Assignment 3A

A grouping pattern that I would use and I read about in multiple places is called flexible groups. In flexible groups students work in either partners, small groups or large groups. All of which are done in a physical education setting in a one to two 50 minute class per week. Flexible groups allows students to work with all of their classmates over a period of time, well before half of the school year is over. I want all of my students in a class to experience working with others because using positive communication and collaboration strategies is important for their futures. 

As for heterogenous grouping in a PE setting, I would put students of different physical abilities in the same cooperative learning group. Allowing the students the opportunity to work with different physical abilities to learn different and new strategies from one another. A homogeneous group in a PE setting, students of the same level of physical ability would be placed in the same group. This grouping strategy I would try and stay away from because I do not want those who are advanced learners all together and those who are low achieving learners together because the low achieving learners will see that they are not the best and this could lower their self esteem and that is the last thing I want in my classroom. I will always lean more toward a heterogenous group in PE so that different physical ability students learn and work off of one another. A mixture of both would work too because it would have different abilities and some students with the same level of ability and those with the same level of ability can collectively work together to help others or learn from others. 

Based off Gardner's Intelligences the first group configuration I would pick would be bodily-kinesthetic. This would work for, whole group, small group, peer pairs and individual design. In all group settings the students can interpret the content of a lesson and execute it with their bodies.The second that I would pick would be linguistic, finding the right words to express what you mean, this would be best for whole group, small group, peer pairs and individuals. It would work for all groups in a PE setting because I want my students to be able to think about their thoughts and the content of a lesson and then find it within themselves to use the right words to express themselves with themselves or others. Working with others and being able to collaborate effectively is a skill students will need throughout their entire lives. Intra-personal would be the last of the intelligences that I would pick and this would be specifically for individual design. I want the students to learn how to understand themselves, what they feel and what they want. By understanding themselves it will help them to be able to work in small or large groups, especially if they know how to effectively share their thoughts. 

All students learn differently and interpret information differently as well, so by mixing up groups and having all kinds of learners contribute to large and small groups and students doing work individually it gives the students many different opportunities to not only learn the content and understand it to increase their performance. In physical education I feel it is easier for students of all abilities to work together toward success because they can ask questions to learn off one another or observe and watch and execute a skill. Standards are different for all grades in a PE setting, they build off of one another as the children get older but there is differentiation for the students. Differentiation is important because if there was only one pathway to reach those standards then not all students would be successful. By differentiating it gives the students multiple different pathways for success. 

"Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose." - Lyndon B. Johnson