St. Mary's Lab 1

Observe the interaction between St. Mary’s students and your peers (Cortland students). Try to get an idea of the behaviors of the St. Mary’s students – Do they listen well? Do they remain on task? What do they attend to? What motivates them to play?

There are all kinds of different behaviors among all the St. Mary’s students. I dealt with mostly students that are in the age range of fourth grade. There were some students that listened very well and remained on task. However, there were others that I couldn’t even get them to tell me there name. These were two girls in the cafeteria who weren’t shy at all, but they just wanted to trick me and tell me names that were not their real names. I joked around with them at first, just playing along with it, but even when I got serious with them I couldn’t get them to tell me there real names.

There were some students who didn’t need any motivation to play. They enjoyed playing and I did not have to beg them to play at all. However, there was one student specifically his name was Luke, who I had made a good connection with him in the cafeteria and got to know him a little bit while playing different card games. I thought this kid is not going to need any motivation at all. However, when we got into the gymnasium in a big group he refused to participate. He said, “I hate tag games”.

Another observation I made was when I was in the gymnasium with the big group. I was surprised how poorly the students listened while we tried to explain the games to them. It was like they didn’t even think to themselves if I don’t hear the directions, I am not going to have any idea what going on. I felt like we really had to work hard to get them to listen to the directions for the game.

1. Based upon observation, what are the differences in motor behavior and social between the St. Mary’s students you observed? What differences did you observe between grade levels, gender, and ability? Do you think that grade level, gender, and ability have any influence on motor behavior?

Their were definitely differences among the St. Mary’s students I observed. First of all, socially it seemed like there were a lot more clingy boys than girls. During the tag games, it seemed like the girls were always trying to cling onto the Cortland students. I saw maybe one clingy boy, but I observed far more girls doing this.
I didn’t feel like there was a difference in ability regarding gender. I feel that their were some girls who were more motor developed that boys and the other way around as well. I felt age definitely played a factor in motor behavior. The older kids had a much easier time of reaching the hoop playing basketball than the younger ones. However, there are rare examples where a couple younger kids could shoot almost as good as the older ones.


2. Based upon your observation, what fine motor activities did you observe (describe these) when watching the St. Mary’s students? Were there differences between age? Gender? Ability?

Some of the fine motor activities I observed were fourth graders holding their cards in their hands while playing slap jack. Both of the kids I was watching were both right handed. However, one kid held his pile in his left hand so he could be quicker to slap with his right. The other student kept is pile in his right hand because it was more comfortable for him but this consequently made his slap slower because he had to slap with his left hand.
They younger students played less complicated games in the cafeteria. They used more of their imagination. They were building things like LEGO airplanes and holding them while flying them through the air. They were holding them like they were gold. They were holding these planes with two hands even though they could have easily been lifted with just one hand. In there imagination they were holding something very valuable.
It didn’t seem like the younger girls were very much into the LEGOS. It looked like they were just happy with putting together a puzzle. One of the puzzles seemed so easy to me and I thought they would complete it like 5 seconds. I forgot how challenging puzzles were when I was that young. A puzzle that I could have quickly done took them like ten minutes.