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Teaching Approach To Gymnastics:
When teaching gymnastics to children it's important that you're confident in your knowledge of gymnastics and how to teach. To begin, you must start with knowledge of skill components. You do not need to be an expert at performing a skill, but you must know how the skill is supposed to be performed. If not you will have no idea what you're looking out for. You must know what performance cues to give, how to evaluate a child's performance and what to correct if the skill is performed wrong. It is important to give good clear demonstrations to the students. A poor or inaccurate demonstration from the teacher will result in the student doing the skill poorly or completely wrong. One of the most important things in working with children whether it's in gymnastics or otherwise is to praise and encourage them. It is important to be patient and positive even if things are going poorly. Positivity and encouragement is key in teaching any sport.
Considerable practice time must be allowed for young students. Children need lengthy and appropriate practice to learn new skills such as a cartwheel, a balance, a weight transfer, a roll etc. Some students will be able to perform and learn skills better than others. When you ask the students to show them a certain skill they may need one or two attempts before correcting the skill and move onto the next skill, it is important to give them this time as it will let them correct themselves and learn from their mistakes. While students are waiting to be observed they should use their waiting time wisely and practice until they are observed.
When teaching gymnastics it is important to use developmentally appropriate activities. Children cannot perform skills adults can. Children have different abilities, needs and interests. The programs need to be arranged to meet the needs of children particularly to meet the different age groups and ability levels. Gymnastics for children should always start with basic skills and simple arrangements. Skills should then become more difficult as the child progresses. Children should develop from working by themselves on mats to working with equipment and then onto partners or groups. When a student performs a task and succeeds in getting it right it is very important to congratulate and praise that student on their performance. If the situation occurs where a task is to hard or above a certain child's ability level the child may become frustrated with the skill and may want to give up and engage in off-task behavior. In this case you should design tasks to allow for differences in a child's individual ability levels. When tasks are at appropriate levels they will feel challenged at first but a sense of achievement when they succeed with their task.
It is important for students to be satisfied with what they are doing and make sure the skill is not to hard for his/her age or ability level. When a student feels like they are progressing in the skill they will feel a sense of achievement and will want to learn more and progress in the skill. If students are having difficulty with a skill you should consider changing or modifying the skill for that individual to make it easier for them and then when the student is happy with the modification and is able to do it you should then move onto the harder modification. This way they can still achieve. An example of this would be if a student cannot link a roll with a balance, ask them to do it separately, then when they have completed that ask them to link the roll and balance together. Once a child has mastered a certain skill they should try linking that skill to another. It is very important to give a good clear demonstration to the students. It is from your demonstration that they will be learning from and so it is extremely important to show them the correct way of performing the skill. If the skill is demonstrated incorrectly then the student will perform the skill wrong.
Also when teaching it is important to consider children with special needs or a disability. Just because some children are more challenged than others does not mean that they cannot do gymnastics. As a teacher it is important to be willing to adapt or modify skills and even adapt your style of teaching to support the needs of each child. People who are in a wheelchair can perform balances while in the chair or down on the floor. They could also perform rolls or rotation movements by spinning the wheels and rotating through a vertical axis. Children in a wheelchair may have very strong arms but weaker lower body's so they should do more skills involving their arms. They will have they advantage of supporting weight with their arms. Students that are autistic may need a helper or special verbal or visual directions or even physical help like holding their hand through a skill.
You should encourage effective and intellectual development. Children need to learn good body mechanics and balance and why one balance is better than another. Children need tasks that require decisions and answers. Children need to work together with peers, giving and receiving feedback, helping each other perform new skills and suggesting alternate movements. Children need to figure out how to to progress themselves and correct themselves. A good approach to teaching is to offer students with a structured and focused learning environment. This helps children understand goals. When a teacher sets a goal the children then know what is expected of them. The children will know what to do and how to do it. Goals also make children answerable when it comes to an assessment. At the beginning a gymnastics lesson the teacher should give the students a brief ion what they will be learning today and what to expect. As a teacher you could say "gymnastics is about putting balances together with traveling actions, weight transfers and rotations" After you say this you could give a demonstration, this way students have a clear picture of the goal for the day.
