Eleven Rings: The Soul Of Success

By: Phil Jackson and Hugh Delehanty

SRE 312

By: Joshua Grimard

 Introduction

Context

My goal is to teach 9-12th grade physical education, or establish, if they do not have one,

a strength and conditioning class. My ideal classroom would consist on a student base of 20 to 25

students. The classes will last from 45 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes this can either be set up

in a block or period setting. I want to have plenty of gym space to use so that I will not have to

feel crowded and compete with another class. I want a weight room that has up to date

equipment and machines that I can utilize in my lesson. I also want plenty of outdoor spaces and

fields to use for different games and activities with a full size track around the football field.

The book does have strong language so I will send a letter home to the parents expressing

that their is strong content that is for mature readers. If a students parents do not feel that they

want their student to read the book I will have to create a different assignment for them. My

objective for the content I am giving to my students is that they understand, on their own, that

strengthening your mind is just as important as strengthening your physical body. Also for

students to start to develop leadership skills and different techniques they will use later in life. In

a regular physical education class, I will have the same objective with the students being able to

explain why it is important to have routine and rhythm in activities you do. My SRE before,

during, and after lesson plan will ultimately focus on a strength and conditioning class.

To achieve this objective, there needs to be mutual respect between both the students and

the teachers. I plan to teach this over the course of the whole year with adding different pieces

throughout the year. During physical education, I will teach basketball, softball/baseball, and

volleyball while I implement the lesson of leadership development. The reason that these will be
taught first is that they require physical strength and are team oriented. These sports also require

leaders to emerge to lead their teams. Part of the lesson will be taught during the basketball unit

with the objective that the student will produce evidence that team sports benefit from

syncherization and collective oneness. My lesson will preach that the mind is just as powerful

than physical strength and ability and that a unit or team that has this can be very successful and

can prosper in winning. If I had a strength and conditioning unit I will teach the proper technique

it takes to lift weights to prevent injury, major test lifts I will test the students on, and the

auxiliary lifts they do in the “YMCA” portion of lifting. Teaching the students to have a rhythm

and to stay on beat during the lifts to keep in sync with other members in your lifting group helps

to establish routines and consistent pace which is important in a team sport. Remembering to

keep reminding students that the mind is just as important as the body in either type of classroom

and that the key is to develop each student to become a leader and develop oneness with other

students.

It is important to understand that during this lesson I will be tying the physical education

class with components found in a world religion class and also a music class. As a physical

educator it is important to incorporate many different subjects as possible in mine to show people

the importance that a physical education has to offer students. In my ideal classroom and school I

would go to these teachers and express what I plan on teaching to try and align it when they

teach buddhism and islam along with native american history in the world history class and jazz

in the music class. Having the background information that theses classes provide will be

instrumental for the students that are in these classes. They can pull and add information to the

lesson for students that might not take these classes.

 Introducing reading into a strength and conditioning class may be unheard of and never

used. I know that it is extremely important to stimulate the mind just as much as the physical

body and to utilize every chance you can to teach a reading lesson. This lesson ultimate goal is

for the students to find on their own that it is key to workout both the mind and the body as well

as developing their leadership ability.

Text

The book I am using is called ​Eleven Rings: The Soul Of Success ​by Phil Jackson and

Hugh Delehanty (Jackson, P., Delehanty, H., 2013). This book is a biography/memoir of Phil

Jackson's journey and self realization of what he discovered to be the keys to being a successful

coach in the NBA. I plan on focusing on chapters 1, 2, 4, and 6. The reason I am focusing on

theses chapters is that they discuss leadership skills as well as the usefulness of developing team

unity and discovering your role/destiny on a team or group. Athletes and non athletes benefit

from understanding how to discover their destiny and place in a team or job. Discovering this

will benefit them later in life and exposing this to them now will be extremely beneficial. Also

developing leadership skills and understanding how to follow leaders you like or maybe do not

like is a life skill needed by anyone in any environment. There will always be leaders and

followers but understanding what it is to be in each role will help later in life also. This text will

support the SOL of the fitness instructor FI. 4, social development, subtopics a-d and also FI. 3,

fitness planning, subtopics n-p.

I used the Flesch-Kincaid grade level readability formula and came up with 25.66. I am

not sure how accurate this is because to me this book was very easy to read and understand. For
high school students it should be perfect for them. Of course I will have all the possible questions

written out before so I can prepared for when they have questions.

The embedded text I will provide for the students will be page 228 from the book ​The

Black Elk Reader ​which is edited by Clyde Holler. He discuss more in depth the meaning of the

circle had on the Lakota tribe. I want to show that other subjects have an influence on physical

and mental strength. I plan on photocopying a short passage from this book and have the students

annotate the passage with questions and key themes or interesting facts. When done reading this

text it should help understand why Phil Jackson applied the use of the circle in his leadership

style and philosophy and how it takes more to be a great leader than just telling people what to

do.

