Physical Education teaching partners Nadine Moeller and Brian Rud have started something special during advisory time at Ordean Middle School in Duluth, Minnesota.

As a result of their advisory intramural program, students from many advisory classes have made colorful t-shirts for each of their classmates to wear on special occasions; cheers, chants and other original incantations are being developed to encourage teamwork and group cohesion; student teachers, paraprofessionals, administrators, and other staff without advisory responsibilities of their own are joining in the fun by aligning themselves to an advisory group and sticking with its members through thick and thin; and attendance and meaningful participation in advisory time have dramatically improved. On one occasion, a student who was scheduled to leave for a family trip insisted on staying-delaying the entire family's departure in the process-so that he could attend the first period of school when it was his advisory's turn to participate in Nadine's and Brian's program.

What's their magic? They created intramural tournaments for advisory groups.

Borrowing a good idea
They got the idea from Phy Ed teachers at neighboring Woodland Middle School, who were talking about it at a district staff-development meeting. "Brian and I had to try it, too. It sounded like the kids at Woodland were really enjoying it," said Nadine, who gave up her own advisory group to run the intramural program with Brian. The program ran 4 days a week, Monday through Thursday and sometimes on Friday if a make up was needed.

Principal's enthusiasm
Ordean Principal Jerry Maki describes the change, "A couple of years ago, when we went to our current advisory schedule, we couldn't imagine how we were going to spend twenty minutes each morning building community with our kids. Now, thanks to our regular CPR morning meetings and special advisory activities like Nadine's and Brian's Intramural program, and the work of many other teachers, we wonder why we didn't start doing this years and years ago.

If you walk into our school on any Friday morning, you'll find at least two classes in the gym having a blast competing in a tournament-nothing too competitive, just a lot of intense fun. But on your way to the gym, you'd have to pass through throngs of students dancing in the hallway with Tim Churchill's "Polka Friday" advisory. At the same time, many kids are out in the community doing service learning or wildlife preservation projects they develop in advisory. It's such a great thing to see!"

Goals of the tournaments
Cooperation, teamwork, proactive preparation, and efficient use of time were keys to the intramural program's success. "We wrote clear descriptions of the games, with as many rules and specific directions as possible, so teachers could go over them with their advisory classes before they came to play," Nadine said. "Many teachers elected to play a practice game during their advisory time a day or two before they were scheduled to compete in the tournament so their kids understood how to play. With 34 groups, and only about 15 minutes for each to play, we just couldn't afford to spend a lot of time going over strategy or rules. Teachers understood this, and did a great job of preparing their groups."

In addition to the formats of the games, advisory teachers covered important behavior guidelines with their groups before each intramural day. They began with the goals of the program: to build community; to have full participation; and to develop good sportsmanship, including how to win and lose gracefully.

Nadine said one of the most important parts of the planning process was that all teachers communicated the same message about the goals before the tournaments began. The stress was on full participation. "Teachers did a great job of encouraging participation and of talking it up in a positive, energetic way. Everyone got on board."

Tourney structure
Teams played three single-elimination tournaments throughout the year (the games selected for the tournaments are described below). Nadine has some hesitations about using this format: "It's too bad we had to go to single elimination. It would have been much better to use a double-elimination or round-robin format. Interest levels dropped for some of the teams that had lost in the first round. But then we went into another tournament, and everyone was participating again. I hope we can come up with a way to keep everyone involved more often next year."

Results of the games were posted on a designated "intramurals" bulletin board near the cafeteria. As the tournaments reached the semifinal and final stages, many other advisory groups attended the games to cheer on the remaining groups.

Games for tournaments

Five-Line Frantic Football

Grade Level: Middle School
Materials Needed: A football; a large, flat outdoor or indoor space with identifiable sidelines, a midfield line, and goal lines; a whistle; a coin

How To Play: Teams line up on opposite sidelines. The first five players on each team enter the playing field and line up along their team's designated goal line. A coin toss determines which team receives the ball first. The leader blows the whistle. The team that loses the coin toss kicks off from near its goal line to the other team. All kickoffs are thrown, not kicked. The kickoff must make it past midfield to count. The receiving team picks up the ball and play begins. These five players proceed to play one series of offense (and one of defense). A series is one set of "downs," or four plays. Each individual play begins when the leader blows a whistle, rather than with the quarterback saying "hike" or "hut."

