Mini-Unit/ Putting It All Together

Kianna Lightfoot, Katryne Pharis, Stephanie Winder

Title of Mini-Unit I Can’t…. YET Grade Level 2

Subject English Language Time Frame 3 lessons (60-70

Arts/ Physical minutes each)
Education More time will be allotted
if needed

Developed By: Katryne Pharis, Kianna Lightfoot, & Stephanie Winder

Learning Outcomes

GLOs:
ELA GLO 5 ​- Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to respect, support
and collaborate with others
Physical Education GLO A ​- Students will acquire skills through a variety of developmentally
appropriate movement activities; dance, games, types of gymnastics, individual activities in an
alternative environment; e.g., aquatics and outdoor pursuits

SLOs:
ELA 5.1 -​ Participate in shared language experiences to acknowledge and celebrate
individual and class accomplishments
ELA 2.2 -​ Engage in a variety of shared and independent listening, reading and viewing
experiences, using oral, print and other media texts from a variety of cultural traditions and
genres, such as legends, video programs, puppet plays, songs, riddles and informational texts
PHYS ED A2-1 - ​ Select and perform locomotor skills involved in a variety of activities
PHYS ED A2-3 - ​ Select and perform non-locomotor skills involved in a variety of activities

Essential Questions

● Why do we help people? (1st lesson in ELA)

● Why do we need help? (1st lesson in ELA)
● How do encouraging words help you improve? (Last lesson in ELA)
● How does music affect your emotions? (For P.E. lesson)
Knowledge: Skills:

● Students will know what respect is,
the different types of animals, what
non-locomotor and locomotor
movements look like
● Participate in shared listening, reading
and viewing
● Share ideas and experiences through
conversation, puppet plays, dramatic
scenes and songs to celebrate
individual and class accomplishments
● Students will be able to use their
encouraging words to help their peers
and themselves in learning a new task
and use those words to practice and
introduce sentence writing.
● Students will be able to sympathize
and empathize for Gerald.
● Students will be able to dance and
identify their own feelings to different
genres of music

Lesson One: ELA

Stage 1: Desired Results

General GLO 5- Students will listen, speak, read, write, view, and represent to respect,
Learning support and collaborate with others
Outcome(s)

Specific SLO 5.1.4- Participate in shared language experiences to acknowledge and

Learning celebrate individual and class accomplishments
Outcome(s)

Learning ● Discuss encouragement and friendship

Objective(s) ● Illustrate what it means to be an encouraging friend
● Identify the main themes of “Giraffes Can’t Dance”
● Comprehend vocabulary words surrounding encouragement and dancing

Stage 2: Assessment Evidence

Summative · N/A Formative · The students will draw a picture
Assessment Assessment of themselves and Gerald and
write encouraging encouraging
words to Gerald on this picture
 Stage 3: Learning Experience
Tech to N/A Resources to · ​ Giraffes can’t dance

Do Bring drawing and writing

activity sheet for
formative assessment
- Giraffes can’t
dance book

Time Content/Description Notes

​10 minutes Introduction/vocabulary Write these skills on

- Ask the students the 1st and 2nd essential the board
questions: Why do we need help? And why -Have the vocabulary
do we help people? words written on the
-Ask students to demonstrate locomotor/non board beforehand
locomotor skills
- Go over certain vocabulary words from “Giraffes
can’t dance” with the students
- Gather the students in a circle after doing this
and ask them to demonstrate these specific
vocabulary words. For example, show me
what it looks like to be clumsy?

