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Instructional Design Activity: Needs Analysis

 

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:

Nice job! You seem to understand the needs assessment process well. There is some room for improvement to make this IDA even better. Please see the following notes: 1& 2 Very well described. 3 & 6. I had thought to suggest you delete "be able to" in the problem statement in 3 but gladly found you did that in step 6. It looks excellent now. :) 4a. A pretest is often associated with a posttest to evaluate effectiveness of an instructional invention. In your case, what is the pretest? Is it a previously administered test such as the final exam last semester, or a test specially administered in this needs assessment effort to identify gaps between student knowledge and curriculum standards? Are the sentence types & construction test and the writing assessment meant as a posttest? In your answer, it isn't quite clear about the purposes of these tests, when they were administered, the sequence of test administration, and the relationships among the tests and the instruction. 4b. It will help to add some description about the questions I asked above and to briefly explain how the data can be used to verify the existence of the problem and help discover potential reasons. 5. I agree with your statements in 5c about the importance of different tests for both students and the school. I also believe that to use multiple test results as predictors for student achievement are useful in this situation. Your thought about students' and teachers' perceptions and opinions are correct too. Here are two issues that I think are important to think about: First, although different tests had different administrative and maybe instructional purpose to fulfill, I believe the problem that they reflected was the same-- The students were not performing at the standards in a given area. No matter how many tests were administered and what different consequences they might bring, there was only one instructional need--to improve student performance in analyzing sentence types and construction. Second, the first issue leads to the second issue. If there is only one instructional need, the multiple normative needs should be actually combined into one. The unsatisfactory results from multiple tests were simply symptoms of one problem. So the ordering of the needs will deal with the sequencing of 1) the normative need, 2) the anticipated need, and 3) the felt needs of students and teachers. [Note from Greg: In 5c, you explain the importance of each item, but why this particular order? On the other hand, in 7b you explain the order of priority nicely.] 7. I agree with you in the instructional goals and rationale. Well done! Ying [Note from Greg: I approve of Ying's comments. Regarding steps 4 & 5, I wouldn't want to over-emphasize the details of the measurement instruments, etc., in this exercise; but if this were your team project these details would be more critical, and her comments could be quite useful.]

 

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:

Sixth grade language arts classes at McConnell Middle School

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:

McConnell Middle School is a large middle school in Gwinnett County, and has over 2,400 students in grades 6-8. The school is a part of Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS), which is the largest school system in the state and includes 66 elementary schools, 20 middle schools, and 16 high schools. Language arts instruction at McConnell is guided by the GCPS Academic Knowledge and Skills and the county instructional calendar. Language arts teachers are given a variety of resources, and are free to deliver their instruction through lecture, hands-on activities, computer-assisted instruction, modeling, guided practice, and other strategies.

The instructor's feedback to step 1:

No specific feedback given on this step.

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:

Sixth grade students at McConnell are not able to consistently identify sentences as simple, compound, complex, or compound/complex sentences. They often answer questions about sentence types incorrectly, particularly when the sentences are complex or compound/complex. Many do not volunteer to answer such questions. They sometimes do not recognize run-on sentences or fragments in grammar exercises, nor in their own writing. Much of their writing displays mainly simple and compound sentences, and also includes run-ons and fragments.

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 the students are not able to correctly identify types of sentences and sentence errors such as run-ons and fragments in class, they will probably not be able to identify them on the English/Language Arts portion of the CRCT. In addition, their lack of skill with types of sentences and sentence error correction hinders their ability to write well-constructed essays. Item analysis of the results of the language arts benchmark pretest (given at the beginning of the year) provides evidence that students lack skill in this area of identification of correct sentence formation and types of sentences.

The instructor's feedback to step 2:

No specific feedback given on this step.

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:

The sixth grade language arts instruction at McConnell Middle School does not adequately prepare students to be able to identify the four types of sentences.

The instructor's feedback to step 3:

No specific feedback given on this step.

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:

look at results of language arts pretest, interview participants in course, interview sixth grade language arts teachers, administer test on sentence types and sentence formation, administer writing assessment

Your final response:

scores for students on the sentence type and construction questions on the pretest opinions of students on their proficiency with sentence types and sentence construction errors opinions of teachers on students' proficieny with sentence types and construction scores for students on sentence types and construction test scores for sentence construction domain of writing assessment (fall writing sample)

Your final response:

Students believe the concepts are too difficult (felt need) Teachers believe that concepts are too abstract for some students (felt need) Some students performed lower than county average on sentence type and construction questions on the pretest (comparative need) Some students did not pass the sentence types and formation assessment (normative need) Students will need to understand types of sentences for the CRCT (anticipated need) About half of the students scored at level 1 or 2 (on a 5 point scale) on the sentence construction domain of the fall writing sample (normative)

*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:

No specific feedback given on this step.

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) About half of the students scored at level 1 or 2 on the sentence construction domain of the fall writing sample (normative) 2) Students will need to understand types of sentences for the CRCT (anticipated need) 3) Some students performed lower than the county average on sentence type and construction questions on the pretest (comparative need) 4) Some students did not pass the sentence types and formation assessment (normative) 5) Students believe the concepts are too difficult (felt) 6) Teachers believe the concepts are too abstract (felt)

Your final response:

1) Writing is an essential skill that will be used as students further their education and begin their careers. 2) Results of the CRCT determine whether a school makes Adequate Yearly Progress, and thus are important to individual students and the school as a whole. 3) Students performance on the pretest is a predictor of their performance on end-of-quarter assessments, which can affect student grades and promotion. 4)The sentence types and formation assessment is another predictor of performance on end of quarter assessments. 5) Students need confidence to tackle these assignments and perform well. 6) Teachers must feel confident their students can succeed, in order to pass that confidence along to students

The instructor's feedback to step 5:

No specific feedback given on this step.

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:

Sixth grade language arts instruction at McConnell Middle School does not adequately prepare students to identify types of sentences and identify and correct incorrect sentence formation.

The instructor's feedback to step 6:

No specific feedback given on this step.

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) Students will be able to identify a sentence as either simple, compound, complex, or compound/complex. 2) Students will be able to identify and correct errors in sentence construction such as run-ons and fragments. 3) Students will be able to construct examples of simple, compound, complex and compound/complex sentences. 4) Students will be able to use a variety of sentence types in their writing.

 

Your final response:

The first two goals are the most important, because in order to use the four types of sentences, students must be able to recognize them, and to be able to recognize and correct sentence errors such as run-ons and fragments. Students will not be able to use a variety of sentence types in their writing (one of the hallmarks of excellent writing) unless they understand these concepts.

The instructor's feedback to step 7:

No specific feedback given on this step.