Scoring:
1 point for each completed pass
6 points for a touchdown
3 points for a defensive interception
4 points for a safety

Each play in a series must be a pass play (no running plays). A play ends when a pass is incomplete, when a player is tagged by an opponent with one hand, when the ball is advanced by one team across the other team's goal line (this is commonly referred to as a touchdown) or when one team tags another team's ball carrier behind its own goal line (this is called a safety, and is rare). Leader determines where and if a player was tagged to avoid arguments. If a pass is intercepted or a team scores before their four plays have been completed, their series ends.

Penalties:
Short kickoff (one that doesn't make it past midfield). Consequence: rekick, behind goal line.

Offsides (crossing the line of scrimmage before the whistle blows to start a play). Consequence: team sits on floor until whistle starts the following play.

Poor sportsmanship. Consequence: first time-team lies on belly until whistle starts the following play; second time-player breaking rule is not allowed to play in future tournament games.

Spiking the ball. Consequence: team lies on backs until whistle starts the following play.

Intentional blocking/physical contact. Point deduction: 3 points.

Non-negotiable rule. Students who repeatedly play out of control or with poor sportsmanship will not be allowed to play in future tournament games!

After each group has played a series, they move to the end of the line on the sideline and the second group of five players on each team takes the field for one series each, and so on, until everyone on each team has had a chance to play.

Multi-Mega Soccer

Grade Level: Middle School
Materials Needed: A large, flat outdoor or indoor space, six soccer balls, two soccer goals, and cones or equivalent for playing field boundaries.

How To Play: Games are 12 minutes long. Two advisory groups gather to play. Each advisory is divided into two groups and then each group plays against half the other advisory class for six minutes, followed by a one-minute switch time. During the switch time, the other halves of the advisory classes take the field and those who have already played move to the sideline. Leader starts play by introducing two soccer balls to the center of the field and giving a command to commence play. After each minute of play, leader adds another ball until all six balls are in play at once. The advisory class with the most goals after 12 minutes wins. Ties are broken by conducting a shootout.

Rules:

• While sitting out on the sideline, no interference with play is allowed.
• Goalies may use hands; otherwise, the ball must not be touched by hands.
• Goalies must remain in designated area (near the goals).
• No other players are allowed in goalie's designated area (near the goals).
• All players must be alert! There are several balls in play at once! Heads up!
• Goalies must remain on their feet (no intentional sprawling in front of goal to prevent goals).
• To avoid injuring a goalie, teams may not kick more than one ball at a time on goal.
• Breaking a rule will result in ten pushups or sit-ups, after which players are allowed back in the game.
• Rough play will result in the offender being disqualified from play and from future tournament games.

Five-Base Rapid-Fire Kickball

Grade Level: Middle School
Materials Needed: A large, flat outdoor or indoor space, a kickball, five bases, and a pitching circle

How To Play: Games are 16 minutes long, with a one-minute changeover session, when teams switch from fielding to kicking. Fielding team switches pitchers every two minutes, preferably rotating between boys and girls. Pitching must be done from a designated circle, and pitches must be rolled as "flat" as possible. Strike zone is wide, the equivalent of the width of a free throw lane on a basketball court (12 feet). Ground-rule (automatic) double is awarded to kicker if a pitch bounces or crosses home plate area outside the strike zone.

Kicking team lines up single file and remains in this order throughout its allotted time. Kicking team tries to score as many runs as possible during its eight minutes. A team keeps kicking regardless of the number of outs recorded against it, but a player who is out has to come off the bases and go to the end of the kicking line. Base runners can advance to the next base even if the fielding team catches a fly ball-no tagging up is necessary. There is no limit to the number of runners on base; more than one runner may share the same base. Runners must stop running when the fielding team gets the ball to the pitcher in the pitcher's circle. A run is scored by running around all five bases without getting out.

Fielding team must stay behind the pitcher's circle until the ball is kicked. Fielding team records an out:

• when a ball is caught after it has bounced off a wall or ceiling;
• when a runner is forced out at first base, i.e., when the ball gets to a fielder near first base who grabs it and steps on the base before the runner arrives (tie goes to the runner);
• when a batter misses two pitches; when a batter kicks two foul balls;
• when a batter misses a pitch and then kicks a foul ball;
• when a runner is tagged by the ball while not touching a base;
• when a runner runs out of the baseline;
• when a runner slides or dives while running;
• when a runner leads off base or leaves base before the ball is kicked.

Chris Hagedorn is a Developmental Designs consultant and staff writer for Origins.

This article first appeared in the Origins' publication Developmental Designs: A Middle School Newsletter, Fall 2007