Differentiated Instruction Project on P1 Tossing and Catching

Catering to Diverse Learners

The PE teachers at Qihua Primary School recognize that our students come with various prior learning experiences related to their culture, gender, ability, interests, and opportunities. Teachers need to plan and provide a quality and inclusive learning environment which allows all students to develop the motivation and confidence to engage in physical activity. We feel Differentiated Instruction (DI) is an effective approach as “DI is a teacher’s planned and adaptive response to meet the diverse learning needs of all students to maximize their progress in learning” (SkillsFuture for Educators, 2020). We had the privilege and honour to collaborate with PESTA Master Teacher Miss Mabel Yong, Miss Karen Low Lai Fong and PESTA Academy Officer Mr Lee Wung Yew for a DI Project on P1 Tossing and Catching. We hope to modify curriculum content and organize and design lesson activities and outcomes to support our P1 students with different readiness, skill levels, and interests.

Identifying DI Strategies and Success Criteria 

The team discussed and decided to use Tiered Instruction as the primary DI strategy. Tiered Instruction is a DI strategy where activities are designed to teach the same skill or concept but at varying levels or degrees of challenge. Formative Assessments such as pre-and post-assessments were deployed. Pre-assessment served as a diagnostic test and helped the teachers identify groups of students who needed more assistance or specialized remediation. After a series of remediation, a post-assessment was done to evaluate students’ attainment of knowledge and skills.

Teachers assign different tiers to the activities as alternative ways of reaching the same goals considering individual student needs. Tiers may be based on ability level, interest, or learning style. (Kathy Perez, 2019). Tossing and catching were divided into various station-centred activities: At level 0 station, students were required to perform a two-handed toss and a two-handed catch with a small object. On the other hand, the level 1 (Beginning) station required students to complete a two-handed toss and two-handed catch with any small object above the portable badminton net height. At the level 2 (Developing) station, students need to perform a one-handed toss and two-handed catch above the portable badminton net height. At the level 3 (Competent) station, students must do a two-handed toss and one-handed catch with any small object above the portable badminton net height. Lastly, at the level 4 (Accomplished) station, students were to perform a one-handed toss and one-handed catch. To progress to the next level, students must complete six consecutive tosses and catch successfully without dropping the object, taking only one step away from the spot marker. In addition, students were given the autonomy to choose their equipment according to their interests and readiness level. 

Understanding Students’ Readiness, Interests and Learning Profiles

Four Primary 1 classes participated in the DI project, which consisted of 5 lessons in the school hall or open court. Various equipment, for example, portable badminton nets, hula hoops, floorball balls and bean bags, were used. Assessment resources included a toss-and-catch cues checklist and video recording devices. The P1 PE teachers started the lesson by checking students’ prior knowledge and questioning them about a toss. Next, the teachers demonstrated an underhand throw and a toss and asked students which demonstration was a toss. Around 61% of P1 students thought a toss was an underhand throw. Next, a pre-assessment on tossing and catching was done so that teachers could evaluate students' strengths, weaknesses, readiness and skills before instruction. Figure 1 below illustrates the team’s findings during pre-assessment. We tested students at level 4 before moving to levels 3, 2 and 1. We wanted to engage all learners; students who achieved level 4 could achieve levels 1 to 3. We identified these students as  High Progress (HP) learners for peer coaching and assessment in subsequent lessons. The pre-assessment also allows the team to identify suitable levels for students who could not achieve level 4. Understanding students’ readiness through the pre-assessment significantly increases students’ motivation and facilitates students’ further learning. 

Exploring Different Combinations and Equipment and Identifying Areas for Growth

In lesson 2, students got to explore using different equipment such as big sponge balls, bean bags, floorball balls, shuttlecocks and small sponge balls for the various tossing and catching combinations, namely two-handed toss and two-handed catch, one-handed toss and two-handed catch, two-handed toss and one-handed catch and one-handed toss and one-handed catch. Figure 2 illustrates the different equipment and students’ exploration with different combinations of tossing and catching. The self-tossing and catching cues were taught to students in lesson 3. During lesson 2, PE teachers were able to identify areas for growth; for instance, some students were throwing the object either backwards, not high enough or too high, palms were facing inwards instead of upwards, students tended to flip the bean bag by holding to the end of the bean bag, and eyes were not on the object. After identifying the areas for growth, teachers remediated by co-constructing self-tossing and catching cues with students. An example was to help students hold the beanbag on their palm and not by the ends of the beanbag; PE teachers designed teaching cues - hands out, palms up and asked students what the cues looked like. One student said it looked like a pancake. Hence pancake was used as a learning cue. 

