First and foremost, thank you to everyone who attended my sessions at the SHAPE Utah Conference. I’m always grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with educators who are passionate about strengthening physical education and expanding what our classrooms can offer students.

One of the best parts of presenting is hearing how other teachers adapt ideas to fit their own schools, grade levels, and program goals. To help continue those conversations, I’ve included a brief recap of each session below along with the resources shared during the presentations.

Session 1

Literacy in Physical Education: Easier (and More Fun) Than You Think

One of the biggest misconceptions about literacy in PE is that teachers are expected to teach English Language Arts directly. In reality, our role is to support literacy by giving students opportunities to practice reading, writing, speaking, and thinking skills through the lens of physical activity.

When designed well, literacy doesn’t interrupt movement—it enhances understanding, engagement, and connection to the activity.

During this session we focused on three key ideas:

Supporting Literacy vs. Teaching Literacy

Physical educators don’t need to become ELA teachers. Instead, we create authentic opportunities for students to explain movement, analyze gameplay, communicate strategy, and reflect on performance.

Relevance Drives Engagement

Many literacy strategies in PE fall flat because they are only relevant to sports, not to students. When tasks don’t connect to the learner’s experience, literacy becomes an obstacle instead of a tool that supports activity.

Example Assessment: Courtside Commentary

A major focus of the session was an assessment called Courtside Commentary, where students step into the role of a sports commentator. They observe a basketball game or scrimmage and provide structured commentary explaining key moments and decisions in the game.

The activity keeps gameplay as the centerpiece while giving students opportunities to practice skills like:

• observation
• explanation
• analysis
• evidence-based reasoning
• sport communication

You can explore the full presentation slides here:

Implementation Tools for Courtside Commentary

Small supporting activities can expand the literacy impact of the assessment while helping students succeed during their commentary.

These tools can also serve as stand-alone literacy strategies, especially for elementary PE or shorter class periods.

Examples shared during the session included:

• Ball Talk – structured partner discussion about gameplay and decisions
• Habits People Have – identifying patterns in player behavior
• Sideline Signal Callers – using visual signals and terminology to communicate game moments
• The Announcer Effect – analyzing how commentary changes how we interpret a sports play

Additional Resource

During the session, we talked about the importance of moving beyond framing literacy in PE simply as “reading” and “writing,” and instead thinking about the literary actions we want students to perform—things like explaining, analyzing, citing evidence, identifying patterns, or communicating ideas.

While I didn’t dive deeply into this during the presentation, I’m including a resource here for those who want to explore that concept further. This document reframes literacy skills from an action-based perspective, showing the types of thinking students engage in when they read, write, and communicate.

The document is intentionally large and not meant to be read in one sitting. Instead, it’s designed as a reference tool that allows PE teachers to see what literacy standards look like when translated into clear, actionable classroom tasks. Each skill also includes an example of how it might appear in a physical education setting.

Session 2

Building Student Ownership in Strength and Conditioning

The second session explored how thoughtful program design can create safer, stronger, and more engaging strength and conditioning classes.

Rather than relying entirely on coach-designed workouts or giving students total freedom too early, this model focuses on structured autonomy—students earn independence after demonstrating knowledge, technique, and responsibility.

Key ideas from the session included:

The Autonomy Promise

Students are more motivated when they know they will eventually have the opportunity to train in ways that support their own athletic goals.

Non-Negotiables That Build Culture

Successful weight rooms establish clear expectations around safety, shared training language, and consistent effort.

Technique as the Gateway to Independence

Students learn four primary lifts through structured mini-units and pass-offs before incorporating them into independent training:

• Trap Bar Deadlift
• Traditional Deadlift
• Bench Press
• Squat

Calibrating Expectations

At the middle school level, the goal is not perfect technique but safe, repeatable movement patterns that high school programs can continue to develop.

Both sessions ultimately centered on the same idea:

Thoughtful design drives engagement.

Whether we’re building literacy opportunities in the gym or designing strength programs in the weight room, the most effective classrooms are those where students feel ownership, purpose, and connection to the work they are doing.

Thank you again to everyone who attended and contributed to the conversation.