Philosophical/Theoretical Rationale

When I teach this lesson to my class I will do it in a progressivist way. There are two

reasons why. The first reason is because I am a progressivist and to teach mindfulness,

selflessness, leadership skills and meditation activities you need to have a student centered class

that can explore and develop these on their own. The second reason is that for the final

assessment it is all their own opinions and what they got out of it. Someone might have a

different reaction compared to me or another person in the class and might want to debate it.

Having a classroom that is student centered will make the students feel less fearful because that

culture of no judging people's opinions has been established day one of class.

The strategies that I will be using in my SRE are journaling and illustrating paired with

contiguous read. I will also use annotating as well as brainstorming to help the students discover

the information given to them. I believe there is a lot journaling can do for a student that will
help them understand the material. When the students combine contiguous read with journaling,

students can easily write down the first impressions they had when they read the embedded

reading along with the primary text for the first time. Lemov explains that the main idea of

contiguous read is to “experience the text as a whole, to glimpse its broad context, to hear its

voice.” (Lemov, D., Driggs, C., & Woolway, E. 2016 p.64). Hopefully when they journal what

they experienced each time they read an article for the first time, they can reflect back on their

improvements in understanding each time I give them an excerpt. Illustrating can also be a

important tool because some students have trouble putting their ideas on paper and might draw it

better instead. I want to give my students as many possibilities as possible to showcase what they

have learned from this lesson.

With the use of annotations with the readings given to them, it helps students understand

the reading better. Having the students read contiguous first then apply the method of annotating

helps reinforce the ideas in the students and helps them understand and find underlying facts and

meanings in the text. Another tool will be the use of brainstorming. There is a whiteboard in the

weightroom that I will utilize as a group writing strategy to see what the students already know

about the subject material.

Lesson Plan

Instructional Objectives

After my students go through the lesson, the students will be able to describe leadership

skills and the importance of team rituals and rhythm to building a successful team or business.

The students will also define the importance of strengthening the mind as well as the body and

what it means to them.

Materials/Equipment

For materials, I will provide the class with photocopies of the different text in the book so

that the students do not need to buy it on their own. I will use these throughout the week each

day providing a different chapter of the book to the students. I will give them the primary text

during the reading phase of BDA. With my embedded text I will also provide copies to the

students so they do not have to buy the text. Since I am only using a small excerpt to have the

students understand the significance that the native americans put into the hoop or circle.

I will use the whiteboard during the before reading phase when I have the class

brainstorm from questions that I ask them and have each student come up and write on the

whiteboard. I will also provide the markers needed for this as well. Also during the before

reading phase, I will hand out the copies of the embedded reading, after they brainstorm together,

to take home and annotate for next class and that will be the start of the during reading phase.

During the reading, I will handout different chapters of the text to the students from the primary

book. I will then tell the students that they will need to buy a composition notebook so that they

can journal everything that they read. After reading, I will have students present in a variety of

ways either by powerpoint or with an illustrating strategy so I will need a classroom in order for

the students who made a powerpoint an opportunity to present.

Before Reading

When I teach this lesson I will have a brainstorming session in order to lay the foundation

for the purpose that I am teaching this lesson. I will ask students these questions; what does the

symbol of the ring/circle mean to you? When I say that someone is a great leader, what traits

come to your mind? What is more important your physical strength or mental strength? Each
question that I ask, the students will go up to the board and brainstorm collectively and come up

with a group answer which we go over as a group and talk about what the students put down.

I will then explain to the students that they will need to buy a composition notebook and

that everytime I hand out an article that they need to annotate it and, in their journals, write what

they think about what they read. From emotions, self realizations they might have made,

different leadership skills they might use, the power of working on your mental strength, and

anything else they think might be important to know in becoming a better leader. This will take

one full day to accomplish the brainstorming and go over what I expect to be in the journals.

I will hand out the embedded reading after the end of the first day and explain to the

students to read the text one time straight through and write down what they found interesting

about the article. Also that they need to annotate it and turn it in to me. I will have an example of

a annotated article that I did for people who may not know what an annotation is.

During Reading

During reading will take 4 days for me to teach. At the end of each day I will handout a

chapter from the primary text ​Eleven Rings: The Soul Of Success. ​At the beginning of each day I

will collect the annotations that they have done so I can grade them on homework and to make

sure that they are doing the readings and understanding the purpose of the readings. I will then

split the class up and have them do small group discussions about the what they read. I will roam

around the class and listen to hear what they got out of each section to see if that it matches up

with the objective I have for them. I will then have each group talk about what they came up

with, as a group, that was the most important part of the chapter to them and why. I will then
explain about the main topic each chapter that I gave them was and why it is important that they

understand it.

For the first day, I will have the students tell me about why they think I gave them a

reading on native american history and the importance of the circle. I will then give them

Chapter one of the primary text so we can read it in class together. The main activity on this day

I will have the students in small groups of 5 read the text I give them and discuss about the

meaning of the ring/circle. Then, for the activity, I will assign each group a stage of tribe

development and have them draw a comic strip about what it would look if members of the tribe

interacted together. I will have the groups present to the class what they drew and why they drew

it that way. I will than hand out chapter 6 of the text to them. The reason I went with chapter 6 is

because it talks more about the native american spirit and rituals.

