I remember the very first class I ever took in University was called “Basic Games”. It was taught by a man who, to this day, is the best Physical Educator I have ever seen in action.
Although I had been working in day camps for some years (and thought I knew everything there was to know about teaching games), Mr Gordon Oliver completely revolutionized the way I thought about how games should be taught and why we teach them.
Years later, I got to work with Gordon on a PHE Canada project where we were turning a book he wrote on Fundamental Movement Skills into a DVD resource. Watching him teach his games, many of which I’ve added to ThePhysicalEducator.com’s Games Database, reaffirmed the fact that G.O. (as McGill PETE students all refer to him) is truly a master teacher.
The video above highlights just one of the many things Gordon taught me and continues to teach countless other PETE students at McGill: how to layer a game. The idea of teaching through the game has stuck with me since.
If you’d like to check out the resource that Gordon wrote for PHE Canada, you can find it here. I’m not financially affiliated to it in any way, its just a great book.
How do you teach your games in #physed? Have you ever tried breaking a game down into layers? I’d love to hear your thoughts/experiences in the comments below.
Thanks for reading!
