Practicing physical education teachers are currently using a wide variety of designs and formats to develop their daily lesson plans. Some instructors utilize planning resources such as general lesson guides, teaching planners, and web-created electronic plans that were originally intended for other academic disciplines. Others have created designs more appropriate for physical education, based on the subject matter and typical variables in their PE lessons. When shared, these types of self-created lesson plan designs can be beneficial to other practicing physical education teachers, giving them ideas and tools for structuring their future lessons.
Developing the Plan
As a seasoned physical education instructor, I've also used a variety of lesson planning methods and formats. Over the years, many of these designs have fallen short of the mark as a practical guide for my daily lessons. Some of the plans lacked the detail I needed to adequately describe my PE lesson, while others required too much time to be a sensible answer for my planning needs. My dissatisfaction with the available options for lesson planning facilitated a personal investigation for a better and more sensible method for class preparation. During this search, I sought out solutions from other physical educators and consulted with teachers in additional areas of education. The investigation yielded valuable information that I used to create a practical physical education lesson plan template that I and many other physical education teachers in the country are currently utilizing.
Beneficial Qualities of the VIP PE Lesson Plan Template
There isn't any physical education lesson planning tool that is perfect. However, some designs are more advantageous to use than others depending on the situation. For a lesson plan format to be valuable for a practicing physical educator, it must have the ability to be versatile, inclusive, and practical. The plan should be user-friendly and comprehensive, with the ability to adapt it to various scenarios.
The following questions and answers look at how these qualities are acknowledged using the Physical Education Lesson Plan Template (VIP Plan) and how they may be applied to your physical education program.
How is the Physical Education VIP Plan Versatile?
The Physical Education VIP Plan may be used in a variety of ways and for a variety of goals. This document is in Microsoft Word, which means that you can easily adjust the titles, text box sizes, text color, headings, and subheadings to suit your needs. The number of text boxes available allows you to easily incorporate a variety of educational requirements.
The Physical Education VIP Plan can be used for the following purposes:
As a unit guide
The template can be used to list a general outline of the standards, tasks, and assessments that would take place within a single unit of study. This method works well for seeing a 2 or 3 week time period on a single-page document. This “big picture” technique helps you clarify what you want your students to achieve by the unit and what tasks and activities will help them reach this goal
As a grouped lesson guide
The VIP template can be used to clump 2 or more lessons together within a single unit. This type of planning works well when you are unsure of exactly how much you can accomplish within a single class period. It also works well if you have outdoor and indoor activities planned and the weather does not cooperate. Because physical education teachers typically see their students a set number of times per week, it's more realistic and effective to group lessons in a weekly format. Provisions may be made to show how far each class has progressed in their instructional activities in the main body of the lesson plan.
As an individual lesson plan
The template may be used for a single physical education lesson that includes several specified grade levels. The strategy can identify the essential criteria for multiple levels and also highlight changes and modifications per grade within the same plan since many lessons might be taught to more than one grade level.
As a separate activity or game plan
The template can be slightly altered to include headings such as “game set up and procedures” and “instructions for game play” to provide a single document plan that outlines any of your large group games requiring specific directions for play. This approach is great for organizing large group games that may be completed in a specific unit, or for "stand-alone" activities that are utilized to enhance skills and boost fitness levels throughout the year.
As a special event plan
The template can also be edited to serve as a general guide for special events that the physical education department sponsors at your school, like the Kids Heart Challenge, Health Moves Minds, and/or Field Day.
How is the Physical Education VIP Plan Inclusive?
The Physical Education VIP Plan's design is comprehensive, and it contains a variety of text boxes with headings and subheadings that match the physical education planning and structural processes. The plan contains many crucial aspects, such as lesson/unit title, lesson plan writer, grade level(s), unit focus, overview and purpose, standards addressed, learning outcomes, differentiation/modification, materials/resources, safety concerns, essential questions, assessment methods, instructional activities (warm-ups & cool-downs), fitness components, movement components, and closure items.
The headings listed above correspond with the most current fundamental requirements for a comprehensive plan and can easily be adapted to fit any educational needs. Physical education teachers may easily describe the components of a lesson or lessons within each text and heading box. The way a teacher explains the lesson may range from bullet form information, numbered sequential actions, coded information, or paragraph descriptors for instruction. Adding specific coding to a lesson plan can help ensure that it adheres to the relevant SHAPE America standards for your state or district. These documents can be stored in an easily-accessible portfolio format.
How is the Physical Education VIP Plan Practical?
The Physical Education VIP lesson plan format is designed to be functional, easily placing all pertinent information onto one page.
The capacity to examine the whole lesson, grouped lessons, or unit plan in detail makes physical education teaching easier. The instructional text boxes in the plan may simply be changed to meet the requirements of any physical education instructor.
The Physical Education VIP Plan has several practical benefits, including:
The ability to share lesson plans with other physical education faculty within a school or district, student teachers, and administrators using a professional and comprehensive lesson design.
The ability to create, save and print lessons either as a single page document or grouped in electronic folders for combined units of study.
The ability to easily adapt and reuse individual plans from year to year or semester to semester. This helps elevate the time-consuming process of planning new PE lesson plans every year.
The ability to compile a professional working portfolio. This can be accomplished using the VIP Plan combined with state and national standards, grading procedures, behavioral plans, student modifications, and class roll sheets.
The ability to simply and regularly document student assessments in every lesson using the “Assessment Methods” checklist at the bottom of every VIP lesson plan
In Summary
As professional educators, it is important that we continually strive to improve the methods and practices we implement in our daily classes. Our proficiency in developing quality physical education lesson plans has a direct correlation to our ability to provide positive and successful classes for our students. There is no perfect format for developing and showcasing our lesson plans. Each of us has a distinct teaching situation, and our methods and requirements are quite different. If we want to raise the standard of our field and improve our own physical education programs, we must choose a professional and all-encompassing lesson plan design, similar to the Physical Education VIP Plan.
The VIP Plan is an excellent way to share information with colleagues, student teachers, and administrators using a professional and comprehensive lesson focus design. It is also a great way to create, save and print lessons either as a single page document or grouped in electronic folders for combined units of study. The VIP Plan is also an ideal way to help a PE teacher compile a professional working portfolio. This can be accomplished using the VIP Plan combined with state and national standards, grading procedures, behavioral plans, and student modifications. The VIP Plan is an excellent tool for not only documenting student assessments in every PE lesson but it can also be used as a reference for future lessons.
What lesson plan template or format do you use in your PE program? Does it work well for you and your administrators? Let me know in the comments below.
If you are searching for a lesson plan template that will fit your program perfectly, check out the free download below!
Need the Physical Education Lesson Plan Template?
Do you need a lesson plan template like the one described in detail in the article above? If so, Cap'n Pete's Power PE has you covered!
I have sold this template to PE teachers thousands of times on my website and on Teachers Pay Teachers. However, for reading this article, you get it for free!! Fill in the form below to download the FREE VIP Lesson Plan template in Microsoft Word format.
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There you will find hundreds of paid and free resources that include PE activities, games, field day materials, templates, visuals, posters, sign packages, seasonal movement experiences, PowerPoint presentations, and much more!
