American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance - AAHPERD

Issue: October 2009

Struggling to Engage Urban Youths in Meaningful Physical Education: A Bailout Plan to Survive and Thrive
Aaron O’Neill

Abstract: Teaching in an urban setting is not usually easy and sometimes leads to frustration. Some teachers have to find new and creative ways to address the challenges and situations they encounter in certain schools and with certain groups of students. This article describeseach offour “bailout” structures that the author came up with to make his class safe and encouraging for every student. The structures are (1) the Five-finger Contract (encouragement, responsibility, respect, commitment, safety); (2) the Effort/Attitude/Sportsmanship Socratic Circle (also known as the E.A. Sports); (3) teaching team roles (peacemaker, leader, role player/listener, and thinker) through physical activity and challenges; and (4) the inverted triangle that aims to teach the children in the gym (the majority) who are not elite athletes.

Article category: NASPE Symposium