General Strategies

Below are effective teaching strategies that can be used in physical education that align with and supplements SHAPE America's Appropriate Practices. We suggest that when trying to improve your teaching practices, start small with 1 or 2 strategies and build from there. Trying to do too much can become overwhelming and detract from your lesson. 

Introduction With Set Induction and Checking for Understanding

​The introduction is an important part of each lesson. This is an opportunity for teachers to review students' prior learning and connect the content of the current lesson to the students. Studies show that when students perceive content to be relevant and meaningful, they are: more engaged, have more positive perceptions of the lesson, and are more likely to use the learning outcomes outside of class.
Communicating the relevance is especially important at the beginning of units because “selling” the content ("set induction") increases student engagement. Since each student has different needs and interests, the more relevant and meaningful benefits you present for the lesson/unit, the more students you will reach. Be creative!

The introduction is also the time when a teacher can preemptively answer students' questions before they are asked. By giving a quick overview of the lesson, teachers  eliminate the question “What are we doing?” and inform the students of what they will be able to accomplish by the end of the lesson.
It is also when you ​inform students of the lesson's expectations and if/how they will be held accountable (ie. assessment). High expectations lead to higher levels of achievement and self efficacy, and informing students of accountability measures can lead to higher levels of engagement.​ ​

​​Lastly, "checking for understanding" is a quick way to know whether your instructions to the students are communicated in a clear manner. By asking a specific question instead of the general “Are there any questions?”, teachers find out how many students understood what was said and provides students an additional opportunity to re-hear the information (from the teacher and other students). See the following types of checking for understanding:​​​
  • Performance Check: "Point to your finger pads."
  • ​Recognition Check: "Give me a thumbs up if you understand or a thumbs down if you are not sure."
  • ​Verbal Check: "What do you do when the music stops?"

Demonstrations and Cues

Demonstrations in physical education are both motivational and instructional. Seeing a specific skill or combination of skills in action can stimulate student interest and breaking down the skill instructs the students on the key elements that will enable them to be successful. 
Demonstration:
  • Demonstrate the whole skill first, break it down into its key components, and then re-demonstrate it (whole-part-whole).
  • Demonstrate the skill in regular and slow speed (some skills may be difficult to demonstrate in pieces and will need to be shown in their entirety at normal speed).
  • Demonstrate the skill authentically. If it requires equipment, demonstrate with equipment. If it requires 2 people, use 2 people. 
  • Have the entire class follow along with the demonstration when appropriate. ​​
  • ​Use students to assist in demonstrations when appropriate.
  • Use technology, such as displaying videos and GIFs on a projector.
​Cues:
  • ​Only give 1-3 cues at a time depending on the complexity of the skill and the developmental level of the students (less cues for younger students).
  • Make the cues short and memorable, and reiterate them throughout the lesson.
  • When needed, have students say cues aloud while performing the skill. You can also use rhymes to help them remember.

Providing Feedback

  • ​Focuses on the cues that were recently given ("congruent feedback").​
  • ​Given in a timely manner.​
  • ​​​Specific to each student. For example, saying “good job” does not give the student any indication of what he or she did well. Instead tell the student which specific cues he or she performed well, such as "good job following through."
  • Keep it positive and use the sandwich approach: tell them one thing they did well, one thing to improve, and end with another positive comment.​
  • Involve students in the feedback process.

Lesson Closure

​The lesson's closure is an excellent opportunity to review the students' accomplishments and assess what they have learned. It should tie back to the introduction and reinforce the relevance of the content. Keep in mind that students do not have to be inactive during the closure (ie. providing closing information during cool-downs or having students demonstrate the skills learned that day). Also see these 22 Powerful Closure Activities from Edutopia.

