My Top 10 PE Instructional Strategies For English Learners

1. Physical education teachers should select cultural games, sports, and activities that
ELLs are familiar with and like to participate in. Try to incorporate games that might be
unfamiliar to the rest of the class.
2. In Physical education, students need to learn the important and essential skills in order
to participate in certain activities. Physical education teachers should create posters
written in their ELL's native language explaining these essential skills. They may need to
collaborate with ELL teachers for creating the poster.
3. Physical education teachers can require all students, including ELLs, to use several
words of the students' native languages (e.g., yes, no, pass, dribble, shoot, and thank you
in Spanish or other languages) when they play some games. They can ask ELLs to
pronounce those words appropriately.
4. When the physical education class is over, all students can say "thank you" in students'
native languages and shake hands with all teammates. Social interactions are important
for developing multi-ethnic and linguistic diverse relationships in physical education.
5. Gestures may be used to explain the key components of activities such as run, jump,
throw, catch, or more. Peers need to demonstrate and teach techniques using the simple
words in English. They also must keep asking simple questions that require yes or no
answers to make sure ELLs fully understand the concepts.
6. PE teachers can ask peers of ELLs to put a carbon sheet under his or her notes. At the
end of the class, the copied carbon sheet is passed to ELLs. Therefore, ELLs can compare
notes with the peer's notes.
7. Build trust. Let ELLs know that you want all students to successfully complete
physical education. Physical education teachers should remember the names (or
nicknames if hard to pronounce) of ELLs and pronounce them correctly. This shows the
teachers want to develop positive social and academic relationships with students.
8. Try to incorporate cooperative games. These games focus less on success and failure
as they do team building and bonding.
9. Allow ELL students to observe new games before playing if they wish to. Some EL
learn well by observing and imitating others. Be flexible for them!
10. Establish procedures that the EL can learn and follow. Do not confuse the student
by meeting in a different location everyday or by placing too many signs in the locker
room. Routines are important.