My starting 5 players.

I am the fifth and sixty grade boys basketball team coach at my school.  This is my second year coaching.  I really enjoy helping my players become the the best that they can be while maximizing their talent.  The previous year my team made it to the area championship.  We played Thorp school and lost by nine points.  I lost four of my five starters because they went to seventh grade.  In order to get my players better in both offense and defense, I had to adjust  my starting line up numerous times.  The problem was that I didn't have a power forward.  I felt that every other position was covered.  The players had adequate talent.   The youth who I used originally for the starting power forward was very green.  He was tall, stocky, and slow moving.  He had a horrible jump shot and lacked high vertical jumping ability.  The job of the power forward is to get offensive and defensive rebounds, block shots, and utilize their post moves if they have any.  I had nothing.  I ended up using a smaller player instead of the "green" player and had to adjust my defensive plays.  Here are some examples:

Shell Defense Basketball Practice Drill --- a) 4 on 4 around-the-horn, b) 4 on 4 penetrate and dish, c) 4 on 4 with low-post, d) 4 on 4 with two offensive players in the corner. *Ultimate drill for teaching all of our man defensive rules. #Listed above are the situations we use to constantly reinforce to our players our man defense tactics. Each group of four players must play winning defense before we change player groups on the court.

Team Offense Basketball Drills --- a) Motion offense, b) Even font zone offense, c) Odd front zone offense, d) Match up zone offense, e) Flex offense, f) 1-4 High offense, g) Delay game offense, h) Full court zone press offense, i) Full court match up press offense, and j) Half court press offense.

Basketball Offensive Plays Drills --- a) Man offense basketball plays, b) Zone offense plays, c) Baseline inbounds plays, d) Sideline inbounds plays, e) Last second plays.

Team Defense Breakdown --- a) Zone defense slides, b) 1 2 1 1 Press slides, c) 2 2 1 Press slides, d) 1 3 1 Half-court press slides, e) Under out-of-bounds defense, f) Triangle and Two, g) Box-and-1.

http://www.angelfire.com/nc/ezyduzits12steptools/bball_playbook.html
I use the 1-3-1 similar to this sometimes against a team not that great on dribbling or passing.
I let the point guard be the point player or chaser here.I also let the opposing team get 1 pass in and then we attack right away.  Be careful and watch for ball reversal.

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/defense/2-3zone.html This zone is similar to the 2-3 zone that Jim Boeheim uses at Syracuse. This is can be a very effective zone defense, because it still covers the 3-point arc as well as the inside game.

http://www.guidetocoachingbasketball.com/man_defense.htm#Tight_man-to-man_basketball_defense

This defense calls for one man to guard an opponent without ever leaving your assigned player or switching. Coach Branch McCracken used it against teams who didn’t use a lot of screens and was quite successful. There are coaches who insist they use only tight man-to-man defense; however, they are soon to admit that “teammates help one another out.”

Coach McCutchan didn’t believe that a man-to-man could get results without switching once in awhile. If a defender tries to force his way through all screens, he surely will pick up a lot of fouls.

This defense can be used as a full-court, three-quarter-court, or half-court pressure defense. Such a defense is most effective when sprung as a surprise and used for only short periods of time. Use more passive defenses in-between. You will find this defense to be most effective against inexperienced teams or a team who has poor ball-handlers.

The tight man-to-man is a great defense for a quick, small team. Use it to move the opponent’s point of attack farther out than they normally like. This defense is an excellent defense to use when trailing, late in the game.

Defensive players play closer than normal to their assigned opponent. They must go after him, or her, in an aggressive manner whenever they have the ball. When playing the dribbler force him, or her, to their weak hand, not attempting to steal the ball. Stay in his, or her, bubble faking and jabbing to stop the dribble.

As soon as the dribbler stops, the defender moves up quickly getting as close to the opponent as possible, without fouling, waving arms to block vision, and shouting, "Dead! Dead! Dead!" The teammates, hearing this, get into the passing lane to the person they are guarding to prevent them from receiving an easy pass.

If the dribbler does pass off, his defender must drop off immediately toward the basket in the direction the pass was made.

Of course I feel like I the IDEAL theory/model was the method that I used as an aid to help me with this problem.

I-I identified the problem which was my team was giving up too many offensive rebounds to the other teams.

D-I defined the problem in that I lacked a power forward who could do what was expected of him.

E- I explored interventions by reading up on various types of defenses that I could possibly use to have the other teams to turn the ball over on offense.

A- I acted and implemented these new defenses in practice and we tried them in the games.

L-  I looked at the results and I was satisfied with what I got in return.  Our efforts turned into causing the offensive team to commit turnovers and thus helped us to win games.

http://www.coachlikeapro.com/basketball-practice-drills.html

Preschool Reading Problem

A problem that I'm facing right now is how can I get 80% of the students in my class to become readers? My preschool students are who is involved. Relevant data is the number is testing that I use to see what percentage they are reading at and can recognize sight words. My goals for this problem is to have the students know all the sounds that they letters give and how to put them together and sound them out. Some possible strategies to reach a solution are listed in the articles below. However I believe and see that young children learn through repetition. This problem hasn't been solved yet because my class is mixed up with three through five year old students. Therefore, everyone's learning abilities and style are different, now yet known, and are a work in progress.


http://schoolreadiness.suite101.com/article.cfm/teaching_preschoolers_to_read

According to Denise Oliveri we should keep learning fun.

