Summary
This professional learning is the third in a four part series. In this professional learning session, participants identify areas of disengagement in traditional lessons. Educators examine the different cognitive levels of physical movement strategies in mathematics. Then participants construct a lesson aligning depths of knowledge with movement strategies.
Essential Questions
How can I intentionally incorporate movement to my math lessons to deepen students' understanding, engagement, and problem-solving skills?
How can we strategically leverage movement to manage cognitive load?
Learning Objectives
Participants collaboratively identify parts of lessons where disengagement tends to happen.
Participants analyze physical movement strategies and the required cognitive load it requires of students.
Participants apply kinesthetic learning as the primary method of instruction.
Snapshot
Engage
Participants engage in a round robin to brainstorm parts of traditional lessons that students are typically disengaged or stagnant.
Explore
Participants experience a cognitive struggle by navigating a physical movement activity as students and debriefing about it.
Explain
Participants determine the “depths of knowledge” and how they relate to specific physical movement activities.
Extend
Participants draft a new lesson where movement is the primary method of learning.
Evaluate
Participants peer review each other's lessons using a chain note reflection strategy.
Materials List
Presentation slides (attached)
Webb’s Depths of Knowledge handout (attached; one per participant)
Movement Strategies Card Sort handout (attached; one per pair)
Linear Equation Cards handout (attached; see Preparation note)
Lesson Planning Tool handout (attached; one per participant)
Chalk or painters tape
Scrap paper
Pens/ Pencils
Preparation
Before the session, print the attached set of Card Sort cards. There needs to be enough copies for each pair to have one set.
The Explore section requires participants to move around the room and work in groups. Make sure space is available for the appropriate physical graphing activity. Print the attached Linear Equation cards making sure each group has one card. Set-up for Human Scatter Plot: If time allows, consider having each group create their own floor grid using chalk or tape. Having participants create it themselves gives them extra practice at how to make an activity more physical. However, if time does not allow, then make sure to set up the floor grids yourself.
Engage
15 Minute(s)
Use the attached Presentation Slides to guide the session. Welcome participants. Display slide 2 and introduce yourself and the session. Transition through slides 3-4 to introduce the essential question and the session objectives for today’s professional learning activities.
Move to slide 5 and introduce participants to the instructional strategy Round Robin. Explain that the purpose of this strategy is to brainstorm ideas around a question or a prompt. You will ask participants to answer the question individually first. Next, instruct participants to each share an idea from their list. While another participant is sharing, the group must refrain from interrupting. Go around the room until all participants have shared an idea from their list. If an idea has already been shared, invite participants to say, “Pass.” Show participants slide 6 with the following prompt:
What are specific stagnant hotspots in a traditional lesson structure? Create a list of detailing when disengagement happens.
After everyone shared their ideas, display slide 7 and ask participants the following question:
Looking at this list, what are some reasons students would be disengaged?
Explore
20 Minute(s)
Show slide 9. Invite participants to explore a student-experience simulation. State the math objective on the slide:
Students will physically model a linear equation on a coordinate plane to represent the constant rate of change and the initial value.
Divide participants in small groups. Pass out the prepared Linear Equation cards by making sure each group has one card with a linear equation on it. Introduce the Human Scatter Graph strategy. Ask participants to physically graph the linear equation on the floor grid. Everyone in the group must be a part of the graph.
Once all groups have accomplished their first set of coordinates, ask each finished group to show the exact opposite or inverse of what they built. If they had a positive linear equation, it will now be negative. Allow participants time to work.
When all groups seem to have finished, ask participants to freeze in their final position for 30 seconds. Tell them to silently notice what mathematical part they represent in the linear equation. Have everyone sit down.
Display slide 10. As a group, debrief using the following questions:
Where did you feel the productive struggle in the activity?
What did your brain have to do during physical activity?
Explain
25 Minute(s)
Explain to participants that physical movement can increase engagement, but to make it truly beneficial it should be in alignment to the depth of understanding and mental processing it takes a student to complete the activity.
Transition to slide 11. Introduce the modified Card Sort activity. Divide participants into pairs. Provide each pair with a set of Movement Strategies Card Sort cards and everyone a Webb’s Depths of Knowledge handout. Explain that four of the cards are to be used as column headers. Invite participants to lay out each card, which presents a physical movement strategy. Then, invite them to sort each card into the column it belongs to. The columns are the different depths of knowledge Level 1 (Recall and Reproduce), Level 2 (Skills and Concepts), Level 3 (Strategic Thinking), and Level 4 (Extended Thinking). Participants must come to a common agreement before going on to the next card. They can use the handout as a guide. Start the K20 5 Minute Timer. Once complete, have pairs share out their card sort and why they made the choices they did.
