Gideon Berghuis Ed.

302/303 4/7/2014 Unit Plan: Context Excel Charter Academy is located at 4201 Breton Ave SE, Grand Rapids. It is a K-8 school with 759 total students. The kindergarten is called young-5s with students 4 to 5 years old. Young-5s through 5th grade are classic homerooms where students are taught all major subjects by their teacher, and go to specials such as art, PE, or music once a week. Class sizes are usually 24-25 students. Grades 6-8 are considered the middle school grades, which have students meeting with their homeroom each morning for 15minutes, but then go to an individualized schedule. Specials only have about 18 students per section. So students get to experience more of a high school atmosphere where you may not always be with your homeroom each period. Excel is part of the National Heritage Academy, an organization that creates and runs no-cost public charter schools across the nation. They have their own standards, for they are not a state-funded school and do not have to abide by government standards. NHA schools are designed to eliminate the achievement gap and provide a public school choice to families so that their children are prepared for success in high school, college, and beyond (NHA website). Excel does not have a letter-grade system; instead they use a 0-4.0 scale that goes up by .5 to assign grades. Currently no textbook is used for physical education class. Excel is a school with much diversity. Located in the Kentwood area of Grand Rapids, the school reflects the ethnic diversity of the surrounding community. Most of the students live in the surrounding community, but a few commute from areas near East Grand Rapids or Wyoming to attend the school. The past three years the school has

ranged from 50-55% white, 18-19% African American, 7-10% Hispanic, 6-7% Asian, and 12-13% multi-racial. Students come from various socio-economic backgrounds, with 43% of the population receiving free or reduced lunch. The gender population has been 49% male for the last few years. The amount of English language learners has risen the past three years from 7% to 12%. 10% of students have an individualized educational program, which has remained steady over the past few years.* I will be implementing my unit in both a 7th and 8th grade class of 18 students each. Unless they have a fitness test like the mile that day, every class period starts with about 5 minutes of free time to use equipment and play around, or work on their skills in the current unit. During my unit, I will likely have basketballs and maybe some footballs or volleyballs out for students to use during their warm up. Next is the workout; this varies as well. Some days the workout is more intense than others (depending on what the previous days activity was and the rest of the weeks workouts). Workouts can include running laps for a given time, cross-training exercises, plyometrics, yoga, or a number of other activities. Then we move to the activity of the day. The activity can be a couple different drills that work on skills, playing a game, or a combination of both. It is important for me to be aware of the diversity of each class. Some students may have more experience with a given activity than others, so it is important to explain the activity in a way that everyone can understand it. Also, not all students will enjoy the activity. It is important that I recognize when a student is not enjoying the activity so that I can encourage them, or explain how the activity can be fun. This will help get maximum effort out of each student every day. * - Facts according to school community summary handout from Excel Principal.