Gordy,
I'll describe a situation I found myself in
a few months ago that stretched the limits of my planning, preparation,
and teaching abilities. Any ideas or comments are welcome. I'm
only at the beginning of implementing this teaching opportunity.
Hopefully, passing this on will help others or give them some ideas. I
know what I have learned on this study group is reflected throughout this
experience.
Local middle school science teacher wanted to start
a Fly Fishing Club for 7th Graders and asked me for help which I gladly
volunteered. But the devil was in the details!!
The teacher called me after sign ups and said she
had over 40 students interested! Oh wow.... I was thinking 8 or 12
kids. How do I deal with 40??
Next she indicated the Club meets for only 30
minutes once a month!! In fact,because of Holidays we would only
meet 7 times during the school year. I'm thinking, what am I
going to be able to do in 30 minutes with that many kids over such a long
time span?
Stop right here and think. "How
would I handle this situation ????"
Take some time to do this before you
go on to read Gary's way of doing
it. Gordy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
First, I sat down with the teacher to agree on the
basic goals behind the program. I knew we could not make fly
fishers or even casters out of them by the end of school year.
Many of these students have never fished before period, let alone fly
fished. Many have no mentors or support at home and I could not muster the
resources for such lofty goals.
After much discussion we decided that what
we both wanted for this program was to plant a seed in each
student that might germinate as they age and begin to make
lifestyle decisions. We agreed the goal would be to develop
an agenda that would introduce them to the world of fly fishing and provide some
"hands on" experiences they would always remember. We also discussed
sub goals: relating science to real world recreation of fly fishing,
reasons for environmental activism and caring for the world around them,
learning outdoor ethics etc..
We also discussed that kids this age need
and thrive on action and so lessons with "hands on" or "out-of-doors
activities" would work best. I also offered to enlist the local
TU Chapter to hold a Saturday Fly Fishing Workshop in early
spring where we could offer variety of workshops, rotating students through
a variety of subjects. With these ideas and overall goal in
mind I could then begin to build lesson plans and objectives for the 30
minute club meetings. At times we knew we would need to break group in
half with me taking one half and the teacher the other.
Brief objectives of the 7 meetings:
1 Introduction (outside in school
yard) What is fly fishing all about? Demo overhead fly
casting.
2 Fly Casting (outside in school
yard) Split into groups A and B. Group A
experience overhead cast, B discuss PA materials on freshwater
fish and fishing.
3 Fly Casting (in Gymnasium if weather is
bad) Group B experience overhead cast, A discuss PA materials on
freshwater fish and fishing.
4 Trout Food and Trout Flies
- (Inside Activity) Link knowledge of aquatic insects
& imitating them through fly tying and importance of
clean streams. Demo tying a wooly bugger. (enlist 3 - 5 demo tiers or video
camera and projection unit)
TU sponsored Saturday Fly Fishing Workshop
( Fly Tying, Knot Tying, Casting, Aquatic Insects, Equipment,
Fishing Strategies)
5 Fish Food Identification (Outside if weather
permits) ID live nymph specimens collected locally (Mayfly, Caddis,
Stonefly), brief lifecycle description etc.
6 Fishing knowledge - Reading Water, Where
fish live - food live? Use stream layout in Gymnasium - with logs, rocks,
deep hole, undercut bank, stream flow arrows and fish cutouts.
7 Going Fishing -- Safety, Ethics, Fishing
Strategies Dry, Wet, Nymph - Demo outside on river adjacent to school or
gymnasium stream layout depending on weather.
Commentary on results of first two
meetings:
At this point I have completed just the first two
meetings. Luckily the number of students dropped to about 34. The
students, so far, remain very enthusiastic and can't wait for the next
meeting. Here are some of the, lessons learned, tools, techniques,
and methods used to achieve the objective of the first two
meetings.
Developed specific detailed lesson plan for
each meeting with topics (teaching moments and coaching moments), times, and
materials needed. - usually on a 3x 5 note card I can use for reference during
the session.
