Proposal for Aquatic Curriculum at Hinsdale Central High School and Hinsdale South High School Janelle Marconi District Department Chair for Physical Education September 3, 2019
Introduction The intention of this proposal is to provide all stakeholders of District 86 an overview of the Physical Education Aquatics curriculum and how the dimensions of a pool can impact the efficacy of curriculum objectives, course opportunities, and student safety. An overview of current course offerings, class size, and utilization of the pool will be provided within the proposal. The information provided serves as a resource to clarify the need for a larger pool at Hinsdale Central High School compared to Hinsdale South High School while maintaining curriculum alignment. Table of Contents Introduction 2 Current Aquatic Environment for Physical Education 3 Curriculum issues of pool facility for Hinsdale Central 4 Enhance Curriculum Opportunity 5 Recommendation 5 Athletic Events 5 Appendix A 7 Appendix B 8
Current Aquatic Environment for Physical Education Currently in District 86 the Physical Education Department offers courses that will utilize the pool during a student’s high school career. Here is the breakdown of the 2019-20 academic year: Hinsdale Central High School ● Aquatics: This course will utilize the pool each day the school schedule will allow. There is one Aquatics class during the 1st semester with a class size of 20 ● Lifeguarding: This course is designed to be in the classroom ⅓ of a semester and ⅔ in the pool for application and certification. There are 4 sections running; 2 during each semester. Following the safety recommendations of the American Red Cross these courses are sectioned at a maximum of 25 students. 1st semester there are 38 students and 2nd semester there are 32 students. ● Lifetime Activities: This course will provide students a 3 week swimming unit in the 2nd semester. There are 3 sections during the day with a class size average of 35. ● Freshmen PE: This course will provide a 3 week swimming unit during the 1st semester. There are 30 sections (15 each semester) with multiple sections running per period. Class sizes vary from 26 to 46. Only one class may use the pool at a time, so each section follows a rotation. This type of rotation will take up between 6 to 9 weeks of pool time, each period of the day. ● Adaptive PE: This course will provide a 3 week swimming unit during both semesters. The class size will vary from 20 to 24 students in the class. There are 2 sections each semester. Hinsdale South High School ● Aquatics/Lifeguarding: This course is a combined course at HSHS and is designed to be in the classroom ⅓ of a semester and ⅔ in the pool for application and certification. There are 2 sections, 1 running each semester with a class average size of 18.
● Outdoor Education: This course will provide students a 3 week water unit in both 1st and 2nd semester. There are 2 sections during the day, 1 running each semester with a class size average of 32. ● Freshmen PE: This course will provide a 3 week swimming unit during the 2nd semester. There are 7 sections in both semesters. Class sizes vary from 42 to 51. ● Adaptive PE: This course will provide a 2 week swimming unit during both semesters. The class size will vary from 20 to 24 students in the class. There are 3 sections each semester. Curriculum issues of pool facility for Hinsdale Central ● Conflicting or limited scheduling / Impacts curriculum offerings ○ The current size of HCHS pool (6x25) can only accommodate one class per each period of the school day. The conflict arises when designing a rotation for all the courses and sections to get “pool time”. For example, Lifeguarding losing 6 to 9 weeks of pool time because the Freshmen PE swim unit needs to run. With 2-3 sections of Freshmen PE each period of the day no other course can utilize the pool. ● Pool Size vs. Class Size ○ Classes in a majority of the physical education courses can get upwards of 40-47 students enrolled per section. This creates an enormous burden on the planning and execution of lessons in a 6 lane 25 yard pool. While the teachers have done their best to offer a beneficial aquatic curriculum for each course, having that many students in such a confined space (especially one that has to take into account the safety of weak/non-swimmers) is not an ideal environment. ● Safety ○ Having 8-10 students in a lane when the lane lines are in is NOT an ideal situation. Modifying the curriculum by having students swim the width of the pool instead of the length of the pool severely limits viable curriculum for swim stroke reinforcement. Either situation does create a difficult situation for teacher assessment and classroom management. This also creates a difficult situation for our lifeguards watching over segments of students; which include non-swimmers. ● Hinsdale South Curriculum Issues with Pool Facility ○ With the low number of sections of Physical Education courses HSHS is able to run a rotation that will support viable curriculum to all levels of swimmers.
