Lesson Title: Physical Activity and Heart Rates

Grade Level: 6th

BEFORE READING:

I. Motivation: You have just crossed the finish line, after running a one-mile race. There are people all around you, yelling and chanting your name. Your face is glistening with sweat and your legs feel like they are going to give out on you, but you are delighted because you have just won the race and set the new record time for your age division. Your heart is beating extremely fast. You wonder, just how fast is my heart beating?

II. Prior Knowledge: Previously, I had you all run a couple laps around the gym and then find your heart rate. Who remembers some of the spots on your body where you can find your heart rate? Heart, wrist, neck, etc. Right now, as you are all sitting at your desks, your heart is at its resting heart rate. Who can tell me what a resting heart rate is? A person's heart rate when they have been sitting for a while or when you are sleeping. What are some things that you can do to get your heart beating faster than it is right now? Do jumping jacks, run around, go for a bike ride, swim laps, jump rope, play basketball, etc. All of those are great answers! Who can tell me what all of those answers are examples of? Physical activity/exercise.

III. Purpose: The readings today will be to inform you about physical activity. You will be reading about what physical activity is, why it is important, and the reasons why people do not exercise. Then, at the end of the lesson, you will find your resting heart rate and then once you have participated in some physical activity, you will find your heart rate again and compare the two.

IV. Strategy Instruction: Before we begin, I want you to get with the person sitting next to you and find out, between the two of you, what you already know about physical activity and what you want to learn or think you will learn about physical activity by filling out the K column and the W column of the K-W-L Chart. You will not fill in the L column until after the lesson because that column is where you write what you learned about physical activity. The K column is where you will write what you already know about physical activity. The W column is where you write what you hope to learn after this lesson. In other words, you set goals. At the end of the lesson, it will be fun to look back at this and see if what you wrote in the K column is correct and to see how much you learned. If you have any inaccurate statements in the K column, share them with the class and we will work together to make them accurate. Also, if you have something written in the W column that you did not learn from the text, share those with the class and we will try to answer any questions. The following is an example of a KWL Chart for a lesson on the food pyramid. Teacher talks about what is written in each column.            

Teacher note: The following link is where you can find a pre-made K-W-L Chart for this lesson.

K-W-L Chart

DURING READING:

Reading: I would now like you to get back together with the person sitting next to you and partner-read the following three web sites. Remember to use your indoor voices and help your partner with any words they may have trouble with.

What is Physical Activity?

The Benefits of Physical Activity

Reasons Why People Do Not Exercise

Readability:

What is physical activity? Retrieved December 4, 2006 from http://www.mypyramid.gov/pyramid/physical_activity.html.

"Physical activity simply means movement of the body that uses energy. Walking, gardening, briskly pushing a baby stroller, climbing the stairs, playing soccer, or dancing the night away are all good examples of being active."
Readability of Text: 12.0
Correcting the level: The Flesch-Kincaid formula has its limitations because the readability level is calculated using primarily sentence and word length, representing difficulty. This is why the cueing systems should be considered when wanting to find out whether a text is at an appropriate reading level for the students to whom the text applies. Even though the Flesch-Kincaid formula puts this text at a 12th grade reading level, I feel that this text is appropriate for 6th graders, especially since they will be partner reading it. That way if one student doesn't know a word, maybe their partner does and can help them. The following are examples of cues found in the text:

1. Graphic: There are not a lot of graphic cues, but I feel that those are not necessary to this text. Some examples of graphics include pictures of a boy playing baseball, a soccer ball, a girl swinging on a swing, and a couple girls running. All of these are great examples of types of physical activity.

2. Semantic: Although this site doesn't really provide a lot of meanings for words, I do not find the vocabulary to be very difficult.

3. Syntactic: The sentence structure of this text is rather simple. There are a few complex sentences, but none contain very challenging words that the students might not know the meanings of.

4. Text Structure: This text consists of a paragraph at the beginning defining physical activity and different types of physical activity. It then goes on to make two lists, one for examples of moderate physical activities and another for examples of vigorous types of physical activity. It concludes with a paragraph talking about activities that are not intense enough to increase your heart rate and should not be counted towards your 30 minutes a day of physical activity. I think by having bulleted lists the text is easier for the students to follow.

