Observed and Perceived Benefits of Providing Physical Activity Opportunities in Elementary Schools: A Qualitative Study

INTRODUCTION: Schools play an important role in promoting physical activity for youth. However, school-based physical activity opportunities often compete with other academic priorities, limiting their implementation. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively explore elementary school teacher and staff perspectives on providing physical activity opportunities and how they impact students and learning. METHODS: We partnered with a school district in Texas to conduct semi-structured individual interviews. We used a purposeful sampling approach to recruit elementary teachers and staff knowledgeable about the physical activity opportunities provided at their school. Interviews included questions about participant opinions of providing physical activity opportunities and the types of opportunities provided. We analyzed data using a directed content analysis and iterative categorization approach. RESULTS: Fifteen participants (4 teachers, 4 physical education teachers, 3 assistant principals, and 4 principals) completed interviews from 10 elementary schools. Participants discussed observed and perceived benefits when providing physical activity opportunities, which emerged into four themes and subthemes: (1) academic benefits (learning readiness, learning engagement, and academic performance); (2) social-emotional benefits (behavior, interpersonal and social skills, and classroom culture); (3) physical benefits (brain health, skill development, physical health); and (4) instructional benefits (quality teaching time, helpful teaching tools, and teacher-student relationships). CONCLUSIONS: Teachers and staff observed numerous benefits when students had opportunities to be physically active, including the positive impact on academic and social-emotional outcomes. Our findings highlight the alignment of physical activity with other school priorities. Physical activity programming can be used in ways to support academics, learning, behavior, and other important outcomes

Verb Errors in 5th-Grade English Learners’ Written Responses: Relation to Writing Quality

The ability to express oneself through written language is a critically important skill for long-term educational, emotional, and social success. However, despite the importance of writing, English Learner students continue to perform at or below basic levels which warrants additional efforts to identify specific areas of weakness that impact writing quality. To that end, this study aims to describe the effect of verb accuracy on writing quality ratings of 5th-grade written expository samples. This study examines the responses of 243 students in the 5th grade who differed in English proficiency. The sample included 112 English Learners and 131 English-proficient students. Verb error patterns in written samples by English Learner students are described and compared to the patterns of their monolingual English-proficient peers. Group differences were examined in verb accuracy, types of verb errors, and overall grammaticality. A regression analysis was used to examine verb accuracy as a predictor of writing quality. Findings showed that English Learner students demonstrated more verb errors than their English-speaking peers and the total number of verb errors was a significant predictor of writing quality ratings