning Basic Rules
Lesson 2: Offense Concept: Hitting to Open Space
Lesson 3: Defense Concept: Reducing Batter Time Using Throwing
Lesson 4: Running Between Wickets and Catching to Get Batters Out
Lesson 5: Combination Skills
Lesson 6: Defense Concept—Bowling to Limit the Batter’s Time
Lesson 7: Using the GPAI for Assessment
Lesson 8: Pairs Cricket Tournament
Summary
Chapter 10 Inventing Net and Wall Games
Joy Butler and Tim Hopper
Framework (Strategic Concepts and Tactical Decisions)
Stages of Invention and Democracy in Action
Stage 1: Setting the Learning Environment for (A) Democracy in Action and (B) Game Constructs—Defining Net and Wall Games
Stage 2: Spatial Awareness in Net Games—Castle Game
Stage 3: Spatial Awareness in Wall Games
Stage 4: Creating Net and Wall Games Through the Democratic Process
Stage 5: Challenging Everyone Through Adaptation
Stage 6: Refining Games and Establishing the Role of the Coach
Stage 7: Showcasing Games and Revising
Stage 8: Competitive Game
Summary
Chapter 11 Net and Wall Games: Pickleball
Tim Hopper
Game Understanding
Tactical Framework for Strategic Principles
Lessons and Learning Experiences
Court Areas and Learning to Play Pickleball
Area 1: Short-Court Games
Area 2: Long-Court Games
Area 3: Volley-Court Games
Doubles Dink Tennis
Three for a Win
Summary
Chapter 12 Inventing Invasion Games
Stage 1A: Setting the Learning Environment for Invasion Game Constructs and Democracy in Action
Stage 1B: Defining Invasion Game Constructs
Stage 2: Establishing the Game Through the Democratic Process
Stage 3: Playing the Game
Stage 4: Refining the Game
Stage 5: Identifying the Coach
Stage 6: Identifying the Referee
Stage 7: Showcasing Games
Stage 8: Defense
Stage 9: Offense
Stage 10: Transferring Concepts From Inventing Games to Institutionalized Games
Summary
Chapter 13 Invasion Game: Soccer
Steve Mitchell
Lesson 1: Primary and Secondary Rules
Lesson 2: Keeping Possession
Lesson 3: Distribution of Possession
Lesson 4: Penetration and Scoring
Lesson 5: Preventing Scoring
Lesson 6: Denying Space
Lesson 7: Obtaining Possession
Lesson 8: Regaining Possession
Summary
Chapter 14 Invasion Game: Touch Football
Bobby Gibson
Pedagogy
Democracy in Action
Unit Plan Structure
Lesson 1: Ultimate Football
Lesson 2: Flickerball
Lesson 3: Flickerball Extended
Lesson 4: Offensive and Defensive Team Concepts
Lesson 5: Gamelike Situations
Lesson 6: Kicking
Lesson 7: Team Formation and Playbook Design
Lesson 8: Game Play and Game Management
Summary
Chapter 15 Final Thoughts
Joy Butler, EdD, is a professor in the department of curriculum and pedagogy at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. She is coordinator of physical education teacher education (PETE), outdoor education, and health programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Born in the United Kingdom, Butler taught secondary school physical education there for 10 years and coached three basketball teams to national finals.
Butler is active in international scholarship, organization, and advocacy for TGfU (Teaching Games for Understanding). She founded and chaired the TGfU Task Force in 2002 and aided its evolution into the TGfU SIG in 2006. She directed the 1st and 4th International TGfU conferences in 2001 and 2008. Butler has been invited to give presentations and workshops on TGfU in Finland, Singapore, Australia, Spain, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the UK, Colombia, and Germany. In 2012 she created and has since chaired the TGfU International Advisory Board, composed of 19 individual country representatives.
Butler has edited or coedited seven TGfU books.
A quick snapshot of an inventing games lesson focused on net games
This vignette provides a quick snapshot of an inventing games lesson focused on net games. We can readily appreciate the diversity of students’ skill levels and also how students are the architects of their own games.
This vignette provides a quick snapshot of an inventing games lesson focused on net games. We can readily appreciate the diversity of students' skill levels and also how students are the architects of their own games. Through the teacher's skillful questioning, both groups are able to analyze the constraints of their games and change their rules to make them more flowing, challenging, and fun. By working progressively through the constructs of their invented games and the corresponding strategies and tactics, they construct schema from which they can make comparisons to other games they will learn. As they negotiate the construction of their games, they also learn how to work closely with others.
Inventing games and learning about democracy (including social justice issues) might seem an unlikely pairing, because play is often considered frivolous and democratic ideals are often considered the most serious notions children can learn. In this book, we consider how inventing games offers seriously playful opportunities to learn democracy in action, because students learn by doing as they negotiate, debate, overcome conflict, and navigate through a series of problem-solving activities. In the physical environment, emotions are quickly stirred and issues around inclusivity become more visible and more pressing. How better to deal with issues of social justice, such as bullying and accessibility, than in such charged situations? Chapter 2 presents steps teachers can take to become more mindful in dealing with such situations.
Incidents of bullying are very much in the news; the tragic suicides of young people who have been bullied (both face-to-face and online) have shocked the world. As media pundits puzzle to find solutions to the problem of bullying, most educators understand that this is not an easy problem to fix. In a speech reported in The Vancouver Sun (June 29, 2013) about violence against women, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter suggested that rather than simply blaming and punishing perpetrators, we should be taking a hard look at overarching attitudes (including religious doctrines) that frame women as inferior. His point was that individual beliefs and actions are nested within, and thus highly influenced by, political, social, and economic structures.
This book does not purport to offer a magic bullet that will eradicate the age-old problem of bullying - for example, by constructing policies to deal with bullies or addressing the topic of bullying discreetly and directly with students. An increasing body of opinion suggests that our current methods (such as punitive zero tolerance, celebrities who speak out against bullying, limiting access to social media sites, or discrete short-term antibullying programs) are not working (Emdin, 2013; Prinstein, 2013). Rather, a comprehensive approach is required across the school curriculum to create sustainable change in the school culture. Physical education is particularly well positioned for such an initiative. Although it has been, ironically, a traditional site of dread for the unpopular and uncoordinated, physical education can offer students opportunities to experiment with, observe, and discuss issues of difference and power. Rather than thinking about these in the abstract, they can experience them firsthand as they practice the democratic principles and skills required to develop an ethic of caring (Gilligan, 1982).
This first chapter addresses the reintegration of play into games, the inventing games process, democracy in action, and the worldview teachers require to help their students become game inventors.
Ms. Craik scans her fourth-grade students, who are playing their invented net games.
A group of shy, uncoordinated girls have made up a game that makes large demands on their balance. A lanky team member spins around three times (with her eyes closed) and calls out the name of one of her opponents on the other side of the net as she releases the ball. Apparently, her challenge is to stay upright and make the pass accurately. Instead, she throws the ball off behind her before staggering dizzily around the court. Although her teammates squeal with laughter, the group is passionately engaged in this odd game of spin and throw.
At the other end of the ability range is a group of boys playing a modified version of Newcomb. They are immersed in a close contest - oblivious to anything else that's going on.
Ms. Craik decides to start with the girls and calls them over for a chat, posing a few questions: How is their game working? Does it involve them all as much as they would like? The girls say there's too much standing about and decide to change the spinning rule a bit to see if the game will flow more easily.
Meanwhile, Ms. Craik has challenged the boys to open up their game. How might they give themselves more time to strategize and structure a more organized offense? After a brief discussion, they decide to introduce a rule that allows two passes before the ball must be sent over the net. As she watches, Ms. Craik prepares questions about how this new rule and constraint on the game opens up the offense for new possibilities.
Key Concept: Inventing Games
This book is based on the inventing games (IG) process, a companion to Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU). The process is explained in the first five chapters as a curriculum model with clearly defined pedagogical principles. Building on the natural instinct of children to play, IG invites them to invent games in the four TGfU game categories. In the process of inventing games and then playing them, children learn about game structures, rules, and the principles of fair play.
Reintegration of Play in Games
Recently, 270 academics, writers, and child development professionals blamed "the marked deterioration in children's mental health" on the lack of unstructured and loosely supervised play(Jacobson, 2008). According to a report produced by Statistics Canada (Ifedi, 2008), the 7.3 million Canadian adults who participated in one or more games ranked "fun, recreation, and relaxation" as the number one reason they played, above the need to stay healthy, meet new friends, hang out with family, or feel a sense of achievement. Yet, sadly, children are turning less and less frequently to games in their free time (Graf et al., 2004). Although organized sport opportunities for 5- to 13-year-olds in North America have doubled in the past 20 years (Hofferth & Sandberg, 2001), teenagers are opting out in large numbers (Ifedi, 2008; Visek et al., 2015). The following list, collected from several reports, summarizes the reasons young people gave for opting out of sports:
- I lost interest.
- I had no fun and it took too much time.
- The coach did not empower players.
- There was too much pressure and worry.
- The coach played favorites.
- The sport was boring.
- There was an overemphasis on winning.
- There was too much sport-specific practice and deliberate practice at a young age.
- The sport programs were badly run.
What better way to recapture and maintain children's interest in and enjoyment of sport than by offering them opportunities to explore and create through play and inventing games? Becoming a good team player takes years of discipline and effort, and becoming a good citizen takes years of civic engagement. The process must be enjoyable to ensure that students stick with it. Without the element of play, activity becomes routine, predictable, and lacking in possibilities. Moreover, democracy depends on human creativity; openness to change, adaptability, and creativity thrive in an atmosphere of freedom and openness, and vice versa. As Shogan (2007) suggested: "If ethics is less about compliance with codes and more about how we explore the ways in which these codes shape our lives, it is possible for people to become more directly involved in understanding and changing their own conduct" (p. 35). In the inventing games process, students are directly involved in constructing the rules that shape the game and their conduct within it. Rather than adopt a zero tolerance approach to bullying, in which bullies are sought out and punished, schools can create curricula that foster respect, fairness, and acceptance.
Children who are free to play have fun and feel safe. Because they are engaged emotionally, cognitively, and spiritually (as well as physically) in a holistic process, they want to stay in the game. They are more likely to invent variations in game play, alternatives that require quick analyses and creative responses. They are also more likely to experience what Kretchmar (2005) called delight. Moments of delight may happen infrequently in games, but they keep us coming back for more. Learning cannot be compartmentalized into behavioral domains and neatly subdivided into the cognitive, the psychomotor, and the affective, because human systems are nested and interconnected. A student who has just been criticized for poor performance in a skill drill is unlikely to make confident decisions, or decisions that involve risk. Holistic approaches, which take the affective experiences of students into account, are imperative for advancing our understanding of TGfU and learning in general. The next section provides a closer examination of inventing games as a medium for seriously playful learning experiences.
Key Concepts: Sport and Games
The words sport and game are often used interchangeably. However, although it is true that all sports are games, not all games are sports. Games derive from play and involve competition. Sport games are games of skill that have a large physical component, as opposed to games of chance or board games. Physical educators often refer to games in terms of games education, a subset of the physical education curriculum. The term sport is often used in the context of extracurricular activities attached to schools, communities, or private organizations.
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Teaching Social Justice and Democracy in Action
To embrace human rights is to become aware that without social justice there can be no fairness or equality; consequently, democratic processes cannot function. Essential to the definition of democracy is the notion that all people have equal power to live freely, to vote, and to speak.
To embrace human rights is to become aware that without social justice there can be no fairness or equality; consequently, democratic processes cannot function. Essential to the definition of democracy is the notion that all people have equal power to live freely, to vote, and to speak. With these rights comes the civic responsibility to exercise these rights through active interest and involvement in the community. Teachers play a crucial role in preparing students to do this.
There are two key aspects of teaching for social justice through the practice of democracy in action. The first is addressing societal inequities through antioppression education. The second is using some of the pedagogical tools to teach social justice - in this case, democracy in action, situated ethics, and inventing games.
Understanding Societal Inequities
As Young pointed out (1990), the democratic process breaks down when unfairness and an imbalance of power occur. Let's consider the nature of power in relation to the games curriculum.
- Power over, or coercive power.This is the power structure in hierarchies. The school administration, which controls the curriculum, is supported by the school board, local government, and the law. Sometimes the culture of the school reinforces practices that seem to go without saying. These might include the disciplinary mastery approach to teaching sport, or inequitable practices such as dodgeball.
- Power from within, or empowerment. As educators, we seek to empower our students through active creative experiences such as singing, writing, solving problems, making art, and dancing. Through inventing games, we offer active creative experiences in the ethical domain, as we encourage students to speak up, listen, negotiate, and make decisions that will enhance the effectiveness of the group.
- Collective power. Collective poweris the power people gain when they act in concert. In the inventing games process, students begin to understand that they are part of a community they can trust. They come to accept that they sometimes need to set aside their own interests in favor of common goals. They learn when to take care of themselves and when to take care of others.
- Power with, or social power (influence, rank, status, or authority). Social power determines how much weight an individual opinion carries, how much members are listened to in a group, and how much they are respected. As young people struggle to reach the expectations of adulthood, they rely heavily on their peers to establish self-esteem. Young people who see themselves as outsiders and not accepted by their peers are more likely to withdraw, become depressed, and become targets for bullying (Boyce, King, & Roche, 2008).
- Earned and unearned social power.Unearned power is privilege, the power you get not from anything you are have done or created, but from who you happen to be - your gender, your race, your social class, the wealth you've inherited, the opportunities handed to you. With privilege often comes entitlement, a feature of hierarchy (Starhawk, 2011, p. 45). This often plays out along the lines of gender and race in physical education classes.
Teaching for Social Justice
Left unaided in group decision-making processes, students fall back on informal or culturally determined systems of interaction, ranging from the much-loved football huddle to a reliance on acknowledged leaders. These systems are products of cultural, generational, and gender norms. Although there is much to celebrate in all social institutions (church, family, state, school), the active and engaged citizen must always examine them for bias. The challenge for the teacher is to find ways to limit privilege while helping students find positive ways to be rewarded for their efforts.
Very often, we learn about what we believe when we confront real-life situations. In inventing games, these situations arise frequently and naturally as students encounter moments of aporia (rupture or stuckness). When we are faced with situations that challenge what we know, we struggle to make new sense of the universe and push beyond our current moral constructs. Varela (1999), who called this new, more conscious, sense of what is right ethical know-how, believes that it evolves over time through small decisions and actions, rather than being handed down as a set of a priori principles. As students invent and negotiate to create their games, they develop their capacity for personal and social responsibility, free inquiry, decision making, social justice, cooperation, and competition (see chapter 1).
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Make the football experience novel and change negative mind-sets
The two things I hear from students in my physical education classes when I say we’re going to be looking at football are usually I don’t like football and I’m not good at football. Although it can be a lot of fun, football can also be confusing, and many students are quick to discount their ability.
The two things I hear from students in my physical education classes when I say we're going to be looking at football are usually I don't like football and I'm not good at football. Although it can be a lot of fun, football can also be confusing, and many students are quick to discount their ability. When we dig down into their experiences, their negative associations usually come from past experiences in which they felt too small to play or couldn't throw the ball. As a result, they don't want to play it again. The challenge is making the football experience novel and changing negative mind-sets and associations.
Football has important outcomes for students: working together as a team, mutual support, leadership, and determination. Modifying the game to highlight these benefits can result in students understanding the essence of the game, wanting to get better at it, and ideally continuing playing when they leave school. Enjoyment and engagement have an enormous impact on learning and long-term involvement in activity. When students like what they do in class, they may pursue it on their own time. Teaching as much as possible through active game play and inserting short drills in context can help students understand the purpose of drills and be more willing to give them a try.
Football can be complex and confusing or really simple. The common principle in all forms of football is that players have a specified number of attempts to cover at least 10 yards in trying to achieve the offensive focus: getting the ball across the goal line. Football is in the Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) invasion games category because it is based on territorial dominance as players attempt to score and restrict their opponents' opportunities to score. Football is, however, much more static than other invasion games such as basketball, soccer, and rugby; these games are in constant motion with few stoppages. Football's stop-and-start style of play is what most people unfamiliar with the sport find confusing and boring. Many people do not understand the need for so many stoppages, and neither do students, until they can create meaning for themselves. Sometimes students even ask for rules that require the game to stop more often to ensure that it is fair for both offense and defense and to allow for better competition.
Lesson 4: Offensive and Defensive Team Concepts
Focus: Offensive and defensive systems, running pass patterns, 1v1 defensive cover
Learner focus:
- Understanding pass patterns and offensive strategy (psychomotor and cognitive)
- Continuing to develop defensive cover (psychomotor and cognitive)
Sequence:
- Warm-up: Flickerball, using the rules from the last class
- Square minigames from lesson 3
- Skill enhancement: Running pass patterns
- Minigames
Learner Experiences
- Students do skill work focused on running pass patterns (see figure 14.1), as follows:
- They are in groups of five or six.
- One player is a quarterback; the others are receivers.
- Receivers run the pass pattern, taking turns, and the quarterback throws the pass.
- Once all students have run the pattern, a new quarterback is chosen.
- The easiest patterns are: fly, in, out, and hook.In these patterns the receiver moves in all four directions: left, right, downfield, and back to the quarterback.
Running pass patterns.
- The focus of the minigames is the communication between the quarterback and the receiver. Use two groups of three at the same square: one receiver, one defender, and one quarterback (change roles regularly). The receiver must get pass patterns from the quarterback. Quarterbacks call the plays because they are in charge in the huddle, so it is good practice to start now. Use the following point system:
- Receiver: 1 point each for catching, making forward progress, and scoring (maximum of 3 points per play)
- Defender: 1 point for knocking down the ball, tagging, or preventing a score, 2 points for intercepting
- Quarterback: 1 point if the receiver touches the ball, 1 point for catching (maximum of 2 points per play)
Modifications
- Have no defender, to assist the quarterback with throwing.
- Require that the defender wait on the goal line until the ball is caught.
- Use two receivers and one defender. The defender chooses one receiver to cover and leaves the other open. This helps the quarterback with decision making.
- Have students play downs to score. Let them determine how many tries they get to score.
- Allow defenders to start wherever they want.
- Increase the field size or the number of receivers or defenders.
