Medium Post #5 — Stretching
The article I have chosen to focus on for my 5th and final medium post focuses around stretching. The article talks about the two different forms of stretching in any physical or athletic situation. The two different forms of stretching are static and dynamic. The article isn’t so much of an article, and more of a guide towards knowing what and how to perform each type of stretch. Dynamic stretching is more of a warmup type of stretch. You are using full range of motion and are on the move while stretching, to get yourself warmed up for the physical activity you are going to be partaking in. The second type of stretching is static stretching, which is more for cooling down. This type of stretching is more stationary and does not require much range of motion. This type of stretching is more for recovery purposes after you are done with your physical activity. This little article will be a great guide for students to see and use in terms of learning about sports-injury prevention. I would definitely teach this content to a 9th grade PE & Health class.
In terms of using a standard that relates to the content of this article, I would use this content area (PE & Health K-12) standard:
Montana Physical Education Standard 3.7 A (Grades 9–12) — Evaluate the importance of stretching and flexibility in lifetime activities
This standard will work perfectly with the article I have chosen for the lesson because it focuses on the topic of stretching. Stretching is an important part of any activity you do in life, and it is important to prevent any injuries from happening while you do those. So, it is great that there is a standard that is focused right around the concept of stretching and why it is so important. This standard will connect well with the article, and will be perfect to use throughout the whole lesson.
If I were to relate or connect the article to a certain Grand Challenge of Education, I would just connect it to this challenge:
#2 — Understanding the American Experience
The reason I would connect the article to this challenge is because it works well with the subpoint that states “conduct research on contemporary American life and creativity”. The reason this subpoint works well the article and lesson is because Americans have continued to do research on ways to prevent injuries in sports and other activities, and doing research on how to better stretch before you do these things is very important. Americans love their sports and they hate to see their favorite sport stars go down with any injury. So, it is important that they work on their injury prevention skills by first stretching their muscles and making sure they are always ready for everything they’ll be doing.
If I were to use this article and teach about it in a class, it would be a pretty fun one. The focus I would use would be to create an Image, and the activity that goes along with the article would also involve creating an image. First I would ask the students certain questions that would help them look for the main points in the reading. The questions I would ask them are these:
- What is a dynamic stretch?
- Why are dynamic stretches important to perform?
- What is a static stretch?
- Why are static stretches important to perform?
These would be good key questions to have the students ask themselves while they are reading the article. Once they have the answers to these questions, we will then move on to the main activity in the class. Once the students have read the article, they will need to come up with 5 dynamic stretches for upper body and lower body parts, and then come up with 5 static stretches for the upper body and lower body. The way the students will put these stretches together though is put them into an Adjunct Display, which is a routine from the “50 Routines” book. The way the display will work will be like this:
- Static or Dynamic
- Name of stretch-bodypart
- Description of stretch
- Example of stretch — Image
So for the last part the students will actually draw the stretch happening to the best of their ability. This activity will work great because it actually has the students create an image of the stretch, it connects to the the content standard about stretching, and it connects to the Grand Challenge about Americans creating a good culture of injury-prevention in their sports and activities. This will be a good activity for the diverse learners in my class because they will learn about the two different types of stretching, come up with the different stretches that they can use, and then have that knowledge for when they are getting ready for their sport or physical activity. So, this article will work well with my PE or Health class, and will help teach students about the basics of injury-prevention.
