Grade 8 Movement (Alternative-Environment Activities)

Prescribed Learning Outcomes

It is expected that students will:

• plan and participate in activity-specific motor skills in a variety of alternative environments
  
• plan and participate in an outdoor experience
  
• identify and use survival skills in a variety of environments

To view the prescribed learning outcomes for Movement (Alternative-Environment Activities) in other grades click on an icon below.

Suggested Instructional Strategies

Through a variety of activities in an alternative setting (e.g., aquatics, skating, orienteering, canoeing), students develop knowledge and skills needed to appreciate, maintain, and participate in land- or water-based activities. These explorations outside the gymnasium form a basis for lifelong involvement in leisure pursuits in the community.

Strategies

• Have students run over different terrains, climbing and jumping, as a lead-up to orienteering, hiking, or cross-country skiing.
  
• Have students use maps and compasses to follow an orienteering course.
  
• Have students select equipment and clothing specific to an outdoor activity (e.g., skiing, hiking).
  
• Use videos, posters, or personal experiences to draw up class lists of safety and survival skills in different environments.
  
• Use community resources to provide opportunities for students to canoe, rollerblade, swim, and so on.
  
• Have students perform exercises to increase fitness levels for specific outdoor activities.
  
• Invite local program providers, such as a community recreation centre, outdoors club, or club for skiers who are disabled to discuss their programs.
  
• Have students plan activities for an overnight experience at an outdoors school, in a wilderness setting, or at a local park facility.
  
• Have students make a poster listing responsible behaviour in outdoor situations (e.g., emergencies, travelling, building shelters or fires, disposing of human and other waste, general courtesies).
  
• Have students set up a mock campsite on the school grounds (including tent set-up, site preparation).

Suggested Assessment Strategies

• Students work in groups to plan and participate in an outdoor experience such as hiking, cycling, or skiing. Teachers may use the Student Responsibility Scale (see Appendix D) to assess student planning strategies. Students also identify, assess and demonstrate specific motor skills used in the activity, carry out the preparatory work needed to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience, practise survival skills, and identify emergency procedures.
  
• In groups, students create task requirements and criteria for an orienteering course, then exchange specifications with another group. Groups draw maps of the courses and return them to the original groups for assessment and feedback. Students submit their original courses, peer evaluations, and revised courses to the teacher for marking. After revision the courses can become part of an orienteering activity.
  
• Have students record their activities in a journal, commenting on and rating the activities on a scale of one to three (one referring to low enjoyment and three to high enjoyment). From time to time you may wish to have students review their records and summarize their ideas by responding to prompts such as:
  
  • The activity(ies) I enjoyed most was because. . . .
    
  • The activity(ies) I enjoyed least was because. . . .
    
  • The most useful activity was. . . .
    
  • A new activity I would like to try is because. . . .
    
  • To do that, I would have to. . . .

Recommended Learning Resources

Print Material

• Assessing Attitudes in Physical Education: A Collection of Assessment Tools
  
• The Canadian Active Living Challenge
  
• Cycle Right (Can-Bike Program)--Instructor's Guide
  
• Small Craft Safety: Instructor Guide and Reference
  
• Team Building Through Physical Challenges

• On Challenged Wings

• Boatwise
  
• Moving to Inclusion
  
• Steps to Success

Table of Contents

Province of British Columbia
Ministry of Education
Curriculum Branch © 1995 Copyright

Maintained by: Physical Education Coordinator

Revised: January 27, 1999

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