The importance of keeping pupils physically active for longer in PE lessons. The case for planning effective practical engagement in Primary PE.
How active are your learners and their learning? Recent articles suggest teachers can talk too much and that pupils can be active for as little as a third of their learning time.
A key factor in learning in PE is the number of high-quality repetitions they make applying the learning being covered. If a pupil only gets one or two ‘goes’ in a lesson, how will they embed this schema? Physically Active Learning Time is the amount of time that the pupil(s) has where they are moving and learning by doing. We know that pupils learn by doing, practising physically in order to improve – so it is important to ensure that we maximise the physical active learning time.
Here are some proven and simple approaches to increase physical active learning time in your PE lessons.
1: No Queueing!
Try to create an environment in your lesson and a culture which affords no waiting around or queueing. For example, in Gymnastics apparatus work, don’t wait for a particular piece of apparatus to become free, move onto another, or practice a skill on a mat to help with ‘travel’ or ‘Turn’ within your sequence planning. Plan apparatus layouts that promote multiple entry and exit points and avoid queues forming. Queueing wastes time and leads to misbehaviour and in turn more ‘stoppages’ as you deal with incidents. Children need lots of turns, repetitions to effectively learn and consolidate their learning. Ensuring adequate resources so that every child can access a football to dribble the ball, from the very beginning of the lesson, to the end as appropriate. A lesson can look more chaotic with all the pupils moving, but that’s just it – all the pupils are moving and learning!! As a result, enjoyment, engagement, participation and progress are increased.
Where you do need to use queues, for activities such as throwing, or jumping in athletics for example; aim to have more stations, or lines and reduce the number of pupils in each queue – again to increase activity whilst balancing the need for safety. Approaches such as webs and fans for throwing can also help here so are worth looking at to support physical active learning time.
2: Avoid having players ‘OUT’ and inactive
In our classroom practice, most teachers would never dream of having an activity say in Literacy, where a child might misread a word and have to sit out (stop learning) until a new game! Yet in PE, and with the influence of the rules of particular sports at the heart of it, children regularly sit out once they have been caught out, or hit by a dodgeball etc. Does this help the learning? Some children can potentially spend a disproportionate amount of time watching rather than moving. If playing a game where pupils need to know that getting caught in cricket / rounders means their ‘go’ is ended and they are out, can you think of ways to increase their go or ways to get back in. For example, every batter in a small-sided adapted game of Kwik Cricket has 3 lives to start with and will face an agreed number of balls. Perhaps, everyone has the same number of deliveries to face but each time you are out, your score halves, or goes to zero. If tagged in a game – think how can the player get back in quickly and effectively, for example run to a cone and throw three bean bags into a hoop before joining back in (again where possible ensure this ‘task’ is aligned with the main learning objective or activity / prior learning).
3: Don’t Stop Me Now!
Think before you stop the whole class! Do all, or a majority of the pupils need to hear what you are about to say? Is it relevant to all or just some of the pupils? This approach is no different from the classroom where you might work with individuals and groups all the time, rarely stopping the whole class as work is differentiated and you work to support individuals and groups so well.
If you start an activity / task in PE, take just a moment or two to observe, watch what is happening. You are looking for who has clearly understood, able to get on / getting on and who is perhaps struggling through a misconception or their own level of progression. Intervene where you are needed to both ensure access and understanding as well as challenge and pace. For example – “I can see that you are doing so well already girls, great stuff! Now I want you to take a couple of steps further back from each other and try that! It’ll be harder but focus on the teaching points and I’m sure you will be successful! I’ll be watching you as I move around. Have a go!”
4: Short Stops
Similar to above, but when you do stop an individual or group or the class, keep what you are going to say short. Give them perhaps only one teaching point or ‘Top Tip!’ to focus on so not to overload their short-term memory. “Guys, just stop for a moment! Looking around I cannot see enough of you offering that target for the receiving pass – arms up ready, hands open for the pass! Let’s really focus on that as we move around receiving the pass! Give your partner that target!”
Think quickly before you stop the group – what is it that they need? A demonstration perhaps to re-emphasise the point? What is the top tip to help them improve quickly, helping them to see your input as important information and necessary! Think of it as coaching an Olympic athlete – they are currently in silver medal position – what one thing is it that you can say, adjust etc. that will turn Silver into Gold?
Remember don’t stop the whole class if it is not necessary! Work with individuals or groups to assist and to challenge, to enable and extend, to adapt for success.
5: Freeze or bring them in?
As above really. Think about whether you need to bring the whole class in around you i.e. “Everyone come in, and stand on the semi-circle, quickly now!” or whether they can just Freeze where they are, listen to your vital input for 30 seconds or so (short, concise, focussed feedback) before getting straight back on with their learning task armed with new information, teaching points, tips, success criteria etc. “Stop what you are doing, hold the balls still. Don’t forget we need to see you using both feet to both stop and pass the ball with. Stop with one, pass with the other as we looked at. Off-you go!”
Try these ideas out for yourself and see just how effective they can be.
You can download this Blog as a FREE teacher resource by clicking HERE.
You may be interested in our Gymnastics Large Apparatus Staff Twilight CPD where this approach is at the heart of our CPD – no queueing, maximum learning. Click HERE to see more information.
Regular articles on pupils being less active occur. You may wish to see an article such as this one – Click HERE