Student-Centered Physical Education: Strategies for Developing Middle School Fitness and Skills

Student-Centered Physical Education presents over 100 fun physical activities that not only promote student fitness and skill development but also build the foundation for a physically active life. The authors' modular approach allows teachers to mix and match activities in order to achieve specific goals, creating multiple opportunities within each class period for students to succeed.

Authors Timothy Smith and Nicholas Cestaro, who together have more than 50 years of teaching experience, have developed a student-centered approach to physical education to replace the outdated, subject-driven approach. By focusing on the needs of the preadolescent student rather than on sports or calisthenics, this proven program challenges exclusivity, boredom, and gender bias. Their strategies and activities make physical education relevant to your students and motivate them to participate in physical activity, both in the gym and after school.

Part I, "A Student-Centered Modular Approach," helps you develop and organize your classes. You'll learn how to assemble modular lesson plans and how to increase their effectiveness using the teaching strategies presented. You'll also find a chapter on authentic assessment, which discusses the use of rubrics, portfolios, and portfolio cards.

Next, Part II, "Teaching Modules," provides you with easy-to-follow, step-by-step directions for more than 100 fitness-related activities, including
-warm-ups,

-skill development activities,

-team-oriented activities, and

-individual and paired activities.
Each activity is ready to be inserted into the modular lesson format presented in Part I. In addition, you'll find 10 detailed health-fitness modules-one for each month of the school year-that will help you present and reinforce key lifestyle concepts in addition to the "physical" components of physical education.

Timothy Smith has been a physical education teacher, volleyball coach, and lacrosse coach within the East Syracuse-Minoa Public School System in East Syracuse, New York, since 1991, but his physical education and fitness experience goes back much further. He has also been an adjunct faculty member in Adelphi University's Department of Physical Education and Human Performance Sciences, director of Adelphi University's Adult Fitness Program, an exercise physiologist in private practice, and a general partner in a physical therapy and sports medicine practice.

Smith has written many articles on fitness-related topics for publications such as the Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (JOPERD), American Fitness, and Fitness Management. He has been a member of the National Strength and Conditioning Association since 1987. Smith earned his MEd in applied physiology from Columbia University. He is a resident of Manlius, New York.

Nicholas Cestaro has been a physical education teacher since 1971, working with children in kindergarten through high school. Since 1985 he has taught physical education at Kinne Street Elementary School in East Syracuse, New York. From 1974 to 1988 he also had coaching responsibilities in five sports at the junior high level. He was presented with the Teacher of Excellence Award in 1990 by the East-Syracuse-Minoa School District faculty and board of education.

Cestaro has been a master teacher in conjunction with Syracuse University since 1988. He has written articles for JOPERD and spoken at the New York State Physical Education Conference. He earned a bachelor's degree in education and a graduate degree in health education from SUNY at Cortland. Cestaro makes his home in Fayetteville, New York.