RESPECT. Maëlle Ricker. Olympian Stories. Gold Grades 6 and up Silver Grades 4-5 Bronze Grades 2-3

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1 Silver Grades 4-5 Bronze Grades 2-3 COC / COSP_Fall 2008 Olympic Athlete Stories MedalTheory v1.0 Official Mark of the Canadian Olympic Committee. Marque officielle du Comité olympique canadien Royal Bank of Canada, *Registered trademark of Royal Bank of Canada. Used by permission.

2 Creating a Canadian Olympic Learning Environment This year s (COSP) presented by RBC is the most comprehensive yet. Each Olympian story, featuring a well-known Canadian Olympian, is brought to life with activities that engage students in literacy and movement skill activities, character challenges, numeracy extensions and audio and video podcasts. Through these values-based Olympian stories, students discover that our athletes reached great success not only through tremendous physical talents, but also through character and intelligence. Complementing these captivating stories is the Canadian Olympic Movement Skills resource and Personal Best Challenges by RBC Olympians. Together, these resources create a foundation for teachers to inspire their students to exercise their mind, body and character. COSP is designed in accordance with the founder of the modern Olympic Movement, Pierre de Coubertin s, philosophy of Olympism. By recognizing the value of Olympians as role models, the program engages students with the joy found in effort while blending sport with culture and education. Our Olympian stories balance intellectual instruction, cultural development and physical education. The heart of our curriculum focuses on participation, effort and the pride in knowing you have given your all to the pursuit of excellence. Olympic Values as Educational Tools The worldwide Olympic values of friendship, respect and excellence act as a foundation for these stories. Each Olympian story will focus on the development of a character value within your students. By engaging students in each narrative, they have the opportunity to expand their understanding of this value and to expand their moral capabilities. As well, Personal Best Challenges by RBC Olympians will challenge students to reach their personal best by applying the values in their everyday life at school, at home or in the community. Finding the Joy in Effort To mimic the physical development of our Olympians, each Olympian story links students to physical literacy activities in our Canadian Olympic Movement Skills resource. These movement activities will encourage students to develop physical skills over time. Students, much as the same as Olympians, must first learn movement skills that enable them to balance, walk, run, jump, skip and throw proficiently. That helps set the stage for them to master more complex movement skills. Being physically literate is critical to the development of healthy students. Physically literate students are not only experts at moving their bodies, but understand how to do so in ways that are respectful of themselves and others. They can move their bodies in creative, intelligent ways that demonstrate their ability to adapt to different situations. Such individuals enjoy success in a range of physical activities, and are more likely to be motivated to adopt healthy behaviours in all aspects of life. Blending Sport with Culture and Education Mountain Lake Each Olympian story is tailored to three reading levels: Bronze (grades 2-3), Silver (grades 4-5), and Gold (grades 6 and into secondary school). Each comes with progressive activities that are openended and tailored to address a diverse range of learning styles and proficiencies. They focus on six main facets of understanding: explaining, interpreting, M. applying, Ricker taking perspective, empowering and developing self- knowledge. These critical thinking skills are woven into all three stages of the learning sequence in order to promote deeper understanding of the values and concepts. Through many facets of the , children and youth can connect values to their lives at home, at school and in their local community. Perhaps they can begin to see their world in new and different ways. Teaching Guide for Educators Current curriculum theory emphasizes the importance of reinforcing value messages through narratives, storytelling, art, posters, drama, and physical movement. Activities based on the stories, events, ceremonies and symbols of the Olympic Games have schoolwide relevance. Group sizes for activities will be indicated by the following icons: Independent Activity Small Group Activity Large Group Activity 2

3 Silver Grades 4-5 Bronze Grades 2-3 Connecting Building a foundation for new learning COC / COSP_Fall 2008 Olympic Athlete Stories MedalTheory v1.0 Processing Using strategies to acquire and use knowledge Transforming Showing understanding in a new way Extending Making further connections to Olympians

4 You have to respect the mountain. You have to respect Mother Nature. You have to respect the other racers. The sport can be dangerous. Gold Grades 6 and up A booming voice echoes off the top of Cypress Mountain and rings in Maëlle Ricker s ears. FUN FACTS Riders ready!, yells the race announcer. Maëlle grabs the handles of the start gate, bends her knees and gets ready to fly. You can do this, she says to herself. This is your story. Feeling confident is a huge part of gettingmountain ready for a big race. The race that s about to start is one of Lake the most thrilling races at the Winter Olympic Games the snowboard cross. Maëlle and three other women are about M. Ricker to race down a winding, twisting course of jumps, rollers and banked turns at top speed and at the same time. It s also been a wet sloppy day and the course conditions aren t exactly ideal. You have to be safe so you make sure you always wear a helmet and the appropriate equipment. You have to respect the mountain, Mother Nature and your competition 14 Most inspiring athlete you ve met: Clara Hughes Favourite healthy snack: Cucumbers Nickname: Mighty Mouse Peak A. B