I can’t.. YET worksheet

15 minutes - Ask students to share with their elbow buddy (I can, I can, I
3 locomotor and/or non locomotor skills they can’t..yet worksheet)
feel confident in and 1 they don’t feel
confident in.
- Have students fill out the worksheet

Can Giraffes dance? What is encouragement to

5 minutes you?
- Ask students if they think giraffes ​can​ dance
based off of their long legs and long necks
- Introduce “Giraffes can’t dance” book
- Ask them to explain encouragement
- Ask them

Read aloud
10 minutes Read giraffes can’t dance book
● Stop and cue on certain pages or ask what
happened when Gerald tried to dance
 ● How they think Gerald would feel
● How Gerald felt when others were unkind to
him
● How the encouraging words change how
Gerald felt
Ask them to redescribe encouragement

Break: Brain Break Move table and put

5 minutes https://app.gonoodle.com/activities/i-gotta-feeling?s= back after (allow 2
Discover&t=Wo10/27/18-FP-3GA-All%20Grades mins for set up and
take down)

Handout sketch-stretch worksheet (drawing and Worksheet is on

2 minutes writing with Gerald) micro teach
· Introduce the worksheet and ask them to get resources
their pencil crayons
-Hand out the worksheet

Drawing and writing time

15 minutes · Have students fill out the worksheet
- Remind them to draw a picture of them and
Gerald
- Remind them to write encouraging words at
the bottom of the worksheet

Exit task (formative assessment)

2 minutes · Collect the worksheets as exit slips and ask
them to put away their pencil crayons

Lesson Two: Physical Education

Stage 1: Desired Results

General ​Acquire skills through a variety of developmentally appropriate movement
Learning activities; dance, games, types of gymnastics, individual activities and activities in
Outcome(s) an alternative environment

Specific PHYS ED A2-1 - ​ Select and perform locomotor skills involved in a variety
Learning of activities
Outcome(s) PHYS ED A2-3 - ​ Select and perform non-locomotor skills involved in a
variety of activities
Learning - Demonstrate different non-locomotor movements to different types of
Objective(s) music
- Demonstrate different locomotor movements to different types of music
- Distinguish between feeling confident, slightly confident, and
unconfident/hesitant after dancing to certain genres of music

Stage 2: Assessment Evidence

Summative · N/A Formative · ​In this lesson, students are being
Assessment Assessment formatively assessed through
observation.
​Observing through questions such
as:
● Are students trying out the new
locomotor and non locomotor
skills they said they were less
confident in?
● Are students being encouraging
to self and others?

Stage 3: Learning Experience

Tech to · ​Device to Resources · ​ Red, green, and yellow
play music circles so students can
Do to Bring identify which genres of
(stereo if
music they liked to dance
needed)
to, felt ok dancing to, and
did not like to dance to
● Hand back the
formative
assessment piece
with feedback on
their encouraging
words

Time Content/Description Notes

​Intro/ warm-up: Introduction/warm up to dance activity:

15 minutes Explain to the students how we are going to take - Use different
what we learned in our english language arts class types of music to
and apply it to physical education help students
● Explain by doing physical activity and relating feel comfortable
it to our previous lesson on Giraffes can’t (relate this to
dance we are using our literacy skills in a Giraffes can’t
different subject dance)
 ● Go over what locomotor and non-locomotor - Through this
movements are and ask the students to lesson we are
demonstrate a few examples before getting formatively
into the dance activity assessing
● Remind students of how Gerland was able to students
dance and how he felt when others were
unencouraging
● Remind students how they can encourage
others
● Ask the students: show me what it looks like
to dance when you’re happy, sad, angry,
Dancing and hula nervous, ect.
hoop activity:
Approximately 20 Dance activity:
minutes ● In separate areas of the gym, set up one
green, one yellow and one red hula hoop.
-For a larger class more than one hula hoop
of each colour may be required.
● Near the center of the gym have the students
dance to each song and identify with the
green(happy), yellow(sad), or red(angry)
colored circle
● At the end of the song students will use a
locomotor skill to move to the hula hoop that
represents the way the song made them feel.
● Give students time after each song to place
these circles under the songs that correlate to
their confidence while dancing
● Have the students refer back to their “I
can’t… YET” statements and encourage
them to try out their locomotor and
non-locomotor movements they felt they
couldn’t quite do yet

