WHAT IS POSSIBLE?
  • Welcome
  • All Things Teaching and Learning
  • The Aligned Leader Blog
  • Consulting and Coaching Opportunities
  • My TED X Talk
  • My Leadership Blog
  • Run Your Life Podcast Series
  • How PYP PE with Andy Has Helped Others
  • Good Teaching is L.I.F.E
  • The Sportfolio
  • Example Assessment Tasks
  • PYP Attitude Posters (printable)
  • Publications

LEADERSHIP, LEARNING, &  PErsonal Growth

Guest Blog: Thoughts by Mark Baxter

3/7/2012

1 Comment

 

Mark Baxter was trained and began his teaching career in England. His international teaching journey has led him to the middle east, China, and currently Toronto, Canada where he teaches at Upper Canada College. He has been a PYP PE workshop leader since 2007 and has been involved in PYP PE curriculum development since 2004. I first met Mark in Toronto, Canada at one of the workshops he was hosting in 2008. I'd like to thank Mark for his guest blog contribution! 


Differentiation and concept-based games teaching
I’m sure I’m not alone in having students complain, “No-one is passing to me” during a game in PE.

With the huge range of ability in classes, I often find myself conditioning games in order to keep everyone involved. This can be done by making an every team member has to touch the ball before you shootrule. Rules like these are great for keeping less confident students engaged.

However, they can also undermine the understandings that we are trying to develop when teaching games. The every team member has to touch the ball rule can, for example, undermine the concept of creating open space in order to create scoring opportunities; a team creates a fantastic scoring opportunity in front of the goal and then remembers that one of their team members (who might be in an extremely disadvantageous position) has yet to touch the ball and makes a pass that results in a lost scoring opportunity. The defenders, too, might be busy marking that one remaining player instead of defending the target, as they should be doing in an authentic situation. 

Authenticity is the key to teaching game concepts. So, in a class where there is a large range in ability, I believe there is great merit in differentiating according to ability/experience level. If some students are not ready to compete with the strongest students, then give them the opportunity to play with a group of peers at a similar level. These homogenous groups can play with modified rules to make the concepts more accessible (e.g. in a basketball unit, some students might be ready to play with dribbling, while others play with no dribbling to simplify the skills required and the decisions they have to make – the concept of finding/making space in order to shoot remains the same). The authenticity comes not in playing the real rules (i.e. full versions of games), but by creating authentic situations that isolate important game concepts (e.g. creating space, shooting under pressure from an opponent, defending in a 2 on 1 situation). These activities are far more meaningful if they are challenging for everyone and this is best achieved by grouping according to ability. 

Differentiating in this way helps us to honour the game concepts and presents a challenging and authentic context for all students to develop their understanding and movement skills in games. With Primary students, small-sided games are always the way to go; these games provide the perfect opportunity to be deliberate about group selections that will help everyone to be fully involved in a meaningful way. 

Of course, there are plenty of occasions when heterogeneous groupings are ideal, such as in game creation activities or where peers teach skills to one another. For game play, I believe ability-based groups are the way to go.

1 Comment
David Bell link
6/8/2014 02:14:21 am

Is that THE Mark Baxter that used to work in Choeifat Sharjah - Apologies if not!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Author

    KAUST Faculty, Pedagogical Coach. Presenter & Workshop Leader.IB Educator. #RunYourLife podcast host. 
    Speaker. Husband, Father, Golfer #Physed #TedX

    Check out my about.me profile!
    Tweets by @andyvasily

    Archives

    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2021
    October 2020
    January 2020
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    June 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011

    RSS Feed

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Welcome
  • All Things Teaching and Learning
  • The Aligned Leader Blog
  • Consulting and Coaching Opportunities
  • My TED X Talk
  • My Leadership Blog
  • Run Your Life Podcast Series
  • How PYP PE with Andy Has Helped Others
  • Good Teaching is L.I.F.E
  • The Sportfolio
  • Example Assessment Tasks
  • PYP Attitude Posters (printable)
  • Publications