Tennis
Unit Plan
Unit Activity: Tennis
Unit Context: Learner Characteristics: Middle school, 15-25 students per class. All different
ability levels, most consistently novice. Experience and exposure are Television, neighborhood
gaming, sports clubs, team experience.
Physical Environment: Tennis courts adjacent to school building.
Equipment Access: At school. Required equipment: One dozen tennis ball canisters, thirty
tennis racquets.
Special considerations: Tennis shoes, be aware of adapted student needs if they exist.
Standards Addressed: NASPE Standards for PE include: Motor Skills & Movement Forms,
Movement Concepts, Physical Activity, Health-Related Fitness, Personal & Social Behavior,
Values Physical Activity.
NC State Standards for PE include: Movement Forms, Motor Skills, Physical Activity, Physical
Fitness, Personal & Social Behavior.
Unit Goal: TSWBAT identify, breakdown, and demonstrate tennis skills proficiently.
TSWBAT develop an aptitude for strategy development, fair play, with some access to team play
and development.
TSWBAT develop skill that may lead to lifelong understanding and enjoyment of competitive
and healthy sport activity. A journal will be kept by each student with progress updates each day
of class to give them a sense of accomplishment and help them understand where they are
gaining ground or losing it so issue may be addressed accordingly.
Unit Objectives: Psychomotor: TSWBAT serve, volley, rally, and increase footwork
capabilities to a reasonable level of improvement.
Cognitive: TSWBAT will be able to describe how they made improvement in their skill level on
an end of unit test, which is based upon their daily journal entries.
Affective: TSWBAT identify what it is that they feel is the strongest part of their game and how
and why they feel that way; journal entry depicted.
Health-Related Fitness: TSWBAT will perform warm-up and cool-down activities before and
after tennis activities each class meeting(walking/running 2 laps to begin; stretching and
gathering equipment to end class).
Content Outline: Motor Skills: Serving. Critical Element: Throw ball straight up, knees bent,
arm back, firm grip on base of racquet, bring racquet forward, follow through.
Instructional Cues: Stand behind baseline, throw ball up through chimney, swing through the
ball.
Volley: Critical Elements: Feet shoulder width apart, hold racquet firm, keep eyes straight ahead,
racquet level. Instructional Cues: Relax, keep body square to the net.
Rally: Critical Elements: Keep racquet level, swing across the body, square to the net, eyes
forward, concentrate and follow through. Instructional Cues: Follow through, swing level, firm
grip. Relax.
Footwork: Critical Elements: square body to net, shortest path to trajectory and square, hold
racquet firmly. Instructional Cues: Anticipate ball placement. Think ahead. Work to get body
square to net so follow through is smooth.
Scope and Sequence of Content: Informing Tasks: Serving to partner. Extension Task:
Practice throwing ball straight up approx. one dozen times and try to make it land at your feet,
have your partner check and switch giving each other feedback. Applying Tasks: Serve ball
over the net to your partner.
Informing Tasks: Volley: Volley with your partner. Extension Task: Set up volley at center
court, hit ball to your partner over the net and work at variable distances. Applying Tasks: See
how many times you can volley without fault; keep count of faults and see who gets to10 first.
Informing Tasks: Rally, rally with your partner. Extension Tasks: Find an open area and strike
ball to your partner where they may hit it back easily. Applying Task: Take your places on
court and attempt to keep ball moving between players without fault; count to 10 in faults and
give partner feedback.
Informing Tasks: Footwork, move about the court and position yourself in the ready position.
Extension Tasks: Set cones and move to each on the count of 3, work your way around the
court. Applying Tasks: Have partner hit or throw the ball to you as you move to each cone to
practice your efficiency; count how many times you successfully return the ball across the net as
you work your way around the coarse.
Block Time Plan: Lesson 1: Students will be tested on basic skills to determine level of
performance; serving, volleying, rallying, and footwork exercises.
Lesson 2: Students will be divided into groups based on ability levels. Rules and expectations
will be reviewed and proper procedures for all aspects of activity will be re-emphasized.
Conduct will be reviewed and sportsmanship strongly emphasized. Once groups have been
established on court system, basic aspects of tennis skill will begin based on a start stop sequence
of station to station set-up. A whistle will sound to move student to next skill.
Lesson 3: Students will begin recording lessons in journals at the beginning of each class. This
will help them approach the day’s activity thoughtfully. The stations will be visited as in the
previous days lesson, however, a feedback will be interjected regularly as needed and class
behavior re-emphasized as needed.
Lesson 4: Students will be asked to assess in improvement they have made in their journals and
any weaknesses or concerns they may have concerning tennis. We will take 5 minutes before
class for a question and answer session before laps. The stations( serving, volleying, rallying,
and footwork are in effect). The stations change about 8 times per class. Students that may have
trouble with basic skills may be moved to separate court to work on basics such as bouncing or
balancing the ball on racquet or volleying on the wall to gain proficiency.
