In recent years, tactics have included activities in which students go from station to station around the classroom — one version of this is called a ‘gallery walk’ — and interact with resources at each station. This approach can be found in classrooms from preschool to twelfth grade.
Other tactics include games which include gross motor skills. One example is the ‘flyswatter’ game.
In the above-mentioned examples, the same content can be delivered by ordinary reading and writing. The physical motion is not intrinsic to the curriculum.
These responses to the reality of young people’s energy are well-intentioned, and perhaps to some extent effective. There are other strategies to address the impulse to move, and some of them might be more effective than the ones currently in vogue.
One promising approach is a program of physical exercise early in the day, before classroom instruction begins, for example, taking the entire student body of a high school for a three-mile run before the first class of the day.
Clearly, this would be a major change in the daily routines of most schools: there would need to be exceptions for students with certain medical conditions, the program would be weather-dependent, and there might be a need for facilities like showers and locker rooms for clothing changes.
Variations on this program might be more practical: instead of running, a pattern calisthenics could be done indoors, reducing the dependence on weather.
Or the exercise could be done in the middle of the academic day, instead of before it. There are many possible scenarios. They all have this in common: providing vigorous physical movement for students before or during the school day.
These latter approaches differ from those mentioned previously: there is no attempt to integrate the bodily exercise into the instruction; instead it is a break from instruction. The advantage would be that instruction can remain focused on its content. There is nothing inherently kinesthetic about studying algebra or Roman History.
Another advantage would be that the exercise would be more focused and intense.
In sum, one might formulate the motto: “Let instruction be instruction, and let physical activity be physical activity.” Distinguishing, rather than blending, the two allows each to be maximized.
