How to Incorporate the Theme of Sports into an English Language Arts Classroom

When it comes to teaching with sports, the possibilities for meaningful connections with your students – especially students who enjoy sports are innumerable. A good sports theme brings relevance to character development traits such as trust, integrity, and honesty and serve as a rich way of motivating students. In addition, the high emotions, rookie struggles, underdog hopefuls, and the pressure from the crowd are some of the cornerstones of great athleticism that makes sporting events the perfect backdrop theme for an engaging classroom. However, since not every student in a classroom is a sports lover, how can a sport-theme be incorporated to engage the entire classroom? 

MEET YOUR STUDENT WHERE THEY ARE

One of the easiest ways teachers can incorporate the theme of sports is to plan classroom activities around questions their students are already grappling. From what does it mean to be part of a team? To what is perseverance? When you connect your sports theme to character development and what’s going on in the lives of your students, your classroom discussions will definitely resonate deeply with your entire students. One goal with teaching sports theme is to encourage students not only to think about ways that they can live but the type of person they want to become. 
 

START WITH SIMPLIFIED DETAILS

Before students – especially students who don’t have much interest in sports can identify and work with the theme you pick, they have to synthesize with the story you are about to teach as a moral lesson. However, by using illustration methodologies like anchor charts and drawings to outline the elements of athlete you want to use for the theme, your students will have a stronger grasp of the details and morals you wish to instill. 

CLARIFY THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE MAIN IDEA AND THE SPORT-THEME

Another way to engage and carry along your entire class during a sport-theme session is to vividly explain the difference between the purpose of the sports theme and the main idea you are trying to pass across. That is because some students might have difficulty differentiating between the main idea and the theme. The sports theme should be the underlying message that the teacher wants to convey, whereas the main idea is what the story is mostly about. 

 
As a teacher, you will need to teach these concepts separately and together for easier comprehension. Furthermore, you can encourage your students to practice identifying sports themes related special attributes of their favorite athlete. An example is segmenting your class into groups with similar favorite athlete and working on each athlete unique character traits such as self-motivation, endurance, perseverance, team spirit, and integrity.
 

ACCELERATE THE LEARNING 

Using themes as a teaching method in the classroom is a complex concept to grasp in general. Unlike the concreteness of setting or plot, themes are subtle and subjective. So, to help students deepen their understanding, teachers will need to move from simpler to more complex class assignments. For example, encourage your students to work in groups to identify the theme of sports. Next, they could change the ending to the story about their choice of athlete and work together to identify how the new ending affects the theme. Finally, the students can write about who they want to be and how it matches to the character traits of their choice of athlete. 

USE ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

Finally, the uses of essential questions are thought-provoking and vital in helping students develop their understanding of the sport theme. Questions like “what makes a great team? And why is humility important?” can be re-visited throughout the year to analyze how students answer. 

By incorporating the theme of sport into classroom activities, students learn how to handle disappointments, persevere, and win gracefully.