Needs Analysis Tool English, Reading Comprehension

Scenario A (Yr 11)

Name:
School:
Class year level/s:
Number of years you have been teaching:
Length of time in present school:

Please read the following classroom reading scenario. You will initially be asked to
respond to some student data from this class.
You will then be asked to rate aspects of the teaching, using the chart that follows the
scenario. As you do this, bear in mind what you (and the teacher) know about this
class from the recent assessment results (set out below).
Aspects to be rated:

Explicit teaching of reading processing and comprehension strategies;

the teachers interactions with the childrens ideas; including feedback;
informed and shared learning intentions;
explicit links to prior knowledge, including knowledge of the world and literacy
knowledge;
catering for diverse literacy needs.

The data and information about the class:

It is the beginning of Term 1 and the teacher of a year 11 class has been focusing on
teaching the reading and understanding of unfamiliar text (written transactional) in
preparation for the students to sit the external English Achievement Standard 1.6
(90057).
From the asTTle reading test administered in November the previous year the teacher
has some data on Making Connections (Class Mean was 3a), Finding Information
(Class Mean was 4b) and Understanding (Class Mean was 5b). However, her closer
analysis revealed that 5 students each scored a range of 3b 3a for all these 3
curriculum functions, placing them below the class mean in all cases.
There are also 2 Yr 12 students in the class who did not meet the minimum entry
requirements for a Yr 12 English programme. They both gained 8 credits in English last
year, but did not gain Achievement Standard 1.6.

The teacher gave the students a past NCEA 1.6 (written transactional) external to
complete independently in class to gauge their ability. Across the class of 27 students, 3
students gained Merit, 6 gained Achieved and the other 18 students gained Not
Achieved.
The teacher notices that students are sometimes not referring to the correct place in the
text for their answer, that they are not always basing their responses on the ideas in the
text, but on their own thoughts and opinions and their answers often lack relevant
supporting detail from the text.
Making sense of the data:

From the data, identify a literacy strength and two important literacy needs, of
the students in this class.

What would you suggest should be the teaching focus for this class based on the
asTTle findings and the previous A.S. 1.6 the students completed in class?

The teaching:
Here is a lesson that took place after the teacher had had a chance to examine the data
and think about it. The teacher decided to use another past NCEA A.S. 1.6 external to
model strategies for gaining an understanding of the text and be able to identify the
ideas and/or style and/or language features. (The NCEA text & questions are attached)

To begin with the teacher gave the text and questions to the 9 students who had
previously gained Achieved or Merit and said they could work independently as they
obviously knew what to do. She would collect their work in at the end of the lesson.
The teacher then asked the class to move desks so the other students could be closer
to the teacher. The teacher explained that the purpose of the lesson was to learn
strategies to help them read for understanding and to be able to identify the ideas
and/or style and/or language features in the text. She asked the group what strategies
they currently used when reading for understanding. One student said, I just read it and
try to work out any difficult words by looking around it. Another student said, I read the
questions first so I know what I need to be looking out for. Someone else said, Its too
much to read anyway. The teacher listened to these responses and a few others.
The teacher then read the text Growing Pains: What to do when your children turn into
teenagers aloud to the group. She stopped at any words she thought they might not
understand, such as prolonged and bewildering rapidity and explained what the
word/s meant. When she had finished reading she said, So what do you think of that
piece of writing? The students responded in a variety of ways, including; He doesnt
like teenagers, does he? I agree, my hairstyle and clothes are part of who I am. He
uses lots of big words. The teacher picked up on the students comment about the
writer using lots of big words and asked the group how they could work out the meaning
of difficult words in an exam situation. One student said, Id use the notes at the
bottom of the page, they tell you what the hard words mean. The teacher said, Yes,
they often provide a small glossary at the end to the text to help out with unfamiliar
words, so look out for this next time.
The teacher then said, When we are reading for understanding in this situation we
need to be clear about what the questions are asking us, where in the text the answer is
likely to be and remember to provide evidence from the text for our answers. Lets start
by reading the questions and highlighting any key words in the questions. Do that now.
The students started reading the questions by themselves and began highlighting
words. One student commented that the important words were already bolded so there
was no need to highlight them. The teacher stopped the class and asked for their
attention. She then said, There are likely to be other instructional words that we need to
pay attention to. For example in Part A, (a) we need to take note of details such as,
identify, lines 1 -19, provide an example so that we do exactly what we are asked
to. Please make sure you have highlighted those words in that question and look out for
these instructional words in the following questions.
Once the students had finished highlighting she asked, So what is question (a) wanting
us to do? A student replied, We need to put down a choice teenagers want to make for
themselves and then give an example. The teacher said, Yes thats right and that
choice and example needs to come from lines 1 19 of the text. Thats why we
highlighted those instructional words. Can you answer that question now please?