Lesson 5: After journals, questions and laps, the students pair up and volley for twenty minutes.
Toward the end of class the students get a chance to serve to their partners; throw the ball
straight up with knees bent and follow through the ball. After 5 minutes the student collect
equipment and perform cool down activities, walking and stretching.
Lesson 6: Volleying and Serving: After beginning exercise, the student warm their skills by
volleying to their partners with encouragement to rally and be mindful of mistakes. Form is
emphasized( square to net, follow through, relax, knees bent). Today the students will use last
fifteen minutes of class to serve and count how many times their serve was successful based on a
count of ten. Serves will change at 10 serves each.
Lesson 7: Serve and play: The students after warm-ups are prepared to begin serving the ball
into play. If the serve is successful the students are urged to play the ball for a win(hitting the
ball so your opponent can’t reach or return ball effectively. The students are given the rest of the
lesson to work on this process; based on a 10 serve per partner schedule.
Lesson 8: Skills combined/ Cognitive reasoning: After class meets and warms up and journals
are put away, the students are introduced to the the skills and thought processes involved in
game/competition. Today the students will serve and play their first games. The students start at
love, 15, 30, and 40. They will use all aspects of their know gathered thus far and play games,
keeping track of who wins.
Lesson 9: Games and strategy: After warm-ups students are reminded to reflect on journal
entries and consider their strengths and how they might use them to accent or overcome a
weakness. Go to the net to shorten the field of play, use a backhand cross court shot, lobes, aces!
The students will be coaxed to pull-out a collection of what they have learned and try and
assimilate a new strategy or accent a current one.
Lesson 10: Combining the learning domains: Today we will put it all together after warm-ups.
The students will be given a court to use all the skills learn considering every domain and putting
it all together to proceed and play a few games or sets depending on time.
Lesson 11: Students are consulted as a group after warm-ups before beginning games to ask for
questions or concerns and advised to begin wrapping up their journal entries. At the end of class
the students are reminded of the upcoming test on knowledge and improvement they have made.
Lesson 12: Round -Robin will begin next class. The students are proceeding with learned skills
and reminders are given to remember the basics. It is easy to develop a twist or turn that can
throw your game off. The students are strongly encouraged to give constructive criticism where
necessary.
Lesson 13: Round- Robin begins, students are reminded that this is a key journal entry
opportunity, they are encouraged to reflect on all 4 learning domains as they move forward or are
eliminated.
Lesson 14: Round- Robin continues and a breakdown of points is as follows: 5pt. to the winner,
4pts. to the next four, 3pts. to the next four, and 2pts to the remaining. A written test is given to
access key tennis terms and journal entries on graded on thoroughness.
Lesson 15: The students will come together after warm-ups we will reflect on what they learned
and share thoughts. Make-ups will be given. After wrapping up and giving attention to
equipment we will finish with cool down activities.
Journals: 10pts.
Test: 25pts.
Participation: 10pts.
Round Robin: 5pts.
Instructional Strategy: Sport Education: Affiliation: Partners are matched up based on skill
performance level.
Roles: Teachers will provide direction to students on daily basis and mentor to them. Students
will keep journals to mark their progress and make reference to strength and weakness.
Equipment managers will require all gear is maintained and treated respectfully.
Record Keeping: Records are kept by the teacher assessment and curricular requirements. The
students keep record of their progress through written observance on a daily basis. Equipment is
taken care of by students of student in charge.
Seasons: The unit is four weeks in length consisting of skills practice and assessment, partner
competitions regularly, round-robin tournament.
Formal Competition: Competition is present in play of partners in games, set, or match.
Competition takes place in round-robin tournament.
Culminating Events: Students are allowed to put all their acquired knowledge they have learned
and play a complete game resulting in a round-robin tournament and written test and journals
compiled.
Skill Combine: The students combined skills in the four teaching domains. They learned skills
in tennis related to serving, volleying, rallying, and footwork.
Instruction: Teachers instruct students through daily instruction and assessment via journal
entries, feedback sessions, guided learning, examples, reflection. Tools for assessment are
utilized for teaching effectiveness.
Assessment Procedures: Students do a pre-skill assessment on serving, volleying, rallying, and
footwork. These tests will determine placement and special attention if necessary. The players
are analyzed by teacher, fellow students, and encouraged self- analysis through journal entries.
Participation, performance and written testing are utilized through the coarse. Extra points were
awarded to round-robin participants based on their performance in competition.
The scores are added at the end of the unit to determine student status. There were a total of 50
points available.
It is an effective tool to let students record their performance and reflect to make changes that
may not seem apparent at the time of heightened activity. The thought process may be
considered as important as the psychomotor skill employed.
Resources Used: The Sports Rule Book; 3rd Edition. Human Kinetics with Thomas Hanlon.
2009