1 minute Play a classical song

Per song · Tchaikovsky (The Nutcracker)
- Mozart
- Beethoven

1 minute Play a hip hop song Remind the students

Per Song ·Insomniac (Trip Lee) to encourage
-Heartless (Kanye West) themselves and others
- Fools Gold (Andy Mineo) while they are dancing
-Crabbuckit (K-OS) like the cricket in
-thunder (imagine dragons) Giraffes Can’t Dance
1 minute Play a jazz song
Per song · We are family (Sister Sledge)
- Walking on sunshine (Katrina and the
Waves)
- Me Too (Meghan Trainor)

1 minute per Play a country song

song -Cadillac Ranch (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band)
-God Gave Me You (Blake Shelton)
-Dirty Laundry (Carrie Underwood)

1 minute Play a pop song

Per song ·Hold my hand (Jess Glynne)
-Shake it off (Taylor Swift)
- Perfect (Ed Sheeran)
- Girls Like You (Maroon 5)
-Havana (Camila Cabello)
-Let it go (Idina Menzel - Frozen)

10-15 minutes Discussion

What types of music did you feel comfortable and
confident dancing to?

During what song did you feel the most confident

when you were trying you difficult locomotor or non
locomotor skill?

Was there any music that you didn’t feel comfortable

dancing to?

Did the way you dance the way the music made you
feel? (ex: if the music made you feel sad did you
dance like you were sad?)

Explain to the students that some of them preferred

one type and others preferred another and that’s okay

Ask the students how they felt towards dancing when

they were being encouraged or when they were being
encouraging to others
Lesson Three: ELA

Stage 1: Desired Results

General 1. ​Students will listen, speak, read, write, view, and represent to
Learning respect, support and collaborate with others
Outcome(s)

Specific 1. ​Engage in a variety of shared and independent listening, reading

Learning and viewing experiences, using oral, print and other media texts
Outcome(s) from a variety of cultural traditions and genres, such as legends,
video programs, puppet plays, songs, riddles and informational
texts

Learning - Apply other modalities to express themselves in a way they prefer

Objective(s) - Retell story events

Stage 2: Assessment Evidence

Summative · Students will Formative · Write encouraging words
Assessment answer Assessment to put in the
questions on encouragement jar
the
performance
assessment
task sheet that
will be handed
out to them

Stage 3: Learning Experience

Tech to · Bring up “Giraffes Resources · Puppets, ipads,
can’t dance” on poster paper
Do to Bring (markers and
bookflix
stickers to make
it look good)

Time Content/Description Notes

5 minutes Write encouraging words as their quickwrite Students will write
activity these encouraging
· Begin with the formative assessment of words on the speech
encouraging words bubble handout given
to them

2 minutes Encouragement Jar

· ​ ​Collect encouraging words into the
encouragement jar

Video https://bookflix.digital.
8 minutes · Watch the video of “Giraffes can’t dance” scholastic.com/pair/d
etail/bk0089pr/story?
authCtx=U.64189313
8

Look through the

encouraging words
jar while the students
are listening to the
video to ensure they
are still on the right
track with their use of
appropriate words

Introducing the assessment task

5 minutes · Introduce summative assessment
(performance task)
- Hand out the performance task sheet with the
questions and read the sheet aloud to
students
- Ask if students have any questions

Brain break: “Trading Places”

5 minutes Have students stand behind their pushed-in chairs.
Call out a trait, and everyone who has that trait must
change places with someone else and high five that
person (students who do not have the trait stay where
they are). Examples: “Everyone with curly hair.”
“Everyone who ate cereal for breakfast.”

30 minutes Working on the performance task Students will work on

● Ensure students have the proper resources completing the
to complete the assessment task performance task for
the remainder of the
class
 Check in
● Ensure students have the proper resources
to complete the assessment task
● help students stay on task and ensure they
can complete it before the end of class

Check in ​ se strategies such

U
● If students are having trouble completing in as observing to see if
the given time extend the lesson to another students require more
day class time to
complete the
performance task

10 minutes Presentation of results

● If the students decided to present their
information in a puppet play or
spoken/presentation style. The students who
use the rest of the options can hand those in
by the end of class unless there needs to be
more time then we will finish the following
day.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Performance Assessment Task: ​I can’t… YET 

Gerald the giraffe is having some troubles dancing. As Geralds dear 

friend you can help him by doing the following... 
 