Schematic: By 6th grade, students have a pretty good idea of what physical activity is and its importance. By this age, many children have been involved with sports and other activities. If not, they all have had several years of Physical Education, so each student should have some schema prior to reading the text.

The benefits of physical activity. Retrieved December 4, 2006 from http://www.shb.ie/class-855424652.cfm.

"Being active is one of the five key lifestyle choices you can make to stay healthy and reduce the risk of disease. You only have to be active for at least 30 minutes a day, and you can add up your activities, 10 minutes at a time, to get that daily total of 30 minutes."
Readability of Text: 11.0

Top 10 reasons you don't exercise. Retrieved December 4, 2006 from http://exercise.about.com/cs/fittingitin/a/exerciseobstacl.htm.

"Are you too busy to exercise? If so, you're not alone. Studies show that 60% of American adults don't get the recommended amount of physical activity, and over 25% of adults are not active at all. These statistics reflect the fact that many of us simply don't exercise. What's your excuse?"
Readability of Text: 7.5

Differentiated Instruction Accommodations:

Teacher note: The following text is one that a teacher can use to accommodate this lesson for students at a lower reading level. Just like any other Dr. Seuss book, this one includes a lot of rhyme, along with short and simple sentences. These lower-level readers can use the graphic cues to help them because the pictures fit the text very well. Students can still benefit from reading this book because it talks all about staying healthy.

Reading: Rabe, Tish. Oh, the Things You Can Do That Are Good for You! Random House: New York, 2001.

V. Text Structure: These readings are all examples of expository text because they are factual. They can also be considered to be descriptive because they describe various components of physical activity, such as what physical activity is, the benefits of physical activity, and some reasons why people do not exercise.

VI .Strategy Instruction: Since we are at the end of this week's activities, it is beneficial to reflect on the activities by reviewing past experiences and to plan how you will apply them to your future. To do this, you all will be writing a Synthesis Journal. A Synthesis Journal is similar to a KWL Chart. They both include what you learned, but the Synthesis Journal takes it a step further and has you say how you can use what you learned in the future. Each of you needs to take out a sheet of paper and divide it into three columns. The first column should be labeled "What I Did". The second column should be labeled "What I Learned," and the third column should be labeled "How I Can Use It." Who can tell me what should go under the "What I Did" column? Students should answer that they have been participating in a number of activities in class and have just read three texts about physical activity. What is one thing you learned? It can be from any of the three readings. Call on a student to answer. "I learned that you should exercise at least 30 minutes every day." How can you use what you learned for your future? Again, call on a student to answer. Hopefully, they answer with something like, "I will try to exercise at least thirty minutes a day!" I would now like you all to individually fill in the Synthesis Journal, writing as much as you can. I will ask a few of you to share yours once everyone is finished. Below, is an example of a Synthesis Journal.

Teacher note: The following link is where you can find a pre-made Synthesis Journal.

Synthesis Journal

VII. Vocabulary: As you read, you might come across some words that you are not familiar with. If this happens, try using your context clues to determine the word's meaning. For example, the word vigorous is used in the sentence, "For health benefits, physical activity should be moderate or vigorous..." Use the context clue of the word "or" that follows the word moderate. We know that moderate means fairly light or easy so vigorous must mean heavy duty or with lots of energy. The word neglect is used in the sentence, "You don't have to neglect your family to fit in exercise." I would use the following sentence as a context clue. It says that you could do an exercise video while they nap. So, neglect must mean not paying attention to. I say this because if you exercise while your family is napping, you are not ignoring them. I will also write on the board the definitions of these two words and use them in sentences, just in case you forget what they mean as you are reading.

vigorous- characterized by forceful and energetic action or activity: "Soccer is a very vigorous sport because it involves a lot of running, causing the athletes to breathe hard and sweat a lot."
neglect- to pay no or little attention to: "You don't have to neglect your friends and family in order to fit in exercise. Ask them to exercise with you!"

VIII. Content:
Teacher note: The following link will take you to the national standards for grades K-12 in Physical Education. The students should have accomplished the standards for grades K-5 by now.

