Meeting a Variety of Ability Levels in P.E.

How do you include less abled mentally and physically students into a normal fitness routine?

The amazing concept behind Physical Education classes is that they encompass both physical and mental health. When students are engaged in P.E. class they have feelings that will be enhanced due to the physical component, while they still have to be mentally focused to ensure social and physical safety. When evaluating less-abled students either physically or mentally teachers decide in accordance with an IEP will decide what level of P.E. will benefit them the most. For the purpose of this blog post I will base my content on students who are less-abled mentally or physically, but do not to be fully emerged into an Adaptive P.E. classes.

Inclusion of less-abled students into mainstream classrooms is very beneficial when done properly. The less-abled students will still have a chance to meet learning targets while able students will have opportunities to grow as leaders and still meet similar learning targets. As Julie N. Causton-Theoharis (2009) states that the golden rule in working with less-abled students is to, “support others as you would wish to be supported.” P.E. teachers can support less-abled students by treating them the same as abled students while still meeting standards required in a P.E. classrooms.

Attached is a lesson below where I altered the lesson to meet inclusion needs while still balancing the able students learning targets. My objective was to provide a learning environment where lesser-abled (psychomotor) student feel safe mentally and physically and have opportunities to meet learning targets while, more able (psychomotor) students are also challenged and expected to meet the same learning targets. Some of my strategies to make sure the class was able to obtain learning targets included:

-Activities to create a positive/safe learning environment (ice breakers)

-Student following personal SMART goals (to reduce judgment or comparison to others)

-The use of TRX training equipment to reduce the chance for injury

-Pairing fitness partners together appropriately

-Spending some time on self reflection
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