SUNY CORTLAND MOTOR DEVELOPMENT LAB Spring 2014 Dr.

. Madden Lab One Name: Anthony Accetturi Lab Day: 2/12 Wednesday Date: 2/19/2014

Tasks A. To observe the interaction between elementary students and Cortland students. B. To get to know some of the students at Smith/ Homer school. C. To informally assess a motor skill.

TASK A - Observation Observe the interaction between elementary students and Cortland students. Try to get an idea of the behaviors of the Smith/ Homer students Do they listen well? Do they remain on task? 1. Based on your observation, what are the differences in social behavior between different Smith/ Homer students? Are there differences that you can see between grade levels and gender? (Do you think that grade level and gender have any influence on their behaviors?). I noticed that the older kids were more on their own then the younger kids. The younger kids would cling on to the mentors while the older kids followed their own path. I did not see much difference between the genders in regards to behavior, as both were pretty active and fairly emotional. I believe that grade level more than gender has a part to play in the behavior of a child because the more independent you are generally the older you are.

2. Just by observation, are there any differences in motor behavior between different elementary students? Are there differences that you can see between grade levels and gender? Briefly describe these differences. The differences between grade levels in the only sport I saw them play, which was basketball was a more enhanced knowledge of the rules, as they got older. The older girl that I observed was telling the younger boy that was in my group that he was travelling during the game. The younger boy did not stop travelling and only cared about if he got the ball in the basket or not and he did not care very much about the other rules. Also the younger boy shot underhand while the older girl shot normally

TASK A Observation (continued) 3. Based on your experience this lab day, what types of skills do you feel you need to further develop in order to be able to interact with elementary-aged students more effectively? I need to develop my discipline skills so that the children that are in my group will listen to me and the activities that I have planned. It will allow me to have control over the group of kids to a certain extent and help them be safer and hopefully learn a few things. I also need to be able to have patience with the children who are less skilled because they are not as developmentally ready as the children who I am used to working with and I have to remember that things must be really simplified for some children to get the concepts I am teaching.

4. List some considerations about the management of the students and activities that you feel are crucial to making this both a better experience for you and for the students at the elementary schools. (i.e., plan for different levels of skills for the activities that are used). The students activities have to be interesting to them and they cannot go on for long periods of time because the students will not have a long enough attention span to do the same activity for a long time. There should also be energy given to the activities by the mentors so that they can keep the kids engaged and focused.