Learner Analysis

Georgia Southern University Instructional Design FRIT 7430 - Fall 2010

Jennifer Wilson

September 27, 2010

Learner Analysis

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Learner Analysis
Introduction The learning environment for this analysis was in a second grade classroom at William H. McGarrah Elementary School in Morrow, GA. McGarrah Elementary is a part of the Clayton County Public School System. The instructional goal/standards are as follows:

Instructional Goals/Standard: SS2G1 The student will locate major topographical features of Georgia and will describe how these features define Georgias surface. a. Locate all the geographic regions of Georgia: Blue Ridge Mountains, Piedmont, Coastal Plain, Valley and Ridge, and Appalachian Plateau. b. Locate the major rivers: Ocmulgee, Oconee, Altamaha, Savannah, St. Marys, Chattahoochee, and Flint. Demographics The data collected below was compiled from a survey that was sent home to Ms. Wilsons second grade class at McGarrah Elementary School. This class consists of eighteen students. A short note was sent home with fifteen of the eighteen students so the parents could complete a quick survey at home using SurveyMonkey.com. Three of the students parents do not have Internet access at home, therefore, a copy of the survey questions was sent home for those parents to complete using paper and pen. Those three students returned their survey completed, while only thirteen of the sixteen surveys were completed and returned. A typed copy of the survey that was sent home with the three students without Internet access and the link to the electronic survey located on SurveyMonkey.com can be found in the appendix of this paper. The results of the survey are listed in the charts and tables below.

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The chart below identifies the different types of ethnic groups and the number of students within those groups.

Ethnic Groups
7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 # of Students White 2 Black 6 Hispanic 7 2 Ethnicities 1 No Response 0

The pie chart below identifies the number of students that are female and male within the second grade class being analyzed.

# of Students

Gender

9 - Males 56%

7 - Females 44%

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The pie chart below identifies the age range of the students in the analysis.

Age
Student 1 Student 2 Student 3 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 Student 4 7 7 7 7 Student 5 Student 6 Student 7 Student 8 Student 9 Student 10 Student 11 Student 12 Student 13

Students Age 8 = 0

No Response Given = 0

Student 14 Student 15 Student 16

The bar graph below identifies the number of parents within a particular age range.

Age of Parent
46 or older 41-45 36-40 31-35 26-30 25 or under 0 2 4 6 25 or under 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46 or older

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The pie chart below identifies the number of parents within a particular age range.

Primary Language
English Spanish Japanese Laos Other (please specify)

6% 31% 63%

The line chart below identifies the different races within the analyzed group.

Race
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 #of People

American Indian or Alaska Native Asian Black or African American Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander White Hispanic or Latino Arab Multiracial

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The bar graph below identifies the locations of where those that were surveyed were born.

Where were you born?

Puerto Rico Mexico Minnesota California New York Florida Georgia

0 Georgia # of People 4

1 Florida 2

5 Mexico 6

New York California Minnesota 1 1 1

6 Puerto Rico 1

The pie chart below identifies the marital status of the participants parents within the study.

What is your marital status?

Single Married Separated Divorced Widowed

13% 6% 44% 37%

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The line graph below identifies any learning deficits of the participants within the study.

Learning Deficits?
1.2 1 # of Students 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 Glasses Contacts ADD ADHD Learning Disabled Speech Other

The bar graph below identifies employment status of the participants parents.

Employment Status
Other Utilities Hotel or Food Services Construction Umemployed Student Homemaker

0
Homemaker # of people 5 Student 1

3
Hotel or Food Services 2

4
Utilities 2

5
Other 1

Umemployed Construction 2 3

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The pie chart below identifies the highest level of school completed by the participants parents.