5 because the sport can be dangerous. Maëlle knows all about that danger first hand because four years before, in Turin, Italy, she crashed near the top of the race. She had hoped to end that race with a medal, but instead she ended it in a hospital with a concussion. I made a technical mistake and caught an edge and then crashed on a jump. There have been crashes and spills during the qualifying runs for today s final as well. Maëlle has fallen on the course more than once already in training and in her first qualifying run. Maëlle knows that riding in traffic is a big part of the attraction of this event, for the competitors and the fans. You have to work hard, dedicate yourself and train for it. Each of the racers wants to take the fastest way down the hill. It can actually be fun to jostle around out there, and the fans love it as well, but you have to respect each other in that situation. We have an agreement on the course that we won t cheat, that we won t bully someone else just to win. Cheating could be cutting off another competitor, pushing them or knocking them over. Maëlle knows her competitor s action is a part of the race she can t control, or worry about. It s extremely rare that someone would actually cheat. We are like a family in the snowboarding world. But cheating happens and you have to just let it wash off your back. You can t retaliate. You want to win by being the best, not by being a bully, even to a bully. Maëlle certainly feels at her best today. Five seconds warning, yells the announcer. Maëlle knows the start is hugely important - if you can get out in front, you have a huge advantage - so she has trained every muscle to shoot her body out of the start gate and into the front of the pack. That allows you to set your own race. You pick the line you want to follow down the course and you decide how you want to take a turn or a jump. It s about control, taking control of your race and making your own line down the course. Maëlle s start is perfect and she bursts into the front. Now it doesn t matter as much what the other boarders do. Maëlle will be the first person into the turns, the first to the jumps, and, if she keeps her body and mind focused and in control, first to the finish line. Playing fair is also more fun for everyone because at the end of the race you want the winner to be the best person, the fastest person. That way we also stay friends, not just competitors, and you can be happy if you win or if someone else wins fairly. There s no catching Maëlle this time. She s both fair and fast and she keeps her line, and leads the race from start to finish. The hometown crowd erupts with a cheer. I can t describe how happy I felt crossing that finish line. Winning the race fair and clean just made it even sweeter. Mountain Lake M. Ricker 15

6 GOLD CONNECTING: Building a foundation for new learning Using Context Clues As snowboard cross is new to the Olympic Winter Games, the students may not be familiar with Maëlle s sport. Before introducing the story, offer the following quotes to the students and allow them to analyze and take from the quotes to determine the sport with which Maëlle is associated. - Maëlle grabs the handles of the start gate, bends her knees and gets ready to fly - You have to be safe so you make sure you always wear a helmet and the appropriate equipment - It s about control, taking control of your race and making your own line down the course Record the students responses and highlight which clues they used to determine the sport. The use of text clues, assists students with making better meaning of text. Have the students read the story of Maëlle and make inferences as to what her strengths, feelings and beliefs are. Get them to record which clues they used to arrive at their ideas. Watch Ricker is the best snowboarder at Design a Game PROCESSING: Using strategies to acquire and use knowledge Have the students brainstorm a variety of games they like to play. Choose one of their games and discuss what makes the game fair, what safety precautions are needed to ensure everyone is safe and what things students can do to show good sportsmanship. After the discussion, challenge students to create their own game taking into account the following: What are the rules of the game that make the game fair? How do you make the game safe (i.e. remove obstacles, use softer equipment etc.)? List ways in which the participants can display good sportsmanship. NEXT STEPS: Go online for more resources Download the Canadian Olympic Movement Skills physical literacy resource to develop fundamental movement skills associated with our Olympian stories. Now that you have read the story, experience fun, exploratory movement activities with Maelle and your students. PERSONAL BEST CHALLENGES by RBC OLYMPIANS The following Personal Best Challenges by RBC Olympians link to the value of respect: Ben Russell Caroline Ouellette Jennifer Botterill Nathaniel Miller All challenges are available in the Challenge Guide or via podcast at /podcast Review the games and allow the students to teach their game to the rest of the class. Mountain Emphasize the importance of respect, fair play and safety. After the game, reflect upon the positives of the game and how it could be modified Lake for more participation and fair play. M. Ricker 16

7 Case Study TRANSFORMING: Showing understanding in a new way Students create a case study in which they are a judge or official of a sporting event (i.e. Figure skating judge, hockey referee, etc.). During the game the student observes something unfair (i.e. use of illegal equipment, poor sportsmanship etc). Students share their case studies with one or more students and have them answer the following questions. 1. What do you perceive to be unfair in the situation? 2. What do you feel should have happened in this situation? 3. Being the official, how would you handle this particular situation? Remind students to use particular facts from the case study and to use their own personal experiences when responding to the questions. Challenge the students to identify ways in which they can be increasingly respectful at school, at home and in their local community. EXTENDING: Making further connections to Olympians Explore numbers and the Olympic Games by developing numeracy problems from Olympian results and sport specific numbers. Sample Numeracy Exercise In order to win the gold medal in Olympic snowboard cross, Maëlle has to compete in five runs. Her mean time for all five runs is: 45 seconds Her individual run times are as follows: Run Time 1 45 s Run Time 2 44 s Run Time 3 43 s Run Time 4 45 s Run Time 5? Based on the information above, calculate the fifth run time. Mountain Lake M. Ricker 17

8 Acknowledgements The wishes to Thank and acknowledge the contributions of the following people. Without their efforts, and creativity, this project would not have been possible. Featured Olympian: Story Writer: Kevin Sylvester Educational Consultants: Shawn Lalonde Etienne Mercieca Graphic Designer: Andy Maier Margot Mather Marguerite Campbell The Canadian Olympic Committee thanks RBC Financial Group for their generous support of the. Specifically, we would like to acknowledge the contributions of Jacqueline Ryan and Josh Epstein. The was developed by: Georgina Gray Isabelle Hodge Jeff Jurmain Dennis Kim Dana Tomiczek Lisa Wallace Official Mark of the Canadian Olympic Committee. Marque officielle du Comité olympique canadien Royal Bank of Canada, *Registered trademark of Royal Bank of Canada. Used by permission.