My group of "students" included 5 friends and family members. I first gave them the "Physical Education Unit - Pre-Assessment" that I adapted from one that I found created by a teacher named Paul Skopp (2004). http://shakopeandhealth.wikispaces.com/file/view/30_W04_SSSPAULS%5B1%5D.pdf
This assesses students in the cognitive and affective domains. It asks questions about their prior knowledge and feelings toward volleyball.
My adult "students" had some questions about the word "unit" and what they should put down for that. They figured it was Volleyball, but it made me realize that I may want to have a visual display when doing this in the future. By the end of any unit I'm sure students will know the name of the sport/activity, but why not make a bigger presentation out of it to make it more exciting. I could even create a poster or other large display so that students walk into the gym and have some anticipation about what they're going to be learning. Also, in my unit plan, I had intended to administer this pre-assessment during the "previous class period" (at the end of the final session of the previous unit of instruction) in a real school situation, but maybe it would create more excitement and fit better if I did just do it at the beginning of the first lesson in the new unit instead of at the end of the previous class.
It was actually helpful to have adults doing it because they can intelligently give me feedback as to what they think kids might struggle with - though there is no real replacement for actual experience with the real thing. For example, one student (Robyn) offered that the questions about "what skills do you expect to learn" and "what information do you expect to learn" might cause students to be confused about how to answer the questions if they don't already know anything about the sport. I told her that she/they should write that they don't know anything about it and, thus, cannot think of anything they might learn. Her response was "well then students might just put 'I don't know' for every question and lose interest." This actually further encouraged me to make a display with the activity name, some pictures and terms etc... so that students could examine it and make some predictions. For example, if my display showed an action shot of a girl performing a bump pass, with the word "bump" underneath it, students could naturally predict that they will learn what a "bump" is and how to perform it pcorrectly. I could even have a picture of a scoreboard with a score on it and students would predict that they might learn about the standard scoring procedure of Volleyball. I like this idea of having a visual display with my pre-assessment. I can't remember any of my phys ed teachers ever previewing activities like that and I think it could be really effective for engagement.
I also realized during this administration of the written portion of the pre-assessment that this is probably going to be a bit more time consuming than I originally thought. I may want to allow for more time to complete this and also to allow students to really look at my future display and preview what they're going to be learning.
As for the physical part of the pre-assessment, I struggled a little bit with how much demonstration to give before pre-assessing. In my unit plan, I included a rubric for each of the three basic motor skills I would be teaching (bump, set, underhand serve). Each of the three skills will have a one day of direct instruction and demonstration followed by exclusive practice of the skill. After that first day of instruction, the skill will be practiced intermittently with the subsequent skills. For example, on day 1, would teach the "bump". Day 1 involves discussion of the basic principles of the movement, followed by demonstration by teacher and shadowing/mirroring of the skill by students, which is then followed by drill practice by students. The next day I would be teaching a new skill (underhand serve), but would start the day with bumping drills before getting into the new skill. So, do I pre-assess (rate) students at the end of day 1 or during day 2?
I eventually decided to pre-assess the motor skill by giving a rating during the first day of instruction based on the rubric I created (scale of 1-3). I figured this would give me the best baseline and also would show the most improvement - which is always best for students. In fact, I'm thinking that I won't even share the pre-assessment "ratings' with my students. Since students at elementary, middle and high school levels are often especially sensitive to judgments about their physical abilities I would not want any to feel discouraged. Then, at the end of the unit, most or all students would have improved in some of the skills. Thus, there is never actually a period of time where there is negative feedback without tangible positive feedback.
As for the motor skill demonstration and pre-assessment. I had 5 "students" for this activity. The group consisted of one female (Teresa) in her 20's, one female (Robyn) in her early 30's, two males (Chris and Steve) in their 30's and one male (John) in his late 50's. Three of the five identified themselves as currently athletic or formerly having played sports but not "in a while". This wasn't necessary to my pre-assessment, but I just wanted to give those of you reading this blog an idea of what type of a group I had. After having administered the written pre-assessment, I informed them that we would be learning the basics of the "bump" skill in volleyball. 4 of the 5 knew what a bump was and felt they had a good idea of what it looked like but didn't feel confident in proper technique. I went through a quick description and visual demonstration of the proper stance, position of feet and legs, having them mimic my motions and correcting any thing I saw that didn't look correct. I then had them close their eyes and try to focus on how their legs and feet felt without looking. I then had them come out of their stance and verbally quizzed them on the basics of the proper stance. I then instructed them to try to get back into the proper stance as best as they could while I made mental notes. I then instructed them in much the same way on the proper shoulder, arm, elbow and hand positions - following the same procedure and then checking their understanding. I then demonstrated the full motion while having them mimic my actions (without a ball). Finally, I had one student toss me the ball as I demonstrated the full motion and how to bump straight forward, as well as how to turn it toward either side for a pass. I also made a point to mention the importance of getting into proper position as quickly as possible before the ball was too low.
At this point I had them practice with each other freely and play around with little or no real objective other than to try to get used to how the ball moves and how their bodies feel while bumping. In this case, since I was "assessing my pre-assessment" I didn't want to go through the full lesson and drills, as I just wanted to get a true baseline. My rubric rates students as "1 - Poor", "2 - Fair", or "3 - Good". The results were:
John: 1 - Poor
Teresa: 3 - Good
Chris: 2 - Fair
Steve: 2 - Fair
Robyn: 2 - Fair
One last bit of feedback I received on this rubric (both from Professor Anderson and from Teresa) was that I should change the headings of rubric so that there is no "Poor" rating. I could leave the numbers, as they are more objective and less discouraging, but words such as "poor" are associated with failure and lack of motivation. I could still have descriptors, but I plan to change the names of the categories to "1 - Beginner", "2 - Intermediate", "3 - Advanced". When I do share these results with students, I will be sure to mention that "beginner" does not mean you are "bad" at anything. It means you are just beginning to learn. Likewise, "advanced" does not mean "perfect" and everyone can get better with practice. This way, everyone feels encouraged and stays motivated.
Here is a picture of my new and improved positively worded rubric:
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