Lesson plan of Football: Introduction

Objectives (5-7 minutes)

1. Understanding the context and history of Soccer: Students must be able to understand the origin and evolution of soccer as a sport, including insights on its primary championships and players. This includes exploring when the rules of the game first appeared and how have they changed over the course of time.
2. Recognition of soccer techniques and tactics: Students must be able to identify and explain the different techniques and tactics present in soccer: how it is played, what skills are needed to excel, and strategies used by teams and players.
3. Introduction of soccer rules and regulations: Students must understand the fundamentals of soccer rules, including its objective, how to score, the list of infringements and penalties, as well as roles of players and referees.

Secondary Objectives:

• Development of critical thinking: By discussing and analysing soccer, students will be encouraged to develop critical thinking abilities, such as evaluating different strategies and decisions taken during a match.
• Research skill development: Students will be encouraged to explore a variety of sources in order to develop a deeper understanding of soccer, including its history, rules and regulations, as well as its techniques and tactics.

Introduction (10-15 minutes)

1. Revisiting previous knowledge: The instructor should begin by bringing to the students’ minds essential concepts of team sports, including emphasizing teamwork, efficient communication, strategizing, and tactics. Furthermore, a quick recap can be beneficial on the value physical activity has on maintaining good health and overall well-being.

2. Problem-Based Approach: Two hypothetical scenarios, related to soccer regulations, might be given to the class. For example: “If a player commits a foul in the penalty area what will happen” or “If a player kicks the ball outside the field, who must be the one to put it back into play”. Such scenarios will then lead the class to explore soccer rules and regulations.

3. Contextualization: The teacher must highlight the role that soccer plays at an international level, explaining its significant impact on the world in aspects of culture, finance, and even society itself. The instructor can, for instance, discuss how much soccer helps to encourage social inclusion and the forming of national identity, while also creating jobs and revenue.

4. Capturing attention: The teacher can spark students’ interest using intriguing tidbits about soccer. The fact that soccer holds its position as the most played and popular sport worldwide, with well over 3.5 billion fans, may be of use as an example. Another fact which could be used to highlight the importance and popularity of soccer, is that the invention of soccer was actually by chance, when a player from a rugby match used his hands and kicked the ball. Also, soccer has seen one individual, the Brazilian Pelé, be the only person to achieve the accomplishment of winning the World Cup three separate times, which adds intrigue and a historical context to soccer.

5. Topic Introduction: Once the introductory section is done the teacher must introduce this lesson´s subject "Introduction to soccer”. Students must be explained that by the end of this class they will have a deeper understanding of the evolution of the game, how it´s played and everything that implies soccer from its rules to strategies.

By the end of the introduction phase the teacher must answer any question from the students, to guarantee everybody is ready to start the lesson.

Development (20-25 minutes)

1. "Know your Soccer" Activity - (10-12 minutes):
   • Group work: The teacher must ask the students to form groups of up to 5. Each group will receive cards with terms, images or sentences related to the game of soccer, like "drilling" or "penalty kick" (in the case of terms), images of well-known soccer players or even images related to known game plays or team formations and strategies (in the case of images), amongst many others.

• The goal: The goal of this exercise is for the groups to sort through their cards to put them in chronological order according to its relevance in soccer’s historical timeline. Each group must rely on previous learning and research abilities to successfully make their timeline.
• Development: Students in each group must discuss the different possibilities in order to come to a group consensus of what the correct order must be in their timeline. To complete this task, resources like textbooks, internet search or even consulting the teacher may be necessary and useful. Upon finishing the exercise, every group must present their own timeline in front of the class, explaining and justifying their decisions.

2. "Soccer rules in motion" Activity - (10-12 minutes):

   • Setup: The teacher must improvise a soccer field by strategically placing classroom tables and chairs to act as players, including a soccer ball, for this activity.
   • Developing the exercise: While still divided into their groups, each group of students must select one or more soccer rules for their role-play exercise (for instance, one group can work on "offside" while another does "goal kicks") and come up with an enactment demonstrating how these rules can affect an actual game. Students are expected to make use of the classroom “soccer field”, improvising and acting out different game scenarios. Upon conclusion of each group’s performance, the rest of the class must try to decode which rule has been showcased during their performance. During the course of this activity, the teacher must make the rounds and provide feedback as necessary, helping the students in improving the quality of their enactment.

3. "Strategy Soccer" Activity - (5-7 minutes):

• Setup: The teacher must write a set of different soccer-related scenario cards (for instance: “Your team has lost by a goal, with only 5 minutes left for the game to end” or “As the coach, what starting formation and game strategy would you use for the next game”) and provide each group with one.
• Activity: Within each of their designated teams, students are given time to think and strategize over a scenario to devise an action plan and solution. Many elements are to be considered by the student groups as part of their discussion such as team formation, substitution of players, set pieces and so on. Following the team’s discussion, they must outline their chosen plan of action, which is then presented before the class. To aid the students in optimizing their solutions and strategies, the instructor must lead and assist the students through this process in the form of an open classroom discussion.