1. After watching the Giraffes Can’t Dance video, answer the 
questions below 
● You can do this in a written form, spoken/presentation, 
video, or by a puppet play 
● You can do this with a friend or by yourself 
 
A) What happened when Gerald tried to dance? 
 
B) When have you felt like Gerald? 
 
C) How did it make Gerald feel when others were unkind to him? 
 
D) How did the encouraging words change how Gerald felt? 
  
E) What are 3 ways you could encourage Gerald? 

​Please try to help Gerald before the end of class  

 Rubric Scale: I Can’t… YET

Student​​_____________________________________________

Criteria Description of Yes! Good​​ start Not ​YET Teacher

Criteria Comment

Main Themes Students Students have Students have Students have a

(2.1.2) understand the a ​strong a ​good limited
main themes understanding understanding understanding of
of the main of the main main themes
surrounding
themes themes surrounding
“Giraffes Can’t
surrounding surrounding “Giraffes Can’t
Dance” “Giraffes Can’t “Giraffes Can’t Dance”
Dance” Dance”

Communication Students Students Students Students ​rarely

with Peers communicate frequently sometimes communicate
5.1 encouraging communicate communicate encouraging
encouraging encouraging words to their
1.1.1 words to their
words to their words to their peers and to
peers and to
peers and to peers and to themselves.
themselves. They themselves. themselves. They show/have
understand the They have a They have a a​ limited
importance of clear moderate understanding of
using those understanding understanding importance of
encouraging of the of the using those
words importance of importance of encouraging
encouraging encouraging words.
words words
Expression Students use Students Students Students are
2.2 appropriate ways have a show some unable​​ to choose
1.1.1 to express strong difficulty an appropriate
understanding choosing the way to express
1.1.3 themselves
of the appropriate themselves and
(spoken, written,
different ways way to require assistance
video, puppet they can express
play) complete the themselves.
questions Students
provided to partially
them. represent their
Students knowledge
effectively through the
represent modality they
their chose
knowledge
through the
modality they
chose

Based on Alberta Programs

of Study
LEARNER OUTCOMES

Number Outcomes

SLO Select and perform locomotor skills involved in a -Students will listen and
A2-1 variety of activities perform locomotor
movements to different
types of music.

SLO Select and perform non-locomotor skills involved in -Students will listen and
A2-3 a variety of activities perform non locomotor
movements to different
types of music.
 5.1 Participate in shared language experiences to -Students will discuss
acknowledge and celebrate individual and class encouragement and
accomplishments. friendship.
-Students will have and
understanding of what it
means to be an
encouraging friend.
-Students will understand
the main themes of
“Giraffes can’t dance”
-Students will learn
vocabulary words
surrounding
encouragement and
dancing
2.2 Engage in a variety of shared and independent -Students can use other
listening, reading and viewing experiences, using modalities to express
oral, print and other media texts from a variety of themselves
cultural traditions and genres, such as legends, video -Retell story events
programs, puppet plays, songs, riddles and
informational texts.

 
 Mini-unit Resources  
Name:_____________________ 
 
 

___________________________________________________.

_____________________________________________________.

____________________________________________________.

____________________________________________________.
 

 
Name: _______________________   
 
 
Draw a picture below of you and Gerald happily dancing. 
Write a sentence using encouraging words to Gerald. 
 
 
 
We would give students these speech bubbles to write on for the encouraging words jar
 Rationales

C & I Rational
An overview of the unit
We have three units that are intertwined that each focus on encouragement, respect and
support for the self and others. The lessons we have created are all focused around the book
Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae. We will introduce our lessons by scaffolding the
students learning by asking them our essential questions so they can connect their own
experiences to the book. We will go over some of the vocabulary that is used in ​Giraffes Can't
Dance​ that might make it difficult for the students to understand the book which will create some
curiosity for the students. The students will be working on their non-locomotor and locomotor
skills in Physical Education so we will start our lesson by asking the students to create “I can…
and I can't … YET” statements with their locomotor and non-locomotor skills. This creates a
growth mindset within the students that is essential to have throughout our lesson. We will then
introduce the ​Giraffes Can’t Dance​ book and read this aloud to the students. We will cue the
students deeper level thinking during the read aloud by stopping during important parts of the
book. After the read aloud we have a formative assessment piece where the students will draw
a picture of themselves and gerald happily dancing and write a sentence to Gerald using
encouraging words. We will collect this as an exit slip and return these handouts to them with
some feedback on their encouraging words.