She stated that the first important thing to remember is that in order to make learning a success you need to make learning fun. Preschoolers learn better when you make it fun. There will be times that you think they are not paying you any attention but they are learning. Any lesson can be learned by turning it into a song, drawing, arts and crafts and more.

Start your reading session by dressing up as one of the characters in the book and offering a costume for your child to wear as well. It may just be a hat, a mask or a jacket but try to fit the part. You will grab your preschooler’s attention and she will enjoy reading with you. Because it is fun to learn for the children, your teaching and reading time will consist of smiling, laughing, running and playing.

http://www.helium.com/items/696107-how-to-teach-preschoolers-to-read-and-write

According to Theresa Willbye there are many ways to teach letters, you need to find which method allows your child to develop whilst also remaining enjoyable. Children have stages in their life (2 and a half and 4 years) at which they automatically absorb phonetics. This method of teaching letter sounds is great as it allows children to read instantly any word that is phonetic once they know all the letter sounds in the alphabet (there are a lot of phonetic words). If you use this approach create materials for your child to read like flash cards word strips phonetic books, allow them to read to you this gives them a great sense of achievement.

Phonetics is not a suitable approach for all children though I worked with a boy once who was diagnosed with autism. I spent a long time trying to tech him phonetics but to no avail. Through trial and error and a little help from Thomas the tank engine we came to realize the boy had a strong ability to sight read. The boy could read every engine name ever to have been on Thomas the tank engine and so we built on that foundation and used his passion to tech him other words. Within 1 year he went from being unable to read 1 word to being grades ahead of his age in school. Remember every child is individual.

I think some teachers may often forget to alter their lesson for special needs learners. I can remember first hand watching my classmates with special needs get lost in class unless we gave him/her the answers. Preschool is a wonderful time for parents to learn what type of learner their child is. This can help their future education.

Reading rockets has lots of wonderful suggestions for teaching preschoolers to read. I especially love the one that states "know when to stop!" Teachers often want to drag lessons through even though they've lost the class in the process. Preschoolers have a very short attention span and need short lessons of no more then 10 minutes.

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/7833

Read together every day

Read to your child every day. Make this a warm and loving time when the two of you can cuddle close.

Give everything a name

Build your child's vocabulary by talking about interesting words and objects. For example, "Look at that airplane! Those are the wings of the plane. Why do you think they are called wings?"

Say how much you enjoy reading

Tell your child how much you enjoy reading with him or her. Talk about "story time" as the favorite part of your day.

Read with fun in your voice

Read to your child with humor and expression. Use different voices. Ham it up!

Know when to stop

Put the book away for awhile if your child loses interest or is having trouble paying attention.

http://www.iched.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=iched&item_id=teach_writing_prek-1

Dr. Lance insists that “Children who are encouraged to draw and scribble ‘stories’ at an early age will later learn to compose more easily, more effectively, and with greater confidence than children who do not have this encouragement.” This finding is based on research literature reported by the U.S. Department of Education (What Works: Research about Teaching and Learning, second edition, 1987). This same article goes on to comment:

Even toddlers, who can hardly hold a crayon or pencil, are eager to “write” long before they acquire the skills in kindergarten that formally prepare them to read and write.

Studies of very young children show that carefully formed scrawls have meaning to them, and that this writing actually helps them develop language skills. Research suggests that the best way to help children at this stage of their development as writers is to respond to the ideas they are trying to express [italics added].

Very young children take the first steps toward writing by drawing and scribbling...others may dictate stories into a tape recorder or to an adult, who writes them down and reads them back...it is best to focus on the intended meaning of what very young children write, rather than on the appearance of the writing [italics added].

Children become more effective writers when parents and teachers encourage them to choose the topics they write about, then leave them alone to exercise their own creativity. The industriousness of such children has prompted one researcher to comment that they “violate the child labor laws” (p. 9).

The preschool years provide parents with the opportunity to build a solid base upon which good writing skills will be developed in later years. Use this critical time in a child’s development by providing paper, crayons, large pencils, good modeling on your part, and most of all, lots of encouragement and supportive response.

Emergent literacy is also very important in the process of having preschoolers to read and write. Reading and writing go hand in hand. What adults consider scribble is the attempt of a child to express themselves through writing and should be respected as so.

http://www.greatschools.org/students/academic-skills/preparing-preschooler-to-read.gs?content=738

Lastly according to Barbara Graber we should:

Make Literacy a Part of Every Day

Kids learn best through direct experiences that let them safely experiment and explore their world. Offer your child choices and let her be the leader in deciding which activities she wants to do. Each child learns and develops language skills in her own unique time frame, but all young children need the following:

• Opportunities to develop and practice emerging skills.
• Encouragement and praise for effort.
• Understanding that ongoing learning is a family value.
• Parents and other caregivers to help plan learning activities that are appropriate for her development.
• A special place of for reading and hands-on learning activities.

I think that if I take note and attempt to use some of the aforementioned suggestion by the authors I will see an improvement in my students reading and writing skills.