Running head: LITERATURE REVIEW – DOMAIN A 1

Carly E. Wudel

Literature Review – Domain A

TED 690: Capstone Course

March 11, 2018

National University

Dr. Carol M. Sheperd

LITERATURE REVIEW – DOMAIN A 2

Abstract

This paper contains a review of Integrating Common Core Content into Physical Education:

Creating New Knowledge Connections by Kristin Scrabis-Fletcher. This paper also includes a

personal reflection about how the information presented in the article relates to my own teaching

philosophies as I grow as an educator in my first few years of teaching.

LITERATURE REVIEW – DOMAIN A 3

Literature Review – Domain A

Integrating Common Core Content into Physical Education: Creating New Knowledge

Connections by Kristin Scrabis-Fletcher (2016) explores the idea of integrating Common Core

standards into Physical Education classes and provides specific examples of activities that can be

used to incorporate those concepts into physical education cirriculum. Research clearly shows

that students who engage in physical activity yield higher test scores and that these active

students “are more alert and ready to perform in the classroom” (Scrabis-Fletcher, 2016, p. 20).

Scrabis-Fletcher (2016) claims that this knowledge can help physical education programs “gain

more credibility in schools” (p. 20). By integrating concepts from the Mathematics and English

Language Arts Common Core Standards into P.E. classes, students will have the opportunity to

interact with the material in different ways, gain a new perspective, and maybe even develop a

stronger understanding or interest in the material (Scrabis-Fletcher, 2016, p. 20).

I chose this article about incorporating Common Core content into a Physical Education

setting because it is one of the areas that I feel as though I can improve on in order to better

myself as a teacher and even help the Physical Education program at my school gain a little more

credibility amongst the other certificated teachers on my campus. Integrating Common Core

Standards into Physical Education lessons will help to facilitate student achievement in other

realms of school, such as mathematics or English language arts. I actually found many great

ideas from this article that I cannot wait to implement into my future lessons. There were a lot of

great ideas that can be executed in a simple manner, yet be effective for student learning. For

example, when creating groups, instead of counting students off into groups, I could give each

student an index card with a word on it and ask them to figure out what part of speech it is and

then find the other students in the class with that same part of speech (i.e. nouns, verbs,
LITERATURE REVIEW – DOMAIN A 4

prepositions, etc.) (Scrabis-Fletcher, 2016, p. 25). This is a simple way to incorporate English

Language Arts into my P.E. classes for all grade levels, without taking time away from the

physical activity.

One of my biggest challenges at the moment is to “think outside of the box” in order to

integrate Common Core Standards into the activities and tasks that I already use for Physical

Education. After some reflection, I realized that I usually just create my lesson plans to meet

some of the Physical Education Model Content Standards and then later, I try to add some

opportunities for students to use/practice their skills in mathematics, reading, or writing. Usually,

the involvement of math-related skills is something simple (or geared towards the younger

students) such as counting by 2s, 5s, 10s, and 100s or shouting the answers to multiplication

facts during our warm-up routine. After reading this article, the idea of incorporating Common

Core Standards from many different subjects sounds a lot less daunting. I can research the

standards on my own, but I could also collaborate with the classroom teachers at each grade level

to come up with P.E. activities that would support and supplement the students’ learning. The

students would benefit because they would be exposed to the content in new, interesting ways

and they would also benefit from their cognitive function being heightened after physical activity

(Scrabis-Fletcher, 2016). Many students on campus also really enjoy coming to P.E., so

integrating common core into my lessons might help some students to see other areas of

academics in more of a positive light.

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References

Scrabis-Fletcher, Kristin A. (2016). Integrating common core content into physical education:

Creating new knowledge connections. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation &

Dance, 87(7), 20-26.