Democracy in Action
Group process, decision making, and free inquiry: Individual rights and responsibilities to the group; depending on good leadership; deciding when and when not to speak one's mind
Sometimes there just isn't time to process things to death! The huddle in football provides a good example. Members of a strong team have practiced cooperation, understand the capabilities and strengths of individual players, and have had input into the team's strategies and directions. In the huddle, the quarterback draws on this history to make the best decision for the next play. The quarterback's job is to make the best possible decision given the circumstances. The team's job is to carry it out. This is an excellent opportunity for learners to consider when it is OK to argue and debate, and when it's necessary to trust someone else.
Check for Learning
Q: Why is it important for both the quarterback and the receiver to know what pattern the receiver is running?
A: This gives the offense an advantage over the defense; the quarterback shouldn't have to guess.
Q: As a receiver, how do you get open when running your pattern?
A: Head fakes, change of speed or direction, running the pass pattern at full speed.
Q: When playing quarterback, how do you know when to throw the ball?
A: When the receiver has made a break and shows me his hands.
Q: Why does the quarterback call the plays in a huddle?
A: There isn't time for debate.
Q: What qualities does the quarterback need?
A: Knowledge of teammates' individual strengths, decisiveness, clear communication.
Save
Learn more about Playing Fair.
A quick snapshot of an inventing games lesson focused on net games
This vignette provides a quick snapshot of an inventing games lesson focused on net games. We can readily appreciate the diversity of students’ skill levels and also how students are the architects of their own games.
This vignette provides a quick snapshot of an inventing games lesson focused on net games. We can readily appreciate the diversity of students' skill levels and also how students are the architects of their own games. Through the teacher's skillful questioning, both groups are able to analyze the constraints of their games and change their rules to make them more flowing, challenging, and fun. By working progressively through the constructs of their invented games and the corresponding strategies and tactics, they construct schema from which they can make comparisons to other games they will learn. As they negotiate the construction of their games, they also learn how to work closely with others.
Inventing games and learning about democracy (including social justice issues) might seem an unlikely pairing, because play is often considered frivolous and democratic ideals are often considered the most serious notions children can learn. In this book, we consider how inventing games offers seriously playful opportunities to learn democracy in action, because students learn by doing as they negotiate, debate, overcome conflict, and navigate through a series of problem-solving activities. In the physical environment, emotions are quickly stirred and issues around inclusivity become more visible and more pressing. How better to deal with issues of social justice, such as bullying and accessibility, than in such charged situations? Chapter 2 presents steps teachers can take to become more mindful in dealing with such situations.
Incidents of bullying are very much in the news; the tragic suicides of young people who have been bullied (both face-to-face and online) have shocked the world. As media pundits puzzle to find solutions to the problem of bullying, most educators understand that this is not an easy problem to fix. In a speech reported in The Vancouver Sun (June 29, 2013) about violence against women, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter suggested that rather than simply blaming and punishing perpetrators, we should be taking a hard look at overarching attitudes (including religious doctrines) that frame women as inferior. His point was that individual beliefs and actions are nested within, and thus highly influenced by, political, social, and economic structures.
This book does not purport to offer a magic bullet that will eradicate the age-old problem of bullying - for example, by constructing policies to deal with bullies or addressing the topic of bullying discreetly and directly with students. An increasing body of opinion suggests that our current methods (such as punitive zero tolerance, celebrities who speak out against bullying, limiting access to social media sites, or discrete short-term antibullying programs) are not working (Emdin, 2013; Prinstein, 2013). Rather, a comprehensive approach is required across the school curriculum to create sustainable change in the school culture. Physical education is particularly well positioned for such an initiative. Although it has been, ironically, a traditional site of dread for the unpopular and uncoordinated, physical education can offer students opportunities to experiment with, observe, and discuss issues of difference and power. Rather than thinking about these in the abstract, they can experience them firsthand as they practice the democratic principles and skills required to develop an ethic of caring (Gilligan, 1982).
This first chapter addresses the reintegration of play into games, the inventing games process, democracy in action, and the worldview teachers require to help their students become game inventors.
Ms. Craik scans her fourth-grade students, who are playing their invented net games.
A group of shy, uncoordinated girls have made up a game that makes large demands on their balance. A lanky team member spins around three times (with her eyes closed) and calls out the name of one of her opponents on the other side of the net as she releases the ball. Apparently, her challenge is to stay upright and make the pass accurately. Instead, she throws the ball off behind her before staggering dizzily around the court. Although her teammates squeal with laughter, the group is passionately engaged in this odd game of spin and throw.
At the other end of the ability range is a group of boys playing a modified version of Newcomb. They are immersed in a close contest - oblivious to anything else that's going on.
Ms. Craik decides to start with the girls and calls them over for a chat, posing a few questions: How is their game working? Does it involve them all as much as they would like? The girls say there's too much standing about and decide to change the spinning rule a bit to see if the game will flow more easily.
Meanwhile, Ms. Craik has challenged the boys to open up their game. How might they give themselves more time to strategize and structure a more organized offense? After a brief discussion, they decide to introduce a rule that allows two passes before the ball must be sent over the net. As she watches, Ms. Craik prepares questions about how this new rule and constraint on the game opens up the offense for new possibilities.
Key Concept: Inventing Games
This book is based on the inventing games (IG) process, a companion to Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU). The process is explained in the first five chapters as a curriculum model with clearly defined pedagogical principles. Building on the natural instinct of children to play, IG invites them to invent games in the four TGfU game categories. In the process of inventing games and then playing them, children learn about game structures, rules, and the principles of fair play.
Reintegration of Play in Games
Recently, 270 academics, writers, and child development professionals blamed "the marked deterioration in children's mental health" on the lack of unstructured and loosely supervised play(Jacobson, 2008). According to a report produced by Statistics Canada (Ifedi, 2008), the 7.3 million Canadian adults who participated in one or more games ranked "fun, recreation, and relaxation" as the number one reason they played, above the need to stay healthy, meet new friends, hang out with family, or feel a sense of achievement. Yet, sadly, children are turning less and less frequently to games in their free time (Graf et al., 2004). Although organized sport opportunities for 5- to 13-year-olds in North America have doubled in the past 20 years (Hofferth & Sandberg, 2001), teenagers are opting out in large numbers (Ifedi, 2008; Visek et al., 2015). The following list, collected from several reports, summarizes the reasons young people gave for opting out of sports:
- I lost interest.
- I had no fun and it took too much time.
- The coach did not empower players.
- There was too much pressure and worry.
- The coach played favorites.
- The sport was boring.
- There was an overemphasis on winning.
- There was too much sport-specific practice and deliberate practice at a young age.
- The sport programs were badly run.
What better way to recapture and maintain children's interest in and enjoyment of sport than by offering them opportunities to explore and create through play and inventing games? Becoming a good team player takes years of discipline and effort, and becoming a good citizen takes years of civic engagement. The process must be enjoyable to ensure that students stick with it. Without the element of play, activity becomes routine, predictable, and lacking in possibilities. Moreover, democracy depends on human creativity; openness to change, adaptability, and creativity thrive in an atmosphere of freedom and openness, and vice versa. As Shogan (2007) suggested: "If ethics is less about compliance with codes and more about how we explore the ways in which these codes shape our lives, it is possible for people to become more directly involved in understanding and changing their own conduct" (p. 35). In the inventing games process, students are directly involved in constructing the rules that shape the game and their conduct within it. Rather than adopt a zero tolerance approach to bullying, in which bullies are sought out and punished, schools can create curricula that foster respect, fairness, and acceptance.
Children who are free to play have fun and feel safe. Because they are engaged emotionally, cognitively, and spiritually (as well as physically) in a holistic process, they want to stay in the game. They are more likely to invent variations in game play, alternatives that require quick analyses and creative responses. They are also more likely to experience what Kretchmar (2005) called delight. Moments of delight may happen infrequently in games, but they keep us coming back for more. Learning cannot be compartmentalized into behavioral domains and neatly subdivided into the cognitive, the psychomotor, and the affective, because human systems are nested and interconnected. A student who has just been criticized for poor performance in a skill drill is unlikely to make confident decisions, or decisions that involve risk. Holistic approaches, which take the affective experiences of students into account, are imperative for advancing our understanding of TGfU and learning in general. The next section provides a closer examination of inventing games as a medium for seriously playful learning experiences.
Key Concepts: Sport and Games
The words sport and game are often used interchangeably. However, although it is true that all sports are games, not all games are sports. Games derive from play and involve competition. Sport games are games of skill that have a large physical component, as opposed to games of chance or board games. Physical educators often refer to games in terms of games education, a subset of the physical education curriculum. The term sport is often used in the context of extracurricular activities attached to schools, communities, or private organizations.
Learn more about Playing Fair.
Teaching Social Justice and Democracy in Action
To embrace human rights is to become aware that without social justice there can be no fairness or equality; consequently, democratic processes cannot function. Essential to the definition of democracy is the notion that all people have equal power to live freely, to vote, and to speak.
To embrace human rights is to become aware that without social justice there can be no fairness or equality; consequently, democratic processes cannot function. Essential to the definition of democracy is the notion that all people have equal power to live freely, to vote, and to speak. With these rights comes the civic responsibility to exercise these rights through active interest and involvement in the community. Teachers play a crucial role in preparing students to do this.
There are two key aspects of teaching for social justice through the practice of democracy in action. The first is addressing societal inequities through antioppression education. The second is using some of the pedagogical tools to teach social justice - in this case, democracy in action, situated ethics, and inventing games.
Understanding Societal Inequities
As Young pointed out (1990), the democratic process breaks down when unfairness and an imbalance of power occur. Let's consider the nature of power in relation to the games curriculum.
- Power over, or coercive power.This is the power structure in hierarchies. The school administration, which controls the curriculum, is supported by the school board, local government, and the law. Sometimes the culture of the school reinforces practices that seem to go without saying. These might include the disciplinary mastery approach to teaching sport, or inequitable practices such as dodgeball.
- Power from within, or empowerment. As educators, we seek to empower our students through active creative experiences such as singing, writing, solving problems, making art, and dancing. Through inventing games, we offer active creative experiences in the ethical domain, as we encourage students to speak up, listen, negotiate, and make decisions that will enhance the effectiveness of the group.
- Collective power. Collective poweris the power people gain when they act in concert. In the inventing games process, students begin to understand that they are part of a community they can trust. They come to accept that they sometimes need to set aside their own interests in favor of common goals. They learn when to take care of themselves and when to take care of others.
- Power with, or social power (influence, rank, status, or authority). Social power determines how much weight an individual opinion carries, how much members are listened to in a group, and how much they are respected. As young people struggle to reach the expectations of adulthood, they rely heavily on their peers to establish self-esteem. Young people who see themselves as outsiders and not accepted by their peers are more likely to withdraw, become depressed, and become targets for bullying (Boyce, King, & Roche, 2008).
- Earned and unearned social power.Unearned power is privilege, the power you get not from anything you are have done or created, but from who you happen to be - your gender, your race, your social class, the wealth you've inherited, the opportunities handed to you. With privilege often comes entitlement, a feature of hierarchy (Starhawk, 2011, p. 45). This often plays out along the lines of gender and race in physical education classes.
Teaching for Social Justice
Left unaided in group decision-making processes, students fall back on informal or culturally determined systems of interaction, ranging from the much-loved football huddle to a reliance on acknowledged leaders. These systems are products of cultural, generational, and gender norms. Although there is much to celebrate in all social institutions (church, family, state, school), the active and engaged citizen must always examine them for bias. The challenge for the teacher is to find ways to limit privilege while helping students find positive ways to be rewarded for their efforts.
Very often, we learn about what we believe when we confront real-life situations. In inventing games, these situations arise frequently and naturally as students encounter moments of aporia (rupture or stuckness). When we are faced with situations that challenge what we know, we struggle to make new sense of the universe and push beyond our current moral constructs. Varela (1999), who called this new, more conscious, sense of what is right ethical know-how, believes that it evolves over time through small decisions and actions, rather than being handed down as a set of a priori principles. As students invent and negotiate to create their games, they develop their capacity for personal and social responsibility, free inquiry, decision making, social justice, cooperation, and competition (see chapter 1).
Learn more about Playing Fair.
Make the football experience novel and change negative mind-sets
The two things I hear from students in my physical education classes when I say we’re going to be looking at football are usually I don’t like football and I’m not good at football. Although it can be a lot of fun, football can also be confusing, and many students are quick to discount their ability.
The two things I hear from students in my physical education classes when I say we're going to be looking at football are usually I don't like football and I'm not good at football. Although it can be a lot of fun, football can also be confusing, and many students are quick to discount their ability. When we dig down into their experiences, their negative associations usually come from past experiences in which they felt too small to play or couldn't throw the ball. As a result, they don't want to play it again. The challenge is making the football experience novel and changing negative mind-sets and associations.
Football has important outcomes for students: working together as a team, mutual support, leadership, and determination. Modifying the game to highlight these benefits can result in students understanding the essence of the game, wanting to get better at it, and ideally continuing playing when they leave school. Enjoyment and engagement have an enormous impact on learning and long-term involvement in activity. When students like what they do in class, they may pursue it on their own time. Teaching as much as possible through active game play and inserting short drills in context can help students understand the purpose of drills and be more willing to give them a try.
Football can be complex and confusing or really simple. The common principle in all forms of football is that players have a specified number of attempts to cover at least 10 yards in trying to achieve the offensive focus: getting the ball across the goal line. Football is in the Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) invasion games category because it is based on territorial dominance as players attempt to score and restrict their opponents' opportunities to score. Football is, however, much more static than other invasion games such as basketball, soccer, and rugby; these games are in constant motion with few stoppages. Football's stop-and-start style of play is what most people unfamiliar with the sport find confusing and boring. Many people do not understand the need for so many stoppages, and neither do students, until they can create meaning for themselves. Sometimes students even ask for rules that require the game to stop more often to ensure that it is fair for both offense and defense and to allow for better competition.
Lesson 4: Offensive and Defensive Team Concepts
Focus: Offensive and defensive systems, running pass patterns, 1v1 defensive cover
Learner focus:
- Understanding pass patterns and offensive strategy (psychomotor and cognitive)
- Continuing to develop defensive cover (psychomotor and cognitive)
Sequence:
- Warm-up: Flickerball, using the rules from the last class
- Square minigames from lesson 3
- Skill enhancement: Running pass patterns
- Minigames
Learner Experiences
- Students do skill work focused on running pass patterns (see figure 14.1), as follows:
- They are in groups of five or six.
- One player is a quarterback; the others are receivers.
- Receivers run the pass pattern, taking turns, and the quarterback throws the pass.
- Once all students have run the pattern, a new quarterback is chosen.
- The easiest patterns are: fly, in, out, and hook.In these patterns the receiver moves in all four directions: left, right, downfield, and back to the quarterback.
Running pass patterns.
- The focus of the minigames is the communication between the quarterback and the receiver. Use two groups of three at the same square: one receiver, one defender, and one quarterback (change roles regularly). The receiver must get pass patterns from the quarterback. Quarterbacks call the plays because they are in charge in the huddle, so it is good practice to start now. Use the following point system:
- Receiver: 1 point each for catching, making forward progress, and scoring (maximum of 3 points per play)
- Defender: 1 point for knocking down the ball, tagging, or preventing a score, 2 points for intercepting
- Quarterback: 1 point if the receiver touches the ball, 1 point for catching (maximum of 2 points per play)
Modifications
- Have no defender, to assist the quarterback with throwing.
- Require that the defender wait on the goal line until the ball is caught.
- Use two receivers and one defender. The defender chooses one receiver to cover and leaves the other open. This helps the quarterback with decision making.
- Have students play downs to score. Let them determine how many tries they get to score.
- Allow defenders to start wherever they want.
- Increase the field size or the number of receivers or defenders.
Democracy in Action
Group process, decision making, and free inquiry: Individual rights and responsibilities to the group; depending on good leadership; deciding when and when not to speak one's mind
Sometimes there just isn't time to process things to death! The huddle in football provides a good example. Members of a strong team have practiced cooperation, understand the capabilities and strengths of individual players, and have had input into the team's strategies and directions. In the huddle, the quarterback draws on this history to make the best decision for the next play. The quarterback's job is to make the best possible decision given the circumstances. The team's job is to carry it out. This is an excellent opportunity for learners to consider when it is OK to argue and debate, and when it's necessary to trust someone else.
Check for Learning
Q: Why is it important for both the quarterback and the receiver to know what pattern the receiver is running?
A: This gives the offense an advantage over the defense; the quarterback shouldn't have to guess.
Q: As a receiver, how do you get open when running your pattern?
A: Head fakes, change of speed or direction, running the pass pattern at full speed.
Q: When playing quarterback, how do you know when to throw the ball?
A: When the receiver has made a break and shows me his hands.
Q: Why does the quarterback call the plays in a huddle?
A: There isn't time for debate.
Q: What qualities does the quarterback need?
A: Knowledge of teammates' individual strengths, decisiveness, clear communication.
Save
Learn more about Playing Fair.
A quick snapshot of an inventing games lesson focused on net games
This vignette provides a quick snapshot of an inventing games lesson focused on net games. We can readily appreciate the diversity of students’ skill levels and also how students are the architects of their own games.
This vignette provides a quick snapshot of an inventing games lesson focused on net games. We can readily appreciate the diversity of students' skill levels and also how students are the architects of their own games. Through the teacher's skillful questioning, both groups are able to analyze the constraints of their games and change their rules to make them more flowing, challenging, and fun. By working progressively through the constructs of their invented games and the corresponding strategies and tactics, they construct schema from which they can make comparisons to other games they will learn. As they negotiate the construction of their games, they also learn how to work closely with others.
Inventing games and learning about democracy (including social justice issues) might seem an unlikely pairing, because play is often considered frivolous and democratic ideals are often considered the most serious notions children can learn. In this book, we consider how inventing games offers seriously playful opportunities to learn democracy in action, because students learn by doing as they negotiate, debate, overcome conflict, and navigate through a series of problem-solving activities. In the physical environment, emotions are quickly stirred and issues around inclusivity become more visible and more pressing. How better to deal with issues of social justice, such as bullying and accessibility, than in such charged situations? Chapter 2 presents steps teachers can take to become more mindful in dealing with such situations.
