Observation Ten

Observation #10- Anecdotal Record

Background: December 10^th 7:30 pm Gymnastic Practice with 2 coaches & 4 children aged 9-12 (in purple, orange, grey and blue)

Intensive Observation:

Kids are running across padded floor to jump and touch a yellow block that one of the coaches is holding. Each of the four children do this exercise 3 times before the coach decides to switch it up. The children appear to be getting tired and are distracted by the PSU girls cheerleading team who is practicing beside them. There is a lot of down time between each child’s turn and the girl in the purple is talking to the boy in the grey, who whispers to the boy in orange. She hand claps the small girl in blue as she finishes the exercise and smiles. The blue girl is practicing a split as she waits her turn while the two boys are talking and the girl in purple runs and jumps. All four kids are momentarily distracted as the cheerleaders begin to perform backflips and handsprings. The boy in grey is skipping as he approaches the yellow block and the coach scolds him for goofing off and makes him to the exercise again. The exercise switches but still utilizing the running and yellow block. Instead the kids have to cannonball over the yellow block onto a trampoline. Cheerleaders are now yelling “5, 6, 7, 8” and begin a routine. This time the four children seem more engaged in their task and are continuing to perform the new exercise. The children begin to also yell, “5, 6, 7, 8” as they are practicing their running. The coach stops them again to give them a new set of directions. This time the children are jumping clear over the block as a hurdle but as a group rather than individually. The children are asking, “What are we doing next?” and laugh when the cheerleading coach is yelling at their team, saying “don’t pick your butt, and fall clean”. The children are now bouncing on the trampoline, or sitting down instead of focusing on the task at hand. When the coach asks them to then do a Roman chair against the wall, they begin counting and after a while groaning in pain. Girl in purple is asking if she can “come out now” and the girl in navy collapses to ground. The coach calls time and the orange boy remains in his chair. Finally, he too collapses to the ground and grabs his quads, groaning. All the kids are now sitting cross-legged listening to the coaches. They then have to do a wall stretch, putting their legs up against the wall and balancing on their hands. All the kids except the girl in purple are able to, and she is saying, “It’s not going to work” the coach assists her and then she, too is in the pose. They continue in this pose for a full minute. After the stretch, they bounce in place for 45 seconds up and down. The girl in purple bounces around the trampoline while the other kids stay in place. The class ends with a set of jumping jacks and then the kids run around the gym once before getting a drink of water and heading back to the observation room to find their parents.

Reflection: the kids are distracted easily and appear bored from time to time, not fully engaged in the lesson. This is typical for this age group. They also complain and talk a lot with one another. Two of the four kids appear overweight and struggle more than the other children in some of the activities. This too is unfortunately typical in modern U.S. I chose to do an anecdotal observation (and then work on any gaps to fill in after) and I feel it came out similarly to a running record. I realize this may be one of my weaker methods of observation and something I should work on in the future.