Highest Level of School

6% 19% Nursery school thru 8th grade High school grad; diploma or GED 6% 44% 25% Bachelors Degree Some college Associate Degree

Entry Skills & Prior Knowledge The learners being used in this analysis are from Ms. Wilsons second grade class at McGarrah Elementary School and are above average to below average students. Most of them attended the first grade at McGarrah and did not pass the CRCT. There are eighteen students in the class, but only sixteen of the eighteen students will be discussed and included in the analysis because two students did not participate in the survey. A few of the native English speaking students (ESOL) can communicate clearly, with few or no errors in usage and syntax, while the others have difficulties communicating with the teacher, classmates, and other visitors. Most of the students are adept at recognizing and using visual symbols and cues. Among the students, a variety of cognitive processing styles are observed (assimilation, accommodation, disequilibrium and equilibration). My students demonstrate many different cognitive and learning strategies including rehearsal, elaboration, and organizational, comprehensive monitoring, and affective strategies. Some of the students are at the Concrete Operational Stage while most others are at the Preoperational and/or Sensorimotor Stage. Nine of the sixteen participating students are in both EIP Math and Reading programs, five are in SCORE (a program for excelling students), and the other two students are considered on-level or benchmark students. Most students do not read at their appropriate grade level or higher. Many of them are struggling readers, therefore, making it difficult for them to comprehend lessons in other subjects. Most of the students in this second grade class took the CRCT (Reading, Language Arts, and Math portions) last year in the first grade.

Learner Analysis

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All of the students within the population have some background and experience with Social Studies. Most of them were either born in Georgia or have lived in Georgia during their educational experiences. Most of them are able to identify what rivers and mountains are, but are unable to identify the names of Georgia rivers and regions. In general, the students have a limited knowledge of the world; however, some students are not lacking the background knowledge of the geographical features of Georgia. All information was gathered through the viewing of permanent records (to identify CRCT scores), DIBELS Benchmark scores, STAR Reading reports, and data notebooks.

Students

Reading CRCT

Language Arts CRCT

Math CRCT

EIP/DI Reading

EIP Math

SCORE

DIBELS ORF

ESOL

Student 1 Student 2 Student 3 Student 4 Student 5 Student 6 Student 7 Student 8 Student 9 Student 10 Student 11 Student 12 Student 13 Student 14 Student 15 Student 16

Exceeds N/A Exceeds Exceeds N/A Exceeds Meets Meets Does Not Meet Does Not Meet Does Not Meet Does Not Meet Does Not Meet Does Not Meet Does Not Meet N/A

Meets N/A Exceeds Exceeds N/A Meets Meets Meets Does Not Meet Does Not Meet Does Not Meet Does Not Meet Does Not Meet Does Not Meet Meets N/A

Exceeds N/A Exceeds Exceeds N/A Exceeds Meets Exceeds Does Not Meet Does Not Meet Does Not Meet Does Not Meet Does Not Meet Does Not Meet Does Not Meet N/A

No Yes No No No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

No Yes No No No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No No No No No No No

Benchmark Intensive Benchmark Benchmark Benchmark Benchmark Benchmark Benchmark Intensive Intensive Intensive Intensive Intensive Intensive Strategic Intensive

No No No No No No No No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No

Academic Motivation

The learners that I have selected have shown an immense amount of motivation towards learning more about Georgia and its geographical features. As an educator, it has been my

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experience that students with low reading abilities are not as interested or motivated to learn more about Social Studies. But, this particular group of students has shown their interest in learning more about Social Studies and our state, Georgia, by literally asking if they can continue to learn more about the topic being discussed and/or begging to continue the Social Studies lesson again the next day. Most of the students are eager to learn. Many of the students are interested in Social Studies and knowing more information about Georgia because this is the state they live in. They are also finding that Social Studies can be interesting (especially since they are learning about things they have never heard of and never knew once existed) and they are able to relate some of the topics being discussed to their own lives. Motivational Strategies