Incidents of bullying are very much in the news; the tragic suicides of young people who have been bullied (both face-to-face and online) have shocked the world. As media pundits puzzle to find solutions to the problem of bullying, most educators understand that this is not an easy problem to fix. In a speech reported in The Vancouver Sun (June 29, 2013) about violence against women, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter suggested that rather than simply blaming and punishing perpetrators, we should be taking a hard look at overarching attitudes (including religious doctrines) that frame women as inferior. His point was that individual beliefs and actions are nested within, and thus highly influenced by, political, social, and economic structures.
This book does not purport to offer a magic bullet that will eradicate the age-old problem of bullying - for example, by constructing policies to deal with bullies or addressing the topic of bullying discreetly and directly with students. An increasing body of opinion suggests that our current methods (such as punitive zero tolerance, celebrities who speak out against bullying, limiting access to social media sites, or discrete short-term antibullying programs) are not working (Emdin, 2013; Prinstein, 2013). Rather, a comprehensive approach is required across the school curriculum to create sustainable change in the school culture. Physical education is particularly well positioned for such an initiative. Although it has been, ironically, a traditional site of dread for the unpopular and uncoordinated, physical education can offer students opportunities to experiment with, observe, and discuss issues of difference and power. Rather than thinking about these in the abstract, they can experience them firsthand as they practice the democratic principles and skills required to develop an ethic of caring (Gilligan, 1982).
This first chapter addresses the reintegration of play into games, the inventing games process, democracy in action, and the worldview teachers require to help their students become game inventors.
Ms. Craik scans her fourth-grade students, who are playing their invented net games.
A group of shy, uncoordinated girls have made up a game that makes large demands on their balance. A lanky team member spins around three times (with her eyes closed) and calls out the name of one of her opponents on the other side of the net as she releases the ball. Apparently, her challenge is to stay upright and make the pass accurately. Instead, she throws the ball off behind her before staggering dizzily around the court. Although her teammates squeal with laughter, the group is passionately engaged in this odd game of spin and throw.
At the other end of the ability range is a group of boys playing a modified version of Newcomb. They are immersed in a close contest - oblivious to anything else that's going on.
Ms. Craik decides to start with the girls and calls them over for a chat, posing a few questions: How is their game working? Does it involve them all as much as they would like? The girls say there's too much standing about and decide to change the spinning rule a bit to see if the game will flow more easily.
Meanwhile, Ms. Craik has challenged the boys to open up their game. How might they give themselves more time to strategize and structure a more organized offense? After a brief discussion, they decide to introduce a rule that allows two passes before the ball must be sent over the net. As she watches, Ms. Craik prepares questions about how this new rule and constraint on the game opens up the offense for new possibilities.
Key Concept: Inventing Games
This book is based on the inventing games (IG) process, a companion to Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU). The process is explained in the first five chapters as a curriculum model with clearly defined pedagogical principles. Building on the natural instinct of children to play, IG invites them to invent games in the four TGfU game categories. In the process of inventing games and then playing them, children learn about game structures, rules, and the principles of fair play.
Reintegration of Play in Games
Recently, 270 academics, writers, and child development professionals blamed "the marked deterioration in children's mental health" on the lack of unstructured and loosely supervised play(Jacobson, 2008). According to a report produced by Statistics Canada (Ifedi, 2008), the 7.3 million Canadian adults who participated in one or more games ranked "fun, recreation, and relaxation" as the number one reason they played, above the need to stay healthy, meet new friends, hang out with family, or feel a sense of achievement. Yet, sadly, children are turning less and less frequently to games in their free time (Graf et al., 2004). Although organized sport opportunities for 5- to 13-year-olds in North America have doubled in the past 20 years (Hofferth & Sandberg, 2001), teenagers are opting out in large numbers (Ifedi, 2008; Visek et al., 2015). The following list, collected from several reports, summarizes the reasons young people gave for opting out of sports:
- I lost interest.
- I had no fun and it took too much time.
- The coach did not empower players.
- There was too much pressure and worry.
- The coach played favorites.
- The sport was boring.
- There was an overemphasis on winning.
- There was too much sport-specific practice and deliberate practice at a young age.
- The sport programs were badly run.
What better way to recapture and maintain children's interest in and enjoyment of sport than by offering them opportunities to explore and create through play and inventing games? Becoming a good team player takes years of discipline and effort, and becoming a good citizen takes years of civic engagement. The process must be enjoyable to ensure that students stick with it. Without the element of play, activity becomes routine, predictable, and lacking in possibilities. Moreover, democracy depends on human creativity; openness to change, adaptability, and creativity thrive in an atmosphere of freedom and openness, and vice versa. As Shogan (2007) suggested: "If ethics is less about compliance with codes and more about how we explore the ways in which these codes shape our lives, it is possible for people to become more directly involved in understanding and changing their own conduct" (p. 35). In the inventing games process, students are directly involved in constructing the rules that shape the game and their conduct within it. Rather than adopt a zero tolerance approach to bullying, in which bullies are sought out and punished, schools can create curricula that foster respect, fairness, and acceptance.
Children who are free to play have fun and feel safe. Because they are engaged emotionally, cognitively, and spiritually (as well as physically) in a holistic process, they want to stay in the game. They are more likely to invent variations in game play, alternatives that require quick analyses and creative responses. They are also more likely to experience what Kretchmar (2005) called delight. Moments of delight may happen infrequently in games, but they keep us coming back for more. Learning cannot be compartmentalized into behavioral domains and neatly subdivided into the cognitive, the psychomotor, and the affective, because human systems are nested and interconnected. A student who has just been criticized for poor performance in a skill drill is unlikely to make confident decisions, or decisions that involve risk. Holistic approaches, which take the affective experiences of students into account, are imperative for advancing our understanding of TGfU and learning in general. The next section provides a closer examination of inventing games as a medium for seriously playful learning experiences.
Key Concepts: Sport and Games
The words sport and game are often used interchangeably. However, although it is true that all sports are games, not all games are sports. Games derive from play and involve competition. Sport games are games of skill that have a large physical component, as opposed to games of chance or board games. Physical educators often refer to games in terms of games education, a subset of the physical education curriculum. The term sport is often used in the context of extracurricular activities attached to schools, communities, or private organizations.
Learn more about Playing Fair.
Teaching Social Justice and Democracy in Action
To embrace human rights is to become aware that without social justice there can be no fairness or equality; consequently, democratic processes cannot function. Essential to the definition of democracy is the notion that all people have equal power to live freely, to vote, and to speak.
To embrace human rights is to become aware that without social justice there can be no fairness or equality; consequently, democratic processes cannot function. Essential to the definition of democracy is the notion that all people have equal power to live freely, to vote, and to speak. With these rights comes the civic responsibility to exercise these rights through active interest and involvement in the community. Teachers play a crucial role in preparing students to do this.
There are two key aspects of teaching for social justice through the practice of democracy in action. The first is addressing societal inequities through antioppression education. The second is using some of the pedagogical tools to teach social justice - in this case, democracy in action, situated ethics, and inventing games.
Understanding Societal Inequities
As Young pointed out (1990), the democratic process breaks down when unfairness and an imbalance of power occur. Let's consider the nature of power in relation to the games curriculum.
- Power over, or coercive power.This is the power structure in hierarchies. The school administration, which controls the curriculum, is supported by the school board, local government, and the law. Sometimes the culture of the school reinforces practices that seem to go without saying. These might include the disciplinary mastery approach to teaching sport, or inequitable practices such as dodgeball.
- Power from within, or empowerment. As educators, we seek to empower our students through active creative experiences such as singing, writing, solving problems, making art, and dancing. Through inventing games, we offer active creative experiences in the ethical domain, as we encourage students to speak up, listen, negotiate, and make decisions that will enhance the effectiveness of the group.
- Collective power. Collective poweris the power people gain when they act in concert. In the inventing games process, students begin to understand that they are part of a community they can trust. They come to accept that they sometimes need to set aside their own interests in favor of common goals. They learn when to take care of themselves and when to take care of others.
- Power with, or social power (influence, rank, status, or authority). Social power determines how much weight an individual opinion carries, how much members are listened to in a group, and how much they are respected. As young people struggle to reach the expectations of adulthood, they rely heavily on their peers to establish self-esteem. Young people who see themselves as outsiders and not accepted by their peers are more likely to withdraw, become depressed, and become targets for bullying (Boyce, King, & Roche, 2008).
- Earned and unearned social power.Unearned power is privilege, the power you get not from anything you are have done or created, but from who you happen to be - your gender, your race, your social class, the wealth you've inherited, the opportunities handed to you. With privilege often comes entitlement, a feature of hierarchy (Starhawk, 2011, p. 45). This often plays out along the lines of gender and race in physical education classes.
Teaching for Social Justice
Left unaided in group decision-making processes, students fall back on informal or culturally determined systems of interaction, ranging from the much-loved football huddle to a reliance on acknowledged leaders. These systems are products of cultural, generational, and gender norms. Although there is much to celebrate in all social institutions (church, family, state, school), the active and engaged citizen must always examine them for bias. The challenge for the teacher is to find ways to limit privilege while helping students find positive ways to be rewarded for their efforts.
Very often, we learn about what we believe when we confront real-life situations. In inventing games, these situations arise frequently and naturally as students encounter moments of aporia (rupture or stuckness). When we are faced with situations that challenge what we know, we struggle to make new sense of the universe and push beyond our current moral constructs. Varela (1999), who called this new, more conscious, sense of what is right ethical know-how, believes that it evolves over time through small decisions and actions, rather than being handed down as a set of a priori principles. As students invent and negotiate to create their games, they develop their capacity for personal and social responsibility, free inquiry, decision making, social justice, cooperation, and competition (see chapter 1).
Learn more about Playing Fair.
Make the football experience novel and change negative mind-sets
The two things I hear from students in my physical education classes when I say we’re going to be looking at football are usually I don’t like football and I’m not good at football. Although it can be a lot of fun, football can also be confusing, and many students are quick to discount their ability.
The two things I hear from students in my physical education classes when I say we're going to be looking at football are usually I don't like football and I'm not good at football. Although it can be a lot of fun, football can also be confusing, and many students are quick to discount their ability. When we dig down into their experiences, their negative associations usually come from past experiences in which they felt too small to play or couldn't throw the ball. As a result, they don't want to play it again. The challenge is making the football experience novel and changing negative mind-sets and associations.
Football has important outcomes for students: working together as a team, mutual support, leadership, and determination. Modifying the game to highlight these benefits can result in students understanding the essence of the game, wanting to get better at it, and ideally continuing playing when they leave school. Enjoyment and engagement have an enormous impact on learning and long-term involvement in activity. When students like what they do in class, they may pursue it on their own time. Teaching as much as possible through active game play and inserting short drills in context can help students understand the purpose of drills and be more willing to give them a try.
Football can be complex and confusing or really simple. The common principle in all forms of football is that players have a specified number of attempts to cover at least 10 yards in trying to achieve the offensive focus: getting the ball across the goal line. Football is in the Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) invasion games category because it is based on territorial dominance as players attempt to score and restrict their opponents' opportunities to score. Football is, however, much more static than other invasion games such as basketball, soccer, and rugby; these games are in constant motion with few stoppages. Football's stop-and-start style of play is what most people unfamiliar with the sport find confusing and boring. Many people do not understand the need for so many stoppages, and neither do students, until they can create meaning for themselves. Sometimes students even ask for rules that require the game to stop more often to ensure that it is fair for both offense and defense and to allow for better competition.
Lesson 4: Offensive and Defensive Team Concepts
Focus: Offensive and defensive systems, running pass patterns, 1v1 defensive cover
Learner focus:
- Understanding pass patterns and offensive strategy (psychomotor and cognitive)
- Continuing to develop defensive cover (psychomotor and cognitive)
Sequence:
- Warm-up: Flickerball, using the rules from the last class
- Square minigames from lesson 3
- Skill enhancement: Running pass patterns
- Minigames
Learner Experiences
- Students do skill work focused on running pass patterns (see figure 14.1), as follows:
- They are in groups of five or six.
- One player is a quarterback; the others are receivers.
- Receivers run the pass pattern, taking turns, and the quarterback throws the pass.
- Once all students have run the pattern, a new quarterback is chosen.
- The easiest patterns are: fly, in, out, and hook.In these patterns the receiver moves in all four directions: left, right, downfield, and back to the quarterback.
Running pass patterns.
- The focus of the minigames is the communication between the quarterback and the receiver. Use two groups of three at the same square: one receiver, one defender, and one quarterback (change roles regularly). The receiver must get pass patterns from the quarterback. Quarterbacks call the plays because they are in charge in the huddle, so it is good practice to start now. Use the following point system:
- Receiver: 1 point each for catching, making forward progress, and scoring (maximum of 3 points per play)
- Defender: 1 point for knocking down the ball, tagging, or preventing a score, 2 points for intercepting
- Quarterback: 1 point if the receiver touches the ball, 1 point for catching (maximum of 2 points per play)
Modifications
- Have no defender, to assist the quarterback with throwing.
- Require that the defender wait on the goal line until the ball is caught.
- Use two receivers and one defender. The defender chooses one receiver to cover and leaves the other open. This helps the quarterback with decision making.
- Have students play downs to score. Let them determine how many tries they get to score.
- Allow defenders to start wherever they want.
- Increase the field size or the number of receivers or defenders.
Democracy in Action
Group process, decision making, and free inquiry: Individual rights and responsibilities to the group; depending on good leadership; deciding when and when not to speak one's mind
Sometimes there just isn't time to process things to death! The huddle in football provides a good example. Members of a strong team have practiced cooperation, understand the capabilities and strengths of individual players, and have had input into the team's strategies and directions. In the huddle, the quarterback draws on this history to make the best decision for the next play. The quarterback's job is to make the best possible decision given the circumstances. The team's job is to carry it out. This is an excellent opportunity for learners to consider when it is OK to argue and debate, and when it's necessary to trust someone else.
Check for Learning
Q: Why is it important for both the quarterback and the receiver to know what pattern the receiver is running?
A: This gives the offense an advantage over the defense; the quarterback shouldn't have to guess.
Q: As a receiver, how do you get open when running your pattern?
A: Head fakes, change of speed or direction, running the pass pattern at full speed.
Q: When playing quarterback, how do you know when to throw the ball?
A: When the receiver has made a break and shows me his hands.
Q: Why does the quarterback call the plays in a huddle?
A: There isn't time for debate.
Q: What qualities does the quarterback need?
A: Knowledge of teammates' individual strengths, decisiveness, clear communication.
Save
Learn more about Playing Fair.
A quick snapshot of an inventing games lesson focused on net games
This vignette provides a quick snapshot of an inventing games lesson focused on net games. We can readily appreciate the diversity of students’ skill levels and also how students are the architects of their own games.
This vignette provides a quick snapshot of an inventing games lesson focused on net games. We can readily appreciate the diversity of students' skill levels and also how students are the architects of their own games. Through the teacher's skillful questioning, both groups are able to analyze the constraints of their games and change their rules to make them more flowing, challenging, and fun. By working progressively through the constructs of their invented games and the corresponding strategies and tactics, they construct schema from which they can make comparisons to other games they will learn. As they negotiate the construction of their games, they also learn how to work closely with others.
Inventing games and learning about democracy (including social justice issues) might seem an unlikely pairing, because play is often considered frivolous and democratic ideals are often considered the most serious notions children can learn. In this book, we consider how inventing games offers seriously playful opportunities to learn democracy in action, because students learn by doing as they negotiate, debate, overcome conflict, and navigate through a series of problem-solving activities. In the physical environment, emotions are quickly stirred and issues around inclusivity become more visible and more pressing. How better to deal with issues of social justice, such as bullying and accessibility, than in such charged situations? Chapter 2 presents steps teachers can take to become more mindful in dealing with such situations.
Incidents of bullying are very much in the news; the tragic suicides of young people who have been bullied (both face-to-face and online) have shocked the world. As media pundits puzzle to find solutions to the problem of bullying, most educators understand that this is not an easy problem to fix. In a speech reported in The Vancouver Sun (June 29, 2013) about violence against women, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter suggested that rather than simply blaming and punishing perpetrators, we should be taking a hard look at overarching attitudes (including religious doctrines) that frame women as inferior. His point was that individual beliefs and actions are nested within, and thus highly influenced by, political, social, and economic structures.
This book does not purport to offer a magic bullet that will eradicate the age-old problem of bullying - for example, by constructing policies to deal with bullies or addressing the topic of bullying discreetly and directly with students. An increasing body of opinion suggests that our current methods (such as punitive zero tolerance, celebrities who speak out against bullying, limiting access to social media sites, or discrete short-term antibullying programs) are not working (Emdin, 2013; Prinstein, 2013). Rather, a comprehensive approach is required across the school curriculum to create sustainable change in the school culture. Physical education is particularly well positioned for such an initiative. Although it has been, ironically, a traditional site of dread for the unpopular and uncoordinated, physical education can offer students opportunities to experiment with, observe, and discuss issues of difference and power. Rather than thinking about these in the abstract, they can experience them firsthand as they practice the democratic principles and skills required to develop an ethic of caring (Gilligan, 1982).
This first chapter addresses the reintegration of play into games, the inventing games process, democracy in action, and the worldview teachers require to help their students become game inventors.
Ms. Craik scans her fourth-grade students, who are playing their invented net games.
A group of shy, uncoordinated girls have made up a game that makes large demands on their balance. A lanky team member spins around three times (with her eyes closed) and calls out the name of one of her opponents on the other side of the net as she releases the ball. Apparently, her challenge is to stay upright and make the pass accurately. Instead, she throws the ball off behind her before staggering dizzily around the court. Although her teammates squeal with laughter, the group is passionately engaged in this odd game of spin and throw.
At the other end of the ability range is a group of boys playing a modified version of Newcomb. They are immersed in a close contest - oblivious to anything else that's going on.
Ms. Craik decides to start with the girls and calls them over for a chat, posing a few questions: How is their game working? Does it involve them all as much as they would like? The girls say there's too much standing about and decide to change the spinning rule a bit to see if the game will flow more easily.
