Did You Say Homework? In PE?

written by Tom Winiecki, Mott Road Elementary School, Fayetteville, NY

No matter what age your kids are in school, they all have homework in some form. Some of us may have even fallen into the trap of helping so much with our children's homework that we feel that we should get the grade, not them. It's an easy trap to fall into.

The whole purpose of homework, no matter the subject or even grade level, is to gauge where the student is at the time so we as teachers can adjust instruction to meet the needs of individual students. For the most part, it isn't graded. Usually it is recorded that the student did the assignment. Any mistakes made are allowed to be fixed. Homework generally is just extra practice for the student.

Why don't we take advantage of this thinking? We also want to know where our kids are in their understanding. While we can get a good measure of their skill level in class, getting a firm grasp on cognitive concepts isn't always so straight forward. That is because the best way for our students to accurately demonstrate understanding is by writing it down.

I know what you are thinking. "When am I supposed to get my kids to write anything? I have enough trouble keeping them all on task and active in class; not even considering convincing them to be active after school instead of watching TV when they get home!" Believe me; I know what you are talking about!

You don't necessarily have to take any time away from your already limited class time. Remember that homework is something that the kids do at home that you can use to gauge their progress. We have been using a booklet for years now that lets us do just that. We call it "The 10 Days of Fitness." We give this to our older students (our building is K-4) over the Christmas break. The first 12 pages are for the kids to draw us pictures of what they do to "get their heart going fast." They are also asked to tell us how long they do that particular activity.

The last few pages are what we are really concerned about. In here, they have some short answer questions to answer for us. They tell us, based on their reported activity times whether they think they are an active person, or not. If not, they write what they can do to be more active. They also write down three benefits of exercise. These last answers are a direct connection to content that we hit them with constantly. Answers can include items like:

• Gives them more energy
• Can wake up faster in the morning
• Their brain can function better
• They can pay attention better in their classes
• They don't get as tired at recess with their friends

We also talk about the "how much" they need to be active. We talk about only really needing an hour, or so each day. There is nothing wrong with sitting down to read a good book, or watch a TV show or two, as long as their whole day isn't filled with this. This isn't something that we tell them as we hand out this assignment. Rather this is something that we constantly reinforce with them is class. This cuts down on some of our kids turning in their booklets with pages saying that they did pushups of 60 minutes!

This also gives us the opportunity to talk with them about what actually makes an activity active. Things like getting their heart beating fast, getting sweat trophies, rosy red cheeks and huffing and puffing are signs that we teach our students to look for to tell them if they are active enough. We also tell them that these signs are good things! Being sweaty is not gross; rather it is a sign that their body is getting a bit stronger. Tell your kids that “the sweaty faces will go away, the stronger muscles will stay!”

Since homework is a gauge of progress, try using it in this manner. When your students turn the booklets back into you after the school vacation, take a look at their written answers. Do they seem to understand the content that you constantly give them about their fitness? Do they seem to understand that they can be active in ways other than what they do with you in the gym? Do they talk about doing things like:

• Stacking firewood,
• helping carry out the garbage cans,
• helping by carrying heavy laundry baskets,
• riding a bike,
• going swimming (if they went someplace warm for the break!), and/or
• going skating (if you are in a cold climate like me!).

The bottom line here is that you want your kids to have a good understanding of what they can do to be active when they are not with you, which in reality is most of the time! This "homework assignment" is something that can give you that information. Feel free to change it to match the school break you want to use it for. Give it a try and see what you think!

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