Are you looking for a great way to assess your physical education classes during team and individual sports? Do you want to put your students in charge of administering the assessment? Do you want to give your students a great way to see how students are being successful during the unit? The team sports assessment procedure is a great way to see growth of your students from the beginning to the end of a unit. TSAP is able to give you measurable data that can show true growth of each individual student in class. Students will be able to administer this assessment, and while they are administering the assessment they will see examples of what successful skills and strategies look like. I wouldn't have known about the game performance assessment without the help of Dr. Steven Harvey. Thank you Dr. Harvey for your help with this process and I really wanted to share this process with other physical educators, so they could learn as much as I did. I hope you consider Implementing TSAP into your assessment repertoire. Lets take a closer look at TSAP specifically through a badminton TGfU unit.
Day #1 - Pre-TSAP TournaMent
If you are looking to incorporate the TSAP assessment into your classes, then you will need to plan and prepare ahead of time. The first day should be a tournament or game day. You must get your students involved, playing, and assessing. For my badminton specific unit, I have 6 nets and I set up mini tournaments (4-5 players) at each net. I had tournament sheets printed and ready for each net, TSAP forms out and ready for each individual student, and even some ping pong tables set up for extra students and a little bit of fun. Before games started, I had to quickly cover the rules I needed them to follow in the games, and I also had to cover what they were assessing on the TSAP form. This did take a little while to introduce, so please be prepared and ready for what you want to say. Also remember for this to truly work, you must keep the exact same tournament in tact for the final day of the unit. If you do this, it will give you valid growth numbers! Posted below are some examples of documents I created for this to work in my class.
 Example of the TSAP Game Performance Assessment |  Student worksheet for collecting TSAP data.  My TSAP Badminton Tournament Bracket |
Entering the TSAP numBers
here camethe tricky part, or what could've become the tricky part. I have three games worth of data on 224 students and now needed to get the number in their system where I could understand it. I had health class with my students the next day so I designed a Google form that they could use to plug in their numbers. This task could've taken me hours if not days but with her help it was done in about 3 to 4 minutes of class time. The efficiency index and performance ratings are figured out by using these formulas. Efficiency index is (volley / 2 + successful shots) / (10 + lost ball) and the performance score is calculated by (received ball / 2) + (efficiency index * 10). You can see how I set things up below on the google form and google sheet so you don't have to do any calculations.
 Google Form Questions |  What The TSAP Google Sheet Looks Like After Google Forms Have Been Completed  Student Efficiency Index and Performance Scores Automatically Calculated with Formulas in Google Sheets |
Day #2 - Down to business
It was time to get down to business! Now that the TSAP was done and completed I knew it was time to get down to TGfU skills and strategies that my classes needed to be successful. Here's a rundown of my day two activities, so you can see how I run a TGfU badminton unit. For everyone's understanding, I see my 7th and 8th grade students for 41 minute classes with a class size of 24-30 students every other day.
| | Badminton Rally
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Badminton Keep it upGoal - keep rally going as long as possible using overhand and underhand shots. Questions: How do you score a point in badminton? What can you do to score in badminton? What can you do to stop your opponent from scoring? What way is the best way to keep the shuttle in play for you? | |
| | Badminton Intro GameGoal - Be aware of what spaces can be used on the other side of the net. Game
Where do you stand or move to after you hit the birdie to your opponent? Describe a successful shot that you saw or used to score a point. |
Badminton ClearsGoal - Move your opponent to the back of the court Game
Is it harder to attack from the back of the court? What do you do different | |
| | Badminton Kings / Queens CourtGoal is to have the most points in your group Game:
What shots are you using to make your opponent move? |
Day #3 - More TGFu skills and strategies
This day was used to review some of the previous material taught and then to expand on it even more.
| | Badminton Rally
|
Badminton Intro GameGoal - Be aware of what spaces can be used on the other side of the net. Game
What type of shots can you hit when you see open space on your opponent's court? Where do you stand or move to after you hit the birdie to your opponent? Describe a successful shot that you saw or used to score a point. | |
| | Badminton Drops & ClearsGoal - To score points by hitting successful shots in your opponent's court. Game:
How do you know when to use a specific shot? When do you use these different shots? |
Badminton Serve GameGoal - Score more points than your opponent by hitting long and short serves in your opponent's receiving court Game:
| |
| | Badminton Up / Down TournamentGrade Level Outcomes:
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Day #4 & 5 - Singles tournament - Lets showcase what we have learned
By this time of the unit with my middle school students are ready to showcase what they have learned by being involved in a singles tournament. I'll have two different tournament sign-ups and I let my class pick which side of the gym they would like to play on. There are three courts on each side of them gym and this works perfect for twelve people to rotate from playing and being a referee. I keep the games short so students are not out for very long. Check out a sample tournament bracket below.