The success or failure of any lesson or activity can be closely correlated to learner motivation, or lack thereof. Therefore, determining whether or not the skills learned from a lesson or an activity is ever applied often remains a source of consternation for teachers. In order for the lesson or activity to be retained, a more effective "performance" focused lesson or activity that incorporates repetition of the learned concepts (although repetitious activities are often disliked by students) is a means of aiding retention and therefore, motivation. Some motivational strategies that can be used to alleviate any motivational challenges that may occur during the study are listed below based on the ARCS model made by John Keller (2006). Attention: Gaining and keeping the learners attention. In order for information to be retained and learning to occur, the students attention must first be obtained. Kruse (n.d.) explained that Keller's strategies for attention included sensory stimuli (stimulates the senses), inquiry arousal (thought provoking questions), and variability (variance in exercises and use of media). Beginning a lesson or activity with an animated, brightly colored PowerPoint with sound effects or music tends to help motivate and grab the students attention (waking up the auditory and visual stimuli). Another way to help keep a students attention is to begin the lesson or activity with fun facts about the subject being taught. For the particular activity/lesson I want to use with my students, I would probably begin with the visually and auditory stimulating PowerPoint with fun facts about Georgias landforms and regions. Learner Analysis Page 10 of 20

 Relevance: Making the lessons and/or activities relevant to the student. It is easier for learners to encode and store information in their long-term memory when they are able to link real life experiences and knowledge to the concept being discussed and/or taught. One way to do this is to ask the students questions that will help them recall information about a topic that they have once had experience with or exposure to. The relevance of teaching the students about Georgias landforms and regions would be so the students would be able to understand the state that they live in and how Georgia has changed over the years into the place that they know. Having the students compare the lives of people in the past to their own lives may spark some interest in the lesson and/or activity being taught. Taking the students on a field trip to a water plant may show relevance to the students the importance of knowing why and how our rivers, oceans, lakes, etc. work and why we need to take care of them. Allowing students the opportunity to look at pictures of the different regions and what people do in those regions that are different from their own region may spark relevance in the lesson and/or activity. James Parsons (2009) explained that after students realize the relevance of our lessons and/or activities they will be able to apply that logic and relevance throughout the year by harking back on these activities and asking themselves What does that mean for us now? How did or does it affect us? Confidence: The confidence aspect of the ARCS model is required so that students feel that they should put a good faith effort into the lesson and/or activity (Kruse, n.d.). Kevin Kruse (n.d.) wrote that if a student feels he/she is incapable of achieving the lesson and/or activities objective (goal) or that it will take too much time or effort, the students motivation will decrease. Giving the students a rubric for an assignment or a syllabus for the class will help the student understand what is expected of him/her for the lesson and/or activity and/or class. Using positive feedback with the students when they are answering and asking questions that they might or might now know the answer to, will help build a students confidence when it comes to answering and asking questions when they are unsure of the actual answer.

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 Satisfaction: A reward gained from the learning experience. This can be in the form of entertainment or a sense of achievement (Kruse, n.d.). Some of the lessons and/or activities that may be presented using PowerPoint, could include an animated and musical sequence that could acknowledge when a student gets the answer to a question that is asked by the teacher correct. After students get a passing grade on the unit assessment, they may be recognized (rewarded) by giving the student a certificate of completion, a trip to a treasure box, a special snack, or a selected amount of time doing an activity of their choice. Praise and phone calls home to their parents would also be effective forms of satisfaction for the students. Ultimately, though, the best way for learners to achieve satisfaction is for them to find their new skills immediately useful and beneficial (Kruse, n.d.). Learner Characteristics

According to Gardner (1991), students possess different kinds of minds and therefore learn, remember, perform, and understand in different ways. The sixteen students within this study can be identified using a variety of characteristics. Some of those characteristics include being visual, interpersonal, and bodily-kinesthetic to students that are musical and logical. Listed below in the tables and charts are the characteristics for each student based on Gardners Multiple Intelligences.
Garner's Multiple Intelligences Student 1 Student 2 Student 3 Student 4 Student 5 Student 6 Student 7 Student 8 Student 9 Student 10 Student 11 Student 12 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X VisualSpatial BodilyKinesthetic Musical Interpersonal Intrapersonal X Linguistic X LogicalMathematical X

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Student 13 Student 14 Student 15 Student 16 X X