Our second lesson will be in gym class where we will play different genres of music that
the students will dance to. Identifying with red, yellow, and green hula-hoops for each genre to
understand how they felt while dancing to each of the different music types. Through
observation we will be able to see if the students are demonstrating some strengths in their
locomotor and non-locomotor movements as well as the use of their encouraging words that we
will remind them to use during the lesson. In our third lesson we will be using an encouraging
words jar to formatively assess the students one last time before entering their summative
assessment task. We decided to introduce the book a second time, but rather than reading the
book ourselves, we have a video read-aloud version from bookflix. Following the read-aloud
video we will introduce their summative performance task. The remainder of the class we will
give the students time to work on their assignment and we will be observing and having
conversations with the students during this time. This will give us a chance to make sure the
students are on the right track. We will allow for more for the students to complete the
assignment if that is needed.

Clear and concise justification for pedagogical choices?

We chose to do these lessons as it allows us to intertwine language literacy and physical
literacy. Incorporating these two types of literacy throughout our units ensures that we are
making cross-curricular connections. Each of these lessons relate to encouragement, which is
an important concept to introduce to children while they are younger and building collaboration
and teamwork skills. We chose ​Giraffes Can’t Dance f​ or a book because of the important
themes presented in this book and also because we saw an immediate connection to physical
activity. By intertwining physical education and english language arts, we are able to incorporate
different GLO’s and SLO’s from more than one subject area, as well as directly focus on
encouragement, respect, and support. Integrating these concepts into our lesson reflects the
english language arts GLO we chose. Physical activity is something that each of us are very
passionate about, creating lessons that allow us to integrate aspects of physical activity with
those of physical literacy is beneficial for us as teachers and also for the students. Integrating
encouragement into physical education through the use of a children’s book allows students to
understand how we can celebrate literacy in a variety of subjects. The themes presented in this
book highlight the importance of being an encouraging friend and the idea of having a growth
mindset. These are both aspects of education we believe are important to be introduced at a
young age, which relates to our choice of picking grade 2 for our focus of the lessons.

The theme of encouragement and encouraging words is significant because it not only
allows us to explore a variety of general and specific learning outcomes, but also focuses on
aspects such as allowing students to understand how we can create a safe learning
environment in our classroom. We decided to use a SLO that included locomotor and
non-locomotor movements into our mini-unit because these are the foundational components of
sport specific skills and the practice of these skills will help to develop physicality. Within our
lesson we also focus on goal setting and I can and I can’t YET statements. We chose to do this
to show students the importance of a growth mindset. If students are unable to currently do
something related to physical activity or literacy it demonstrates how by having a growth mindset
they can work towards achieving goals. Another aspect we focused on through our mini-unit
was expression. Within our physical activity portion we focus on the importance of expression.
This is something we all believe to be very important within education. The students are
required to express their feelings and emotions while dancing to different types of music.
Expression is something we value at this age as it is extremely important to their mental health.
We chose to have a formative assessment piece within each lesson to make sure we
understood if the lessons were valid and fair. During our summative portion of the lesson we
decided to have a video read-aloud of the book. We chose to do this so the students had an
even larger understanding of the main themes presented. The video version of this book offers
the students a chance to pick up on some concepts that they may not have previously when we
read the book aloud.

