Teaching Cues in Physical Education | Verbal Instruction

Mar 22, 2024

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Kas

P.E. teaching Cues? We likely use them all the time without knowing!

Do we know what they are and why we use them? Do we understand how effective they are in teaching students how to remember skills?

The answer is potentially no. I this article we will discuss what teaching cues are and why they are such a powerful tool for us to use in our P.E lessons. We will also discuss how they should be used and examples of effective teaching cues to implement right now in our next P.E lesson!

Let’s break down why teaching cues in P.E. are so important and something we should start using more intentionally!

What Are Cues In P.E?

Cues are little chunks or sentences of information that summarise a sequence of movements or information summarising a drill or task. When you are explaining to someone how to catch a ball, you might say:

  • ‘Soft hands’
  • ‘Eyes on the ball’

When teachers give instructions such as ‘soft hands’ or ’eyes on the ball’ they are meant figuratively and of course not literally. We may say ‘soft hands’ to remind students to reduce the stiffness in their hands when they try to catch a ball. This will help students not have the ball bounce out of their hands and dropping the catch.

Teachers may use the cue ’eyes on the ball’ to ensure students are keeping the ball in the centre of their field of vision, so they don’t loose track of it prior to a catch. We are not asking students to literally place their eyes on the ball! This is an example of a teaching cue.

These small simple cues can be used during instructions and serve as a reminder to students who are attempting the task/skill. It reminds them of the movements they should be making and the intention behind them in order to achieve the goal.

There are teaching cues for every sport imaginable and they can be made up depending on the specific thing you are teaching.

  • Specifically, cues are broken down into two forms (PDST- Move well Move Often, 2024)
  • Internal Cues: Direct the child to focus their attention on the body movements associated with the skill
  • External Cues: Direct the child to focus their attention on the movement effect or the outcome associated with the skill.  

Research has shown when developing, mastering or learning a new skill, cues which direct the child’s focus of attention and are used to provide feedback can play an important role in the acquisition of that skill (Wulf, 2013, Palmer et al, 2017).

When Would You Use Them?

Teaching cues can be used anywhere within your lesson. They are a critical part of your verbal instructions and general reminders throughout the duration of the P.E lesson. Cues might be something you just make up on the spot depending on what you see and what needs reinforcing, or it may be something you prepare prior to the lesson to support your lesson focus and learning intention.

Prior to a unit on Invasion Games or Minor Games, you might be focusing on students ensuring they are in a good posture when dribbling the ball. When students start to learn the sport of basketball, they focus too much on their dribble, especially if the skill is new to them. This results in students looking down at the ball and hunching over, ultimately running into a defender or stumbling over the ball when playing a game.

A teaching cue you could prepare prior to a lesson would be something to support students to remember to keep their eyes up.

You might stay:

  • **“Show everyone your chest” **– Resulting in students lifting up their torso in turn ensuring they are in an upright position (Internal Cue)
  • “Turn your back into a ruler”– reminding students to keep a straight back reinforcing them to have an upright posture when dribbling and not hunching over the ball. (Internal Cue)

FYI: An external Cue example would be ‘look for the gaps’ when reinforcing players to dribble away from defenders and not into them.

Don’t over do it though! Trying to have one or two main cues you use will be something that can carry on throughout your unit and not confuse your students.

Where cues are considered helpful to the development of pupils, focus on a maximum of 1/2 cues per PE lesson to avoid cognitive overload (Rosenshine, 2010). 

Cues Create Engagement!

Effective use of teaching cues can create more engagement and fun in your lessons, especially for the primary years. When I teach primary classes I always try to make the teaching cues a little silly or play into what students may be interested in. The use of creative cues will ensure students remember the cues as they are unique and funny and it encourages them to do the movement whilst saying the cue out loud. Allowing them to connect the skill and verbal instruction to that actual movement.

When I teach striking units such as T-ball, I find that students tend to swing on an angle when trying to hit the ball off the softball tee. This affects their swing, making them hit the Tee and not the ball, resulting in a poor strike. A cue I use and the students love is:

“Get your samurai sword and slice STRAIGHT through the watermelon”.

Almost every child in my classes cant wait to get back to their activity station and grab their samurai swords (T-ball bats) and then get ready to strike, but this time nice and straight as in their mind they are imagining slicing through the middle of a big water melon rather than focusing on just hitting the ball of the Tee.

It is amazing how effective this simple cue is at correcting a lot of their technique whilst limiting my input in terms of further verbal instructions and demonstrations. It provides students with a brief reminder and allows them to learn on their own and in their own time. When students start to find success with their strikes they not connect the cue that they’ve been told to this success. When they need to play a game or attempt the skill again in a different setting they tend to remember the cue or even say the cue prior to their strike to help them in hitting the ball.

At times you can even hear their peers shout it out to them to support their classmates if they notice their strike is off. This is a great indication that your cue is not only useful but it has been remembered by that student as a way of achieving success within that sport.

What Does The Evidence Say?:

  • Enhance Skill Acquisition: Teaching cues help break down complex motor skills into manageable parts, making it easier for students to learn and master these skills. By providing specific and clear instructions, students can focus on key components of a movement, which accelerates their learning process. Research shows that using verbal cues improves motor learning and performance in physical education settings .
  • Improve Student Engagement and Focus: Effective teaching cues keep students engaged and focused during lessons. By offering concise and understandable directions, students are more likely to stay on task and actively participate. This not only maximises the use of lesson time but also fosters a positive learning environment where students feel confident and motivated to improve their physical abilities .
  • **Facilitate Feedback and Assessment: **Teaching cues provide a basis for both teacher and peer feedback. When students understand the specific aspects of a skill they need to work on, it becomes easier for teachers to give targeted feedback. This targeted feedback is essential for correcting errors and reinforcing correct techniques, thereby enhancing overall performance and learning outcomes in physical education .

When Creating Cues, Try To Remember The Following:

Attempt to elicit the relevant cues from the pupils through discussion rather than simply telling them e.g. how might we use our arms to help us go faster in the running activity we just did? What might that look/feel like?

If you take the time and effort into creating a few unique and creative teaching cues, you will see the benefits in engagement during your lessons and the keenness of your students prior. It’s amazing what a few words!

Need an amazing fundamental movement skills cue resource that you can use right now? Check this out from ‘Move Well Move Often’.

Teaching Sports in a Secondary setting and need an awesome database of cues at your disposal already made! Check this out from P.E Central

Read our article on ‘Visual Learning’ and how you can tie verbal cues into visual learning for your P.E classroom!

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