Developmentally Appropriate Activities

Students come in all ages/sizes and with different experiences. Modify your tasks to meet their capabilities and use small sided games to maximize practice opportunities for all.​
Entertaining Videos Playlist
Different Ways to Modify Tasks
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Highlighting Learning Objectives With Non-Traditional Scoring

Below are examples of how to change a scoring system to promote specific behaviors and skills. The winning team may not be the one that scored the most traditional points! They were designed with 20 challenges to show variety; we recommend having less that 20 challenges in a K-12 context.
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Additional Teaching Practices

  • Autonomy: Give students opportunities to work on what they individually need to work on and at their own pace. Also provide leadership opportunities.
  • Back to the Wall: Position yourself throughout the lesson so that you are able to observe all students at all times.
  • Be Caring but Demanding: Make it clear to the students that your job is to teach them the skills and concepts that will help them become active for a lifetime.
  • Challenges: Giving students short term goals for the lesson can increase motivation. For example: "How many passes can you complete in a row?” or "Can you stay on beat with the music for the entire song?"
  • Choices: When you can, give students choices in activities and assessments. There is more than one way to learn and assess a learning objective.
  • Distractions: Face students away from distractions when giving instructions (such as other classes, extra equipment not being used, the sun, etc.). 
  • Diversity: Include diversity (gender, race, ableness, body types, etc.) in your printed materials, examples, demonstrations, and other teaching practices.
  • Enthusiasm: Be excited in your lessons and "sell" the content to the students. If you're not interested in the content, your students will not be either.
  • ​Environment: Create a print rich environment (example bulletin boards from PECentral) and find ways to highlight student work and achievements. For example, have a place on the wall where students can sign their name after each achievement is attained (can be a personal goal or class goal). The more achievements, the more times the students can sign their names. This inclusive strategy allows all students to be recognized without singling out high and low performers.​​​
  • Get to Know Your Student Population: Students are different from school to school and class to class. Some contextual factors to consider include: Community Values, Ethnicity (language, cultural practices, etc.), Special Populations (English Language Learners, students with disabilities, transient students, etc.), Socioeconomic Status, Gang Populations, School Culture and Policies, School Funding (class sizes, facilities and resources, teacher salaries, etc.), School Status (NCLB, academic probation, etc.), and Violence. See this descriptive table of how some of these contextual factors can influence your program.
  • Get to Know Your Students Personally: Not only should you get to know your students on a personal level, but you should also allow them to get to know you. Building these strong relationships will increase student engagement, motivation, and enjoyment. See this article on encouraging meaningful interactions among teens.
  • Growth Mindset: Foster the belief that abilities are not fixed and that failures are opportunities for growth.
  • Humor: A good sense of humor can make any learning environment better; however, avoid sarcasm and anything that makes fun of anyone except yourself.  
  • Instant Activities: Have an activity students can engage in as soon as they enter class. Activities should: include skills related to the unit (can also review prior content); require little setup and explanation; be very easy to learn; take <5 minutes; get students moving quickly; warm up the entire body; and be designed for maximum success. 
  • Intrinsic Motivation: While extrinsic motivation may motivate students in the short term (ie. grades), it has diminishing returns and a shorter lasting effect. Focus on ways to improve intrinsic motivation in your students: Create curriculum that is meaningful and relevant to students; Provide choices when applicable; Use lesson introductions to sell students on your lessons and explain “why” the learning objectives are important; Create a “growth mindset” atmosphere and utilize personal goal setting; Make your lessons creative, fun, and interesting. 
  • K.I.S.S.: Keep it Short and Simple! Giving too many instructions at once can be overwhelming. Try to break up the instructions into short and concise segments.
  • Maximize Physical Activity: SHAPE America suggests keeping "students engaged in MVPA for at least 50% of the lesson." However, this may vary depending on the learning objectives.
  • Maximize Practice Opportunities: How much you practice affects how much you learn! Elimination games, large teams, and waiting in lines reduce the time that children are active and able to practice skills. Use small sided games and stations to increase student practice opportunities.