Meanwhile, Ms. Craik has challenged the boys to open up their game. How might they give themselves more time to strategize and structure a more organized offense? After a brief discussion, they decide to introduce a rule that allows two passes before the ball must be sent over the net. As she watches, Ms. Craik prepares questions about how this new rule and constraint on the game opens up the offense for new possibilities.
Key Concept: Inventing Games
This book is based on the inventing games (IG) process, a companion to Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU). The process is explained in the first five chapters as a curriculum model with clearly defined pedagogical principles. Building on the natural instinct of children to play, IG invites them to invent games in the four TGfU game categories. In the process of inventing games and then playing them, children learn about game structures, rules, and the principles of fair play.
Reintegration of Play in Games
Recently, 270 academics, writers, and child development professionals blamed "the marked deterioration in children's mental health" on the lack of unstructured and loosely supervised play(Jacobson, 2008). According to a report produced by Statistics Canada (Ifedi, 2008), the 7.3 million Canadian adults who participated in one or more games ranked "fun, recreation, and relaxation" as the number one reason they played, above the need to stay healthy, meet new friends, hang out with family, or feel a sense of achievement. Yet, sadly, children are turning less and less frequently to games in their free time (Graf et al., 2004). Although organized sport opportunities for 5- to 13-year-olds in North America have doubled in the past 20 years (Hofferth & Sandberg, 2001), teenagers are opting out in large numbers (Ifedi, 2008; Visek et al., 2015). The following list, collected from several reports, summarizes the reasons young people gave for opting out of sports:
- I lost interest.
- I had no fun and it took too much time.
- The coach did not empower players.
- There was too much pressure and worry.
- The coach played favorites.
- The sport was boring.
- There was an overemphasis on winning.
- There was too much sport-specific practice and deliberate practice at a young age.
- The sport programs were badly run.
What better way to recapture and maintain children's interest in and enjoyment of sport than by offering them opportunities to explore and create through play and inventing games? Becoming a good team player takes years of discipline and effort, and becoming a good citizen takes years of civic engagement. The process must be enjoyable to ensure that students stick with it. Without the element of play, activity becomes routine, predictable, and lacking in possibilities. Moreover, democracy depends on human creativity; openness to change, adaptability, and creativity thrive in an atmosphere of freedom and openness, and vice versa. As Shogan (2007) suggested: "If ethics is less about compliance with codes and more about how we explore the ways in which these codes shape our lives, it is possible for people to become more directly involved in understanding and changing their own conduct" (p. 35). In the inventing games process, students are directly involved in constructing the rules that shape the game and their conduct within it. Rather than adopt a zero tolerance approach to bullying, in which bullies are sought out and punished, schools can create curricula that foster respect, fairness, and acceptance.
Children who are free to play have fun and feel safe. Because they are engaged emotionally, cognitively, and spiritually (as well as physically) in a holistic process, they want to stay in the game. They are more likely to invent variations in game play, alternatives that require quick analyses and creative responses. They are also more likely to experience what Kretchmar (2005) called delight. Moments of delight may happen infrequently in games, but they keep us coming back for more. Learning cannot be compartmentalized into behavioral domains and neatly subdivided into the cognitive, the psychomotor, and the affective, because human systems are nested and interconnected. A student who has just been criticized for poor performance in a skill drill is unlikely to make confident decisions, or decisions that involve risk. Holistic approaches, which take the affective experiences of students into account, are imperative for advancing our understanding of TGfU and learning in general. The next section provides a closer examination of inventing games as a medium for seriously playful learning experiences.
Key Concepts: Sport and Games
The words sport and game are often used interchangeably. However, although it is true that all sports are games, not all games are sports. Games derive from play and involve competition. Sport games are games of skill that have a large physical component, as opposed to games of chance or board games. Physical educators often refer to games in terms of games education, a subset of the physical education curriculum. The term sport is often used in the context of extracurricular activities attached to schools, communities, or private organizations.
Learn more about Playing Fair.
Teaching Social Justice and Democracy in Action
To embrace human rights is to become aware that without social justice there can be no fairness or equality; consequently, democratic processes cannot function. Essential to the definition of democracy is the notion that all people have equal power to live freely, to vote, and to speak.
To embrace human rights is to become aware that without social justice there can be no fairness or equality; consequently, democratic processes cannot function. Essential to the definition of democracy is the notion that all people have equal power to live freely, to vote, and to speak. With these rights comes the civic responsibility to exercise these rights through active interest and involvement in the community. Teachers play a crucial role in preparing students to do this.
There are two key aspects of teaching for social justice through the practice of democracy in action. The first is addressing societal inequities through antioppression education. The second is using some of the pedagogical tools to teach social justice - in this case, democracy in action, situated ethics, and inventing games.
Understanding Societal Inequities
As Young pointed out (1990), the democratic process breaks down when unfairness and an imbalance of power occur. Let's consider the nature of power in relation to the games curriculum.
- Power over, or coercive power.This is the power structure in hierarchies. The school administration, which controls the curriculum, is supported by the school board, local government, and the law. Sometimes the culture of the school reinforces practices that seem to go without saying. These might include the disciplinary mastery approach to teaching sport, or inequitable practices such as dodgeball.
- Power from within, or empowerment. As educators, we seek to empower our students through active creative experiences such as singing, writing, solving problems, making art, and dancing. Through inventing games, we offer active creative experiences in the ethical domain, as we encourage students to speak up, listen, negotiate, and make decisions that will enhance the effectiveness of the group.
- Collective power. Collective poweris the power people gain when they act in concert. In the inventing games process, students begin to understand that they are part of a community they can trust. They come to accept that they sometimes need to set aside their own interests in favor of common goals. They learn when to take care of themselves and when to take care of others.
- Power with, or social power (influence, rank, status, or authority). Social power determines how much weight an individual opinion carries, how much members are listened to in a group, and how much they are respected. As young people struggle to reach the expectations of adulthood, they rely heavily on their peers to establish self-esteem. Young people who see themselves as outsiders and not accepted by their peers are more likely to withdraw, become depressed, and become targets for bullying (Boyce, King, & Roche, 2008).
- Earned and unearned social power.Unearned power is privilege, the power you get not from anything you are have done or created, but from who you happen to be - your gender, your race, your social class, the wealth you've inherited, the opportunities handed to you. With privilege often comes entitlement, a feature of hierarchy (Starhawk, 2011, p. 45). This often plays out along the lines of gender and race in physical education classes.
Teaching for Social Justice
Left unaided in group decision-making processes, students fall back on informal or culturally determined systems of interaction, ranging from the much-loved football huddle to a reliance on acknowledged leaders. These systems are products of cultural, generational, and gender norms. Although there is much to celebrate in all social institutions (church, family, state, school), the active and engaged citizen must always examine them for bias. The challenge for the teacher is to find ways to limit privilege while helping students find positive ways to be rewarded for their efforts.
Very often, we learn about what we believe when we confront real-life situations. In inventing games, these situations arise frequently and naturally as students encounter moments of aporia (rupture or stuckness). When we are faced with situations that challenge what we know, we struggle to make new sense of the universe and push beyond our current moral constructs. Varela (1999), who called this new, more conscious, sense of what is right ethical know-how, believes that it evolves over time through small decisions and actions, rather than being handed down as a set of a priori principles. As students invent and negotiate to create their games, they develop their capacity for personal and social responsibility, free inquiry, decision making, social justice, cooperation, and competition (see chapter 1).
Learn more about Playing Fair.
Make the football experience novel and change negative mind-sets
The two things I hear from students in my physical education classes when I say we’re going to be looking at football are usually I don’t like football and I’m not good at football. Although it can be a lot of fun, football can also be confusing, and many students are quick to discount their ability.
The two things I hear from students in my physical education classes when I say we're going to be looking at football are usually I don't like football and I'm not good at football. Although it can be a lot of fun, football can also be confusing, and many students are quick to discount their ability. When we dig down into their experiences, their negative associations usually come from past experiences in which they felt too small to play or couldn't throw the ball. As a result, they don't want to play it again. The challenge is making the football experience novel and changing negative mind-sets and associations.
Football has important outcomes for students: working together as a team, mutual support, leadership, and determination. Modifying the game to highlight these benefits can result in students understanding the essence of the game, wanting to get better at it, and ideally continuing playing when they leave school. Enjoyment and engagement have an enormous impact on learning and long-term involvement in activity. When students like what they do in class, they may pursue it on their own time. Teaching as much as possible through active game play and inserting short drills in context can help students understand the purpose of drills and be more willing to give them a try.
Football can be complex and confusing or really simple. The common principle in all forms of football is that players have a specified number of attempts to cover at least 10 yards in trying to achieve the offensive focus: getting the ball across the goal line. Football is in the Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) invasion games category because it is based on territorial dominance as players attempt to score and restrict their opponents' opportunities to score. Football is, however, much more static than other invasion games such as basketball, soccer, and rugby; these games are in constant motion with few stoppages. Football's stop-and-start style of play is what most people unfamiliar with the sport find confusing and boring. Many people do not understand the need for so many stoppages, and neither do students, until they can create meaning for themselves. Sometimes students even ask for rules that require the game to stop more often to ensure that it is fair for both offense and defense and to allow for better competition.
Lesson 4: Offensive and Defensive Team Concepts
Focus: Offensive and defensive systems, running pass patterns, 1v1 defensive cover
Learner focus:
- Understanding pass patterns and offensive strategy (psychomotor and cognitive)
- Continuing to develop defensive cover (psychomotor and cognitive)
Sequence:
- Warm-up: Flickerball, using the rules from the last class
- Square minigames from lesson 3
- Skill enhancement: Running pass patterns
- Minigames
Learner Experiences
- Students do skill work focused on running pass patterns (see figure 14.1), as follows:
- They are in groups of five or six.
- One player is a quarterback; the others are receivers.
- Receivers run the pass pattern, taking turns, and the quarterback throws the pass.
- Once all students have run the pattern, a new quarterback is chosen.
- The easiest patterns are: fly, in, out, and hook.In these patterns the receiver moves in all four directions: left, right, downfield, and back to the quarterback.
Running pass patterns.
- The focus of the minigames is the communication between the quarterback and the receiver. Use two groups of three at the same square: one receiver, one defender, and one quarterback (change roles regularly). The receiver must get pass patterns from the quarterback. Quarterbacks call the plays because they are in charge in the huddle, so it is good practice to start now. Use the following point system:
- Receiver: 1 point each for catching, making forward progress, and scoring (maximum of 3 points per play)
- Defender: 1 point for knocking down the ball, tagging, or preventing a score, 2 points for intercepting
- Quarterback: 1 point if the receiver touches the ball, 1 point for catching (maximum of 2 points per play)
Modifications
- Have no defender, to assist the quarterback with throwing.
- Require that the defender wait on the goal line until the ball is caught.
- Use two receivers and one defender. The defender chooses one receiver to cover and leaves the other open. This helps the quarterback with decision making.
- Have students play downs to score. Let them determine how many tries they get to score.
- Allow defenders to start wherever they want.
- Increase the field size or the number of receivers or defenders.
Democracy in Action
Group process, decision making, and free inquiry: Individual rights and responsibilities to the group; depending on good leadership; deciding when and when not to speak one's mind
Sometimes there just isn't time to process things to death! The huddle in football provides a good example. Members of a strong team have practiced cooperation, understand the capabilities and strengths of individual players, and have had input into the team's strategies and directions. In the huddle, the quarterback draws on this history to make the best decision for the next play. The quarterback's job is to make the best possible decision given the circumstances. The team's job is to carry it out. This is an excellent opportunity for learners to consider when it is OK to argue and debate, and when it's necessary to trust someone else.
Check for Learning
Q: Why is it important for both the quarterback and the receiver to know what pattern the receiver is running?
A: This gives the offense an advantage over the defense; the quarterback shouldn't have to guess.
Q: As a receiver, how do you get open when running your pattern?
A: Head fakes, change of speed or direction, running the pass pattern at full speed.
Q: When playing quarterback, how do you know when to throw the ball?
A: When the receiver has made a break and shows me his hands.
Q: Why does the quarterback call the plays in a huddle?
A: There isn't time for debate.
Q: What qualities does the quarterback need?
A: Knowledge of teammates' individual strengths, decisiveness, clear communication.
Save
Learn more about Playing Fair.
A quick snapshot of an inventing games lesson focused on net games
This vignette provides a quick snapshot of an inventing games lesson focused on net games. We can readily appreciate the diversity of students’ skill levels and also how students are the architects of their own games.
This vignette provides a quick snapshot of an inventing games lesson focused on net games. We can readily appreciate the diversity of students' skill levels and also how students are the architects of their own games. Through the teacher's skillful questioning, both groups are able to analyze the constraints of their games and change their rules to make them more flowing, challenging, and fun. By working progressively through the constructs of their invented games and the corresponding strategies and tactics, they construct schema from which they can make comparisons to other games they will learn. As they negotiate the construction of their games, they also learn how to work closely with others.
Inventing games and learning about democracy (including social justice issues) might seem an unlikely pairing, because play is often considered frivolous and democratic ideals are often considered the most serious notions children can learn. In this book, we consider how inventing games offers seriously playful opportunities to learn democracy in action, because students learn by doing as they negotiate, debate, overcome conflict, and navigate through a series of problem-solving activities. In the physical environment, emotions are quickly stirred and issues around inclusivity become more visible and more pressing. How better to deal with issues of social justice, such as bullying and accessibility, than in such charged situations? Chapter 2 presents steps teachers can take to become more mindful in dealing with such situations.
Incidents of bullying are very much in the news; the tragic suicides of young people who have been bullied (both face-to-face and online) have shocked the world. As media pundits puzzle to find solutions to the problem of bullying, most educators understand that this is not an easy problem to fix. In a speech reported in The Vancouver Sun (June 29, 2013) about violence against women, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter suggested that rather than simply blaming and punishing perpetrators, we should be taking a hard look at overarching attitudes (including religious doctrines) that frame women as inferior. His point was that individual beliefs and actions are nested within, and thus highly influenced by, political, social, and economic structures.
This book does not purport to offer a magic bullet that will eradicate the age-old problem of bullying - for example, by constructing policies to deal with bullies or addressing the topic of bullying discreetly and directly with students. An increasing body of opinion suggests that our current methods (such as punitive zero tolerance, celebrities who speak out against bullying, limiting access to social media sites, or discrete short-term antibullying programs) are not working (Emdin, 2013; Prinstein, 2013). Rather, a comprehensive approach is required across the school curriculum to create sustainable change in the school culture. Physical education is particularly well positioned for such an initiative. Although it has been, ironically, a traditional site of dread for the unpopular and uncoordinated, physical education can offer students opportunities to experiment with, observe, and discuss issues of difference and power. Rather than thinking about these in the abstract, they can experience them firsthand as they practice the democratic principles and skills required to develop an ethic of caring (Gilligan, 1982).
This first chapter addresses the reintegration of play into games, the inventing games process, democracy in action, and the worldview teachers require to help their students become game inventors.
Ms. Craik scans her fourth-grade students, who are playing their invented net games.
A group of shy, uncoordinated girls have made up a game that makes large demands on their balance. A lanky team member spins around three times (with her eyes closed) and calls out the name of one of her opponents on the other side of the net as she releases the ball. Apparently, her challenge is to stay upright and make the pass accurately. Instead, she throws the ball off behind her before staggering dizzily around the court. Although her teammates squeal with laughter, the group is passionately engaged in this odd game of spin and throw.
At the other end of the ability range is a group of boys playing a modified version of Newcomb. They are immersed in a close contest - oblivious to anything else that's going on.
Ms. Craik decides to start with the girls and calls them over for a chat, posing a few questions: How is their game working? Does it involve them all as much as they would like? The girls say there's too much standing about and decide to change the spinning rule a bit to see if the game will flow more easily.
Meanwhile, Ms. Craik has challenged the boys to open up their game. How might they give themselves more time to strategize and structure a more organized offense? After a brief discussion, they decide to introduce a rule that allows two passes before the ball must be sent over the net. As she watches, Ms. Craik prepares questions about how this new rule and constraint on the game opens up the offense for new possibilities.
Key Concept: Inventing Games
This book is based on the inventing games (IG) process, a companion to Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU). The process is explained in the first five chapters as a curriculum model with clearly defined pedagogical principles. Building on the natural instinct of children to play, IG invites them to invent games in the four TGfU game categories. In the process of inventing games and then playing them, children learn about game structures, rules, and the principles of fair play.
Reintegration of Play in Games
Recently, 270 academics, writers, and child development professionals blamed "the marked deterioration in children's mental health" on the lack of unstructured and loosely supervised play(Jacobson, 2008). According to a report produced by Statistics Canada (Ifedi, 2008), the 7.3 million Canadian adults who participated in one or more games ranked "fun, recreation, and relaxation" as the number one reason they played, above the need to stay healthy, meet new friends, hang out with family, or feel a sense of achievement. Yet, sadly, children are turning less and less frequently to games in their free time (Graf et al., 2004). Although organized sport opportunities for 5- to 13-year-olds in North America have doubled in the past 20 years (Hofferth & Sandberg, 2001), teenagers are opting out in large numbers (Ifedi, 2008; Visek et al., 2015). The following list, collected from several reports, summarizes the reasons young people gave for opting out of sports:
- I lost interest.
- I had no fun and it took too much time.
- The coach did not empower players.
- There was too much pressure and worry.
- The coach played favorites.
- The sport was boring.
- There was an overemphasis on winning.
- There was too much sport-specific practice and deliberate practice at a young age.
- The sport programs were badly run.
What better way to recapture and maintain children's interest in and enjoyment of sport than by offering them opportunities to explore and create through play and inventing games? Becoming a good team player takes years of discipline and effort, and becoming a good citizen takes years of civic engagement. The process must be enjoyable to ensure that students stick with it. Without the element of play, activity becomes routine, predictable, and lacking in possibilities. Moreover, democracy depends on human creativity; openness to change, adaptability, and creativity thrive in an atmosphere of freedom and openness, and vice versa. As Shogan (2007) suggested: "If ethics is less about compliance with codes and more about how we explore the ways in which these codes shape our lives, it is possible for people to become more directly involved in understanding and changing their own conduct" (p. 35). In the inventing games process, students are directly involved in constructing the rules that shape the game and their conduct within it. Rather than adopt a zero tolerance approach to bullying, in which bullies are sought out and punished, schools can create curricula that foster respect, fairness, and acceptance.