Advancing Students through Formative Assessment (FA)

In lesson 4, the PE teachers continued to scaffold students’ growth for success by deploying FA via conversations, observations and evaluations. Figure 3 illustrates the various FA strategies used. The team activated students’ metacognition by questioning students through engaging in self-reflection. For example, students were asked to reflect on and articulate their choice of equipment for the various tosses and catches. Scan the QR code in Figure 4 to listen to what the students had to say about why there was a change in equipment used for pre-and post-assessment. Identifying their successes and failures and which strategies work best or have failed, increases students’ motivation to persevere and improve their performance. When students have the autonomy to choose their preferred equipment, they also learn to take ownership of their learning. 

Teachers also observed and gave feedback on students’ performance, and students watched a personal demonstration by the PE teacher on improving their toss and catch. Based on teachers’ feedback, HP students were roped in to peer-coach Middle Progress (MP) and Low Progress (LP) students with the teacher’s guidance, if needed, by observing their performance and suggesting ways to improve it, e.g. change of equipment, eyes on equipment. If the HP student was IT savvy, they could also video record LP and MP students’ performance so that they could watch and evaluate their toss and catch. After the assessment, the HP students would notify the teacher when the MP and LP students could perform the tosses and catch successively.

A post-assessment was conducted in lesson 5 to identify if students had met the learning objectives and evaluate how much learning had occurred. 

Table 1 highlights the conclusive findings of our project and represents the student’s improvement over the four classes. There was a 65% improvement in overall students’ performance. A detailed breakdown of data is also projected on students’ various achievements, ranging from the progress of one level to more than three levels.

In totality, the numerical data suggested a strong correlation between DI and the effectiveness of students’ learning. Adopting the DI strategies had enriched the learning experiences for our students, which in turn translated to an overall improvement in students’ performance.

Team Reflections 

I find the use of tiering strategy in which station-centred tasks are being created has greatly increased the students' participation in the activities. They can be seen trying and were eager to show the teachers that they could do it, and they were motivated when they could move to the next higher level.

Mr Casey Lee 

Capitalizing on Differentiated Instruction’s effectiveness enables us to develop different modes and variations of learning tasks. Therefore, it creates an inclusive environment to support students of varying learning styles by leveraging their strengths and allowing them to reflect and translate their thoughts into actions.

Mr Shawn Teo 

Through Formative Assessment and Differentiated Instruction, we can provide better learning experiences to our students using various methods such as varying the required outcome, scaffolding the cues further, using ICT tools or making use of more knowledgeable others to guide them.

Mr Kiat Ying Xin 

Lessons were designed to be developmentally appropriate and differentiating at various levels to help students achieve the same learning goals using adaptations. Students’ engagement in learning is more evident as DI addresses students’ achievement gaps and progress them to more advanced levels, regardless of their learning styles and background.

Ms Tan Yee Lay

Conclusion

To meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population, teachers must work together to acquire new understandings and adopt more sensitive student-centric approaches to teaching and learning. (A/P Mary Anne Heng National Institute of Education, 2019). The P1 PE teachers came on board the DI journey with an open mind and the focus of modifying curriculum content, learning activities and outcomes to meet the diverse needs of our learners. 

With the successful implementation of the DI strategies for P1 tossing and catching, the team shared with other members during the PE meetings. We all unanimously decided to integrate the DI lesson plans into our P1 PHE Scheme of Work. To further promote the use of DI in the department, members also took turns to share the DI efforts they had made to serve diverse learners in their PE lessons during department PLC to transfer learning, in the hope of “improving our teaching so that as many students as possible maximize their potential.” (Tomlinson, 2015)

Contributed by: 

Mr Casey Lee (PE teacher), Mr Kiat Ying Xin (P6 AYH), Mr Shawn Teo (PE teacher) and Miss Tan Yee Lay (HOD PE, CCA and Aesthetics)

For queries, pls contact tan_yee_lay@moe.edu.sg.

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