Lesson Reflection & Questions on Differentiation!

I decided to do my differentiation lesson on my basketball unit. The lesson objectives that I covered were dribbling and passing within the basketball context. I pre-assessed for this lesson based on observation and a small checklist that I used to look at the student's skills. I used different balls for this lesson which included regular sized balls, playground balls, and smaller basketballs. Using the different types of balls was to ensure success regarding the different abilities within the class. During the lesson I had the students partner with another person in class. Each partner group had one ball, a hula hoop and a rope that went under the hula hoop on the ground. The objective was for one partner to stand outside the hoop and dribble the ball in the hoop while the other person moved very slowly pulling the rope that the hoop is connected to. The students were trying to stay in control of the ball while dribbling the ball in the hula hoop. The product was dribbling within the hoop. For some of the students I had the partner not move the hoop and they just had to keep the ball dribbling within the hoop not moving which worked for the different ability levels. The assessment consisted of observation during the activity and having the students complete a self-assessment. Can you dribble with one hand or both? This lesson helps in future instruction to differentiate and keep thinking of new ideas. It also showed me that observation is extremely important and that skills are intra-connected. This did not affect my case study student since I see him 1:1 and this was a group lesson for one of my classes. What I learned about this topic was that teachers should adapt instruction to meet the individual needs of all the learners in the classroom. Differentiation is also when all students participate in a respectful work.