IV. Lesson Plan 

As a high school English teacher, you will collaborate with a Physical Education (PE) colleague to deliver a bilingual lesson. The physical focus is teaching the mechanics of the pull-up and using the article below as your teaching material. To achieve both language acquisition objectives with physical performance objectives, please design a concrete lesson plan that includes:

What is a pull-up?

To perform a pull-up, a person starts by hanging from a bar with their arms fully extended and feet off the ground; this is also known as a dead hang. From there, they pull themselves up until their chin is over the bar, and then lower with control. “Done well, it’s a controlled, deliberate movement,” says Schofield. “There’s no kicking, jerking or relying on momentum.”

What are the benefits of pull-ups?

Pull-ups build upper body strength, particularly in the back, says Mathew Forzaglia, certified personal trainer and founder of Forzag Fitness. “It also helps develop core stability, which prevents the body from swaying during consecutive reps, and improves grip strength,” he says.

 The muscles most engaged by the exercise, according to the Cleveland Clinic, are the latissimus dorsi (or “lats”) – the large, broad, fan-shaped muscles which stretch from the bottom of the back to below the shoulder blades – and the trapezius (or “traps”) – the triangle-shaped muscles that run from the neck to the mid-back. They also engage shoulders, forearms, biceps, triceps and abdominal muscles. When Schofield performs a pull-up, she says she focuses on not just using her arms: “Putting too much emphasis on your biceps to execute the move will make you tired quickly and diminish how effectively you’re targeting the lower back,” she explains, adding that the lats should be doing the heavy lifting.

 In addition to looking impressive at the gym, pull-ups also help with functional strength. Because pull-ups force the body to work as a single unit, they improve “strength, coordination and neuromuscular control”, as well as helping with posture, improved performance on other lifts, and a more balanced physique overall, Schofield says.

 Excerpted from: Aggeler, M. (2026, May 11). Very difficult and extremely cool: How to start doing pull-ups. The Guardian. (Online article)