Big questions and ideas driving your instruction

In the first English Language Arts lesson we have two essential questions that support
our reasoning behind the activities we did and the formative assessment portion. These topical
essential questions are age appropriate for students in grade 2 and are meant to be left open
ended. The first big question is: why do we help people? The second big question guiding this
lesson is: why do we need help? With these big questions in mind we integrated several cues in
our book to help students begin to frame the answers to these questions. This is a great way for
students to grasp the whole concept of encouragement by ensuring they understand the
importance of receiving help or helping others.

The second lesson will be taught through physical activity with the big question being:
How does music affect your emotions? This question is also topical and meant to be left open
ended. This question will be asked many times throughout the lesson. In this lesson students
will dance to different types of music and will be responsible for self assessing their response to
the different music. They will also be encouraged to dance the way the music makes them feel.
For example, if the music makes them feel sad they would dance like they are sad. This lesson
will be great to help students become more aware of their feelings. Being in tune with their
emotions could help them learn how to better express their feelings. These activities directly
address the big question guiding the lesson.

The final big question is the one that the lesson sequence scaffolds up to. This open
overarching questions is: How do encouraging words help you improve? With the use of the
activities in the previous lessons, this question is more meaningful. The students will have
understood how encouraging words helped Gerald improve. Additionally, while dancing they
would have been aware of how encouraging themselves or others can help improvement. To
refresh their memory, ​Giraffes Can’t Dance​ will be read for a second time. Following that they
will answer the questions on the performance task through the big question framework. The
questions on the performance task highlight the answer to the big question of this lesson.

Explanation of how formative assessment data informs your practice

The first formative assessment strategy we used in our mini unit was exit slips. We did
this by having the children draw a picture of them and Gerald the Giraffe dancing. Below the
picture they are to write a few encouraging words to Gerald. This formative assessment is to be
used as an exit slip and will be reviewed by the teacher to see where students are at. Having an
exit slip as a formative assessment will help the teacher know what might need to be reviewed
or even retaught in a different way for the lessons to follow.

The second formative assessment strategy we incorporated was observation.

Observation will be done in the physical education lesson to see if students are trying the
locomotor or non locomotor skill they feel less confident in. This skill will be from their “I can’t
yet…” statement sheet that was completed in the lesson prior. Reminding the students of their “I
can’t yet…” statements will help them achieve what they are being formatively assessed for. If
students are trying new skills or difficult skills it means that an encouraging and safe
environment has been created. Observation during the physical education lesson also helps
formatively assess/summatively assess if students are encouraging themselves or their peers to
step outside of their comfort zone. Alongside of observation, we will be be having conversations
with the students to have an understanding of where they are at during the lessons.
 The third formative assessment strategy is a quickwrite activity. This will be done by
asking the students to write a few encouraging words on a paper and putting it in the
encouragement jar. The teacher then has time to look over the encouraging words in the jar
during the video read-aloud that the students are participating in. If the lessons have been
successful an improvement should be recognizable between the exit slip and the quickwrite.
This allows teachers to self assess their teaching and its effectiveness. From the results of
these quickwrites adjustments to teaching can be made. If necessary, an additional lesson
could be taught to ensure the students have understood what is trying to be taught.

By incorporating observation, conversations, and collection of products such as exit

slips, we are ensuring that triangulation is embedded within our lessons. This is important during
the process of assessment FOR learning, as we want to make sure our assessment process
isn’t directly focused on one summative portion. Instead, using triangulation establishes that our
assessment is valid, reliable, and fair.

Evaluation Rational
How formative assessment is used to scaffold toward final performance
We demonstrated scaffolding through our formative assessment pieces first by asking
the students to think about what they feel like they would have trouble doing whether that be
related to sport, school, art, or any activity. Our essential questions at the beginning of each
lesson also help to scaffold the students learning to allow them to discover the challenges they
face in their own lives. This allows them to use their own experiences as an introduction to
Giraffes Can’t Dance.​ Secondly, the encouraging word jar and the drawing/writing handout uses
the encouraging words that they come up with on their own. After we hand back those
assessment pieces with feedback they will have an understanding of what encouraging words
look like and if they are correctly deciphering what an encouraging, respectful and supportive
attitude resembles. We will be using verbal cues during our first read aloud of our book that are
very similar to the questions in the final performance task. The cues allow for some deeper level
thinking that will create connections between the literature and the self. We also considered
different modalities which gives the students a choice in how they want to present their work.
This is important to ensure the final performance we are expecting from the students can be
presented in a way they prefer.

