Overall Instructor Rating: Exemplary
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:
An excellent Needs Assessment IDA! You seem to understand this process quite well.
Just a few notes for you:
I liked your thorough explanation of the problem symptoms (step 2), including reference to Bloom's taxonomy. This takes the taxonomy out of the textbook, so to speak, and into real life.
Your problem statement looks good.
I also thought it was clever that you thought of surveying 9th grade teachers (in 4a), when your context is the middle schools. Their experience with students emerging from middle school can reveal a lot.
For step 5, you seem to understand the different kinds of needs very well. But in 5c, you seem to be giving a rationale for each need rather than an explanation of the priorities (all except the last item).
Your instructional goals (7) have a great focus on what teachers will be able to *do* as a result of the instruction. And you present the rationale for your priorities very nicely here.
So ... Bravo!! You've earned the Exemplary rating.
Greg
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:
Middle schools in the Gwinnett County Public School System
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:
Gwinnett Count Public Schools is located in a suburban county in Georgia and is the state's largest school system. It consists of 60 elementary, 20 middle, and 15 high schools. The county is extremely ethnically diverse and includes over one hundred languages spoken by students. Educational programs are offered for students who are intellectually talented, Autistic, and English language learners.
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:
- In language arts collaborative planning meetings, teachers discuss in detail how they will teach grammar concepts. I have yet to hear conversation or attempts to teach grammar concepts through the literature selections outlined in the county's instructional calendar (which each school I work with is required to follow).
- In walk-thru observations teachers are teaching grammar in isolation.
- The amount of objectives language arts teachers are to teach, the more complex literature analysis is not addressed partially because of in-depth teaching of grammar in isolation.
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:
Because of the amount of information middle school language arts teachers are required to teach, teaching grammar in isolation does not allow teachers to teach all the Academic Knowledge and Skills (AKS), which then puts students behind in the coming years of education. It is a problem because students are staying on the bottom half of Bloom's Taxonomy (students are asked to identify instead of apply). As a program specialist, I collaboratively plan with language arts teachers in sixth through eighth grades and am confused as to why verbs are being taught as units of study in all three grade levels.
The evidence I can provide are CRCT and Benchmark Exam scores of students in these middle schools. On the Benchmark Pre-Test for the schools I serve, the grammar AKS are the highest scoring AKS, leaving the literature analysis towards the bottom.
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:
Gwinnett County Public Schools does not provide teacher training on how to integrate the many AKS of language arts into units of study.
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.
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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:
1. Language arts Benchmark Pre-Tests
2. Interview teachers (who would be participating in the course)
3. Administer survey to teachers who do not teach language arts
4. Administer survey to ninth grade language arts teachers
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Your final response:
1. Scores for students on grammar AKS on Benchmark Pre-Test
2. Scores for students on literature analysis on Benchmark Pre-Test, Benchmark 1, and Benchmark 2
3. A comparison of the scores on the grammar AKS and the literature analysis AKS
4. Needs of teachers – what the teacher perceives would help them successfully integrate grammar into literature units
5. Needs of students - what other teachers feel students are lacking or not demonstrating in their other core curriculum classes
6. Needs of students - what teachers feel students are lacking when they come to high school
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Your final response:
- Expressed need: Teachers state that there are too many resources given to them and do not have time to sift through them to teach grammar through literature or writing
- Comparative need: Other states are surpassing our students (Georgia's) on standardized test scores
- Normative need: Majority of students in the middle schools the designer works with are not performing on grade level
- Felt need: Teaching grammar through literature and writing strengthens student's ability to master AKS
- Expressed need: Teachers state that at the end of the school year they have not taught all the AKS for their grade level and content area
- Expressed need: Teachers state that students do not grasp elementary grammar concepts, and in turn, allow students to stay on the bottom half of Bloom's Taxonomy
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*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. Normative need: Majority of students in the middle schools the designer works with are not performing on grade level
2. Comparative need: Other states are surpassing our students (Georgia's) on standardized test scores
3. Expressed need: Teachers state that students do not grasp elementary grammar concepts, and in turn, allow students to stay on the bottom half of Bloom's Taxonomy
4. Expressed need: Teachers state that there are too many resources given to them and do not have time to sift through them to teach grammar through literature or writing
5. Expressed need: Teachers state that at the end of the school year they have not taught all the AKS for their grade level and content area
6. Felt need: Teaching grammar through literature and writing strengthens student's ability to master AKS
|
Your final response:
1. If students are not performing on grade level, they will struggle to pass the standardized test that is part of their promotion criteria and a large part of their schools Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) criteria
2. If Georgia continues to perform at the current level, will more restrictions be placed on counties, schools, and teachers to improve student achievement.
3. Teachers thinking their students come in with no prior grammar knowledge could hinder what assignments students are given and the level of instruction given
4. Resources overload. There are literally two boxes and two textbooks given to teachers at the beginning of the school year to support the language arts curriculum, and for a new teacher, this is simply overwhelming.
5. A sense of "there is too much to do, I may as well not try" can overcome teachers or more than likely teachers teach the content they enjoy or have mastery of and leave the other AKS for someone (another class or another school year) to teach the students
6. I put this one last because this is my opinion. When I was teaching middle school language arts the only way I could touch on all the AKS was to integrate grammar through the stories we read and the students' writing.
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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:
The county does not aid teachers in integrating grammar instruction into the reading and writing portions of the language arts curriculum.
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:
After this instructional session, middle school language arts teachers will be able to:
1. Write lessons and units that utilize literature as the foundation for applying grammar and writing skills
2. Use Benchmark Pre-Test data for the teacher's students to guide instruction
3. Teachers will be able to identify and effectively use the major components of their language arts resources
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Your final response:
My first instructional goal is primary because it will allow teachers to teach the three major portions of the language arts curriculum in tandem with one another. The opposite is what I see occurring now, which is planning for units of grammar instruction, then reading a novel, and finally writing a persuasive essay. What I would like to see is the novel study serving as the basis for writing, discussing grammar, and literary analysis.
My second goal is for teachers to use their students' Benchmark Pre-Test data to identify which AKS students have already mastered. This will allow the teacher to steal time from AKS that students are strong in and re-focus their energy on the weak AKS. If the AKS is to have students use correct gender and case of pronouns and students across the board were successful on the Pre-Test for this AKS, then spending a class period or two on identifying these would not be beneficial.
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The instructor's feedback to step 7:
No specific feedback given on this step.
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