○ HSHS has a safety concern of low number of lifeguards. The recommendation is to utilize Curriculum Alignment process to create more exposure to swimming and swim safety through a different course sequencing method. Enhance Curriculum Opportunity Creating more viable space at the Hinsdale Central pool would allow the PE curriculum to run courses simultaneously without burdening curriculum, course objectives, and safety. This would also allow for current PE courses to implement new aquatic units such as snorkeling, kayaking, paddle boarding, etc. in various courses at both schools in order to create curriculum alignment. The goal of curriculum alignment for the District Physical Education Department is to provide more opportunities for growth in swim mechanics, water safety, water fitness activities, and life-long water activities. Providing additional pool space and running courses simultaneously will also free up space in other overcrowded PE facilities. During our winter and rainy months HCHS is very land-locked with the facilities we have available and providing more aquatic opportunities would be a great solution for this situation. Recommendation The recommendation at Hinsdale Central High School for a viable and rigorous physical education aquatics curriculum would be a minimal need of an 8 lane by 40 yard stretch pool and for an optimal need of a 10 lane by 40 yard stretch pool. This will provide a safe environment for our students and the ability of certified lifeguards to implement proper safety zones for all levels of skill amongst our student population. Our program would be able to run multiple courses in the pool during a signal class that opens the door for more courses and students to access the pool. The optimal recommendation of a 10 lane by 40 stretch would allow the physical education department at both schools to expand the current curriculum to adequately provide a curriculum in which students will have more opportunity to develop swim skills and mechanics that is applicable for a lifelong wellness lifestyle. Athletic Events ● WSC will not allow the silver side to host a conference meet without 6 lanes and a separate diving well. They won’t let us host a JV event unless we have an 8 lane pool. (600+ seating) ● Sectionals requires a separate swim down area (diving well is sufficient) ● Preferable an 8 lane pool (800 seating)
● State requires horseshoe seating and (1200+) ● An 8 lane pool with separate diving well turns a 4 hour meet into a 2 hour meet ● In a high school meet you can compete 20 times in one lane throughout the meet so each level has 60 swims per team per level. If we have 60 swimmers we need to run 4 levels to get each kid a full completion load. We currently run three levels so we have 180 swims in a 6 lane pool for 64 swimmers ● In an 8 lane pool that would be 240 swims. We currently run 4 different practice groups to accommodate all of the kids in the program. With an 8 lane 40 yd stretch we could reduce this to 2 practice times and provide more time for rentals
Appendix A Current View of Aquatic Physical Education Curriculum In the current Physical Education Aquatic Curriculum it is very difficult to simultaneously run classes in a 6 x 25 yard pool at Hinsdale Central High School. The above graphs illustrate a rotation amongst courses that must happen in order to provide students with a minimal aquatics curriculum, while conducting courses that certify students as American Red Cross lifeguards. As stated in the report, the current pools can only safely accommodate one class of approximately 45 students at a time. This rotation forces HC Lifeguarding and Aquatic courses into land based and classroom settings for 6 to 9 weeks in the 1st semester in order to conduct swim units in Freshmen Physical Education. During the 2nd semester the HC Lifeguarding course will move to land based curriculum for 3 to 6 weeks do to upper level physical education courses.
Appendix B Recommendation for Optimal Aquatics Curriculum To run an effective optimal aquatic curriculum at Hinsdale Central High School it would be recommended to provide students with a 10 by 40 stretch lane pool. This would allow 2 classes of approximately 45 students in the pool at a time. This would also allow the District Department Chair of Physical Education to enhance the opportunities for students and implement a more rigorous aquatics curriculum at the sophomore, junior, and senior PE electives.
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