Children who are free to play have fun and feel safe. Because they are engaged emotionally, cognitively, and spiritually (as well as physically) in a holistic process, they want to stay in the game. They are more likely to invent variations in game play, alternatives that require quick analyses and creative responses. They are also more likely to experience what Kretchmar (2005) called delight. Moments of delight may happen infrequently in games, but they keep us coming back for more. Learning cannot be compartmentalized into behavioral domains and neatly subdivided into the cognitive, the psychomotor, and the affective, because human systems are nested and interconnected. A student who has just been criticized for poor performance in a skill drill is unlikely to make confident decisions, or decisions that involve risk. Holistic approaches, which take the affective experiences of students into account, are imperative for advancing our understanding of TGfU and learning in general. The next section provides a closer examination of inventing games as a medium for seriously playful learning experiences.
Key Concepts: Sport and Games
The words sport and game are often used interchangeably. However, although it is true that all sports are games, not all games are sports. Games derive from play and involve competition. Sport games are games of skill that have a large physical component, as opposed to games of chance or board games. Physical educators often refer to games in terms of games education, a subset of the physical education curriculum. The term sport is often used in the context of extracurricular activities attached to schools, communities, or private organizations.
Learn more about Playing Fair.
Teaching Social Justice and Democracy in Action
To embrace human rights is to become aware that without social justice there can be no fairness or equality; consequently, democratic processes cannot function. Essential to the definition of democracy is the notion that all people have equal power to live freely, to vote, and to speak.
To embrace human rights is to become aware that without social justice there can be no fairness or equality; consequently, democratic processes cannot function. Essential to the definition of democracy is the notion that all people have equal power to live freely, to vote, and to speak. With these rights comes the civic responsibility to exercise these rights through active interest and involvement in the community. Teachers play a crucial role in preparing students to do this.
There are two key aspects of teaching for social justice through the practice of democracy in action. The first is addressing societal inequities through antioppression education. The second is using some of the pedagogical tools to teach social justice - in this case, democracy in action, situated ethics, and inventing games.
Understanding Societal Inequities
As Young pointed out (1990), the democratic process breaks down when unfairness and an imbalance of power occur. Let's consider the nature of power in relation to the games curriculum.
- Power over, or coercive power.This is the power structure in hierarchies. The school administration, which controls the curriculum, is supported by the school board, local government, and the law. Sometimes the culture of the school reinforces practices that seem to go without saying. These might include the disciplinary mastery approach to teaching sport, or inequitable practices such as dodgeball.
- Power from within, or empowerment. As educators, we seek to empower our students through active creative experiences such as singing, writing, solving problems, making art, and dancing. Through inventing games, we offer active creative experiences in the ethical domain, as we encourage students to speak up, listen, negotiate, and make decisions that will enhance the effectiveness of the group.
- Collective power. Collective poweris the power people gain when they act in concert. In the inventing games process, students begin to understand that they are part of a community they can trust. They come to accept that they sometimes need to set aside their own interests in favor of common goals. They learn when to take care of themselves and when to take care of others.
- Power with, or social power (influence, rank, status, or authority). Social power determines how much weight an individual opinion carries, how much members are listened to in a group, and how much they are respected. As young people struggle to reach the expectations of adulthood, they rely heavily on their peers to establish self-esteem. Young people who see themselves as outsiders and not accepted by their peers are more likely to withdraw, become depressed, and become targets for bullying (Boyce, King, & Roche, 2008).
- Earned and unearned social power.Unearned power is privilege, the power you get not from anything you are have done or created, but from who you happen to be - your gender, your race, your social class, the wealth you've inherited, the opportunities handed to you. With privilege often comes entitlement, a feature of hierarchy (Starhawk, 2011, p. 45). This often plays out along the lines of gender and race in physical education classes.
Teaching for Social Justice
Left unaided in group decision-making processes, students fall back on informal or culturally determined systems of interaction, ranging from the much-loved football huddle to a reliance on acknowledged leaders. These systems are products of cultural, generational, and gender norms. Although there is much to celebrate in all social institutions (church, family, state, school), the active and engaged citizen must always examine them for bias. The challenge for the teacher is to find ways to limit privilege while helping students find positive ways to be rewarded for their efforts.
Very often, we learn about what we believe when we confront real-life situations. In inventing games, these situations arise frequently and naturally as students encounter moments of aporia (rupture or stuckness). When we are faced with situations that challenge what we know, we struggle to make new sense of the universe and push beyond our current moral constructs. Varela (1999), who called this new, more conscious, sense of what is right ethical know-how, believes that it evolves over time through small decisions and actions, rather than being handed down as a set of a priori principles. As students invent and negotiate to create their games, they develop their capacity for personal and social responsibility, free inquiry, decision making, social justice, cooperation, and competition (see chapter 1).
Learn more about Playing Fair.
Make the football experience novel and change negative mind-sets
The two things I hear from students in my physical education classes when I say we’re going to be looking at football are usually I don’t like football and I’m not good at football. Although it can be a lot of fun, football can also be confusing, and many students are quick to discount their ability.
The two things I hear from students in my physical education classes when I say we're going to be looking at football are usually I don't like football and I'm not good at football. Although it can be a lot of fun, football can also be confusing, and many students are quick to discount their ability. When we dig down into their experiences, their negative associations usually come from past experiences in which they felt too small to play or couldn't throw the ball. As a result, they don't want to play it again. The challenge is making the football experience novel and changing negative mind-sets and associations.
Football has important outcomes for students: working together as a team, mutual support, leadership, and determination. Modifying the game to highlight these benefits can result in students understanding the essence of the game, wanting to get better at it, and ideally continuing playing when they leave school. Enjoyment and engagement have an enormous impact on learning and long-term involvement in activity. When students like what they do in class, they may pursue it on their own time. Teaching as much as possible through active game play and inserting short drills in context can help students understand the purpose of drills and be more willing to give them a try.
Football can be complex and confusing or really simple. The common principle in all forms of football is that players have a specified number of attempts to cover at least 10 yards in trying to achieve the offensive focus: getting the ball across the goal line. Football is in the Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) invasion games category because it is based on territorial dominance as players attempt to score and restrict their opponents' opportunities to score. Football is, however, much more static than other invasion games such as basketball, soccer, and rugby; these games are in constant motion with few stoppages. Football's stop-and-start style of play is what most people unfamiliar with the sport find confusing and boring. Many people do not understand the need for so many stoppages, and neither do students, until they can create meaning for themselves. Sometimes students even ask for rules that require the game to stop more often to ensure that it is fair for both offense and defense and to allow for better competition.
Lesson 4: Offensive and Defensive Team Concepts
Focus: Offensive and defensive systems, running pass patterns, 1v1 defensive cover
Learner focus:
- Understanding pass patterns and offensive strategy (psychomotor and cognitive)
- Continuing to develop defensive cover (psychomotor and cognitive)
Sequence:
- Warm-up: Flickerball, using the rules from the last class
- Square minigames from lesson 3
- Skill enhancement: Running pass patterns
- Minigames
Learner Experiences
- Students do skill work focused on running pass patterns (see figure 14.1), as follows:
- They are in groups of five or six.
- One player is a quarterback; the others are receivers.
- Receivers run the pass pattern, taking turns, and the quarterback throws the pass.
- Once all students have run the pattern, a new quarterback is chosen.
- The easiest patterns are: fly, in, out, and hook.In these patterns the receiver moves in all four directions: left, right, downfield, and back to the quarterback.
Running pass patterns.
- The focus of the minigames is the communication between the quarterback and the receiver. Use two groups of three at the same square: one receiver, one defender, and one quarterback (change roles regularly). The receiver must get pass patterns from the quarterback. Quarterbacks call the plays because they are in charge in the huddle, so it is good practice to start now. Use the following point system:
- Receiver: 1 point each for catching, making forward progress, and scoring (maximum of 3 points per play)
- Defender: 1 point for knocking down the ball, tagging, or preventing a score, 2 points for intercepting
- Quarterback: 1 point if the receiver touches the ball, 1 point for catching (maximum of 2 points per play)
Modifications
- Have no defender, to assist the quarterback with throwing.
- Require that the defender wait on the goal line until the ball is caught.
- Use two receivers and one defender. The defender chooses one receiver to cover and leaves the other open. This helps the quarterback with decision making.
- Have students play downs to score. Let them determine how many tries they get to score.
- Allow defenders to start wherever they want.
- Increase the field size or the number of receivers or defenders.
Democracy in Action
Group process, decision making, and free inquiry: Individual rights and responsibilities to the group; depending on good leadership; deciding when and when not to speak one's mind
Sometimes there just isn't time to process things to death! The huddle in football provides a good example. Members of a strong team have practiced cooperation, understand the capabilities and strengths of individual players, and have had input into the team's strategies and directions. In the huddle, the quarterback draws on this history to make the best decision for the next play. The quarterback's job is to make the best possible decision given the circumstances. The team's job is to carry it out. This is an excellent opportunity for learners to consider when it is OK to argue and debate, and when it's necessary to trust someone else.
Check for Learning
Q: Why is it important for both the quarterback and the receiver to know what pattern the receiver is running?
A: This gives the offense an advantage over the defense; the quarterback shouldn't have to guess.
Q: As a receiver, how do you get open when running your pattern?
A: Head fakes, change of speed or direction, running the pass pattern at full speed.
Q: When playing quarterback, how do you know when to throw the ball?
A: When the receiver has made a break and shows me his hands.
Q: Why does the quarterback call the plays in a huddle?
A: There isn't time for debate.
Q: What qualities does the quarterback need?
A: Knowledge of teammates' individual strengths, decisiveness, clear communication.
Save
Learn more about Playing Fair.
A quick snapshot of an inventing games lesson focused on net games
This vignette provides a quick snapshot of an inventing games lesson focused on net games. We can readily appreciate the diversity of students’ skill levels and also how students are the architects of their own games.
This vignette provides a quick snapshot of an inventing games lesson focused on net games. We can readily appreciate the diversity of students' skill levels and also how students are the architects of their own games. Through the teacher's skillful questioning, both groups are able to analyze the constraints of their games and change their rules to make them more flowing, challenging, and fun. By working progressively through the constructs of their invented games and the corresponding strategies and tactics, they construct schema from which they can make comparisons to other games they will learn. As they negotiate the construction of their games, they also learn how to work closely with others.
Inventing games and learning about democracy (including social justice issues) might seem an unlikely pairing, because play is often considered frivolous and democratic ideals are often considered the most serious notions children can learn. In this book, we consider how inventing games offers seriously playful opportunities to learn democracy in action, because students learn by doing as they negotiate, debate, overcome conflict, and navigate through a series of problem-solving activities. In the physical environment, emotions are quickly stirred and issues around inclusivity become more visible and more pressing. How better to deal with issues of social justice, such as bullying and accessibility, than in such charged situations? Chapter 2 presents steps teachers can take to become more mindful in dealing with such situations.
Incidents of bullying are very much in the news; the tragic suicides of young people who have been bullied (both face-to-face and online) have shocked the world. As media pundits puzzle to find solutions to the problem of bullying, most educators understand that this is not an easy problem to fix. In a speech reported in The Vancouver Sun (June 29, 2013) about violence against women, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter suggested that rather than simply blaming and punishing perpetrators, we should be taking a hard look at overarching attitudes (including religious doctrines) that frame women as inferior. His point was that individual beliefs and actions are nested within, and thus highly influenced by, political, social, and economic structures.
This book does not purport to offer a magic bullet that will eradicate the age-old problem of bullying - for example, by constructing policies to deal with bullies or addressing the topic of bullying discreetly and directly with students. An increasing body of opinion suggests that our current methods (such as punitive zero tolerance, celebrities who speak out against bullying, limiting access to social media sites, or discrete short-term antibullying programs) are not working (Emdin, 2013; Prinstein, 2013). Rather, a comprehensive approach is required across the school curriculum to create sustainable change in the school culture. Physical education is particularly well positioned for such an initiative. Although it has been, ironically, a traditional site of dread for the unpopular and uncoordinated, physical education can offer students opportunities to experiment with, observe, and discuss issues of difference and power. Rather than thinking about these in the abstract, they can experience them firsthand as they practice the democratic principles and skills required to develop an ethic of caring (Gilligan, 1982).
This first chapter addresses the reintegration of play into games, the inventing games process, democracy in action, and the worldview teachers require to help their students become game inventors.
Ms. Craik scans her fourth-grade students, who are playing their invented net games.
A group of shy, uncoordinated girls have made up a game that makes large demands on their balance. A lanky team member spins around three times (with her eyes closed) and calls out the name of one of her opponents on the other side of the net as she releases the ball. Apparently, her challenge is to stay upright and make the pass accurately. Instead, she throws the ball off behind her before staggering dizzily around the court. Although her teammates squeal with laughter, the group is passionately engaged in this odd game of spin and throw.
At the other end of the ability range is a group of boys playing a modified version of Newcomb. They are immersed in a close contest - oblivious to anything else that's going on.
Ms. Craik decides to start with the girls and calls them over for a chat, posing a few questions: How is their game working? Does it involve them all as much as they would like? The girls say there's too much standing about and decide to change the spinning rule a bit to see if the game will flow more easily.
Meanwhile, Ms. Craik has challenged the boys to open up their game. How might they give themselves more time to strategize and structure a more organized offense? After a brief discussion, they decide to introduce a rule that allows two passes before the ball must be sent over the net. As she watches, Ms. Craik prepares questions about how this new rule and constraint on the game opens up the offense for new possibilities.
Key Concept: Inventing Games
This book is based on the inventing games (IG) process, a companion to Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU). The process is explained in the first five chapters as a curriculum model with clearly defined pedagogical principles. Building on the natural instinct of children to play, IG invites them to invent games in the four TGfU game categories. In the process of inventing games and then playing them, children learn about game structures, rules, and the principles of fair play.
Reintegration of Play in Games
Recently, 270 academics, writers, and child development professionals blamed "the marked deterioration in children's mental health" on the lack of unstructured and loosely supervised play(Jacobson, 2008). According to a report produced by Statistics Canada (Ifedi, 2008), the 7.3 million Canadian adults who participated in one or more games ranked "fun, recreation, and relaxation" as the number one reason they played, above the need to stay healthy, meet new friends, hang out with family, or feel a sense of achievement. Yet, sadly, children are turning less and less frequently to games in their free time (Graf et al., 2004). Although organized sport opportunities for 5- to 13-year-olds in North America have doubled in the past 20 years (Hofferth & Sandberg, 2001), teenagers are opting out in large numbers (Ifedi, 2008; Visek et al., 2015). The following list, collected from several reports, summarizes the reasons young people gave for opting out of sports:
- I lost interest.
- I had no fun and it took too much time.
- The coach did not empower players.
- There was too much pressure and worry.
- The coach played favorites.
- The sport was boring.
- There was an overemphasis on winning.
- There was too much sport-specific practice and deliberate practice at a young age.
- The sport programs were badly run.
What better way to recapture and maintain children's interest in and enjoyment of sport than by offering them opportunities to explore and create through play and inventing games? Becoming a good team player takes years of discipline and effort, and becoming a good citizen takes years of civic engagement. The process must be enjoyable to ensure that students stick with it. Without the element of play, activity becomes routine, predictable, and lacking in possibilities. Moreover, democracy depends on human creativity; openness to change, adaptability, and creativity thrive in an atmosphere of freedom and openness, and vice versa. As Shogan (2007) suggested: "If ethics is less about compliance with codes and more about how we explore the ways in which these codes shape our lives, it is possible for people to become more directly involved in understanding and changing their own conduct" (p. 35). In the inventing games process, students are directly involved in constructing the rules that shape the game and their conduct within it. Rather than adopt a zero tolerance approach to bullying, in which bullies are sought out and punished, schools can create curricula that foster respect, fairness, and acceptance.
Children who are free to play have fun and feel safe. Because they are engaged emotionally, cognitively, and spiritually (as well as physically) in a holistic process, they want to stay in the game. They are more likely to invent variations in game play, alternatives that require quick analyses and creative responses. They are also more likely to experience what Kretchmar (2005) called delight. Moments of delight may happen infrequently in games, but they keep us coming back for more. Learning cannot be compartmentalized into behavioral domains and neatly subdivided into the cognitive, the psychomotor, and the affective, because human systems are nested and interconnected. A student who has just been criticized for poor performance in a skill drill is unlikely to make confident decisions, or decisions that involve risk. Holistic approaches, which take the affective experiences of students into account, are imperative for advancing our understanding of TGfU and learning in general. The next section provides a closer examination of inventing games as a medium for seriously playful learning experiences.
Key Concepts: Sport and Games
The words sport and game are often used interchangeably. However, although it is true that all sports are games, not all games are sports. Games derive from play and involve competition. Sport games are games of skill that have a large physical component, as opposed to games of chance or board games. Physical educators often refer to games in terms of games education, a subset of the physical education curriculum. The term sport is often used in the context of extracurricular activities attached to schools, communities, or private organizations.
Learn more about Playing Fair.
Teaching Social Justice and Democracy in Action
To embrace human rights is to become aware that without social justice there can be no fairness or equality; consequently, democratic processes cannot function. Essential to the definition of democracy is the notion that all people have equal power to live freely, to vote, and to speak.
To embrace human rights is to become aware that without social justice there can be no fairness or equality; consequently, democratic processes cannot function. Essential to the definition of democracy is the notion that all people have equal power to live freely, to vote, and to speak. With these rights comes the civic responsibility to exercise these rights through active interest and involvement in the community. Teachers play a crucial role in preparing students to do this.
There are two key aspects of teaching for social justice through the practice of democracy in action. The first is addressing societal inequities through antioppression education. The second is using some of the pedagogical tools to teach social justice - in this case, democracy in action, situated ethics, and inventing games.
Understanding Societal Inequities
As Young pointed out (1990), the democratic process breaks down when unfairness and an imbalance of power occur. Let's consider the nature of power in relation to the games curriculum.