Practiced the delivery/presentation to be sure I
can achieve time constraints. Be enthusiastic, be loud, seek answers
from students, be positive. be brief to the point, simple
language.
The objective of giving 20 students "hands" on
experience with the fly rod was overwhelming... I could not get help from other
CI's or casters within my area.
Also, each class was actually only 25 teaching
minutes, as 5 minutes were needed to divide group and walk to school yard.
So, I needed to eliminate all wasted time up to
putting a rod in their hands. I would set up field with cones (casting
positions), ropes (midline of field), hoops, & bucket lids (targets along
midfield line) before hand and have rods laying beside the 14 cones ready to be
picked up. I had casting positions facing each other and I would
present from the midfield line. With this arrangement they could
watch each other and of course they could
see me
Area was protected from wind on 3 sides but I
watched weather reports. Ended up good day wind not big factor. (Alternate
strategy was use of gymnasium and working with 4 rods at a time with two
students on each rod taking turns.) I did not detail this any further but
may need to at the next meeting in January.
However, one thing I did not want to do is put a
rod into a students hand with line strung out 30 feet the first
thing. With such limited experience I wanted to do
something I learned from Jim Valle and others on this study
group before adding the line into the equation. That is, the exercise
of moving the rod through the air drawing circles etc all around them,
emphasizing use of the forearm etc.. This unstructured play is
great for kids. I added my own twist, especially when teaching younger
students and called it - The Fly Rod Salute. See below.
Lesson plan called for 5 minute teaching
moment of 4-part overhead cast emphasizing grip (thumb) &
the stops as key points and teaching them the Fly Rod Salute (which is backcast
stop position - rod hand beside cheek/ear, thumb pointing up rod tipped
slightly off to the side and nearly vertical - pantomime.
Next a 3 minute coaching moment Fly Rod
Salute exercise - have students move to rod stations face me, pick
up rod and move all around in the air - I coach "use forearm,
move rod in front, overhead, behind, off to side"
etc.. Whenever I yell, fly rod salute they are to assume the position
quickly! I would coach salute position as needed. For rods with two
students at mid time I called switch casters. This exercise is great
way to get them used to the rod, the weight, the bending and use of
forearm as well as the beginnings of
good backcast stop position.
Then a 17 minute coaching moment for the
overhead cast. About one minute per student. Quickly demo the 4 part
cast again emphasize stops. Then the
next part ... getting line strung and pulled out to 30 feet ....was
at the planning stage a problem ... from experience it took too
much time, I needed the line already strung, ready with fly to be pulled
out. While searching through materials in the craft store one
day I saw 1/2 inch colorful pompoms. I wondered if they would work
for practice flies or maybe steelhead egg patterns...for those two possibilities
and a couple bucks I bought them. I found out when I got back home they
were a little too big ... they stuck in small snakes and tip tops - to hard
to string up. They seemed to work OK as a practice fly, a little
dense, but could work. I saved them!! So when this problem surfaced I said ah ha!! I'll string the
rod, use a needle to pull tippet through pompom, tie it securely and reel pompom
into tip top. It worked like a charm. I could have them strung and ready
for action before class then when done with the Fly Rod Salute pull out line
easily.
I instructed students to pull enough line out to
reach midfield rope & target - if two students, one grab pompom the other
hold rod. I think it took less than a minute and students had line out and
were casting. I then moved through students coaching each one, usually one
correction...occasionally a second within a minute some less. I frequently
used kinesthetic approach because of time constraints. I had around 17 students.
Most made at least a few good casts and all experienced what it is
like to fly cast. I only had three or four bad tangles by the
end of the session!! The students were laughing, squealing, talking,
just trying out this new thing! Some more serious focused on hitting
the targets along the rope in the center and occasionally me
as I,d cross the field!!
If I could have found at least one
other CI or MCI it would have even worked better but under much less
than ideal conditions, with planning and preparation, I believe the results
met our goals and objectives. The next group
can't wait for their turn!!
If you have any comments or
suggestions of how it could work even better - let'em fly ... I still have 5
more meetings to go!!
Gary Kell
MCCI