Findings

= Findings from the Study =



Of the 50 students polled at the beginning of the New Year, it was abundantly clear that the main reason for participating in intramural sports was for fun, deemed the # 1 choice by 89% of the EFI students asked and chosen first 81% of the time for the LFI students. What is more interesting, although not reflected in the above graph, was that 77% of the LFI students chose "being with friends" as their second choice while only 21% of LFI marked it as their second choice. From these graphed results, it was also clear that I was going to choose the EFI student who indicated "being part of the school community" as his first choice as I was very curious to what he would have to say.

Audio with student talking about "school community": media type="file" key="EFI Gr 6.WMA"

Students were also asked if they would continue to play intramural sports even if no one from their class would be placed on their team.

These results were not surprising to me. The grade 6/7 EFI students make up 4 classes in our school, meaning that if students were not placed on in a team with students from their class, they would nevertheless be placed with students that they have going to school with since Kindergarten. Whereas for the Late Immersion students, there is only one class at each grade level (6&7), so if I eliminated their ability to be with somebody from their class, there was no fall-back plan in their eyes and the cushion of support needed for some students was no longer there. I did realize after analyzing the results that the case could be made that having fun is strongly linked to being with friends, thus making it difficult for students to decipher between the two when selecting their primary reason. In the future, I would re-word the choices to be more clear. In this recording, an LFI answers the question about being part of a team minus her classmates. media type="file" key="LFI Female 1.WMA"

A theme that became evident over the course of the paper and audio surveys was a sense that choosing an intramural sport that appealed to a wider range of students would lead to a higher participation rate, meaning more Late and Early French Immersion students would be given the occasion to interact and work towards a similar goal.

Questionnaire results for new intramural sport:

From this questionnaire, it was an easy decision to select Dodgeball to be the new intramural sport. 68% of students selected Dodgeball for reasons that ranged from fun to a more even playing field to a less precise skill set required. 78% of Early Immersion students chose dodgeball compared with 55% of Late Immersion students.

After looking at these results, I could also not ignore the 23% of Late Immersion students who thought that Flag Football may be the answer. The "Mini Superbowl" was organized as a result of these findings. ( see study design, interventions, flow chart).

Dodgeball was announced as the latest Intramural sport towards the end of January, just following the successful Superbowl afternoon. The Student Council made the announcement over the PA system and my class helped to write an article for the monthly newsletter. Student groups circulated to classes to pass out participation forms. Here is the chart showing the Dodgeball Participants:

The overwhelming turnout for the Dodgeball intramural program was significant for the research. 62% of EFI students and 66% of LFI students are involved in the sport. Students have also been more involved in officiating and scorekeeping and there is an overall sense of having ownership of the program. While the measure of social interactions between LFI & EFI students has proved less tangible to assess, the opportunity for the majority of students to be working together for a common goal appeared to generate a more positive environment. The gym was packed at noon hours as players and supporters came together to join in on the fun.

Informal observations while in the gym at lunch hour also led to some discoveries:

Specatators making attempts to learn players names (often new LFI students) in order to cheer for them LFI students taking leadership roles on their teams ( most often when supported by another LFI student) Positive and frequent interactions between LFI & EFI teamates ( certain LFI students had no other members from their class on their team, yet appeared comfortable and included)

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