- Power over, or coercive power.This is the power structure in hierarchies. The school administration, which controls the curriculum, is supported by the school board, local government, and the law. Sometimes the culture of the school reinforces practices that seem to go without saying. These might include the disciplinary mastery approach to teaching sport, or inequitable practices such as dodgeball.
- Power from within, or empowerment. As educators, we seek to empower our students through active creative experiences such as singing, writing, solving problems, making art, and dancing. Through inventing games, we offer active creative experiences in the ethical domain, as we encourage students to speak up, listen, negotiate, and make decisions that will enhance the effectiveness of the group.
- Collective power. Collective poweris the power people gain when they act in concert. In the inventing games process, students begin to understand that they are part of a community they can trust. They come to accept that they sometimes need to set aside their own interests in favor of common goals. They learn when to take care of themselves and when to take care of others.
- Power with, or social power (influence, rank, status, or authority). Social power determines how much weight an individual opinion carries, how much members are listened to in a group, and how much they are respected. As young people struggle to reach the expectations of adulthood, they rely heavily on their peers to establish self-esteem. Young people who see themselves as outsiders and not accepted by their peers are more likely to withdraw, become depressed, and become targets for bullying (Boyce, King, & Roche, 2008).
- Earned and unearned social power.Unearned power is privilege, the power you get not from anything you are have done or created, but from who you happen to be - your gender, your race, your social class, the wealth you've inherited, the opportunities handed to you. With privilege often comes entitlement, a feature of hierarchy (Starhawk, 2011, p. 45). This often plays out along the lines of gender and race in physical education classes.
Teaching for Social Justice
Left unaided in group decision-making processes, students fall back on informal or culturally determined systems of interaction, ranging from the much-loved football huddle to a reliance on acknowledged leaders. These systems are products of cultural, generational, and gender norms. Although there is much to celebrate in all social institutions (church, family, state, school), the active and engaged citizen must always examine them for bias. The challenge for the teacher is to find ways to limit privilege while helping students find positive ways to be rewarded for their efforts.
Very often, we learn about what we believe when we confront real-life situations. In inventing games, these situations arise frequently and naturally as students encounter moments of aporia (rupture or stuckness). When we are faced with situations that challenge what we know, we struggle to make new sense of the universe and push beyond our current moral constructs. Varela (1999), who called this new, more conscious, sense of what is right ethical know-how, believes that it evolves over time through small decisions and actions, rather than being handed down as a set of a priori principles. As students invent and negotiate to create their games, they develop their capacity for personal and social responsibility, free inquiry, decision making, social justice, cooperation, and competition (see chapter 1).
Learn more about Playing Fair.
Make the football experience novel and change negative mind-sets
The two things I hear from students in my physical education classes when I say we’re going to be looking at football are usually I don’t like football and I’m not good at football. Although it can be a lot of fun, football can also be confusing, and many students are quick to discount their ability.
The two things I hear from students in my physical education classes when I say we're going to be looking at football are usually I don't like football and I'm not good at football. Although it can be a lot of fun, football can also be confusing, and many students are quick to discount their ability. When we dig down into their experiences, their negative associations usually come from past experiences in which they felt too small to play or couldn't throw the ball. As a result, they don't want to play it again. The challenge is making the football experience novel and changing negative mind-sets and associations.
Football has important outcomes for students: working together as a team, mutual support, leadership, and determination. Modifying the game to highlight these benefits can result in students understanding the essence of the game, wanting to get better at it, and ideally continuing playing when they leave school. Enjoyment and engagement have an enormous impact on learning and long-term involvement in activity. When students like what they do in class, they may pursue it on their own time. Teaching as much as possible through active game play and inserting short drills in context can help students understand the purpose of drills and be more willing to give them a try.
Football can be complex and confusing or really simple. The common principle in all forms of football is that players have a specified number of attempts to cover at least 10 yards in trying to achieve the offensive focus: getting the ball across the goal line. Football is in the Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) invasion games category because it is based on territorial dominance as players attempt to score and restrict their opponents' opportunities to score. Football is, however, much more static than other invasion games such as basketball, soccer, and rugby; these games are in constant motion with few stoppages. Football's stop-and-start style of play is what most people unfamiliar with the sport find confusing and boring. Many people do not understand the need for so many stoppages, and neither do students, until they can create meaning for themselves. Sometimes students even ask for rules that require the game to stop more often to ensure that it is fair for both offense and defense and to allow for better competition.
Lesson 4: Offensive and Defensive Team Concepts
Focus: Offensive and defensive systems, running pass patterns, 1v1 defensive cover
Learner focus:
- Understanding pass patterns and offensive strategy (psychomotor and cognitive)
- Continuing to develop defensive cover (psychomotor and cognitive)
Sequence:
- Warm-up: Flickerball, using the rules from the last class
- Square minigames from lesson 3
- Skill enhancement: Running pass patterns
- Minigames
Learner Experiences
- Students do skill work focused on running pass patterns (see figure 14.1), as follows:
- They are in groups of five or six.
- One player is a quarterback; the others are receivers.
- Receivers run the pass pattern, taking turns, and the quarterback throws the pass.
- Once all students have run the pattern, a new quarterback is chosen.
- The easiest patterns are: fly, in, out, and hook.In these patterns the receiver moves in all four directions: left, right, downfield, and back to the quarterback.
Running pass patterns.
- The focus of the minigames is the communication between the quarterback and the receiver. Use two groups of three at the same square: one receiver, one defender, and one quarterback (change roles regularly). The receiver must get pass patterns from the quarterback. Quarterbacks call the plays because they are in charge in the huddle, so it is good practice to start now. Use the following point system:
- Receiver: 1 point each for catching, making forward progress, and scoring (maximum of 3 points per play)
- Defender: 1 point for knocking down the ball, tagging, or preventing a score, 2 points for intercepting
- Quarterback: 1 point if the receiver touches the ball, 1 point for catching (maximum of 2 points per play)
Modifications
- Have no defender, to assist the quarterback with throwing.
- Require that the defender wait on the goal line until the ball is caught.
- Use two receivers and one defender. The defender chooses one receiver to cover and leaves the other open. This helps the quarterback with decision making.
- Have students play downs to score. Let them determine how many tries they get to score.
- Allow defenders to start wherever they want.
- Increase the field size or the number of receivers or defenders.
Democracy in Action
Group process, decision making, and free inquiry: Individual rights and responsibilities to the group; depending on good leadership; deciding when and when not to speak one's mind
Sometimes there just isn't time to process things to death! The huddle in football provides a good example. Members of a strong team have practiced cooperation, understand the capabilities and strengths of individual players, and have had input into the team's strategies and directions. In the huddle, the quarterback draws on this history to make the best decision for the next play. The quarterback's job is to make the best possible decision given the circumstances. The team's job is to carry it out. This is an excellent opportunity for learners to consider when it is OK to argue and debate, and when it's necessary to trust someone else.
Check for Learning
Q: Why is it important for both the quarterback and the receiver to know what pattern the receiver is running?
A: This gives the offense an advantage over the defense; the quarterback shouldn't have to guess.
Q: As a receiver, how do you get open when running your pattern?
A: Head fakes, change of speed or direction, running the pass pattern at full speed.
Q: When playing quarterback, how do you know when to throw the ball?
A: When the receiver has made a break and shows me his hands.
Q: Why does the quarterback call the plays in a huddle?
A: There isn't time for debate.
Q: What qualities does the quarterback need?
A: Knowledge of teammates' individual strengths, decisiveness, clear communication.
Save
Learn more about Playing Fair.
A quick snapshot of an inventing games lesson focused on net games
This vignette provides a quick snapshot of an inventing games lesson focused on net games. We can readily appreciate the diversity of students’ skill levels and also how students are the architects of their own games.
This vignette provides a quick snapshot of an inventing games lesson focused on net games. We can readily appreciate the diversity of students' skill levels and also how students are the architects of their own games. Through the teacher's skillful questioning, both groups are able to analyze the constraints of their games and change their rules to make them more flowing, challenging, and fun. By working progressively through the constructs of their invented games and the corresponding strategies and tactics, they construct schema from which they can make comparisons to other games they will learn. As they negotiate the construction of their games, they also learn how to work closely with others.
Inventing games and learning about democracy (including social justice issues) might seem an unlikely pairing, because play is often considered frivolous and democratic ideals are often considered the most serious notions children can learn. In this book, we consider how inventing games offers seriously playful opportunities to learn democracy in action, because students learn by doing as they negotiate, debate, overcome conflict, and navigate through a series of problem-solving activities. In the physical environment, emotions are quickly stirred and issues around inclusivity become more visible and more pressing. How better to deal with issues of social justice, such as bullying and accessibility, than in such charged situations? Chapter 2 presents steps teachers can take to become more mindful in dealing with such situations.
Incidents of bullying are very much in the news; the tragic suicides of young people who have been bullied (both face-to-face and online) have shocked the world. As media pundits puzzle to find solutions to the problem of bullying, most educators understand that this is not an easy problem to fix. In a speech reported in The Vancouver Sun (June 29, 2013) about violence against women, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter suggested that rather than simply blaming and punishing perpetrators, we should be taking a hard look at overarching attitudes (including religious doctrines) that frame women as inferior. His point was that individual beliefs and actions are nested within, and thus highly influenced by, political, social, and economic structures.
This book does not purport to offer a magic bullet that will eradicate the age-old problem of bullying - for example, by constructing policies to deal with bullies or addressing the topic of bullying discreetly and directly with students. An increasing body of opinion suggests that our current methods (such as punitive zero tolerance, celebrities who speak out against bullying, limiting access to social media sites, or discrete short-term antibullying programs) are not working (Emdin, 2013; Prinstein, 2013). Rather, a comprehensive approach is required across the school curriculum to create sustainable change in the school culture. Physical education is particularly well positioned for such an initiative. Although it has been, ironically, a traditional site of dread for the unpopular and uncoordinated, physical education can offer students opportunities to experiment with, observe, and discuss issues of difference and power. Rather than thinking about these in the abstract, they can experience them firsthand as they practice the democratic principles and skills required to develop an ethic of caring (Gilligan, 1982).
This first chapter addresses the reintegration of play into games, the inventing games process, democracy in action, and the worldview teachers require to help their students become game inventors.
Ms. Craik scans her fourth-grade students, who are playing their invented net games.
A group of shy, uncoordinated girls have made up a game that makes large demands on their balance. A lanky team member spins around three times (with her eyes closed) and calls out the name of one of her opponents on the other side of the net as she releases the ball. Apparently, her challenge is to stay upright and make the pass accurately. Instead, she throws the ball off behind her before staggering dizzily around the court. Although her teammates squeal with laughter, the group is passionately engaged in this odd game of spin and throw.
At the other end of the ability range is a group of boys playing a modified version of Newcomb. They are immersed in a close contest - oblivious to anything else that's going on.
Ms. Craik decides to start with the girls and calls them over for a chat, posing a few questions: How is their game working? Does it involve them all as much as they would like? The girls say there's too much standing about and decide to change the spinning rule a bit to see if the game will flow more easily.
Meanwhile, Ms. Craik has challenged the boys to open up their game. How might they give themselves more time to strategize and structure a more organized offense? After a brief discussion, they decide to introduce a rule that allows two passes before the ball must be sent over the net. As she watches, Ms. Craik prepares questions about how this new rule and constraint on the game opens up the offense for new possibilities.
Key Concept: Inventing Games
This book is based on the inventing games (IG) process, a companion to Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU). The process is explained in the first five chapters as a curriculum model with clearly defined pedagogical principles. Building on the natural instinct of children to play, IG invites them to invent games in the four TGfU game categories. In the process of inventing games and then playing them, children learn about game structures, rules, and the principles of fair play.
Reintegration of Play in Games
Recently, 270 academics, writers, and child development professionals blamed "the marked deterioration in children's mental health" on the lack of unstructured and loosely supervised play(Jacobson, 2008). According to a report produced by Statistics Canada (Ifedi, 2008), the 7.3 million Canadian adults who participated in one or more games ranked "fun, recreation, and relaxation" as the number one reason they played, above the need to stay healthy, meet new friends, hang out with family, or feel a sense of achievement. Yet, sadly, children are turning less and less frequently to games in their free time (Graf et al., 2004). Although organized sport opportunities for 5- to 13-year-olds in North America have doubled in the past 20 years (Hofferth & Sandberg, 2001), teenagers are opting out in large numbers (Ifedi, 2008; Visek et al., 2015). The following list, collected from several reports, summarizes the reasons young people gave for opting out of sports:
- I lost interest.
- I had no fun and it took too much time.
- The coach did not empower players.
- There was too much pressure and worry.
- The coach played favorites.
- The sport was boring.
- There was an overemphasis on winning.
- There was too much sport-specific practice and deliberate practice at a young age.
- The sport programs were badly run.
What better way to recapture and maintain children's interest in and enjoyment of sport than by offering them opportunities to explore and create through play and inventing games? Becoming a good team player takes years of discipline and effort, and becoming a good citizen takes years of civic engagement. The process must be enjoyable to ensure that students stick with it. Without the element of play, activity becomes routine, predictable, and lacking in possibilities. Moreover, democracy depends on human creativity; openness to change, adaptability, and creativity thrive in an atmosphere of freedom and openness, and vice versa. As Shogan (2007) suggested: "If ethics is less about compliance with codes and more about how we explore the ways in which these codes shape our lives, it is possible for people to become more directly involved in understanding and changing their own conduct" (p. 35). In the inventing games process, students are directly involved in constructing the rules that shape the game and their conduct within it. Rather than adopt a zero tolerance approach to bullying, in which bullies are sought out and punished, schools can create curricula that foster respect, fairness, and acceptance.
Children who are free to play have fun and feel safe. Because they are engaged emotionally, cognitively, and spiritually (as well as physically) in a holistic process, they want to stay in the game. They are more likely to invent variations in game play, alternatives that require quick analyses and creative responses. They are also more likely to experience what Kretchmar (2005) called delight. Moments of delight may happen infrequently in games, but they keep us coming back for more. Learning cannot be compartmentalized into behavioral domains and neatly subdivided into the cognitive, the psychomotor, and the affective, because human systems are nested and interconnected. A student who has just been criticized for poor performance in a skill drill is unlikely to make confident decisions, or decisions that involve risk. Holistic approaches, which take the affective experiences of students into account, are imperative for advancing our understanding of TGfU and learning in general. The next section provides a closer examination of inventing games as a medium for seriously playful learning experiences.
Key Concepts: Sport and Games
The words sport and game are often used interchangeably. However, although it is true that all sports are games, not all games are sports. Games derive from play and involve competition. Sport games are games of skill that have a large physical component, as opposed to games of chance or board games. Physical educators often refer to games in terms of games education, a subset of the physical education curriculum. The term sport is often used in the context of extracurricular activities attached to schools, communities, or private organizations.
Learn more about Playing Fair.
Teaching Social Justice and Democracy in Action
To embrace human rights is to become aware that without social justice there can be no fairness or equality; consequently, democratic processes cannot function. Essential to the definition of democracy is the notion that all people have equal power to live freely, to vote, and to speak.
To embrace human rights is to become aware that without social justice there can be no fairness or equality; consequently, democratic processes cannot function. Essential to the definition of democracy is the notion that all people have equal power to live freely, to vote, and to speak. With these rights comes the civic responsibility to exercise these rights through active interest and involvement in the community. Teachers play a crucial role in preparing students to do this.
There are two key aspects of teaching for social justice through the practice of democracy in action. The first is addressing societal inequities through antioppression education. The second is using some of the pedagogical tools to teach social justice - in this case, democracy in action, situated ethics, and inventing games.
Understanding Societal Inequities
As Young pointed out (1990), the democratic process breaks down when unfairness and an imbalance of power occur. Let's consider the nature of power in relation to the games curriculum.
- Power over, or coercive power.This is the power structure in hierarchies. The school administration, which controls the curriculum, is supported by the school board, local government, and the law. Sometimes the culture of the school reinforces practices that seem to go without saying. These might include the disciplinary mastery approach to teaching sport, or inequitable practices such as dodgeball.
- Power from within, or empowerment. As educators, we seek to empower our students through active creative experiences such as singing, writing, solving problems, making art, and dancing. Through inventing games, we offer active creative experiences in the ethical domain, as we encourage students to speak up, listen, negotiate, and make decisions that will enhance the effectiveness of the group.
- Collective power. Collective poweris the power people gain when they act in concert. In the inventing games process, students begin to understand that they are part of a community they can trust. They come to accept that they sometimes need to set aside their own interests in favor of common goals. They learn when to take care of themselves and when to take care of others.
- Power with, or social power (influence, rank, status, or authority). Social power determines how much weight an individual opinion carries, how much members are listened to in a group, and how much they are respected. As young people struggle to reach the expectations of adulthood, they rely heavily on their peers to establish self-esteem. Young people who see themselves as outsiders and not accepted by their peers are more likely to withdraw, become depressed, and become targets for bullying (Boyce, King, & Roche, 2008).
- Earned and unearned social power.Unearned power is privilege, the power you get not from anything you are have done or created, but from who you happen to be - your gender, your race, your social class, the wealth you've inherited, the opportunities handed to you. With privilege often comes entitlement, a feature of hierarchy (Starhawk, 2011, p. 45). This often plays out along the lines of gender and race in physical education classes.
Teaching for Social Justice
Left unaided in group decision-making processes, students fall back on informal or culturally determined systems of interaction, ranging from the much-loved football huddle to a reliance on acknowledged leaders. These systems are products of cultural, generational, and gender norms. Although there is much to celebrate in all social institutions (church, family, state, school), the active and engaged citizen must always examine them for bias. The challenge for the teacher is to find ways to limit privilege while helping students find positive ways to be rewarded for their efforts.
Very often, we learn about what we believe when we confront real-life situations. In inventing games, these situations arise frequently and naturally as students encounter moments of aporia (rupture or stuckness). When we are faced with situations that challenge what we know, we struggle to make new sense of the universe and push beyond our current moral constructs. Varela (1999), who called this new, more conscious, sense of what is right ethical know-how, believes that it evolves over time through small decisions and actions, rather than being handed down as a set of a priori principles. As students invent and negotiate to create their games, they develop their capacity for personal and social responsibility, free inquiry, decision making, social justice, cooperation, and competition (see chapter 1).
