Advantage Press

There are times when students cannot participate in their high school physical education class due to a forgotten uniform or a medical condition, among other reasons. In the past, with limited options, students may have simply sat out on the sidelines or been assigned to a study hall. Now, however, collaboration between physical education teachers and the school librarian can make students more accountable for their missed class by having them spend their time learning about health and physical education in the library.

At the 1,000-student Corning-Painted Post West High School, in Painted Post, New York, the physical education department head and the librarian discussed how to make a missed physical education class more meaningful in a way that fit the physical education learning standards. In addition, the department members sought to reduce casual absences and the incidence of less-than-necessary medical excuses by holding students accountable for these standards. After some discussion about the directions a collaborative effort with the library could take, the physical education department head investigated the availability of print materials designed for physical education instruction, and the librarian collected fiction, nonfiction, and poetry that offered literacy opportunities while exploring topics of health, wellness, and fitness compatible with those learning standards.

Implementation Procedures

Before the school year began, physical education instructional packets were placed in folders organized by topic. Each folder contained multiple copies of informational materials on a single sport, along with multiple copies of the questionnaire assignments for that topic.

Teachers began sending students to the library when they were unable to participate in class. The students arrived at the library with a pass specifying which packets they were to use. The passes were saved in the library for teachers to monitor attendance. Each student's work for the class period was filed in folders organized by period, and finished work was kept there as well. When teachers wanted to check on student work, they knew where to find it readily. In sum, the assigned physical education teacher handled the attendance for reporting purposes, the passes accounted for the students' time in the library, the librarian provided students with materials, and students' completed work affected their grades.

Reading Materials

The materials selected for this program were bought from Advantage Press (2005), and each instructional packet has 22 different activities. The student work includes questions requiring short answers as well as longer ones, a crossword puzzle, and a wordfind puzzle. All correct responses can be found in reading selections of approximately eight to 10 pages in the instructional packets.

These packets also provide opportunities for make-up work for students who are in danger of failing physical education due to excessive absences. Physical education teachers can use the packets to offer those students a chance to take work home when no additional time is available for them to make up missed classes.

Students who miss physical education for a long period of time due to a medical problem and who therefore have to complete several work packets sometimes get bored by the repetitive format. When this happens, the librarian might ask the teacher and the student involved whether trying something different would be more beneficial. In keeping with the school's literacy goals for reading in the content areas, one possibility would be for the student to read a sports-related novel. Using sports fiction allows physical education teachers to make a "valuable cross-disciplinary effort to encourage literacy," as stressed by Vigil and Edwards (2002). For this purpose, the librarian and department head agreed on certain books to be made available to students.

Examples of young adult titles that focus on sports, fitness, mental and physical health and well-being include Chris Crutcher's Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes (1993) and Whale Talk (2001). Swimming as a team sport plays a vital part in both books. The books also include many other topics addressed by physical educators, such as mental health, teamwork, sportsmanship, and lifelong fitness. Athletic Shorts (Crutcher, 1991) was a book that students often chose to start with. This collection of short stories deals with several different sports and moves students gently into the sports-as-metaphor-for-life arena, while addressing real issues of great interest to teenagers, a key focus that others have advanced as valuable in the physical education environment. (Vigil & Edwards, 2002). In addition, the short story format encourages more reluctant readers to try this alternative. Will Hobbs's Downriver (1991) became another popular choice for reading, and students advocated for purchase and use of its sequel, River Thunder (Hobbs, 1997).

Mel Glenn's Jump Ball: A Basketball Season in Poems (1997) is an ideal title for reluctant readers. It can be read easily in sessions and appears to be short and simple because of the amount of white space on each page and its overall length. This book gives a kaleidoscopic view of what athletics means to a town's school and public life, as seen by many different characters. Bruce Brooks' The Moves Make the Man (1984) conveys what it feels like to be in the zone, an athlete giving everything to a sport, while its main characters play basketball, explore race relations, and confront mental illness. With these and other titles on hand, the librarian was ready when students and teachers were interested in trying something different.

[Graphic omitted] Both the physical education teacher and the librarian attempt to make the material highly relevant to all students. Once, the physical education teacher and the librarian decided to offer a pregnant teen books that dealt with baby care, raising a toddler, and similar relevant topics. When this student eventually went on home teaching, as her pregnancy advanced, these materials accompanied her for use with the home teacher to complete a physical education requirement that related directly to the standards, while also providing much-needed information. Other students on home teaching for medical or other reasons have continued to use the packets or books to keep up with their physical education requirement, supervised by their assigned home teachers.

Sports-minded athletes with injuries or other medical excuses sometimes prefer to read about news in their sport. Standard current events sources, including online article databases available from the library's web page, offer these students diverse materials that focus on their specific interests. In addition, sports titles on the library's nonfiction shelves offer more options for reading for those interested in a particular sport. Another possibility for collaboration between physical education teachers and librarians is to create and post on the school's computer network a list of links to web sites relating to specific sports. Students can use these sites as research sources. Summaries demonstrating understanding of print and web-based articles' important points are endorsed as having both literacy and content-specific values (Behrman, 2004).

Writing Assignment

The physical education department head and librarian agreed on a report form for students to use when they read a book or any material other than the packets. Each day, students fill out the form with basic attendance information and the title of the book and the pages they read. The students then write about what they read in relation to one or more suggested reflective topics (table 1).

As Behrman (2004) pointed out, reinforcing key physical education concepts through writing assignments promotes general literacy among high school students. Behrman suggested that students complete reflective journal entries or chapter critiques, similar to the writing required by this report form after each reading assignment. Vigil and Edwards (2002) also emphasized the critical thinking skills that students can gain as a result of using sports fiction in the curriculum. Students read about situations they may have faced or will face and consider implications of and alternatives to their actions in their reflection. Their written responses are placed in their work folders, by period, so everything the teachers need for grading is in one place.

Conclusion

As a result of the collaboration between the physical education department and the library at Corning-Painted Post West High School, fewer students now miss class than before and students' attitudes toward missing physical education have also improved. Survey results evaluating the physical education packets echoed these sentiments, with one participant stating, "The no-dress problem in physical education class improved greatly" (Advantage Press, 2005). This approach seems to cut down on the number of willful class absences due to students not having physical education clothes or giving other excuses for nonparticipation. Likewise, physical education teachers have reported that medical excuses are made for shorter lengths of time and for less frivolous reasons.

Any school library can support a rewarding collaborative effort with the school's physical education teachers by offering reading materials such as commercially available sports information packets, fiction and nonfiction books, web sites, and magazine or newspaper articles available in hard copy or online. Such a program has the potential to cut down on excuses for nonparticipation. It also supports school goals for literacy and reading in content areas, while encouraging students to take physical education seriously, in terms of educating the whole person for lifetime fitness.