Planning Physical Education Units

Changing the "Culture of Games": "...​This "culture of games" exists in our physical education history and will exist in our physical education futures unless we are prepared to acknowledge that it exists and take steps to create better physical education experiences for our students...."​
K-12 ROAD MAP FOR PHYSICAL EDUCATION
The Diamond Conceptual Framework helps illustrate the progression of skills and concepts taught in physical education, which are guided by national and state standards and research on physical activity and physical education. While we believe this is a useful framework, we acknowledge that there are other philosophies that can also achieve quality physical education.
NATIONAL STANDARDS AND GRADE LEVEL OUTCOMES
SHAPE America Appropriate Practices
  • 2.3.2 Stretching, if included in the lesson, occurs ​only after​ an appropriate general warmup activity and is appropriate and beneficial for maintaining and improving flexibility.​
  • ​3.1.1 The physical education curriculum has an obvious scope and sequence, based on goals and objectives that are appropriate for all students and that are derived from national or state standards.
  • 3.1.2 The physical educator includes motor skill development, physiological and biomechanical concepts, health-enhancing physical activities that lead to a physically active lifestyle, and opportunities to develop appropriate social behaviors.
  • 3.1.3 Instruction follows a scope and sequence that is designed to scaffold prior learning and develop mature forms of skills and strategies.
  • 3.1.4 Teachers design progressions that allow students to build on previously learned content and skills, by focusing on lifetime activities.
Additional Appropriate Practices:
  • Revisit content throughout the year.
DESIGNING STANDARD BASED UNITS
Select standards/outcomes based on the developmental level of your students, which may differ from their grade level, ​and include additional learning objectives to meet the needs of your students and community.
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DESIGNING STANDARD BASED LESSONS
​How to Design Standards Based Lessons
​Breakdown of a Standards Based Lesson
​Key Questions for Lesson Planning in Physical Education
(3rd edition Instructional Models for Physical Education, Metzler, M., 2011; Exhibit 6.7, p. 147)
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UNPACKING STANDARDS
​Standards and student learning outcomes are often comprehensive. After reading each Standard and/or Learning Outcome, ask yourself “What do my students need to know and be able to do to meet this Standard or Outcome?” The table below shows how many student learning outcomes can be created from one Psychomotor Standard. Find more information on unpacking standards from The Physical Educator.

Examples of Unpacking Standards

Different Ways to Unpack Standards
DOMAINS OF LEARNING and grade level outcomes
​Below are examples of grade level outcomes for the psychomotor, cognitive, and affective domains of learning. The purpose of the taxonomies below are to make it easier to sequence learning tasks in a logical order of difficulty. See our ​Domains of Learning page for more information.
negative student experiences in physical education
Check out this Youtube playlist with student-uploaded videos on why they hate physical education. What can we learn from these students? How can we address their issues?
This tweet thread has a lot of anecdotes regarding negative experiences in physical education. What can we learn from this and how can we improve?
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