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ACHPER Canberra, Australia January 2019 Presenter: Mel Hamada from the International School of Beijing (ISB) ​ Email: [email protected] ​ Twitter/Voxer: @mjhamada ​ Blog: www.melhamada.com ​ Extended Workshop: A Game Sense approach to Striking and Fielding Game Sense is a specific model that has come out of Bunker and Thorpe’s Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) that was “developed in Australia during the mid-1990’s through collaboration with Rod Thorpe and the Australian Sports Commission” (Thrope, 2006 cited by Pill, 2016). Students are presented with specific game challenges that they then solve while playing small sided games with modified rules, this approach is quite different to isolated skills-based from practice and big-group gameplay. In this workshop, participants will play different Game Sense striking and fielding games that build in tactical complexity and focus on inquiry through teacher questions and problem-solving in various games. Games include activities based around Kickball, Cricket, Softball and Danish Longball. Why? Using a Game Sense approach allows for a broad spectrum of games to be played within this genre and it gives students opportunities to explicitly connect tactical principles of play between a multitude of games - both traditional S&F games and games you might make up or have students design themselves. The Common Principles of S&F games based on the resources I have read and used include the following: ​ ● Two teams - batting and fielding - there are fewer batters on the field/court than there are Fielding team members ● When Batting, players score points by making ‘runs’ ● Batter’s are defending a plate, wicket, or zone ● When Fielding, the players work to get Batters ‘out’ ● Fielders can apply pressure to Batters to try and run them out or stop them from advancing or making runs ● There are safe zones for Batters How? In the Game Sense model, we want to focus on the following ideas: 1. Use Small sided games to get maximum time in the game environment ​ 2. Consider what the game is asking of students (principles and so tactical play to meet these) as well as ​ the skills required to enable them to make decisions in gameplay 3. Find/Use/Design games that meet these tactical requirements and allow our students to continue to ​ practice real-game scenarios 4. Students need to know WHAT to do (decisions and what they CAN do based on their skills and understanding) and HOW they intend to do it (using skills/knowledge/experience) and the APPLY this in a game situation. 5. Select small-sided games that we can Change (using Schembri, 2005 CHANGE IT model) to allow the ​ game to become more complex (or less) using a variety of stimulus that keeps with the Principles of Gameplay. 6. Game Sense uses an Inquiry model - our students are put in the middle of a Challenge where they need ​ to develop solutions to a gameplay challenge and then test them out. It is important that over time you develop questions that you are going to ask as the students are playing (or find resources that have questions to help guide your thinking) to extend their thinking and let you explicitly see what they are getting from the game and how they apply that using skills/tactical planning for growth as the decision maker in the game. Allow students time to identify game Challenges and then create gameplay solutions (and identify skills they need to develop) and then put them back into the game to test out their solutions. Stop gameplay to ask your questions and allow students time to create responses and then return to the game to test them out. What? Richard Light in his book Game Sense, and shared by @ImSporticus on his excellent blog, offers the following ​ ​ practical method for how to put your lesson together to allow students to work with the Challenges of your Games and allow them to explore the games as learners without direct teacher instruction. 1. Explain the Game (preferably with a demonstration and/or I (Mel) suggest using visual and language cues as you can) 2. Let the Students play (long time/ without you interrupting) 3. Stop play and ask open-ended questions that focus on identifying solutions to the (tactical) challenges they are facing 4. Give time for students to form some solutions (have them verbalize this/ write it down/ draw it/ explain it to you or to the group with you listening - not interrupting!) 5. Play the game again. Students implement their solutions. 6. Stop play - reflect on how things went. Ask more open-ended questions! Evaluate the success of their work and identify more areas that were challenging (and things that were awesome!) 7. Always support students in gameplay (asking individual questions, following up with careful conversations, watching for rule play, social norms, collaboration etc) When structured in this way the game environment becomes the focus of learning allowing us to grow their social interactions, motivation, level of challenge, growth as athletes and engage in amazing learning conversations. Changing our games to Challenge our students where they need to be challenged! CHANGE IT (I believe was developed from the Australian Sports Commission - I need to find the reference for this), is a method that we can use to consider how we might change up our Games or Activities to really Challenge our learners. Pill in his blog post (2012) writes that CHANGE IT “elaborates the pedagogy of Exaggeration. Modify/Adapt (Change) the following constraints so that the activity sets the challenge, the game poses questions (tactical problems), and the players are challenged to respond (answer)” I find using this list really helpful as I look at games for providing ‘layers’ of challenge in the midst of my lessons. I will use a game and then add layers (change the game slightly and ask a question or two about this) of challenge or complexity using the ideas below. This is an excellent way of differentiating your gameplay as small teams don’t necessarily need the same CHANGE IT as others. This allows you to set some individual students or specific teams on different journeys to challenge them. ‘CHANGE IT’ image from Shane Pill’s book (see reference below) but originally developed by Schembri in 2005. Activities that we hope to play in this session: Chicken Baseball (Collard, 2018) - Why? It is so much Fun! It starts some of the main conversations around the ​ ​ ​ Principles of S&F Games particularly with the Fielding Team and the importance of pre-emptive movement and effective collaboration. I originally played this game and then found that Mark had it on his website - there are a lot of ways you could change this game to make it more specific to the games you want to lead into. Ex. of questions we could ask Where is the best place to throw the object? What can you do to limit the number of runs the ‘batting’ team can make? How can you collaborate more effectively? How can we help players be more effective in this game? CHANGE IT ideas: use of different ball or equipment/change dimensions of space/ change how they score - but keep it collaborative/ less or more players/ type of throw used/ rules on who can throw and the order of throwing etc Rob the Nest - Why? It is fun and chaotic! It allows the teacher to see throwing skills and technique over a ​ range of throws. It is highly collaborative and involves careful strategy and allows good conversations around integrity and fair play. Ex of questions we could ask: How are you going to have +1 ball from what you have now? How are you supporting less experienced throwers? What is your plan? Which foot is in front? Which kind of throw are you using? Why? (some find rolling more accurate in this game - talk about this!) How do you position your body (home person) to stop the ball from going past you? CHANGE IT ideas: Dimensions of space (put stronger throwers further away and less experienced throwers ​ closer)/ change equipment/ type of throw allowed/ number on one team/ number that can be out of their hoop area at a time/ time limit on the game/ give some teams balls to start with etc. Three Tee Hit (Breed & Spittle, 2011 p120) Why? Develops knowledge and skills about where to hit and how to ​ run (batting team) and develop knowledge and skills on fielding the ball quickly and collaborating for success (fielding team). CHANGE IT to meet the needs of your learners. Ex of questions we could ask: Where is the best place to hit or place the ball? What is the most effective way of running between the two wickets/cones? (using the bat and reaching/ watching the ball to know how quickly to move etc) Is your team being as effective as it can be to return the balls to the tees/cones? Is it better to hit up into the air or along the ground? Why? When is it safer to try for multiple runs? What cues are you using to help you make this decision? Is this the best way to field for this batter? What did they do last time they were up? CHANGE IT ideas: use wickets or rounders posts or bases or cones/ change type of bat and ball/ number of ​ people on the team/ put cones further away/ add indoor cricket style point zones to encourage distance for batters/ give fielding team points for getting people out/ change the location of wickets / points on scoring/ time played/ have a captain of the team and if the batting team are not playing safe (not staying back when waiting) give points away to other team etc.

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