20
2012
Minerals 3 (differentiation for *dummies?)
An article by Stephen Pritchard
My ongoing exploration of the minerals element of Learning Nutrition has begun to show some progress. I have continued to offer a range of activities but am now moving to the 3* menu. An increased awareness of the language I use has brought about some more change!
Whilst, when I give a range of practices initially, most groups continue to start from the beginning and progress from there, I feel progress has been made as follows:
More advanced players/groups are progressing through the drills more quickly, so I have begun to bring the whole group together to reveal the next stages. I think this has the benefit of allowing everyone to see what they can aspire to achieve. The pleasing aspect was what happened next. By emphasising the element of choice through my language, a situation arrived where some groups moved backwards to easier practices, whilst others decided they were ready to take on the new challenges. I had four courts all operating with a full range of activities (around a theme) going on. The success of any accelerated learning is still at this stage dependant upon me selecting an appropriate range of practices, but maybe I’ve found an easy way to differentiate – let the players decide. *The dummies I refer to in the title would be folk like me – coaches in a community rather than education setting – not the players!
All of the above works because the players are motivated and chose to come along. I don’t have the challenge that practitioners working in schools may face (behaviour, disinterest etc) so making these changes is quite easy in this setting…so far…
