St. Mary's Lab 2

1. Observe the St. Mary’s student(s) as they participate in the activities. Describe the variability of the movement patterns you observed in your students. Be sure to note with whom you worked, what grade they were in, and any differences in age, gender, or ability.

There was a lot of variability of the movement patterns I observed. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the majority of the students had an idea how to Run, Gallop, and Hop. I was especially surprised on the Gallop. Not that the students’ Gallops were perfect, but my expectations were very low for them to perform this skill. The majority of them actually looked like they new what they were doing.

Two students, in particular, that I observed were named X and Y. They were both six years old. They were both very good at the hop. X’s run was also pretty good. Y’s, however, could use some improvement on her running form. Her arms were not in opposition with her legs and her non support leg was not near her buttocks. For the Hop, both students did not swing their nonsupport leg in pendulum fashion to produce.

Additionally, I observed something interesting while watching the students play basketball. I observed that the smaller kids like to shoot from a long distance away from the basket even if the ball rarely goes in. They see the older kids shooting from behind the three point line and they try to shoot there as well even if they “airball” the shot 9 out of 10 times. There is a wide range of ability with basketball at St. Marys. The smaller kids would be better off working on there form from a shorter distance. I feel it is our job to encourage them to do this.







2. Describe the effective “teaching strategies” that you observed. What were they and on whom did you use them? How were they used? What was the effect? Were there any strategies that were more effective than others? If so, why?

I definitely learned a lot about “teaching strategies”. The simpler you keep things with the kids, the more successful the activity will be. Overloading the kids with directions does not work out. One of the problems I think with the game my group did called “Stinky Stew” was that it was too wordy. There were so many directions and the kids could never just play the game.
Also I learned that if you use your imagination with the kids they will buy into the game more. When we were plugging our noses around the stew they got more excited about the activity.
Another thing I learned about teaching is that you have to raise your voice and speak loudly. I noticed the Cortland students with quieter voices did not have as much control as the people who were speaking loudly and projecting their voice.