Page 57 - The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9-12: Health and Physical Education, 2015 - revised

A Differentiated Approach to Teaching and Learning
An understanding of students’ strengths and needs, as well as of their backgrounds, life experiences, and possible emotional vulnerabilities, can help teachers plan effective instruction and assessment. Teachers continually build their awareness of students’ learning strengths and needs by observing and assessing their readiness to learn, their interests, and their learning styles and preferences. As teachers develop and deepen their understanding of individual students, they can respond more effectively to the students’ needs by differentiating instructional approaches – adjusting the method or pace of instruction, using different types of resources, allowing a wider choice of topics, even adjusting the learning environment, if appropriate, to suit the way their students learn and how they are best able to demonstrate their learning. Unless students have an Individual Education Plan with modified curriculum expectations, what they learn continues to be guided by the curriculum expectations and remains the same for
all students.
Lesson Design
Effective lesson design involves several important elements. Teachers engage students
in a lesson by activating their prior learning and experiences, clarifying the purpose for learning, and making connections to contexts that will help them see the relevance and usefulness of what they are learning. Teachers select instructional strategies to effectively introduce concepts, and consider how they will scaffold instruction in ways that will best meet the needs of their students. At the same time, they consider when and how to check students’ understanding and to assess their progress towards achieving their learning goals. Teachers provide multiple opportunities for students to apply their knowledge and skills and to consolidate and reflect on their learning. A three-part lesson design (e.g., “Minds On, Action, and Consolidation”) is often used to structure these elements.
Instructional Approaches in Health and Physical Education
Instruction in health and physical education should help students acquire the knowledge, skills, and attributes they need in order to achieve the curriculum expectations and be able to enjoy and participate in healthy active living for years to come. In health and physical education, instruction is effective if it motivates students and instils positive habits of mind, such as curiosity and open-mindedness; a willingness to think, question, challenge, and be challenged; and an awareness of the value of listening or reading closely and communicating clearly. To be effective, instruction must be based on the belief that all students can be successful and that learning in health and physical education is important and valuable for all students.
When planning a program in health and physical education, teachers must take into account a number of important considerations, including those discussed below.
Instruction should emphasize constructivist teaching and experiential learning. Constructivist teaching, which emphasizes the role of the teacher as co-learner and facilitator, promotes authentic experiential learning and learning through inquiry, provides engagement through student-initiated work, creates a sense of community through teamwork and collaboration, and provides options to accommodate different learning styles and intelligences. This experiential and student-centred approach is particularly important in health and physical education because it allows the teacher to respond to a range of experience, backgrounds,
SOME CONSIDERATIONS FOR PROGRAM PLANNING
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