The second day I will have the students turn in the annotated article to me. This day we

will do this activity called mission impossible. This is when you split up into two teams and the

goal is to get to one end of the floor using a variety of equipment I lay out to them. I want the

students to understand, from their reading, that the goal of the group is more important than that

of the individual and that each person on the team plays a unique and important role to the team.

I will then hand out chapter and tell them that when they read this chapter to pick one of the

“Jackson Eleven” on page 11 and write a paragraph on why this one form of leadership is one

that they might use later on when they are a leader.

The third day I will collect the annotations from the students and I will also collect the

paragraph they had to do for homework. I will ask any of the students to share what they choose

and why if they are comfortable to. Then we will do the same game as last time but this time I
will assign a leader to each team and have 4 teams instead of the 2. The goal being that they

learned some different types of leadership skills that they will use. Each person in the group will

have a turn at being the leader of the group and the terrain of the gym and types of equipment

will change each time the leaders switch. I will then ask them to write down in their journals how

it was to be the leader and a follower and what was easy and hard about each job. I will then give

them the next chapter of the text which will be chapter 4.

The last day I will have the students turn in the annotations to me. The chapter discusses

meditation techniques so in class I will be teaching them the power of controlling your mind and

how meditation helps relieve stress and how it strengthens your mind. Also I will be teaching

them yoga and some different positions that help with flexibility. I will have the students write in

their journals about how they felt when they meditated and what they thought about yoga and

what they felt about it.

After Reading

This part will take them one month which I will introduce to them the final assessment

project to them. They will have one month to demonstrate what they have learned about

leadership skills and the importance of strengthening the mind. They have full creative freedom

in how to present the findings to the class and me. I will give them one month to create the

presentation in which they will be able to use the annotated articles, which I will give back to

them at the beginning of the one month. At the end of the month I will have them turn into me

their journals and their articles so I can grade them both. They will then present the findings over

two days, half will go on one day and the other half on the second day. The reason for this is to
help the students retain what they read and show that they understand the reasons why the

needed to learn this lesson.

Assessment

For my summative assessment I will have the students present the findings that they

found in the readings and to demonstrate to me and the rest of the class what they found. I will

give the students the freedom to choose how they want to present the information. There are

some requirements that I want. One is that they demonstrate some leadership skills and

techniques and the second is that they explain the importance of strengthening your mind. The

presentation will last from 4-6 minutes. They will send me the project or give me it if they have

made something.

Reflection

I thought it was pretty challenging to and reading and writing strategies in a classroom

like this but the more I wrote the more ideas came to me. Some strengths to my plan would be

that I let my students have the freedom to learn and discover everything I want them to on their

own. Also giving them different options to present the material at the end of the lesson is a way

of differentiating the product to the interest and learning profile of the students. Some things I

could improve on would be more embedded readings and activities for them. I think that the

students that take this class are interested in physical activity and sports so they will respond to

each of the activities and be engaged the whole time.

I think in the future this has helped me develop confidence in adding reading to my

physical education class. That was something that I found to be challenging this whole class was
how to add texts to my class that is not a health setting. But I have definitely got a grasp on how

to do it and will and readings into my class in the future.

Reference Page

Daniels. H,. Steineke, N. & Zelmen S.

Content Area Writing: Every Teacher’s Guide Jornal. ​Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Holler, C. (2000). ​The Black Elk Reader​. Retrieved April 15, 2018, from

https://books.google.com/books?id=NUwUv67oRQcC&pg=PA224&lpg=PA224&dq=the

member of a tribe, and being a member, he never acted against, apart from, or as the whole

without good

reason&source=bl&ots=UmebFop1r2&sig=MYousc-v67A7qVLcZ70XNcjXTYk&hl=en&sa=X

&ved=0ahUKEwjMlIHL9rzaAhWRl-AKHY5AD_MQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=Circle&f=fals

Jackson, P., & Delehanty, H. (2014). ​Eleven rings: The soul of success​. New York: Penguin

Press.

Lemov, D., Driggs, C., & Woolway, E. (2006).​ Reading Reconsidered: A Practical Guide to

Rigorous Literacy Instruction​. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass & Pfeiffer Imprints, Wiley.

Embedded Text

https://books.google.com/books?id=NUwUv67oRQcC&pg=PA224&lpg=PA224&dq=the+mem

ber+of+a+tribe,+and+being+a+member,+he+never+acted+against,+apart+from,+or+as+the+wh

ole+without+good+reason&source=bl&ots=UmebFop1r2&sig=MYousc-v67A7qVLcZ70XNcjX

TYk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjMlIHL9rzaAhWRl-AKHY5AD_MQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepag

e&q=Circle&f=false

SOL
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/physical_education/2015/stds_2015_phy

sed.pdf