Teaching English Toolbox

PE lessons

Movement belongs in every English lesson but English also belongs in gym (PE) lessons!  Languages belong in all subjects and all subjects belong in the languages!!!  A google search on movement in EFL or language teaching will give you loads of ideas. Ask yourself if the prep work for a gym lesson (like learners creating exercises themselves or learning the rules of a game) can be done in the English lesson and tried out in the PE lesson.

Language and Movement Day at the PHZH. © PHZH ( L. Buechel, 2014)

Fifth Grade Example

A fifth grade teacher in Zurich had the following general planning for his parcour lessons in English:

  1. Learners watch the video to get excited about this. 
  2. Ask the learners what the person did! Elicit vocab such as "run, hop, jump..." and write it on the board.
  3. Have the learners watch the video slowly (you can slow down videos on Youtube in the settings - change playback speed). As they watch, they write down what the person does. Correct this language so everyone has it.
  4. Pairs or groups of three then create a parkour for one another. First, they draft it (4-6 steps). Then they show the teacher for corrections. Then they try it out themselves and adjust the language/concept. Then each group does the other group's parkours.
  5. If you want to turn this back into a task, when you are back in the classroom, you can focus on language, e.g. the imperative forms, or sequences (first this, then this...).
Parkour at school - by zeHatWearingMan