  • Non-Participants: Students who cannot participate (ie. injured or waiting) should stay engaged in the lesson by performing other roles such as: official, coach, teacher's assistant, teacher observer, peer assessor, scorekeeper, statistician, interviewer, fitness leader, equipment manager, announcer, or staying active in another task. Here is a downloadable document with some examples and descriptions. Tip: Laminate and place in lanyards for easy use. Also see these additional examples: ex1 and ex2.
  • Pop(ular) Culture: Pop culture references can be used to help relate content to what students already identify with. This can easily be incorporated into themed lessons or used to explain an important concept. Find inspiration from cartoons, television, movies, music, video games, books, current events, etc.
  • Positive Reinforcement: Motivate your students by praising their social behaviors, effort, successful approximations, and their performances (not just the outcomes) and avoid attributing student success to luck or easiness of task (locus of causality). Types of reinforcers include: Social (verbal praise, a pat on the back, smile, etc.), Material​ (certificates, ribbons, stickers, etc.), Privileges (line leader, demonstrator, etc.), and Activity (playing an activity that the students enjoy). Survey your students to see their preferences and see these examples of healthy rewards: resource 1, resource 2, resource 3, and resource 4 (ignore the food suggestions for this one).
  • Process versus Product: Teach your students to focus on the process (cues) rather than the product (performance outcome). Having this mastery orientation is considered to be more desirable and effective. You can assess students' goal orientation online or by using this Task and Ego Orientation Questionnaire.
  • Self-Talk: Student performance can improve by using self-talk (saying the cues aloud or in their head while they perform the skill) and positive affirmations. 
  • Student Input: Let your students have a voice in the curriculum and ask them what they need from you.
  • Teacher Reflection: Teachers of all experience levels should strive to improve their curriculum and teaching practices. Immediately reflecting after each lesson on what went well, what didn’t go well, and how you can make the lesson better helps us achieve this. See our page Teaching Evaluation Forms page for resources.
  • Themes: Add a theme/story to your lesson/unit to make it more interesting for your students (especially with elementary students). The theme can involve the environment, students, cues, stop/start signal, etc. See if you can match their imagination.
  • Tone: How you say something matters just as much as what you are saying. Your tone should reflect the behavior you want your students to demonstrate. For example, slowing down your speech to elementary students can help draw their attention and focus while speeding it up implies that your students should be moving quickly. Using microphones can help with this in certain conditions (prevents you from yelling).
  • Variations: While students may be the same age chronologically, their physiological development can vary by +/- 2 or more years (affecting all learning domains). You can make psychomotor tasks developmentally appropriate for each student by offering an easier and a harder variation, either by providing choice to all students (teaching by invitation) or by giving specific suggestions to individual students (intratask variation). See this graphic for different ways to vary tasks.
  • Visual Representations: The ability to visualize varies from person to person. There are 3-4% of the world's population that can't visualize at all (Aphantasia). Provide images, create foot placement markers, draw on equipment, draw on surfaces, use portable white boards, etc., to help your students.
  • Warming Up: Use creative warm-up activities that utilize movements needed for upcoming tasks (authentic). If stretching is incorporated, it should be dynamic and also utilize movements needed for upcoming tasks​. While dynamic stretching does not primarily work on long term flexibility, it does prepare the body for physical activity by moving the joints through their full range of motion. Only work on flexibility when muscles are properly warmed-up. At best, static stretching cold muscles is a waste of time and at worst can lead to injuries and lowered performance.
  • "When I say go": Before giving task instructions, say this short phrase followed by the criteria for the task (you can also have students give a response back). This prevents students from prematurely beginning the task before hearing ALL of the directions. "In a minute, you will..." is an alternative phrasing for older populations.
  • Word Choice: Make sure the words you are using with your students are age appropriate. Check with classroom teachers to get an idea of the type of vocabulary the students can comprehend and/or use online resources to transform text for different reading levels.
  • Word Wall: A display of high-frequency words for a unit, arranged alphabetically.

Additional Resources