The Basketball Class - Essay Example

Approximately 50 boys and girls from the 6th grade participated in either basketball or volleyball. As the class size was big and it was difficult for students to play all together in one court, the teachers split the students into different groups as per their choice. An almost equal number of students participated in both basketball and volleyball. Two different classes on basketball and volleyball were being operated at the same time for the students of the 6th grade by two different instructors: Mr. Michael and Mr. Cook.
The basketball class focused on teaching the methods of defense, ball handling, guarding, passing, shooting, and offense. These classes provide a wonderful opportunity for the students to learn and develop their physical, mental, and social skills. Physically it helps the students develop stamina, and remain physically healthy and active, while also leading to weight reduction. Overall, extracurricular activities such as outdoor sports provide general health improvement. Sports also help in the development of social skills such as cooperation and teamwork. Sports such as basketball help develop physical health and psychosocial condition while instructing sportsmanship.

Task 6 was looking for coding qualitative measures of teaching in the class. I counted how many times the teacher accurately conducted inform, refine, extend, repeat, and apply the individual task. I also measured how many students had clearly understood and responded based on three different teaching cues and based on the teacher’s information and demonstrations.
At the beginning of the class, the teacher defined and described the basketball rules, movements, skills, and techniques. Those learning concepts were easy to understand for most students as they had been playing basketball from a very young age. However, to ensure that all students had a thorough knowledge of all the different individual tasks, the teacher tested their knowledge by asking some random questions. When the teacher found that a student faltered in answering properly, the teacher went through the question again till he was convinced that the student had understood it properly.

The introductory game of basketball is basketball relays. The purpose of the game is the improvement of dribbling skills while the students run. The teacher divided the class into four teams. Each team player was asked to line up behind the line. The first team player then dribbled the ball to the assigned line and returned the ball to the next member of the team. A few players preferred using left-handed dribble or alternating-hand dribble which was permitted by the teacher.
After the basketball relays were played, the teacher made some changes to the original task content and manipulated it to reach an advanced condition. The aim was for the students to gain practice in dribbling, passing, and shooting skills in the next assigned task. Moreover, the teacher looked for a variety of variations and responses. He divided the basketball court into nine red boxes by using blue tape before starting the class. The players took position each in one box. Only one ball was given to all nine players. Each player was allowed just one chance to shoot into a basket without leaving the assigned box. If a player succeeds in obtaining a score, he or she could leave the box, but if a player failed to do so he would have to pass the ball to the next box player. It worked in a clockwise direction.

The next task was to qualitatively seek to develop the previous activity that focused on improving the mechanics of basketball skills or tactical aspects of play. All the basketball skills were practiced: dribbling, passing, guarding, and shooting while having a regular basketball game. For this game, the class was divided into two balanced teams. Before starting the game, he made a jump ball at the center of the court. The students used basketball skills and techniques that they have learned. The game duration was about 15 minutes until the class ended. It focused on students’ movement and performance which served to enhance their basketball skills, positive sportsmanship (good teamwork), and higher self-esteem.
Based upon observing and coding qualitative measures of teaching basketball to the 6th graders, I found the teacher frequently used informing (30% of the total frequency), application (30% of the total frequency), and repeat (20% of the total frequency) of the tasks. He tried only once refining and extending the tasks which are meant to focus on developing students’ skills and performance using different strategic aspects of basketball play and the different levels of difficulty of conditions. The aim was to observe the variety of responses in the class.
The teacher’s verbal and nonverbal communication was clear as all of the students responded with the movements in the correct order 8 out of 10 times. More than 10% of the students (not the whole class) showed inappropriate behavior when the incomplete model of task performance executed was by the teacher twice. Approximately 80% of the tasks were completed by the students in a focused way exactly as the teacher had asked them to do. The teacher presented fewer than three new learning cues related to the correct tasks. This reflected accurate learning of new aspects of basketball play. Read More