Overall Instructor Rating: Satisfactory
Ratings explanation:
- Exemplary - A model answer in almost every way (this is given out very rarely).
- Satisfactory - Very well done; you've met the expectations of the assignment. There are some minor problems, so read my feedback well.
- Marginal Pass - You pass, but there are lots of issues to consider. Read my feedback very carefully and be sure you understand the points/issues I raise.
- Not satisfactory, redo and resubmit - The assignment was not completed appropriately. I am concerned that you do not understand the process well enough yet. To get credit for the assignment, you need to redo it, most probably on another topic. Read and consider my feedback very carefully before redoing.
Instructor's Overall Feedback:
You did a good job here. You seem to understand the process well. Take a look at my feedback below.
1. Preliminary: Describe the context within which this potential instructional problem takes place. This will pinpoint where the problem is located. If instruction is deemed necessary, this will be the place where it will be designed and implemented.
a. List the context, also known as the "system of interest".
Your final response:
4th Grade Teachers at Shiloh Elementary
b. Describe or show how the context relates to the bigger environment. Show how this context relates to other levels of the system within which it works.
Your final response:
Georgia Public School Teachers
I. Shiloh Elementary Teachers (K-5), Snellville
1. Fourth Grade Teachers
a. Instruction/Teaching Students
1. Meeting Curriculum Objectives/Goals
a. Lessons/Projects/Research/Homework
b. Assessments
2. Motivating Students
a. Students want to learn.
b. Meaningful and interactive learning takes place.
b. Parent Communication
1. Grading-current e-access
2. Knowledgeable of Projects/Homework
3. Informed of current curriculum focus.
c. Staff Relationships
1. Administration
2. Support Staff
d. Grading Responsibilites-electronic
e. Community Involvement
The instructor's feedback to step 1:
Good
2. Symptoms of a problem. Write a brief description of some symptoms that make you stop and wonder if something is wrong.
Your final response:
* Teachers are noticing that students are performing poorly on nightly assignments/homework.
* Parents tell teachers at conferences that they never know what their children are studying and do not know how to best help them.
* The Principal frequently comments on how teachers need to be using technology more in there classrooms since receiving their new laptops.
* Informal converstaions at community events implied that parents are upset that students can't get forgotten assignments after the school closes.
* Teachers report an increase in parents requesting their home phone numbers for questions regarding their child's academic performance.
Using the evidence cited above, describe why you believe that these symptoms signal a problem. Keeping these questions in mind, describe the reasons for identifying these symptoms as problematic.
Your final response:
* If students do not have at-home support, they may perform poorly/struggle with class assignements.
* Parents want to be kept updated and informed on their child's progress in school so they can be involved in successfully aiding their child's academic growth.
The instructor's feedback to step 2:
Good
3. Preliminary Problem Statement. Based on 1 and 2, write a preliminary draft problem statement. Your context should be the subject of the statement. This is just the initial pass -- the statement will be revised in subsequent steps.
Your final response:
Fourth Grade Teachers at Shiloh Elementary are not doing a good job informing and providing at-home academic support for parents and students.
The instructor's feedback to step 3:
Good
4. Verify the problem and determine specific needs. Two things will now happen concurrently. First, you need a systematic procedure to identify and collect data in order to verify that a problem exists. Second, you must identify information that the data sources may help uncover.
Data sources (who, what) |
Information gathered |
What did you find? (Needs)* |
Example: Interview participants in course; administer class survey; administer test of understanding.
|
Example: Participant opinions on IDAs and course; Participant score on test. |
Example: Participants believe there is too much jargon (felt need); Participants don't understand ID vocabulary as compared to other classes (comparative need); Participants don't score above national average (comparative need); Participants don't/couldn't see the relation between their work and the ID process) |
| Your final response:
a. Teacher Survey
b. Reports of respected
education institutes.
c. Parent Interviews.
d. Teacher and Principal
Faculty Meeting.
|
Your final response:
a. 81% of all 4th grade teachers surveyed stated a decrease in student performance on nightly assignments compared to the last school year.
b. Students aged 9-12 perform over 50% better on homework when they receive at-home support than when they do not receive any at-home support.
c. 74 % of parents interviewed stated they were confused and frustrated on how to help their children succeed in school.
d. Principal wants teachers to use their laptops more (utilize them).
|
Your final response:
a. Students are not receiving adequate support at home to perform well on nightly assignments (Normative).
b. Students need to receive more support at home (Comparative).
c. Parents need easily accessible and updated information from teachers to best help their children succeed in school (Felt).
d. Teachers are not using their laptops as much as they should to help parents, students, and themselves (Anticipated).
|
*Note: You are not required to gather data; you can draw on your experience or imagination to list the data you might gather.
