PDFE # 11

The formal activity setting that I chose to observe was a 1st and 2nd grade dance class taught at the Trion Recreation Department by Mrs. Kathy Hampton. There were seven girls in the class. The class that I observed was full of activity. The instructor gave instruction while moving and there were no gaps between times of activity. The beginning of the class was consumed with a minute of setting up, and during this time the girls waited. There was only about a fifteen second time when the instructor moved mirrors in the room, and other than that the class was completely full of activity. This is probably because the class was fairly short and the girls would be easily bored if the class had a lot of waiting time.

When calculating the percentages in each category, we counted each box as fifteen seconds and then we counted up the number of letters (A,M,I,W) and multiplied them by fifteen. The activity during the class took up seventy six percent of the class time. While, management consumed only .5%, instruction only 15.5%, and waiting took up 7.1% of the class.

The dance class was greatly composed of activity and this was very appropriate for the situation because the class was taught by an excellent dance teacher who never stopped the class completely for instruction. In this setting it was appropriate because it was a very informal, fun class where the girls enjoyed dancing and playing. The way that Mrs. Hampton taught was that she would end one dance move and go directly into the other without stopping and would show the girls visually how to do the move while giving verbal instructions at the same time. There were really no improvements that could have been made to improve the percentages because the majority of the time was spent doing the activity. It was almost hard to write down in the boxes whether the time was activity or instruction because many of those were both. I feel that this is very appropriate and fit perfectly with the setting.