When teaching gymnastics to children it's important that you're confident in your knowledge of gymnastics and how to teach. To begin, you must start with knowledge of skill components. You do not need to be an expert at performing a skill, but you must know how the skill is supposed to be performed. If not you will have no idea what you're looking out for. You must know what performance cues to give, how to evaluate a child's performance and what to correct if the skill is performed wrong. It is important to give good clear demonstrations to the students. A poor or inaccurate demonstration from the teacher will result in the student doing the skill poorly or completely wrong. One of the most important things in working with children whether it's in gymnastics or otherwise is to praise and encourage them. It is important to be patient and positive even if things are going poorly. Positivity and encouragement is key in teaching any sport.
Considerable practice time must be allowed for young students. Children need lengthy and appropriate practice to learn new skills such as a cartwheel, a balance, a weight transfer, a roll etc. Some students will be able to perform and learn skills better than others. When you ask the students to show them a certain skill they may need one or two attempts before correcting the skill and move onto the next skill, it is important to give them this time as it will let them correct themselves and learn from their mistakes. While students are waiting to be observed they should use their waiting time wisely and practice until they are observed.
When teaching gymnastics it is important to use developmentally appropriate activities. Children cannot perform skills adults can. Children have different abilities, needs and interests. The programs need to be arranged to meet the needs of children particularly to meet the different age groups and ability levels. Gymnastics for children should always start with basic skills and simple arrangements. Skills should then become more difficult as the child progresses. Children should develop from working by themselves on mats to working with equipment and then onto partners or groups. When a student performs a task and succeeds in getting it right it is very important to congratulate and praise that student on their performance. If the situation occurs where a task is to hard or above a certain child's ability level the child may become frustrated with the skill and may want to give up and engage in off-task behavior. In this case you should design tasks to allow for differences in a child's individual ability levels. When tasks are at appropriate levels they will feel challenged at first but a sense of achievement when they succeed with their task.
It is important for students to be satisfied with what they are doing and make sure the skill is not to hard for his/her age or ability level. When a student feels like they are progressing in the skill they will feel a sense of achievement and will want to learn more and progress in the skill. If students are having difficulty with a skill you should consider changing or modifying the skill for that individual to make it easier for them and then when the student is happy with the modification and is able to do it you should then move onto the harder modification. This way they can still achieve. An example of this would be if a student cannot link a roll with a balance, ask them to do it separately, then when they have completed that ask them to link the roll and balance together. Once a child has mastered a certain skill they should try linking that skill to another. It is very important to give a good clear demonstration to the students. It is from your demonstration that they will be learning from and so it is extremely important to show them the correct way of performing the skill. If the skill is demonstrated incorrectly then the student will perform the skill wrong.
Also when teaching it is important to consider children with special needs or a disability. Just because some children are more challenged than others does not mean that they cannot do gymnastics. As a teacher it is important to be willing to adapt or modify skills and even adapt your style of teaching to support the needs of each child. People who are in a wheelchair can perform balances while in the chair or down on the floor. They could also perform rolls or rotation movements by spinning the wheels and rotating through a vertical axis. Children in a wheelchair may have very strong arms but weaker lower body's so they should do more skills involving their arms. They will have they advantage of supporting weight with their arms. Students that are autistic may need a helper or special verbal or visual directions or even physical help like holding their hand through a skill.
You should encourage effective and intellectual development. Children need to learn good body mechanics and balance and why one balance is better than another. Children need tasks that require decisions and answers. Children need to work together with peers, giving and receiving feedback, helping each other perform new skills and suggesting alternate movements. Children need to figure out how to to progress themselves and correct themselves. A good approach to teaching is to offer students with a structured and focused learning environment. This helps children understand goals. When a teacher sets a goal the children then know what is expected of them. The children will know what to do and how to do it. Goals also make children answerable when it comes to an assessment. At the beginning a gymnastics lesson the teacher should give the students a brief ion what they will be learning today and what to expect. As a teacher you could say "gymnastics is about putting balances together with traveling actions, weight transfers and rotations" After you say this you could give a demonstration, this way students have a clear picture of the goal for the day.