The instructor's feedback to step 4:
Good
5. Prioritize your list of needs.Which are most important? Why are they most important?
Prioritized needs |
Reasons/evidence for priority |
Your final response:
1. Students are not receiving adequate support at home to perform well on nightly assignments.
2. Parents need easily accessible and updated information from teachers to best help their children succeed in school.
3. Students need to establish better communication between the teacher and with their parents in regards to nightly homework assignments.
4. Teachers are not using their laptops as much as they should to help parents, students, and themselves.
|
Your final response:
The reason number 1 is placed first is that students come first to teachers. If students are not performing well than something is interferring with their learning. Thus, something must be done to help students perform better on at-home assignments. Parents also must be kept well-informed in regards to what their children are doing in school. Both of these two needs can be achieved through the teacher communicating better with both students and parents. Number 3 can not be completely achieved by the teacher alone. They can not control if parents choose to help their children or if students choose to invest time and energy into doing well on nightly assignments. However, they can improve communication. Finally, in regards to number 4 is that students come first and parents aid helping students come first, whereas laptops are important they are not number one in priority in increasing student performance on homework assignments. They are a prioritized need because laptops are a way to provide teachers with greather flexibility, therefore providing more opportunities to email parents,update grades, and class websites, etc. Moreover, laptops are a tool which can used to increase student and parent communication, but they are not a means to an end all by themselves.
|
The instructor's feedback to step 5:
Good
6. Rewrite your problem statement. Take a moment to look carefully at the initial problem statement that you wrote. Revisit your prioritized needs and check if your problem statement is still accurate and appropriate.
Rewrite the problem statement here:
Your final response:
Fourth Grade Teachers at Shiloh Elementary are not providing an adequate amount of coummication to parents and students about nightly assignments in order to ensure student success.
The instructor's feedback to step 6:
Good
7. Identify the instructional goals. The last step in Needs Assessment is to list a few goals of instruction. Remember, not all goals can be solved through instruction. The instructional goals you identify will be the starting information for the next steps in the instructional design process. List the instructional goals in order of priority.
Instructional goals by priority |
Reasons for importance |
Your final response:
1. Fourth Grade Teachers will develop a class website for their classroom with a nightly assignment emphasis for parents and students to use at-home as needed for clarification and to get information.
2. Students will take responsibility for their homework/nightly assisgnments and ask for help if needed via e-mail to the teacher, a fellow classmate, or through an educated adult if available.
3. Parents will utilize the class website to gain information about homework, grading, extra academic learning resources, current curriculum focuses, and to e-mail the teacher with questions.
4. Fourth Grade Teachers will demonstrate a committment to updating their website accordingly and responding to e-mail from students and parents within a 48 hour turnaround time according to school days(Monday-Friday, excludes weekends and holidays)through using their laptop.
|
Your final response:
A website goal receives first priority because it integrates the prioritized needs as earlier assessed through data gathering. It helps transfers up-to-date information and offers a form of reliable communication between the teacher, students, and parents. It does this by using technology resources such as the teacher's laptop for easier assessibility. Once the website has been developed, it will not prove itself beneficial unless all the parts of the instructional system are working together. Moreover, this means that students must take the initiative to use it as a source of help to seek the rewards. These rewards would be improving or maintaining, if the case, success on nightly assignments. Since this was a major part of the problem statement one can see why this goal bears such heavy priority. Also, parents are a part of the instructional system which was connected to the problem at large. Since one of desired outcomes is for parents to be well-informed, by utilizing the website they will be taking part of the responsibilty of staying caught up on things. Finally, the Fourth Grade Teachers must also take some responsibility if the system is to successfully function. By having teachers be committed to using their laptops to keep parents and students informed, they are playing an integral part to help students improve on nightly assignments.
|
The instructor's feedback to step 7:
1 is a good goal, the others are not really stated as goals. Also, you have jumped to the solution which is website. In some counties, over half the parents do not have access to the web at home. Is that important information for your Needs Assessment?
|