Pre-assessment

On Thursday, October 10 I had my high school basketball team take one of my pre-assessments for my lesson plan on Health.  I went out the day before to every fast food restaurant in our area to get menus for each player and I also printed some from their websites.  I was able to get menus that didn’t have the caloric values of the food items which was important because I didn’t want them to know which foods had the highest calories.  I had menus from Taco Bell, Carl’s Jr., McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Del Taco, Burger King and In & Out Burger.

I had each player try to figure out what the lowest calorie meal was on the menu they decided to grab and then they had to figure out what the highest meal was.  The purpose of my pre-assessment was to find out if my basketball players knew what to eat at fast food restaurants by testing their knowledge of menu items.  I was a little shocked by what my pre-assessment findings were. I had 8 players take the assessments; 2 players chose Taco Bell, 3 chose McDonald’s and the rest took Burger King.  There wasn’t a player who took the assessment who could figure out what the lowest calorie meal was on the menu, but most of them were able to identify what the highest meals were.  I thought this was very interesting because it shows that they understood what meals were bad for them but didn’t know what was good.  After the assessment we had a conversation about calories and where they come from.  I was also a little shocked that they didn’t really understand this so I decided that I am going to educate my players on foods that will help their athletic performance.  I printed out a few articles for them to read and I’m hoping they will help them make better choices when they are eating fast food.

I think that my pre-assessment worked in the sense that I was able to find out what they knew about food items at fast food restaurants.  It also showed me that my players really don’t understand where calories come from so they aren’t able to make healthy food choices because they don’t know what foods are good for them.  I have taken it upon myself to educate them on not only food but how hydration will also help them perform better on the basketball court and in school.  I have already printed a couple articles for them to read and some diet plans of professional athletes so they can see how they feed their bodies.  They will also take their diet more seriously because they will be able to see how guys they look up to eat and try to be more like them.