Learn more about Playing Fair.
Make the football experience novel and change negative mind-sets
The two things I hear from students in my physical education classes when I say we’re going to be looking at football are usually I don’t like football and I’m not good at football. Although it can be a lot of fun, football can also be confusing, and many students are quick to discount their ability.
The two things I hear from students in my physical education classes when I say we're going to be looking at football are usually I don't like football and I'm not good at football. Although it can be a lot of fun, football can also be confusing, and many students are quick to discount their ability. When we dig down into their experiences, their negative associations usually come from past experiences in which they felt too small to play or couldn't throw the ball. As a result, they don't want to play it again. The challenge is making the football experience novel and changing negative mind-sets and associations.
Football has important outcomes for students: working together as a team, mutual support, leadership, and determination. Modifying the game to highlight these benefits can result in students understanding the essence of the game, wanting to get better at it, and ideally continuing playing when they leave school. Enjoyment and engagement have an enormous impact on learning and long-term involvement in activity. When students like what they do in class, they may pursue it on their own time. Teaching as much as possible through active game play and inserting short drills in context can help students understand the purpose of drills and be more willing to give them a try.
Football can be complex and confusing or really simple. The common principle in all forms of football is that players have a specified number of attempts to cover at least 10 yards in trying to achieve the offensive focus: getting the ball across the goal line. Football is in the Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) invasion games category because it is based on territorial dominance as players attempt to score and restrict their opponents' opportunities to score. Football is, however, much more static than other invasion games such as basketball, soccer, and rugby; these games are in constant motion with few stoppages. Football's stop-and-start style of play is what most people unfamiliar with the sport find confusing and boring. Many people do not understand the need for so many stoppages, and neither do students, until they can create meaning for themselves. Sometimes students even ask for rules that require the game to stop more often to ensure that it is fair for both offense and defense and to allow for better competition.
Lesson 4: Offensive and Defensive Team Concepts
Focus: Offensive and defensive systems, running pass patterns, 1v1 defensive cover
Learner focus:
- Understanding pass patterns and offensive strategy (psychomotor and cognitive)
- Continuing to develop defensive cover (psychomotor and cognitive)
Sequence:
- Warm-up: Flickerball, using the rules from the last class
- Square minigames from lesson 3
- Skill enhancement: Running pass patterns
- Minigames
Learner Experiences
- Students do skill work focused on running pass patterns (see figure 14.1), as follows:
- They are in groups of five or six.
- One player is a quarterback; the others are receivers.
- Receivers run the pass pattern, taking turns, and the quarterback throws the pass.
- Once all students have run the pattern, a new quarterback is chosen.
- The easiest patterns are: fly, in, out, and hook.In these patterns the receiver moves in all four directions: left, right, downfield, and back to the quarterback.
Running pass patterns.
- The focus of the minigames is the communication between the quarterback and the receiver. Use two groups of three at the same square: one receiver, one defender, and one quarterback (change roles regularly). The receiver must get pass patterns from the quarterback. Quarterbacks call the plays because they are in charge in the huddle, so it is good practice to start now. Use the following point system:
- Receiver: 1 point each for catching, making forward progress, and scoring (maximum of 3 points per play)
- Defender: 1 point for knocking down the ball, tagging, or preventing a score, 2 points for intercepting
- Quarterback: 1 point if the receiver touches the ball, 1 point for catching (maximum of 2 points per play)
Modifications
- Have no defender, to assist the quarterback with throwing.
- Require that the defender wait on the goal line until the ball is caught.
- Use two receivers and one defender. The defender chooses one receiver to cover and leaves the other open. This helps the quarterback with decision making.
- Have students play downs to score. Let them determine how many tries they get to score.
- Allow defenders to start wherever they want.
- Increase the field size or the number of receivers or defenders.
Democracy in Action
Group process, decision making, and free inquiry: Individual rights and responsibilities to the group; depending on good leadership; deciding when and when not to speak one's mind
Sometimes there just isn't time to process things to death! The huddle in football provides a good example. Members of a strong team have practiced cooperation, understand the capabilities and strengths of individual players, and have had input into the team's strategies and directions. In the huddle, the quarterback draws on this history to make the best decision for the next play. The quarterback's job is to make the best possible decision given the circumstances. The team's job is to carry it out. This is an excellent opportunity for learners to consider when it is OK to argue and debate, and when it's necessary to trust someone else.
Check for Learning
Q: Why is it important for both the quarterback and the receiver to know what pattern the receiver is running?
A: This gives the offense an advantage over the defense; the quarterback shouldn't have to guess.
Q: As a receiver, how do you get open when running your pattern?
A: Head fakes, change of speed or direction, running the pass pattern at full speed.
Q: When playing quarterback, how do you know when to throw the ball?
A: When the receiver has made a break and shows me his hands.
Q: Why does the quarterback call the plays in a huddle?
A: There isn't time for debate.
Q: What qualities does the quarterback need?
A: Knowledge of teammates' individual strengths, decisiveness, clear communication.
Save
Learn more about Playing Fair.
A quick snapshot of an inventing games lesson focused on net games
This vignette provides a quick snapshot of an inventing games lesson focused on net games. We can readily appreciate the diversity of students’ skill levels and also how students are the architects of their own games.
This vignette provides a quick snapshot of an inventing games lesson focused on net games. We can readily appreciate the diversity of students' skill levels and also how students are the architects of their own games. Through the teacher's skillful questioning, both groups are able to analyze the constraints of their games and change their rules to make them more flowing, challenging, and fun. By working progressively through the constructs of their invented games and the corresponding strategies and tactics, they construct schema from which they can make comparisons to other games they will learn. As they negotiate the construction of their games, they also learn how to work closely with others.
Inventing games and learning about democracy (including social justice issues) might seem an unlikely pairing, because play is often considered frivolous and democratic ideals are often considered the most serious notions children can learn. In this book, we consider how inventing games offers seriously playful opportunities to learn democracy in action, because students learn by doing as they negotiate, debate, overcome conflict, and navigate through a series of problem-solving activities. In the physical environment, emotions are quickly stirred and issues around inclusivity become more visible and more pressing. How better to deal with issues of social justice, such as bullying and accessibility, than in such charged situations? Chapter 2 presents steps teachers can take to become more mindful in dealing with such situations.
Incidents of bullying are very much in the news; the tragic suicides of young people who have been bullied (both face-to-face and online) have shocked the world. As media pundits puzzle to find solutions to the problem of bullying, most educators understand that this is not an easy problem to fix. In a speech reported in The Vancouver Sun (June 29, 2013) about violence against women, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter suggested that rather than simply blaming and punishing perpetrators, we should be taking a hard look at overarching attitudes (including religious doctrines) that frame women as inferior. His point was that individual beliefs and actions are nested within, and thus highly influenced by, political, social, and economic structures.
This book does not purport to offer a magic bullet that will eradicate the age-old problem of bullying - for example, by constructing policies to deal with bullies or addressing the topic of bullying discreetly and directly with students. An increasing body of opinion suggests that our current methods (such as punitive zero tolerance, celebrities who speak out against bullying, limiting access to social media sites, or discrete short-term antibullying programs) are not working (Emdin, 2013; Prinstein, 2013). Rather, a comprehensive approach is required across the school curriculum to create sustainable change in the school culture. Physical education is particularly well positioned for such an initiative. Although it has been, ironically, a traditional site of dread for the unpopular and uncoordinated, physical education can offer students opportunities to experiment with, observe, and discuss issues of difference and power. Rather than thinking about these in the abstract, they can experience them firsthand as they practice the democratic principles and skills required to develop an ethic of caring (Gilligan, 1982).
This first chapter addresses the reintegration of play into games, the inventing games process, democracy in action, and the worldview teachers require to help their students become game inventors.
Ms. Craik scans her fourth-grade students, who are playing their invented net games.
A group of shy, uncoordinated girls have made up a game that makes large demands on their balance. A lanky team member spins around three times (with her eyes closed) and calls out the name of one of her opponents on the other side of the net as she releases the ball. Apparently, her challenge is to stay upright and make the pass accurately. Instead, she throws the ball off behind her before staggering dizzily around the court. Although her teammates squeal with laughter, the group is passionately engaged in this odd game of spin and throw.
At the other end of the ability range is a group of boys playing a modified version of Newcomb. They are immersed in a close contest - oblivious to anything else that's going on.
Ms. Craik decides to start with the girls and calls them over for a chat, posing a few questions: How is their game working? Does it involve them all as much as they would like? The girls say there's too much standing about and decide to change the spinning rule a bit to see if the game will flow more easily.
Meanwhile, Ms. Craik has challenged the boys to open up their game. How might they give themselves more time to strategize and structure a more organized offense? After a brief discussion, they decide to introduce a rule that allows two passes before the ball must be sent over the net. As she watches, Ms. Craik prepares questions about how this new rule and constraint on the game opens up the offense for new possibilities.
Key Concept: Inventing Games
This book is based on the inventing games (IG) process, a companion to Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU). The process is explained in the first five chapters as a curriculum model with clearly defined pedagogical principles. Building on the natural instinct of children to play, IG invites them to invent games in the four TGfU game categories. In the process of inventing games and then playing them, children learn about game structures, rules, and the principles of fair play.
Reintegration of Play in Games
Recently, 270 academics, writers, and child development professionals blamed "the marked deterioration in children's mental health" on the lack of unstructured and loosely supervised play(Jacobson, 2008). According to a report produced by Statistics Canada (Ifedi, 2008), the 7.3 million Canadian adults who participated in one or more games ranked "fun, recreation, and relaxation" as the number one reason they played, above the need to stay healthy, meet new friends, hang out with family, or feel a sense of achievement. Yet, sadly, children are turning less and less frequently to games in their free time (Graf et al., 2004). Although organized sport opportunities for 5- to 13-year-olds in North America have doubled in the past 20 years (Hofferth & Sandberg, 2001), teenagers are opting out in large numbers (Ifedi, 2008; Visek et al., 2015). The following list, collected from several reports, summarizes the reasons young people gave for opting out of sports:
- I lost interest.
- I had no fun and it took too much time.
- The coach did not empower players.
- There was too much pressure and worry.
- The coach played favorites.
- The sport was boring.
- There was an overemphasis on winning.
- There was too much sport-specific practice and deliberate practice at a young age.
- The sport programs were badly run.
What better way to recapture and maintain children's interest in and enjoyment of sport than by offering them opportunities to explore and create through play and inventing games? Becoming a good team player takes years of discipline and effort, and becoming a good citizen takes years of civic engagement. The process must be enjoyable to ensure that students stick with it. Without the element of play, activity becomes routine, predictable, and lacking in possibilities. Moreover, democracy depends on human creativity; openness to change, adaptability, and creativity thrive in an atmosphere of freedom and openness, and vice versa. As Shogan (2007) suggested: "If ethics is less about compliance with codes and more about how we explore the ways in which these codes shape our lives, it is possible for people to become more directly involved in understanding and changing their own conduct" (p. 35). In the inventing games process, students are directly involved in constructing the rules that shape the game and their conduct within it. Rather than adopt a zero tolerance approach to bullying, in which bullies are sought out and punished, schools can create curricula that foster respect, fairness, and acceptance.
Children who are free to play have fun and feel safe. Because they are engaged emotionally, cognitively, and spiritually (as well as physically) in a holistic process, they want to stay in the game. They are more likely to invent variations in game play, alternatives that require quick analyses and creative responses. They are also more likely to experience what Kretchmar (2005) called delight. Moments of delight may happen infrequently in games, but they keep us coming back for more. Learning cannot be compartmentalized into behavioral domains and neatly subdivided into the cognitive, the psychomotor, and the affective, because human systems are nested and interconnected. A student who has just been criticized for poor performance in a skill drill is unlikely to make confident decisions, or decisions that involve risk. Holistic approaches, which take the affective experiences of students into account, are imperative for advancing our understanding of TGfU and learning in general. The next section provides a closer examination of inventing games as a medium for seriously playful learning experiences.
Key Concepts: Sport and Games
The words sport and game are often used interchangeably. However, although it is true that all sports are games, not all games are sports. Games derive from play and involve competition. Sport games are games of skill that have a large physical component, as opposed to games of chance or board games. Physical educators often refer to games in terms of games education, a subset of the physical education curriculum. The term sport is often used in the context of extracurricular activities attached to schools, communities, or private organizations.
Learn more about Playing Fair.
Teaching Social Justice and Democracy in Action
To embrace human rights is to become aware that without social justice there can be no fairness or equality; consequently, democratic processes cannot function. Essential to the definition of democracy is the notion that all people have equal power to live freely, to vote, and to speak.
To embrace human rights is to become aware that without social justice there can be no fairness or equality; consequently, democratic processes cannot function. Essential to the definition of democracy is the notion that all people have equal power to live freely, to vote, and to speak. With these rights comes the civic responsibility to exercise these rights through active interest and involvement in the community. Teachers play a crucial role in preparing students to do this.
There are two key aspects of teaching for social justice through the practice of democracy in action. The first is addressing societal inequities through antioppression education. The second is using some of the pedagogical tools to teach social justice - in this case, democracy in action, situated ethics, and inventing games.
Understanding Societal Inequities
As Young pointed out (1990), the democratic process breaks down when unfairness and an imbalance of power occur. Let's consider the nature of power in relation to the games curriculum.
- Power over, or coercive power.This is the power structure in hierarchies. The school administration, which controls the curriculum, is supported by the school board, local government, and the law. Sometimes the culture of the school reinforces practices that seem to go without saying. These might include the disciplinary mastery approach to teaching sport, or inequitable practices such as dodgeball.
- Power from within, or empowerment. As educators, we seek to empower our students through active creative experiences such as singing, writing, solving problems, making art, and dancing. Through inventing games, we offer active creative experiences in the ethical domain, as we encourage students to speak up, listen, negotiate, and make decisions that will enhance the effectiveness of the group.
- Collective power. Collective poweris the power people gain when they act in concert. In the inventing games process, students begin to understand that they are part of a community they can trust. They come to accept that they sometimes need to set aside their own interests in favor of common goals. They learn when to take care of themselves and when to take care of others.
- Power with, or social power (influence, rank, status, or authority). Social power determines how much weight an individual opinion carries, how much members are listened to in a group, and how much they are respected. As young people struggle to reach the expectations of adulthood, they rely heavily on their peers to establish self-esteem. Young people who see themselves as outsiders and not accepted by their peers are more likely to withdraw, become depressed, and become targets for bullying (Boyce, King, & Roche, 2008).
- Earned and unearned social power.Unearned power is privilege, the power you get not from anything you are have done or created, but from who you happen to be - your gender, your race, your social class, the wealth you've inherited, the opportunities handed to you. With privilege often comes entitlement, a feature of hierarchy (Starhawk, 2011, p. 45). This often plays out along the lines of gender and race in physical education classes.
Teaching for Social Justice
Left unaided in group decision-making processes, students fall back on informal or culturally determined systems of interaction, ranging from the much-loved football huddle to a reliance on acknowledged leaders. These systems are products of cultural, generational, and gender norms. Although there is much to celebrate in all social institutions (church, family, state, school), the active and engaged citizen must always examine them for bias. The challenge for the teacher is to find ways to limit privilege while helping students find positive ways to be rewarded for their efforts.
Very often, we learn about what we believe when we confront real-life situations. In inventing games, these situations arise frequently and naturally as students encounter moments of aporia (rupture or stuckness). When we are faced with situations that challenge what we know, we struggle to make new sense of the universe and push beyond our current moral constructs. Varela (1999), who called this new, more conscious, sense of what is right ethical know-how, believes that it evolves over time through small decisions and actions, rather than being handed down as a set of a priori principles. As students invent and negotiate to create their games, they develop their capacity for personal and social responsibility, free inquiry, decision making, social justice, cooperation, and competition (see chapter 1).
Learn more about Playing Fair.
Make the football experience novel and change negative mind-sets
The two things I hear from students in my physical education classes when I say we’re going to be looking at football are usually I don’t like football and I’m not good at football. Although it can be a lot of fun, football can also be confusing, and many students are quick to discount their ability.
The two things I hear from students in my physical education classes when I say we're going to be looking at football are usually I don't like football and I'm not good at football. Although it can be a lot of fun, football can also be confusing, and many students are quick to discount their ability. When we dig down into their experiences, their negative associations usually come from past experiences in which they felt too small to play or couldn't throw the ball. As a result, they don't want to play it again. The challenge is making the football experience novel and changing negative mind-sets and associations.
Football has important outcomes for students: working together as a team, mutual support, leadership, and determination. Modifying the game to highlight these benefits can result in students understanding the essence of the game, wanting to get better at it, and ideally continuing playing when they leave school. Enjoyment and engagement have an enormous impact on learning and long-term involvement in activity. When students like what they do in class, they may pursue it on their own time. Teaching as much as possible through active game play and inserting short drills in context can help students understand the purpose of drills and be more willing to give them a try.
Football can be complex and confusing or really simple. The common principle in all forms of football is that players have a specified number of attempts to cover at least 10 yards in trying to achieve the offensive focus: getting the ball across the goal line. Football is in the Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) invasion games category because it is based on territorial dominance as players attempt to score and restrict their opponents' opportunities to score. Football is, however, much more static than other invasion games such as basketball, soccer, and rugby; these games are in constant motion with few stoppages. Football's stop-and-start style of play is what most people unfamiliar with the sport find confusing and boring. Many people do not understand the need for so many stoppages, and neither do students, until they can create meaning for themselves. Sometimes students even ask for rules that require the game to stop more often to ensure that it is fair for both offense and defense and to allow for better competition.
Lesson 4: Offensive and Defensive Team Concepts
Focus: Offensive and defensive systems, running pass patterns, 1v1 defensive cover
Learner focus:
- Understanding pass patterns and offensive strategy (psychomotor and cognitive)
- Continuing to develop defensive cover (psychomotor and cognitive)
Sequence:
- Warm-up: Flickerball, using the rules from the last class
- Square minigames from lesson 3
- Skill enhancement: Running pass patterns
- Minigames
Learner Experiences
- Students do skill work focused on running pass patterns (see figure 14.1), as follows:
- They are in groups of five or six.
- One player is a quarterback; the others are receivers.
