Education Services
Football Helps Teach Disciplinary Literacy at CCSD Professional Development Day Lynn Rudd, Ph.D, Department of Education Services 6-12 Curriculum Specialist
the simulation, but most importantly, everyone had the opportunity to reflect on their classroom instruction and their students’ emotions and experiences. We look forward to extending our learning and our community partnership with the Professional Football Hall of Fame as we refine our instructional practices for more student success.
On Friday, Oct. 29, 2021,
the Educational Services Department partnered with the Professional Football Hall of Fame to provide a simulation in football disciplinary literacy. The exercise was inspired by the dissertation research of Dr. Lynn Rudd, Curriculum Specialist for grades 7-12, and bolstered by the collaborative thinking of Canton City Schools administrators, McKinley High School football coaches, Pro Football Hall of Fame Educational Coordinators and community volunteer coaches. High school and middle school teachers engaged in studying, discussing and executing football plays within predesigned offensive and/or defensive units. The experience was designed to plunge teachers into a unique type of disciplinary understanding with specific ways of reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing and visually representing. Teachers were encouraged to experience the simulation as a student might experience classroom instruction in school. Disciplinary literacy focuses on the needed skills of students unique in each content area and/or discipline. Teachers and coaches had a great time jumping into
We asked two participants to share their experience:
Lori Sexton McKinley Title I Reading Support Teacher:
Ever since our Canton City Schools Oct. 29th professional development at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, I have not stopped talking about it to my friends, family and colleagues. It was so memorable, a once in a lifetime experience, and the lessons embedded in the experience will impact my outlook on teaching and learning for the rest of my life. The bonus about this professional development was what I also learned about football, which gave me a whole new appreciation for the game that I already love. When we arrived at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, each of us was given a name tag with a football position written on it. I noticed other teachers, along with myself, trying to figure out what the letters on our tag meant. I was a WLB. I had no idea what the W was for, but I
knew that I was on defense, and I thought I was a linebacker. I began to get the idea of the objective of this professional development, as our coaches assumed that we knew more about the game than what we did. They quickly went over football plans using football lingo that I had never heard before. I knew this must be how our students feel when we talk to them quickly about our area of expertise and use content area terms with which they are unfamiliar. In my football student position, I was wanting to learn, but I was worried that I wasn’t going to be able to know what to do. Our coaches were very knowledgeable about the game and had high expectations for us to perform in our positions. The next segment of the professional development was our opportunity to practice our position with our coach. I did not fully understand what the W was for in my position, but I now know my position was to work as the weak linebacker, which would mean I would not have as much of the field to cover as the S or the strong linebacker. Next, we went into a game situation with the offense and my coach decided to change my position to the middle linebacker. This was a once in a lifetime experience for me to view the game facing the offense, facing the quarterback, and having the opportunity to decide whether the ball was being handed off or passed. Depending on the way the offense took the ball, I had to determine which way I was to move. In this position, I had an absolute blast playing the game and it seemed my coach was never going to substitute anyone else. In fact, he told me he was going to give me the MVP. I had to take a break, but this made me want to play more and more. During the final portion of this professional development, we worked in our teams to discuss several questions to debrief and reflect on the experience and apply it to our teaching profession.
Here are a few things that impacted me: • As teachers, we can never assume that our students already know any portion of what we will be teaching. We must make our disciplinary language clear and accessible to our students. We must equip them with the background knowledge and vocabulary that they need to enter into our discipline. We cannot take this portion lightly, nor can we skim over it or go too rapidly. We must make sure our students have a clear understanding. • Practice is how the real learning takes place. In this football example, it was in the practicing of the position and the repeating of the steps, the active involvement of our physical bodies in this practice, that brought clarity to what we were learning. However, it was playing in the actual game that solidified our learning. It gave me a priceless perspective on the game of football and I can only hope that I can give my students this depth of understanding in my discipline. • Additional takeaways from this experience are that people learn so much more deeply when they are involved in real-life scenarios and they have the opportunity to interact with others and to have fun.
Bill Robinson, STEAMM Academy 8th Grade ELA McKinley Sr. High, Class of 1988 Even though this is my 28th year teaching in Canton City,
I certainly had a low level of anxiety and discomfort as I walked into the Pro Football Hall of Fame for our professional development day, not knowing what to expect. When I got my nametag at the check-in table, I noticed that other than my name, my name tag also had my team and football position on it. I saw that I was on “the offense” (cool!), “team 3” (ok) and my position was “wide receiver” (I’m 7 feet tallNO WAY!) Having played basketball for McKinley, at that point in the day I was wishing I was in Springfield, Massachusetts at the Basketball Hall of Fame. That certainly would have been much more in my comfort zone! As the day went on, I was taken much further out of my comfort zone as we covered football offensive strategies and the basic responsibilities of our respective positions. To take many of us WAY out of our comfort zones, we even started a somewhat “live” walkthrough of “offense” versus “defense” that actually ended up turning out to be a light full-contact scrimmage! At the end of the day, though, I was extremely thankful that I had been taken so far out of my comfort zone. Through the experience, I was reminded of what a lot of our students feel when they walk into our rooms each day and we speak the language that is all so familiar to us, but is oftentimes foreign to them. I was also reminded that it is important for us to teach with clarity and care, to teach with passion and patience, and to have a lot of fun as we do it! This professional development day was such a blessing to me!
Canton City Schools
21