Clear connections made between your assessment decisions and concepts of validity,
reliability, and fairness
Having at least one formative piece throughout each lesson in the mini-unit
demonstrates reliability, validity and fairness. The formative pieces that we have are the “I can
and I can't… YET,” the drawing/writing sheet and the encouraging words from the encouraging
words jar. All of which will give us as the teachers feedback on our lessons. The feedback that
we give our students from their formative pieces will allow them to make adjustments during the
mini unit. This makes the measurement valid because in all of the formative pieces we are
measuring how they understand encouraging words, how to use encouraging words, and why
they are important. The questions we have the students answer in the final performance task
are all related to why encouraging words help us to succeed and why it is important to help
others. In the summative assessment piece we allow the students to work in pairs or on their
own. The use of different modalities supports validity, reliability and fairness all together since
this allows the students to showcase their own personal strengths. There are no relevant factors
that are present during the mini-unit which support construct validity.

The elements within our lessons are all relevant to the intended outcomes. Our lessons
also produce reliability because the students are able to produce encouraging words at least 3
times with feedback before the final assessment task that is summatively assessed. We are
measuring 5 questions that the students will be answering, this way we will understand if the
students have met the outcomes through a number of questions rather than just a few. These
lessons are fair because the students are all allotted equal time to complete their formative and
summative pieces and more time if needed the following day. After collecting their handouts we
can make changes to the upcoming plans or focus more on certain elements if needed. The
changes that are made will create fairness within our mini-unit.

Explanation of how formative assessment data informs your practice

The first formative assessment strategy we used in our mini unit was exit slips. We did
this by having the children draw a picture of them and Gerald the Giraffe dancing. Below the
picture they are to write a few encouraging words to Gerald. This formative assessment is to be
used as an exit slip and will be reviewed by the teacher to see where students are at. Having an
exit slip as a formative assessment will help the teacher know what might need to be reviewed
or even retaught in a different way for the lessons to follow.

The second formative assessment strategy we incorporated was observation.

Observation will be done in the physical education lesson to see if students are trying the
locomotor or non locomotor skill they feel less confident in. This skill will be from their “I can’t
yet…” statement sheet that was completed in the lesson prior. Reminding the students of their “I
can’t yet…” statements will help them achieve what they are being formatively assessed for. If
students are trying new skills or difficult skills it means that an encouraging and safe
environment has been created. Observation during the Phys. Ed lesson also helps formatively
assess/summatively assess if students are encouraging themselves or their peers to step
outside of their comfort zone. Alongside of observation, we will be be having conversations with
the students to have an understanding of where they are at during the lessons.

The third formative assessment strategy is a quickwrite. This will be done by asking the
students to write a few encouraging words on a paper and putting it in the encouragement jar.
The teacher then has time to look over the encouraging words in the jar during the video
read-aloud that the students are participating in. If the lessons have been successful an
improvement should be recognizable between the exit slip and the quickwrite. This allows
teachers to self assess their teaching and the effectiveness of their teaching. From the results of
these free writes, adjustments to teaching can be made. If necessary, an additional lesson could
be taught to ensure the students have understood what is trying to be taught.

By incorporating observation, conversations, and collection of products such as exit

slips, we are ensuring that triangulation is embedded within our lessons. This is important during
the process of assessment FOR learning, as we want to make sure our assessment process
isn’t directly focused on one summative portion. Instead, using triangulation establishes that our
assessment is valid, reliable, and fair.

Language in Education Rational

Hello Parents,

This year we have been trying to intertwine language literacy and physical literacy. We
just finished our unit on bravery where we did english language arts activities based on a short
book about Terry Fox. To relate it to physical literacy we ran the terry fox run with our grade 6
buddies.

