Bump, set, volley,serve; all words that have multiple meanings and in the contextof this discussion they are ways to deliver a volleyball. These are a few examples of the way language organizes life in a gymnasium.

A student needs to know the language, use the language and connect the language with their body to perform the act of moving the ball in the required direction. And if I spoke like that in the gym no one would understand me. I too need to change my discourse to the activity at hand. I model for the students how I switch from Math to PE to Science, pointing out the similarities and the differences.

Lessons in PE usually begin the same way - students arrive, walk around the gym and I pass them something to toss while they walk. In the Gallery you can see this lesson began with tossing bean bags. Then we move to a large circle where I lead some stretching and moving to music warm ups, and then we come together to discuss how the rest of the lesson will unfold.

The lesson represented in the Gallery was approximately two weeks into the Volleyball unit, so our discussion was sharing pointers that the students found helpful in the previous classes. After we review what is good practice while playing volleyball we warm up with ourskills with our table groups. The gallery shows small groups practicing volleys and bumps. There is also an image of a line of students on the other side of the net, this is the serve warm up. Notice in these images that the students are watching and talking with each other, and every one generally looks engaged - they have their eyes on the ball. This is a very social class, but the socializing is directly related to improved skills - just like in math class and science class. Also notice there is a mix of girls and boys and grade sixes and grade sevens - everyone works with everyone, everyone improves and everyoneis a valuable member of our class.

After we warm up on this day we sat and shared what we have noticed about the other people in our group and their skill acquistion. Each person thinks of one positive comment to make about each other person in the group in regard to their volleyball skills. Then each person in the group has two other people tell them what they have noticed about their improving skills. There is no trouble finding improvements to comment on as all of the students learn skills very quickly as it is our entire focus while in the gym.

Groups of three are put together to make teams of six and these teams quickly make a cheer so our practice games can begin. Learning how to cheer as a team is a skill many of the students in my class don't have, most don't play organized team sports. Lining up on the base line and being called onto the court is a new rule today, as is returning the base line to shake hands at the end of the game.

Learning volleyball is learning a new language; we learn with our brains,with our bodies and our whole class together.

A Volleyball Lesson - Mid Unit

Volleyball and Ultimate are the first two sports we do together in Term One.

Term Two consists of Basketball, Gymnastics, Skiing and Badminton. For our Open House at the end of Term Two three students, (Jodie, Andy and Matthew Jay), prepared an account of our class learning. PE Term Two