Individual Badminton Tournament Bracket
SEesaw assessmEnt
 SeeSaw Video Analysis |  Classroom Set-Up For The SeeSaw Assessment. |
I also used the SeeSaw app to create another opportunity for my students to showcase what they had learned. Day #1 the students needed to have a minute of footage of them playing during a singles match. The only requirement was to have them watch their video, to reflect on different shots they used, and to see how much they moved their opponent around the court. Below you will see a sample video from an 8th grade class.
The second day of the singles tournament I wanted students to "play out" a perfect game situation as if they could perform any shot. The thought was that I could hear the knowledge they accumulated over the course of the unit, even if they couldn't successfully perform the skill. Below is a picture of the SeeSaw assessment sheet that I handed out to my students to help them through their assessment and also a video of a students reflection.
Post TSAP Assessment
Alright, well now you know the information and activities my students participated in. Everything was extremely active, students had many touches, and were always working on skills and strategies in a game situation. This are some of the key components of TGfU and a game centered approach. I believe this approach builds competence, which develops confidence, this leads to motivated students, and allows students to participate fully. I'll now share what I discovered when the unit was over.
As I stated earlier, you need to run the final TSAP tournament the exact same way. This will make your data results valid. I set up the same tournaments with the same students and allowed them to play for the same amount of time. Everything was the same. Now I just needed to collect all the data and find out how much they grew as badminton players. Below are my results.
As I stated earlier, you need to run the final TSAP tournament the exact same way. This will make your data results valid. I set up the same tournaments with the same students and allowed them to play for the same amount of time. Everything was the same. Now I just needed to collect all the data and find out how much they grew as badminton players. Below are my results.
TSAP results
After having all my students plug their results into the same google form, I was quickly able to sort through the google sheet to get some final numbers. Here is a few things that I learned.
1st Test Average Efficiency Index
1.35
1st Performance Score Average
26.18
2nd Test Average Efficiency Index
2.08 = 54% increase
2nd Performance Score Average
52.73 = 101% increase
I knew my students were getting better, but these numbers blew my mind. To have proof that TGfU Badminton really worked and it really worked well. In my findings I believe doing these things really helped my students grow:
Lots of birdies hit (singles games, 1v1 rallies, etc)
Development of skills / strategies together in a game situation
Lots of practice time - An average of 82% (27/33 minutes) of class was dedicated to active lessons
Assessments / formative checks on 4/6 days
Active playing time + analyzing how others play = high levels of learning
1st Test Average Efficiency Index
1.35
1st Performance Score Average
26.18
2nd Test Average Efficiency Index
2.08 = 54% increase
2nd Performance Score Average
52.73 = 101% increase
I knew my students were getting better, but these numbers blew my mind. To have proof that TGfU Badminton really worked and it really worked well. In my findings I believe doing these things really helped my students grow:
Lots of birdies hit (singles games, 1v1 rallies, etc)
Development of skills / strategies together in a game situation
Lots of practice time - An average of 82% (27/33 minutes) of class was dedicated to active lessons
Assessments / formative checks on 4/6 days
Active playing time + analyzing how others play = high levels of learning
Final thoughts
I hope you learned a little bit about the Team Sports Assessment Procedure and I hope you will consider giving it a try. I think that it can validate what we are doing as physical educators. I also hope you learned a little bit about running a TGfU unit as well. When I started teaching this way, I really think my students learned how to play the games much better. An understanding of the game, in game situations, practicing skills can lead to amazing results for your students. Let me know if you have used TSAP or your other thoughts on TGfU in the comments below or feel free to send me an email if you have any other questions.
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