National Standards

AFTER READING:

IX. Questioning:
Teacher note: The questioning strategy used for this lesson is Question-Answer-Relationship (QAR). There are four types of questions: Right There, Think and Search, Author and Me, and On My Own. First, the teacher needs to answer the question and then tell where they found the answer. The following is an online source that describes QAR.

QAR

Example (taken from the online text, What is Physical Activity?):
Text Explicit: How long should you exercise each day? (30 minutes. This answer is Right There because the text says, "For health benefits, physical activity should be moderate or vigorous and add up to at least 30 minutes a day.")

The following are questions that the teacher can ask the students. Make sure students not only answer the question, but also tell where the answer came from.

Text Explicit: Which type of physical activity is gardening? Moderate or vigorous? (Moderate. This answer is Right There because the text says, "Moderate physical activities include: gardening...")

Text Explicit: What can you do if you can't fit a full 30 minute time period into your day to exercise? (Break it up into 10 or 15 minute segments. This answer is Right There because the text says, "If you can't find a full 30 minutes during your day, break it up into 10 or 15 minute segments.")

Text Implicit: You go grocery shopping with your mom. Should you count this time towards your 30 minutes of daily physical activity? (No, because walking around a grocery store is not intense enough to increase your heart rate. This answer is Think and Search because the answer is found in different sentences on different pages.)

Text Implicit & Script Implicit: If you're tired, why should you exercise? (Exercise generates energy and you will get more done that day. This answer is Author and Me because the answer is found in different sentences on different pages.)

Script Implicit: What types of exercise do you enjoy? (Playing soccer, basketball, baseball, gymnastics, dancing, swimming, walking my dog, etc. This answer is On My Own because you don't have to read the text to know the answer.)

X. Writing to Learn Activity:
Teacher note: Since this lesson is about physical activity, which is what Physical Education is all about, students should be actively engaged every class period. A good writing activity would be to have students keep a journal that they write in each day they come to class. Have students reflect on their daily physical activities, for example, what types of physical activity they did the day before and for how long. Then, at the end of the year you can look back at their journals and see how they've grown, not only in their writing skills, but also in their physical activity.

Teacher Model: I am going to write on the board, an example of a journal entry. My purpose is to reflect on how I have become more active. The following is an example: At the beginning of this year, I only exercised for about twenty minutes a day. What I did was take my dog for a walk every night. Now, I get up and run for fifteen minutes on the tread mill before I come to school, and then after school, I lift weights and still take my dog for a walk at night. I can say that I've become much more active because I use to only take my dog for a walk as my exercise, but now I run and lift weights, too. I make sure I get my thirty minutes of exercise in every day!

I would now like you all to write in your journal how you have become more active. If you haven't become more active, write about what you could do to become more active. I will be grading you on whether or not you list new exercises you do, if you exercise for longer periods of time, and what you plan on doing to become more active. Also, make sure you you use correct punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and grammar because I will also be checking for those errors.

Some suggested journal writing topics are as follows:

1. What are your goals for the year?

2. What kinds of physical activity do you enjoy the most? Which do you enjoy the least?

3. How has Physical Education class motivated you to become more physically active?

4. Have you improved from the beginning of the year until now? If so, how?

XI. Closure: Now that we have learned what physical activity is, why it is important, and reasons why people do not exercise, let's do some physical activity ourselves! Today, we are going to play a game of basketball and then at the end I am going to have you find your heart rate. Hopefully, you all play hard enough to get your heart pumping pretty fast. Before we start, I would like all of you to find your resting heart rate. Who remembers how to do this? Teacher calls on student to answer. They should say that you find your pulse and count the number of beats for a period of 15 seconds. You then multiply the result by four. With five minutes left of class, I will stop the game and immediately I would like you to find your heart rate again. Do you think it will be lower or higher than your resting heart rate? Students should answer "Higher because we just got done playing basketball and our heart had to work really hard." Once you have found your heart rate after playing, I want you to find the difference between your resting heart rate and your heart rate after you played basketball. Who can tell me how you will find the difference? Students should answer that you will subtract your resting heart rate from your heart rate after playing basketball. Now, go home this afternoon and encourage your mom and dad to exercise with you. Tell them everything you learned in class today and how important it is that they are physically active!