PE Project: Sports Across the Globe

This project encourages students to dive a little bit into another culture and asks students to examine sports across the globe. Students will research native sports to different countries and which are the most popular. The main goal is that students will learn about different countries and their native cultural expression through sports. Students will work in groups to learn about the sport and also research a bit about the country and its culture around sports. They will talk about and explain the native sport, the approach to sports in general in that country, and what is most popular there. I think this is a great way to open students up to other cultures using something familiar and comfortable like sports. The project is targeted towards 5th graders at PE.

The project delivery is open and creativity is be encouraged. Students can film a video, make a powerpoint, perform, demonstrate, use visuals and notecards, etc. The project must have visual aids incorporated. The topics are the country — where it is located, how many people live there, the climate and the terrain; the native sport— its origin, history, rules, how it is played, and if it is still played today; the current most popular sports; and finally the culture surrounding sports in general. Students have to turn in typed responses to these topics, present the information to the class, and submit a bibliography for all sources used. 

Since this project is geared towards 5th graders, I would want the evaluation process to be a simple process geared towards the ideas of did they work together, gather and cite the information necessary, and prepare and present it to the class well. The specific criteria includes things like content knowledge, presentation preparedness, and research/resources. They will be given the rubric as guide and a checklist to help them follow it. The project will be evaluated on the group as a whole. Students also have an opportunity to assess their peers that factors into the individual grade. They will give a grade anonymously for each person in their group and that grade will be averaged into a separate individual grade.

My plan to monitor the project and to give students feedback is to walk around during work sessions and observe the projects. I will take notes on the project, how group work is going, asking questions, and give immediate feedback. I also want to give students a chance to get direct feedback from me on each component of the project, so I will set deadlines for the group to turn in a rough draft of each topic. This way I can evaluate and give feedback over the course of the project that will help improve the final project. The final feedback will be given to the group written on the back of the graded rubric. 

Here is the rubric I would use for this project:

	4. Distinguished	3. Proficient	2. Apprentice	1. Novice
Information: On topic and length	Work showed understanding of the topic. Content clearly answered all project questions.	Work had content that answered questions about the topic.	Work was about the topic and had content that answered the questions.	Work was not about the topic. Sentences were short and did not answer the questions.
Preparedness: Eye contact, voice, and appearance	Presenters made eye contact with many audience members. Presenters spoke clearly and appeared very confident and prepared.	Presenters made some eye contact, but only in one direction. Presenters spoke clearly and looked confident and prepared.	Made some eye contact. Voice was sometimes too soft. Presenters rocked back and forth and seemed uncomfortable or unprepared.	Did not make eye contact. Spoke too softly. Read from notes. Did not stand up straight. Were not prepared to present.
Creativity and Visual Aids: Creative design and original artwork	Project was unique and interesting. Used more than five visual aids.	Project was original. Used three to five visual aids.	Information was presented in a different way. Used one or two visual aids.	Information was simply presented. Did not use any visual aids.
Research-Documentation: Bibliography and citation	Made a complete bibliography. Information and media in the body of the project were cited.	Made a bibliography, but one or two sources were missing.	Made a bibliography. Less than half of the sources were cited.	Did not have a bibliography. No sources were cited.
Teamwork-Cooperation: Listens, shares ideas and work, supports team	Worked as a team. Always listened carefully to what others said. Shared ideas and resources. Finished work on time and helped each other.	Worked as a team. Everyone did own work and helped other team members. Listened to each other and shared ideas and resources.	Didn't work well as a team. Did not always listen to team members or share ideas and resources. Every one did own work but did not help other team members.

Here is a checklist for the rubric that students can use as a guide:

Checklist

 Our work has content that answers topic questions.

 During our presentation, we will speak clearly, act confidently, and demonstrate preparedness.

 Our project is creative and provides visual aids.

 All of our sources are cited and we have a complete bibliography.

 Our group cooperated by listening, sharing ideas, and helping other team members.