As the students write down their answers there is some murmuring about what the
difference is between a choice and an example. The teacher asks them to stop talking
and to get back to answering the question.
Now lets look at question (b). We are being asked to explain why the writer believes it
is important for teenagers to make their own choices. So Michael, why do you think
teenagers need to make their own choices?
Michael says, Because we shouldnt be told what to do all the time. We are nearly
adults and we dont need to be ordered around by our parents.
Exactly, says Gemma, Im 16 next month and have a part time job, so I can do what I
want. I dont need my Mum telling me how I should live my life.
Yeah, says Matt, the writer says in line 3 that teenagers need room to discover their
individuality.
Okay, thats given us all some ideas to think about, says the teacher, now write an
answer for (b).
As the students were writing their answers the teacher checked on the progress of the
group who were working independently. As she read one students work she
commented to her, Remember to take your examples from the specified lines in the
question and make sure you give supporting detail.
Returning to the large group the teacher asked the students to look at question (c). She
commented that this question was quite difficult and that the students needed to be
clear about what they were being asked to do. She said, The words what the article is
for tell us that we need to be thinking about the purpose and the audience of the text.
Who do we think would read this article?
One student replied that the article was for parents.
How do you know this? the teacher asked.
The same student said, Because the headline says, what to do when your children
turn into teenagers.
Good, said the teacher. So that would be an example from the text that you could put
for question (c). Everyone got the idea? Great, can you get on and finish question (c)
before the end of the lesson. Id like to collect everyones work in.

Given what you know about the class strengths and needs, how would you rate the effectiveness
of the teaching above for this group?
Rating schedule
Rate the quality of these aspects of the scenario by ticking the appropriate
box.
Initially you will be asked to explain your rating.
Given that there are many ways of approaching teaching, you will then be
asked to provide an alternative teacher move for each aspect.
1
Highly
effective

2
Effective

3
Partly
ineffective
(but
generally
effective)

4
Partly
effective
(but
generally
ineffective)

Explicit
teaching of
reading
processing and
comprehension
strategies
Your reason for this rating:

What explicit teaching could you have planned for this lesson?

Teachers
interaction with
the students
ideas (including
feedback)
Your reason for this rating:

What sort of feedback would you give in addition to what the teacher did?

5
Ineffective

6
Highly
ineffective

1
Highly
effective

2
Effective

3
Partly
ineffective
(but
generally
effective)

4
Partly
effective
(but
generally
ineffective)

5
Ineffective

6
Highly
ineffective

Informed and
shared learning
intentions
Your reason for this rating:

Construct an alternative learning intention for this lesson based around the same reading context
(national parks as special places).

Explicit links to
prior
knowledge, both
world and
literacy
knowledge
Your reason for this rating:

Suggest alternative ways links could be made to prior knowledge.

Catering for
diverse literacy
needs
Your reason for this rating:

How would you cater for diverse literacy needs?

1
Highly
effective

2
Effective

3
Partly
ineffective
(but
generally
effective)

4
Partly
effective
(but
generally
ineffective)

5
Ineffective

6
Highly
ineffective

How would you

rate this lesson
in being
responsive to
the assessment
data?
Your reason for this rating:

If you had to make ONE change in the way this lesson was structured or executed, in order to increase
its likely effectiveness, what would it be?

Thank you