Students will demonstrate their ability to observe and mimic movement by successfully mirroring another student’s movement.
Materials Needed
You will need a worksheet for each student to record observed body movement. Talk to the P.E. teacher at the school before the lesson and arrange for your class to come in and watch for 10 minutes. Gym Observations Worksheet
Lesson Directions
Anticipatory Set/Hook When students walk in, silently begin mimicking their movement, how they walk, and their facial expressions. Mirror different student’s movements. If this is near the beginning of the year, select a few students you know won’t be offended or embarrassed to mimic.
TEACHING PRESENTATION:
• Wait for students to notice and ask you what you’re doing. Respond by asking, “Did you know that that’s what you look like when you move? Do you ever think about what you look like when you move?” Begin a discussion of movement. • Last class, the anatomy of body movement and how the body moves was discussed. Begin discussion with a review of what we learned last class. Then start talking about what your body looks like when you move. How do you look when you’re running versus when you’re walking versus when you’re sitting? How are those movements different? • Give each student a body movement observation worksheet. Instruct the students that you are going into the school gym and they are to watch how the other students are moving and how they move in response to the different activities they are doing. Let them know that they are to record what they observe. On the worksheet, there are different categories for them to observe. They can work by themselves or in groups, which ever they would prefer. • Spend 10 or so minutes in the gym observing. • Bring students back to the classroom (depending on the class, retake attendance). Ask them what they observed. Ask them to demonstrate what they observed. • Ask students if it is easier or harder to mimic someone’s movement than their own. What difficulties arise in imitating movement? • Start playing a game of Simon Says by saying “Simon says turn all of your observation worksheets in to the front of the class.” Continue the game, and then say, “Simon Says ________ is the new Simon” and have the students lead each other in Simon Says. • Do not limit the Simon Says activities to “touch your nose.” Let the students explore the whole classroom and all ranges of movement. • Put the students into pairs. Tell them that they are to pretend that they are each other’s mirror and that they are to mimic what the other person is doing. Have a pair of students demonstrate what they are to do for the whole class before letting the whole class begin the activity. • Walk around the room, evaluating the mirroring. • Depending on time, have the students switch partners to gain more practice.
CLOSURE:
Is it any more difficult to mirror someone instead of imitating them? What are the difficulties? Why would you ever want to mimic or mirror someone’s movement? • The goal of this discussion is to get students to think deeper about the activity that they’ve done and to find the value and purpose.
ASSESSMENT:
Students will receive some points for filling out the observation worksheet. Students will be assessed on their participation in the mirroring activity. If they participated and actively tried to mimic their partner’s movements, than they get participation points.