Starting next week we will begin a unit on encouragement, respect, and support. This will
be done by reading ​Giraffes Can’t Dance b ​ y Giles Andreae and integrating it throughout the
span of 3 lessons. We chose this book because it highlights the importance of being an
encouraging friend and a growth mindset. Integrating encouragement into physical education
through the use of a children's book allows students to understand how we can celebrate
literacy in a variety of subjects. The significance of encouraging words is helpful to students and
their peers to create a safe environment in our classroom. We wanted to incorporate locomotor
and nonlocomotor movements because these are the foundational components of more sport
specific skills and the practise of these skills will help to develop their physicality.

We will start by learning the meaning of locomotor and non-locomotor movements

mentioned in ​Giraffes Can’t Dance ​through a quick vocabulary lesson​. B​ egining with this will
ensure the students have a solid foundation of the vocabulary being used throughout this unit.
Of those locomotor and non-locomotor skills they will choose 3 they feel confident in and 1 they
feel less confident in and write them down to set a goal for the physical education portion. We
chose to do this to underline the significance of YET. When the students write if they can’t but
understand that this is not fixed it encourages a growth mindset, which we strongly appreciate
as teachers!

To introduce the topic of encouragement we will be reading a book called ​Giraffes Can’t
Dance ​by Giles Andreae. By doing this, we are incorporating the literacy strategy of a read
aloud. Interactive read alouds are a powerful strategy implemented by teachers for a number of
reasons. While entertainment purposes are the most obvious, introducing books that may be
above the classes reading level is important to familiarize the students with vocabulary and a
number of concepts is important for the success of the students. This strategy models fluent and
expressive reading for the students (Bright, Tompkins & Winsor, 2018). Prior to reading the
book they will be asked to describe what encouragement means to them. While reading the
book we will pause with several cues to give them the opportunity to ​think deeply.​ Following the
reading, they will be asked to redefine encouragement given the information they’ve learned
throughout ​Giraffes Can’t Dance.​ The students will then be asked to draw a picture of Gerald,
the Giraffe, and them dancing with several phrases of encouragement for gerald. This will be
used as an exit slip to formatively assess if they are understanding the concept of
encouragement we are trying to learn. This exit slip focuses on the combination of two literacy
strategies. The first literacy strategy it focuses on is a quickwrite. Quickwrites allow the students
to generate their ideas, reflect on the topic, and make connections towards ideas (Tompkins,
2013). The second literacy strategy it focuses on is a sketch-to-stretch. A sketch-to-stretch is
done by demonstrating the of themes presented in the book by means of drawing (Tompkins,
2013).

We will then incorporate physical literacy by having them dance to different types of
music while trying out the locomotor or non locomotor skills they feel less confident in.
Throughout the lesson they will be reminded of the importance of encouraging their peers to
help them feel confident when trying difficult skills. Music is extremely important to express
oneself. Identifying how the students felt while listening to the music will strengthen their abilities
to understand expression. Expression is something we value at this age as it is extremely
important to their mental health.

Once they have worked though the concept of encouragement through several learning
activities in english language arts and put it to use in the physical education class we will revisit
Giraffes can’t dance ​in a video form. We chose to have the text in a different media form to
allow even more exploration of the main themes. Students will then be asked to complete a
performance assessment task to wrap up the unit. They will be given class time to answer
several questions regarding ​Giraffes can’t dance ​and the encouragement aspects of the
assignments. Student will be given the option to do this as a poster, video, audio recording or
puppet play and all materials will be provided. Allowing the students to chose which modality
they would like to express themselves by will help them feel autonomous.

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me. Additionally, if you
have any considerations for upcoming units let us know. This classroom is always open to
learning new skills to help us become better citizens!

Sincerely,

Miss Winder, Miss Pharis, & Miss Lightfoot

 References

Tompkins, G. E. (2013). ​50 literacy strategies: Step by step.​ Boston: Pearson.

Tompkins, G. E., Bright, R., & Winsor, P. J. (2018). ​Language and literacy: Content and
teaching strategies.​ Don Mills, Ontario: Pearson Canada.