By the end of the Development phase, the instructor must lead the entire class in an open conversation to discuss everything that has been done, highlighting all the main takeaways and concepts presented and reviewed in the different activities while clearing any possible doubts or questions.

Feedback (8-10 minutes)

1. Group Discussion- (3-4 minutes):

• The teacher regroups and gathers the entire class and starts leading them into a guided classroom discussion, giving each team three minutes each to share what discoveries or solutions were found and agreed upon from their group activities.
• In every presentation it is necessary for the teacher to ask why a group decided the solution they presented in order to connect activities with theory, reinforcing learning and showing other possible answers or approaches.
• The teacher needs to pay attention in order to correct misunderstandings or highlight relevant concepts from each group.

2. Connecting with Theory- (2-3 minutes):

• After all groups have had their chance to present their work, the teacher must synthesize the shared information to reconnect to the theoretical aspects from the initial part of the lesson.
• This part of the process will show students how practical application of theory deepens conceptual knowledge in this topic, making all information relatable while generating a clearer grasp on the main points of the lesson.
• The teacher must use this moment to give examples showing how soccer techniques and tactics and regulations were shown, reviewed and practiced in every activity done in class.

3. Final Reflection- (2-3 minutes):

• As the class comes to a close, the teacher must stimulate students by promoting individual reflection in the form of questions: What concept, from today´s class was the most relevant to you? Are there topics that still need more exploration or that remain unclear?.
• Every student will have 1 minute to consider their answers. Afterward they will be asked by the teacher to share their answers and opinions with the entire class.
• The teacher should give all answers the same respect by encouraging students to freely express opinions and doubts in order to reinforce the concept that reflection is a fundamental step when it comes to acquiring knowledge.

4. Closing remarks and Feedback- (1 minute):

• By way of wrapping the lesson up the teacher must first thank every student for their contributions, offer general feedback regarding the whole lesson and briefly introduce the next lesson’s plan to the class.
• The importance of studying continuously and regularly practicing in order to gain a deeper understanding and mastery of the topic is reinforced in closing remarks by encouraging students to explore this topic in their own free time.
• Always be open to feedback from students in order to better adjust and improve the quality of teaching, using the information gathered as stepping stones in planning future classes.

In following this Feedback plan, the instructor is guaranteeing that all students can reinforce what they learnt during class, establish links between theory and practical aspects of soccer, and also allows them to think, share opinions and clear doubts. It is also a way for the teacher to collect feedback on the quality of the class which in turn will be of assistance in perfecting future sessions.

Conclusion (5-7 minutes)

1. Summary and Recapitulation- (2-3 minutes):

• The teacher should start the Conclusion stage of the lesson with a recapitulation covering all the significant aspects that were reviewed and learned: soccer evolution, its rules, the importance of tactics and strategy and technical components of the game itself.
• This moment can be taken as an opportunity to once more highlight the benefits and value of participating in sports and physical activities, in relation to the improvement of well-being and health for the body and the mind and emphasizing soccer’s significant contribution to society as a means for building cultural awareness through sports while generating social cohesion.

2. Connecting Theory, Practice, and Application- (1-2 minutes):

• The teacher now goes over how classwork, both theoretical and practical aspects, were intertwined throughout this lesson to reinforce understanding. Practical activities provided the context for students to put into practice theoretical information while studying soccer in this context allowed students to explore real-world uses for theory, both on and off the field. The instructor may provide real examples from previous activities done in class and invite students to think of scenarios where soccer knowledge has practical value, further enriching this process.

3. Extension- (1 minute):

• The teacher must now recommend materials for students who seek to gain even more knowledge when it comes to soccer, which include materials such as publications, films, specialized web pages and soccer matches (whether that be going to games in person or viewing on available media platforms). Students are also encouraged to engage in further exploration of their own, including the history of the sport in their country, player or team profiles and following teams of personal interest.

4. Relevance of the Lesson- (1-2 minutes):

• Finally the teacher needs to summarize the reasons why studying and practicing the sport of soccer are so beneficial to students both as players and as individuals outside of sports: it’s important to go over its influence on our culture, the economy and social spheres in order to reinforce its inherent value. Mentioning soccer´s ability to transmit positive qualities like respect, perseverance and discipline among many others. It must be clearly communicated to students how the game of soccer goes beyond the pitch and into society itself
• To wrap things up, aside from offering fun and excitement to players and viewers alike, the game of soccer presents professional possibilities for those wanting to follow a career, both in the sporting aspect of soccer or even related areas such as management, refereeing, journalism and broadcasting.