Christopher Walter

Evaluation Team
Fall 2016
Final Systematic Observation
Overview:
For the fall semester of 2016, I was an ET
(Evaluation Team) member in Tiger Pride for 3 different
DTs. (Demonstration Team) My designated DTs for the
semester were Will, Nathan, and Cassidy. Although I was
assigned to three different DTs, I mainly helped Cassidy
with her 2nd grade class. We were located at Cleveland
Elementary, which seems to get an immense amount of
support from UOP. My responsibilities included the set up
and tear down of all video equipment which was used to
capture the DTs in action with their given grades. I was
responsible for ensuring all video equipment was fully
operational and ready to go. I was also charged with the
responsibilities of helping the DTs setting up their
equipment that they were going to incorporate into their
lesson plans that day and provided any assistance they may
have needed, whether it be a demonstrator, handling

students that were not listening or unwilling to participate

in the lesson. On some occasions I went and picked up their
students from their designated release points and escorted
them to their Instructors area of operation in a timely and
efficient manner.
All of the students were introduced to and engaged in
various sports, everything from basketball to yoga was
introduced to the students this semester. The students
seemed to be mostly taught the COTS (Cues of the Skill)
of each sport, more than being involved in the actual game
play of the sport itself. I believe that if the instructors had
more time with the students then game play would have
definitely been introduced and the students would have
understood the value of learning the COTS as well as the
reasoning behind it as well, instead of just being thrown
into game play and left to their own devices.
Each Friday we would come together for an AAR (After
Action Review) and talk about the ups, the downs, and
what could be improved upon going into the next week. As
an ET I would get a chance to debrief my DTs about the
data trends that were beginning to evolve for that week as

well as the previous weeks. By doing these back briefs, the

DTs would become better prepared on how to make the
appropriate changes to ensure heir lessons were more
successful as well. Below you will find the SOFITs
(Systematic For Observing Fitness Instruction Time) as
well as the TAs (Time Analysis) for the DTs I was
responsible for helping this past semester.
SOFIT I: Will
The basic idea behind the SOFIT was for us as ETs to
evaluate how quickly the instructors can get a student
engaged in any one activity. As an ET we are required to
circle a Y/N on the sheet regardless or not if the student
was engaged in physical activity within 10 seconds or not.
Wills goal was to get the students involved in MVPA
(Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity) as quickly as
possible and to keep them involved for as long as possible.
This was especially important for the DTs since they had a
limited amount of time to spend with the students. The
following chart will show you Wills progression of getting

his students involved in MVPA and the significant

percentage increase over the course of the semester.

60%
50%

50%
48%
MVP
A

40%
30%
25%
20%
201610
19

201611
03

201611
09

As you can see from the chart above, Will had a vast
improvement of MVPA with his students over the course of
the semester.

SOFIT II: Nathan

I know there were days for Nathan where he felt as
though his students were definitely not engaging in enough
MVPA and it shows through the first SOFIT that I
conducted on Nathan, but what he may or may have not
noticed he was able to capture his students attention and
guide them through a major increase in MVPA. Being able
to get a few of your students involved in MVPA let alone
all of your students involved in MVPA as quickly as
possible is no small or easy task to accomplish.

60%
52%
50%
43%
MVP
A

40%
30%
29%

20%
201610
19

201610
24

201611
14

Again, this was over the course of the semester of being

involved in Tiger Pride and just an informative note these
percentage trends were only based on my observations.
There was another ET conducting SOFITS on Nathan as
well. The second ETs percentages may differ slightly or
largely depending on his findings, but if they are anything
similar to my findings then Nathans SOFIT percentages
are a testament to his understanding of the TTPs (Tactics,
Techniques, and Procedures) of getting his students
involved in MVPA as quickly as possible.

TA: Cassidy
The TA (Time Analysis) consists of three key
components, which are as follows:
Activity: which is how long the student were engaged
in an activity.

 Instruction: How long the students were receiving

instruction on how to conduct a task, or being taught
the COTS.
Management: This covered how long the students
may have been either transitioning through activities,
being reminded about their behavior, rules, getting
equipment out or putting it away.
A lot of evaluators may take a look at the management
portion of the TA and comment that there are more
effective ways to enforce or conduct management, but
what they fail to realize is that on any given day the
students may or may not be willing to cooperate which
in turn makes the instructor have to continuously have
to step aside from the instruction portion of the lesson
and have to remind the student or the entire class of the
rules that they are supposed to remember. AS you can
see Cassidys management portion did increase by 2 min
on the following date 20161024 and there may be many
factors behind this, but the following week you can see
that the management portion dropped significantly.

Also, you can see that Cassidys instruction time went

down dramatically, this could be due to the students
knowing the skills to the required tasks from previous
lessons learned or from Cassidy being able to connect
more effectively with her 2nd grade students. I would
like to think that it is the latter of the two. I had the
chance to assist Cassidy over the course of the semester
and I could see that Cassidy was definitely able to adapt
the vast difference in behaviors and characteristics of
each individual student, which is no small feat to
accomplish.
Finally, Cassidys activity time increase was very
impressive, as you can see from the chart below, there
was a 5 min increase in activity time over the course of
the Tiger Pride semester. This is the portion of the TA
that as you the instructor want to be at its highest. The
increase in activity could be because Cassidy changed
her implementation of instruction and management
skills. Again these times and increases are only from my
observations and TAs that I personally conducted on

Cassidy and does not reflect the data information from

the second ET.

Activ
ity

06:25

09:25

11:25

Instruction

03:25

10:25

05:50

Management

08:55
10:55
07:25
201610 201610 201611
05
24
17

Final Thoughts:
I had the distinct opportunity to engage with students
from a variety of grade levels and skill abilities as well as
various backgrounds. Being able to engage with the
students at Cleveland Elementary, I discovered that as an

instructor I do need to exercise more patients, especially

with students who may tend to be on the more sensitive
side regardless if they are male or female. I did find it
extremely challenging trying to understand the reasoning
behind why some of the students would start crying or
couldnt stop crying even after I took them to the side and
tried to calm them down. I am happy with the fact that I
would be successful at times in being able to get the
students to rejoin the activity and their classmates.
I feel like Tiger Pride is an invaluable experience and an
opportunity that many future PT instructors may not be
afforded as they progress in their Sport Pedagogy studies.
One important piece of advice that I would like to say is
that there needs to be communication and cooperation
throughout the Tiger Pride team. I did not notice any such
problems with this team, but I have heard some stories of
Tiger Pride teams not coming together as a team.
Regardless,

everyone

needs

to

shoot,

move,

and

communicate together to allow our team to flow in one

fluid motion; we are only as strong as our weakest link.

In closing as an intern in Tiger Pride, I strongly believe that

by being involved in Tiger Pride can and will not only help
me further on down the road but will definitely be a
beneficial learning experience to all future students who
participate in Tiger Pride as well.