After participants have shared their rationales, transition to slide 12 and facilitate a group discussion on the following questions:
Looking at your card sort, what patterns do you see?
How can this help you when you are designing a lesson?
Extend
25 Minute(s)
Display slide 13. Invite participants to choose a concept that is upcoming or within the next 2 to 3 weeks. Have participants silently brainstorm on a scrap piece of paper about the following questions:
What’s the math concept?
What part of the concept is your physical activity highlighting: activating prior knowledge, introducing the concept, reviewing, etc.?
What depth of knowledge would your students engage in?
What physical movement strategy aligns with that depth of knowledge?
Allow participants time to brainstorm. Ask participants to share their brainstorm with an Elbow Partner. After both partners share, move to slide 14 and have participants begin constructing their upcoming lesson using the Lesson Planning Tool handout. Allow participants time to work.
Evaluate
10 Minute(s)
Transition to slide 15. Ask participants to give their Lesson Planning Tool handout to a peer. Invite participants to use the modified Plus Delta Chart strategy to share their thoughts, ideas, or questions about the lesson. Pass out two different colors of sticky notes to each participant. Have participants write one “plus” of their peer’s lesson on one sticky note and one “delta” for their peer’s lesson on the other sticky note.
Use the K20 2 Minute Timer. Once the timer is up, participants will pass their paper to the person to their left. Repeat the process for 3 rounds. After the third round, ask participants to pass the lesson plan back to the original participant. Review the comments written on their paper.
Follow-Up Activities
This is Part 3 of a 4 Part series to help educators enhance their use of physician movement strategies in mathematics lessons. Consider presenting the next in the series “Less is More Math Professional Learning Series: Train the Trainer (Part 4 of 4)“.
Research Rationale
Physical movement incorporated into existing math lessons can increase student motivation, engagement, retention, and cooperation skills. Rather than focusing solely on knowledge retention, PAL (Physically active learning) emphasizes the learning process, creating opportunities for students to explore, experience, and interact with mathematical concepts through movement (Mande lid et al., 2023). Research shows that the pedagogical approach of combining physical activity and academic learning creates a cognitive bonding process that allows for enhanced comprehension and retention (González-Pérez et al, 2025).
Both González-Pérez et al (2025) and Norris et al (2018) also found that adolescents, particularly secondary students, tend to spend a majority of their school day on sedentary behaviors, but provide hope that schools can provide a structure to integrate physical movement into academics, increasing students' activity and attention. Mandelid et al. (2023) argue teachers play a central role in designing activities that connect movement with clear mathematical goals, structuring tasks, and guiding reflection so students understand the purpose behind the activity.
By purposefully integrating kinesthetic learning into math, educators design opportunities for students to shift their perceptions of math ultimately creating classrooms that increase student’s concentration, motivation, and increase academic performance.
Resources
González-Pérez, M., Grao-Cruces, A., Bandera-Campos, F. J., Chalkley, A., Camiletti-Moirón, D., & Sánchez-Oliva, D. (2025). Less is more: Qualitative insights into physically active learning in secondary math education. PLOS ONE, 20(11), e0336641. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0336641
K20 Center. (n.d.). Card Sort. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/147
K20 Center. (n.d.). Elbow Partners. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/116
K20 Center. (n.d.). Human scatter graph. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/172
K20 Center (n.d.). Plus Delta Chart. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/2904
K20 Center. (n.d.). Round Robin. Strategies.https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/2183
K20 Center. (2021). 2 Minute Timer. YouTube. https://youtu.be/HcEEAnwOt2c?si=KGD2iBg1LSLOGQQq
K20 Center. (2021). 5 Minute Timer. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVS_yYQoLJg
Mandelid, M. B., Thurston, M., Reinboth, M., Resaland, G. K., & Tjomsland, H. E. (2023). “Just because it’s fun, it’s not without purpose”: Exploring the blurred lines of physically active learning. Teaching and Teacher Education, 133, 104297. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2023.104297.
Norris, E., Dunsmuir, S., Duke-Williams, O., Stamatakis, E., & Shelton, N. (2018).
Physically active lessons improve lesson activity and on-task behavior: A cluster-randomized controlled trial of the “Virtual Traveller” intervention. Health Education & Behavior, 45(6), 945–956. https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198118762106