- Receivers run the pass pattern, taking turns, and the quarterback throws the pass.
- Once all students have run the pattern, a new quarterback is chosen.
- The easiest patterns are: fly, in, out, and hook.In these patterns the receiver moves in all four directions: left, right, downfield, and back to the quarterback.
Running pass patterns.
- The focus of the minigames is the communication between the quarterback and the receiver. Use two groups of three at the same square: one receiver, one defender, and one quarterback (change roles regularly). The receiver must get pass patterns from the quarterback. Quarterbacks call the plays because they are in charge in the huddle, so it is good practice to start now. Use the following point system:
- Receiver: 1 point each for catching, making forward progress, and scoring (maximum of 3 points per play)
- Defender: 1 point for knocking down the ball, tagging, or preventing a score, 2 points for intercepting
- Quarterback: 1 point if the receiver touches the ball, 1 point for catching (maximum of 2 points per play)
Modifications
- Have no defender, to assist the quarterback with throwing.
- Require that the defender wait on the goal line until the ball is caught.
- Use two receivers and one defender. The defender chooses one receiver to cover and leaves the other open. This helps the quarterback with decision making.
- Have students play downs to score. Let them determine how many tries they get to score.
- Allow defenders to start wherever they want.
- Increase the field size or the number of receivers or defenders.
Democracy in Action
Group process, decision making, and free inquiry: Individual rights and responsibilities to the group; depending on good leadership; deciding when and when not to speak one's mind
Sometimes there just isn't time to process things to death! The huddle in football provides a good example. Members of a strong team have practiced cooperation, understand the capabilities and strengths of individual players, and have had input into the team's strategies and directions. In the huddle, the quarterback draws on this history to make the best decision for the next play. The quarterback's job is to make the best possible decision given the circumstances. The team's job is to carry it out. This is an excellent opportunity for learners to consider when it is OK to argue and debate, and when it's necessary to trust someone else.
Check for Learning
Q: Why is it important for both the quarterback and the receiver to know what pattern the receiver is running?
A: This gives the offense an advantage over the defense; the quarterback shouldn't have to guess.
Q: As a receiver, how do you get open when running your pattern?
A: Head fakes, change of speed or direction, running the pass pattern at full speed.
Q: When playing quarterback, how do you know when to throw the ball?
A: When the receiver has made a break and shows me his hands.
Q: Why does the quarterback call the plays in a huddle?
A: There isn't time for debate.
Q: What qualities does the quarterback need?
A: Knowledge of teammates' individual strengths, decisiveness, clear communication.
Save
Learn more about Playing Fair.
A quick snapshot of an inventing games lesson focused on net games
This vignette provides a quick snapshot of an inventing games lesson focused on net games. We can readily appreciate the diversity of students’ skill levels and also how students are the architects of their own games.
This vignette provides a quick snapshot of an inventing games lesson focused on net games. We can readily appreciate the diversity of students' skill levels and also how students are the architects of their own games. Through the teacher's skillful questioning, both groups are able to analyze the constraints of their games and change their rules to make them more flowing, challenging, and fun. By working progressively through the constructs of their invented games and the corresponding strategies and tactics, they construct schema from which they can make comparisons to other games they will learn. As they negotiate the construction of their games, they also learn how to work closely with others.
Inventing games and learning about democracy (including social justice issues) might seem an unlikely pairing, because play is often considered frivolous and democratic ideals are often considered the most serious notions children can learn. In this book, we consider how inventing games offers seriously playful opportunities to learn democracy in action, because students learn by doing as they negotiate, debate, overcome conflict, and navigate through a series of problem-solving activities. In the physical environment, emotions are quickly stirred and issues around inclusivity become more visible and more pressing. How better to deal with issues of social justice, such as bullying and accessibility, than in such charged situations? Chapter 2 presents steps teachers can take to become more mindful in dealing with such situations.
Incidents of bullying are very much in the news; the tragic suicides of young people who have been bullied (both face-to-face and online) have shocked the world. As media pundits puzzle to find solutions to the problem of bullying, most educators understand that this is not an easy problem to fix. In a speech reported in The Vancouver Sun (June 29, 2013) about violence against women, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter suggested that rather than simply blaming and punishing perpetrators, we should be taking a hard look at overarching attitudes (including religious doctrines) that frame women as inferior. His point was that individual beliefs and actions are nested within, and thus highly influenced by, political, social, and economic structures.
This book does not purport to offer a magic bullet that will eradicate the age-old problem of bullying - for example, by constructing policies to deal with bullies or addressing the topic of bullying discreetly and directly with students. An increasing body of opinion suggests that our current methods (such as punitive zero tolerance, celebrities who speak out against bullying, limiting access to social media sites, or discrete short-term antibullying programs) are not working (Emdin, 2013; Prinstein, 2013). Rather, a comprehensive approach is required across the school curriculum to create sustainable change in the school culture. Physical education is particularly well positioned for such an initiative. Although it has been, ironically, a traditional site of dread for the unpopular and uncoordinated, physical education can offer students opportunities to experiment with, observe, and discuss issues of difference and power. Rather than thinking about these in the abstract, they can experience them firsthand as they practice the democratic principles and skills required to develop an ethic of caring (Gilligan, 1982).
This first chapter addresses the reintegration of play into games, the inventing games process, democracy in action, and the worldview teachers require to help their students become game inventors.
Ms. Craik scans her fourth-grade students, who are playing their invented net games.
A group of shy, uncoordinated girls have made up a game that makes large demands on their balance. A lanky team member spins around three times (with her eyes closed) and calls out the name of one of her opponents on the other side of the net as she releases the ball. Apparently, her challenge is to stay upright and make the pass accurately. Instead, she throws the ball off behind her before staggering dizzily around the court. Although her teammates squeal with laughter, the group is passionately engaged in this odd game of spin and throw.
At the other end of the ability range is a group of boys playing a modified version of Newcomb. They are immersed in a close contest - oblivious to anything else that's going on.
Ms. Craik decides to start with the girls and calls them over for a chat, posing a few questions: How is their game working? Does it involve them all as much as they would like? The girls say there's too much standing about and decide to change the spinning rule a bit to see if the game will flow more easily.
Meanwhile, Ms. Craik has challenged the boys to open up their game. How might they give themselves more time to strategize and structure a more organized offense? After a brief discussion, they decide to introduce a rule that allows two passes before the ball must be sent over the net. As she watches, Ms. Craik prepares questions about how this new rule and constraint on the game opens up the offense for new possibilities.
Key Concept: Inventing Games
This book is based on the inventing games (IG) process, a companion to Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU). The process is explained in the first five chapters as a curriculum model with clearly defined pedagogical principles. Building on the natural instinct of children to play, IG invites them to invent games in the four TGfU game categories. In the process of inventing games and then playing them, children learn about game structures, rules, and the principles of fair play.
Reintegration of Play in Games
Recently, 270 academics, writers, and child development professionals blamed "the marked deterioration in children's mental health" on the lack of unstructured and loosely supervised play(Jacobson, 2008). According to a report produced by Statistics Canada (Ifedi, 2008), the 7.3 million Canadian adults who participated in one or more games ranked "fun, recreation, and relaxation" as the number one reason they played, above the need to stay healthy, meet new friends, hang out with family, or feel a sense of achievement. Yet, sadly, children are turning less and less frequently to games in their free time (Graf et al., 2004). Although organized sport opportunities for 5- to 13-year-olds in North America have doubled in the past 20 years (Hofferth & Sandberg, 2001), teenagers are opting out in large numbers (Ifedi, 2008; Visek et al., 2015). The following list, collected from several reports, summarizes the reasons young people gave for opting out of sports:
- I lost interest.
- I had no fun and it took too much time.
- The coach did not empower players.
- There was too much pressure and worry.
- The coach played favorites.
- The sport was boring.
- There was an overemphasis on winning.
- There was too much sport-specific practice and deliberate practice at a young age.
- The sport programs were badly run.
What better way to recapture and maintain children's interest in and enjoyment of sport than by offering them opportunities to explore and create through play and inventing games? Becoming a good team player takes years of discipline and effort, and becoming a good citizen takes years of civic engagement. The process must be enjoyable to ensure that students stick with it. Without the element of play, activity becomes routine, predictable, and lacking in possibilities. Moreover, democracy depends on human creativity; openness to change, adaptability, and creativity thrive in an atmosphere of freedom and openness, and vice versa. As Shogan (2007) suggested: "If ethics is less about compliance with codes and more about how we explore the ways in which these codes shape our lives, it is possible for people to become more directly involved in understanding and changing their own conduct" (p. 35). In the inventing games process, students are directly involved in constructing the rules that shape the game and their conduct within it. Rather than adopt a zero tolerance approach to bullying, in which bullies are sought out and punished, schools can create curricula that foster respect, fairness, and acceptance.
Children who are free to play have fun and feel safe. Because they are engaged emotionally, cognitively, and spiritually (as well as physically) in a holistic process, they want to stay in the game. They are more likely to invent variations in game play, alternatives that require quick analyses and creative responses. They are also more likely to experience what Kretchmar (2005) called delight. Moments of delight may happen infrequently in games, but they keep us coming back for more. Learning cannot be compartmentalized into behavioral domains and neatly subdivided into the cognitive, the psychomotor, and the affective, because human systems are nested and interconnected. A student who has just been criticized for poor performance in a skill drill is unlikely to make confident decisions, or decisions that involve risk. Holistic approaches, which take the affective experiences of students into account, are imperative for advancing our understanding of TGfU and learning in general. The next section provides a closer examination of inventing games as a medium for seriously playful learning experiences.
Key Concepts: Sport and Games
The words sport and game are often used interchangeably. However, although it is true that all sports are games, not all games are sports. Games derive from play and involve competition. Sport games are games of skill that have a large physical component, as opposed to games of chance or board games. Physical educators often refer to games in terms of games education, a subset of the physical education curriculum. The term sport is often used in the context of extracurricular activities attached to schools, communities, or private organizations.
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Teaching Social Justice and Democracy in Action
To embrace human rights is to become aware that without social justice there can be no fairness or equality; consequently, democratic processes cannot function. Essential to the definition of democracy is the notion that all people have equal power to live freely, to vote, and to speak.
To embrace human rights is to become aware that without social justice there can be no fairness or equality; consequently, democratic processes cannot function. Essential to the definition of democracy is the notion that all people have equal power to live freely, to vote, and to speak. With these rights comes the civic responsibility to exercise these rights through active interest and involvement in the community. Teachers play a crucial role in preparing students to do this.
There are two key aspects of teaching for social justice through the practice of democracy in action. The first is addressing societal inequities through antioppression education. The second is using some of the pedagogical tools to teach social justice - in this case, democracy in action, situated ethics, and inventing games.
Understanding Societal Inequities
As Young pointed out (1990), the democratic process breaks down when unfairness and an imbalance of power occur. Let's consider the nature of power in relation to the games curriculum.
- Power over, or coercive power.This is the power structure in hierarchies. The school administration, which controls the curriculum, is supported by the school board, local government, and the law. Sometimes the culture of the school reinforces practices that seem to go without saying. These might include the disciplinary mastery approach to teaching sport, or inequitable practices such as dodgeball.
- Power from within, or empowerment. As educators, we seek to empower our students through active creative experiences such as singing, writing, solving problems, making art, and dancing. Through inventing games, we offer active creative experiences in the ethical domain, as we encourage students to speak up, listen, negotiate, and make decisions that will enhance the effectiveness of the group.
- Collective power. Collective poweris the power people gain when they act in concert. In the inventing games process, students begin to understand that they are part of a community they can trust. They come to accept that they sometimes need to set aside their own interests in favor of common goals. They learn when to take care of themselves and when to take care of others.
- Power with, or social power (influence, rank, status, or authority). Social power determines how much weight an individual opinion carries, how much members are listened to in a group, and how much they are respected. As young people struggle to reach the expectations of adulthood, they rely heavily on their peers to establish self-esteem. Young people who see themselves as outsiders and not accepted by their peers are more likely to withdraw, become depressed, and become targets for bullying (Boyce, King, & Roche, 2008).
- Earned and unearned social power.Unearned power is privilege, the power you get not from anything you are have done or created, but from who you happen to be - your gender, your race, your social class, the wealth you've inherited, the opportunities handed to you. With privilege often comes entitlement, a feature of hierarchy (Starhawk, 2011, p. 45). This often plays out along the lines of gender and race in physical education classes.
Teaching for Social Justice
Left unaided in group decision-making processes, students fall back on informal or culturally determined systems of interaction, ranging from the much-loved football huddle to a reliance on acknowledged leaders. These systems are products of cultural, generational, and gender norms. Although there is much to celebrate in all social institutions (church, family, state, school), the active and engaged citizen must always examine them for bias. The challenge for the teacher is to find ways to limit privilege while helping students find positive ways to be rewarded for their efforts.
Very often, we learn about what we believe when we confront real-life situations. In inventing games, these situations arise frequently and naturally as students encounter moments of aporia (rupture or stuckness). When we are faced with situations that challenge what we know, we struggle to make new sense of the universe and push beyond our current moral constructs. Varela (1999), who called this new, more conscious, sense of what is right ethical know-how, believes that it evolves over time through small decisions and actions, rather than being handed down as a set of a priori principles. As students invent and negotiate to create their games, they develop their capacity for personal and social responsibility, free inquiry, decision making, social justice, cooperation, and competition (see chapter 1).
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Make the football experience novel and change negative mind-sets
The two things I hear from students in my physical education classes when I say we’re going to be looking at football are usually I don’t like football and I’m not good at football. Although it can be a lot of fun, football can also be confusing, and many students are quick to discount their ability.
The two things I hear from students in my physical education classes when I say we're going to be looking at football are usually I don't like football and I'm not good at football. Although it can be a lot of fun, football can also be confusing, and many students are quick to discount their ability. When we dig down into their experiences, their negative associations usually come from past experiences in which they felt too small to play or couldn't throw the ball. As a result, they don't want to play it again. The challenge is making the football experience novel and changing negative mind-sets and associations.
Football has important outcomes for students: working together as a team, mutual support, leadership, and determination. Modifying the game to highlight these benefits can result in students understanding the essence of the game, wanting to get better at it, and ideally continuing playing when they leave school. Enjoyment and engagement have an enormous impact on learning and long-term involvement in activity. When students like what they do in class, they may pursue it on their own time. Teaching as much as possible through active game play and inserting short drills in context can help students understand the purpose of drills and be more willing to give them a try.
Football can be complex and confusing or really simple. The common principle in all forms of football is that players have a specified number of attempts to cover at least 10 yards in trying to achieve the offensive focus: getting the ball across the goal line. Football is in the Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) invasion games category because it is based on territorial dominance as players attempt to score and restrict their opponents' opportunities to score. Football is, however, much more static than other invasion games such as basketball, soccer, and rugby; these games are in constant motion with few stoppages. Football's stop-and-start style of play is what most people unfamiliar with the sport find confusing and boring. Many people do not understand the need for so many stoppages, and neither do students, until they can create meaning for themselves. Sometimes students even ask for rules that require the game to stop more often to ensure that it is fair for both offense and defense and to allow for better competition.
Lesson 4: Offensive and Defensive Team Concepts
Focus: Offensive and defensive systems, running pass patterns, 1v1 defensive cover
Learner focus:
- Understanding pass patterns and offensive strategy (psychomotor and cognitive)
- Continuing to develop defensive cover (psychomotor and cognitive)
Sequence:
- Warm-up: Flickerball, using the rules from the last class
- Square minigames from lesson 3
- Skill enhancement: Running pass patterns
- Minigames
Learner Experiences
- Students do skill work focused on running pass patterns (see figure 14.1), as follows:
- They are in groups of five or six.
- One player is a quarterback; the others are receivers.
- Receivers run the pass pattern, taking turns, and the quarterback throws the pass.
- Once all students have run the pattern, a new quarterback is chosen.
- The easiest patterns are: fly, in, out, and hook.In these patterns the receiver moves in all four directions: left, right, downfield, and back to the quarterback.
Running pass patterns.
- The focus of the minigames is the communication between the quarterback and the receiver. Use two groups of three at the same square: one receiver, one defender, and one quarterback (change roles regularly). The receiver must get pass patterns from the quarterback. Quarterbacks call the plays because they are in charge in the huddle, so it is good practice to start now. Use the following point system:
- Receiver: 1 point each for catching, making forward progress, and scoring (maximum of 3 points per play)
- Defender: 1 point for knocking down the ball, tagging, or preventing a score, 2 points for intercepting
- Quarterback: 1 point if the receiver touches the ball, 1 point for catching (maximum of 2 points per play)
Modifications
- Have no defender, to assist the quarterback with throwing.
- Require that the defender wait on the goal line until the ball is caught.
- Use two receivers and one defender. The defender chooses one receiver to cover and leaves the other open. This helps the quarterback with decision making.
- Have students play downs to score. Let them determine how many tries they get to score.
- Allow defenders to start wherever they want.
- Increase the field size or the number of receivers or defenders.
Democracy in Action
Group process, decision making, and free inquiry: Individual rights and responsibilities to the group; depending on good leadership; deciding when and when not to speak one's mind
Sometimes there just isn't time to process things to death! The huddle in football provides a good example. Members of a strong team have practiced cooperation, understand the capabilities and strengths of individual players, and have had input into the team's strategies and directions. In the huddle, the quarterback draws on this history to make the best decision for the next play. The quarterback's job is to make the best possible decision given the circumstances. The team's job is to carry it out. This is an excellent opportunity for learners to consider when it is OK to argue and debate, and when it's necessary to trust someone else.
Check for Learning
Q: Why is it important for both the quarterback and the receiver to know what pattern the receiver is running?
A: This gives the offense an advantage over the defense; the quarterback shouldn't have to guess.
Q: As a receiver, how do you get open when running your pattern?
A: Head fakes, change of speed or direction, running the pass pattern at full speed.
Q: When playing quarterback, how do you know when to throw the ball?
A: When the receiver has made a break and shows me his hands.
Q: Why does the quarterback call the plays in a huddle?
A: There isn't time for debate.
Q: What qualities does the quarterback need?
A: Knowledge of teammates' individual strengths, decisiveness, clear communication.
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