Page 60 - The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9-12: Health and Physical Education, 2015 - revised

THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 9–12 | Health and Physical Education
4. Student-Centred, Skill-Based Learning
• Are program activities and instruction differentiated to provide all students with relevant and engaging learning experiences, so that all students can experience success?
• Are the activities adaptable to meet diverse individual needs and abilities?
• Are instructions clear and succinct and delivered at intervals throughout the
lesson, in order to allow for maximum activity and learning?
• Are modified and small-group activities used often, to allow for maximum participation?
• Are students given opportunities to make choices and to adapt the boundaries and level of challenge of activities, the type of equipment used, group sizes, and other features, as well as to choose topics for discussion?
• Are students actively involved in discussing and clarifying criteria for learning?
• Are questioning techniques being used to reveal meaning and to encourage
student engagement in, reflection about, and sense of responsibility for learning?
5. Balanced, Integrated Learning With Relevance to Students’ Lives
• Are individual students experiencing the optimal degree of challenge in their
learning, with tasks that are not too difficult and not too easy?
• Does the program integrate learning in health education and learning in physical education, in a way that helps students understand that both are essential for healthy, active living?
• Are a variety of activities presented throughout the year and over the course of a student’s experience in the program?
• Does instruction make use of real-life examples, field trips, and communication with parents, community members, and elders so that students’ learning in health and physical education is reflected and reinforced in both home and community environments?
Planning and Scheduling Instruction for the Healthy Active Living Education Courses
High-quality instruction in health and physical education is integrated in such a way that students have opportunities to make connections between concepts and skills in all three strands of the curriculum and in the living skill expectations.
Planning of the health education component of the Healthy Active Living Education
courses requires careful consideration of when material should be taught explicitly and when topics and concepts can be integrated with learning in physical education and linked to learning in other subjects. Teaching health sporadically or when gymnasium facilities are being used for other purposes will not provide adequate opportunities for learning. Thirty per cent of instructional time should be allocated to health education. Ways of managing instruction will vary from school to school, depending on student needs, timetabling, and available facilities. If more than one teacher is responsible for teaching different parts of the health and physical education curriculum, communication and collaboration between these teachers for instructional planning, evaluation, and reporting is essential.
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