X X X X X X

Learner Characteristics
LogicalMathematical 15%

Visual-Spatial 17% Linguistic 12% Intrapersonal 19% Musical 12% BodilyKinesthetic 15%

Interpersonal 10%

Visual-Spatial These learners are very visual learners and think spatially. They like to draw, put together puzzles, read maps, and daydream. These particular learners learn through physical imagery (such as graphics, charts, photographs, drawings, videos, television, and other multimedia). Most of my students that are visual-spatial struggle to stay focused on our daily tasks because they are easily distracted by other things or daydreaming. Bodily-kinesthetic Learners that are bodily-kinesthetic have a great sense of body awareness. They are athletic and enjoy making and touching things. They learn through touching and moving objects (doing physical things) and communicating with their bodies. These learners are my athletes. They love to play and role play. These learners tend to need a break during lessons to move around because they are always on the go. Musical These particular learners love music and tend to work better with soothing and soft noise. To motivate and capture the attention of my musical students I use music and sound effects in our lessons. At times, classical music will play in the room to help the students concentrate and sooth them. These learners are always finding way to make our lessons into a song.

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Interpersonal These learners enjoy interacting with others. They are very social and tend to get into trouble because they talk a lot (at the wrong time). These students learn through interaction. They have many friends, empathy for others, street smarts. Participating in large or small group activities are something these students really enjoy being a part of. Intrapersonal These students are my shy and quiet students. They are very sensitive and understanding of the feelings of others, but are very focused on themselves and their goals. With the group I am doing this study with, there are very few of these types of students. These are my independent students that I can give an assignment to and they will do it on their own without talking to others. I have noticed that many of my ESOL students are Intrapersonal (more so with being shy and sensitive), as well as some of my very bright and intelligent students. These students are calm and tend to come from families that are private and really value education. Asian students are usually intrapersonal, but I dont have any Asian students in my study. Linguistic - These learners have highly developed auditory skills and often think in words. These students are my SCORE students (my above level students). They like to read and write any and all kinds of stories. These are my students that are very smart and willing to help tutor others if needed. Logical -Mathematical These students think conceptually using mathematical reasoning and can see patterns in things more easily than others. They like to experiment and solve puzzles. Most of these students are usually my ESOL students and my students that really enjoy doing science and/or math. This is because math is universal in its language, and it tends to be easier for many of those students to comprehend. They really like being taught with games, experiments, and with investigating things. All data was collected from test results that were previously given to the sixteen students using Gardners Multiple Intelligences. All of the tests results were found inside each students permanent record, though; additional testing may be needed in the future. Accommodations Four of the students within the study population are involved with ESOL accommodations. They will be pulled out of the classroom and worked with in a small Learner Analysis Page 14 of 20

group setting with an ESOL teacher in order to accommodate the students and meet their IEP recommendations. This particular accommodation was determined after reviewing each ESOLs students IEP file. The file listed the special accommodations needed for those students. To help these students understand the lesson activities, more pictures (found online and/or using the electronic textbook resources) will be used to aide in developing vocabulary (Viola, Bednarz, Cortes, Jennings, Schug, & White, 2006). Students may be told one definition of a particular word within the lesson along with a sentence and they will be given the second definition of the word along with a sentence, in which they will be asked to repeat (Viola et al., 2006). Five students are considered gifted, and attend SCORE on a weekly basis. They will be accommodated by giving all lesson and/or activities to their SCORE teacher so that she may work with them on a more advanced level and identify any additional accommodations that may or may not be needed for this study. Activities that may spark the students thought process will be used as an accommodation. Some of these activities are listed below: These students could complete a model of Georgia where they will identify, in detail, Georgias regions and landforms. Students can also cut out photographs of Georgia from old magazines, travel brochures, or Internet Websites where they will arrange them by regions on a bulletin board (Viola et al., 2006). They could be asked to use their imaginations and pretend they are a leaf floating down one of Georgias rivers (Viola et al., 2006) and produce a Web 2.0 presentation (examples: using Animoto, Prezi, or VoiceThread) from the point of view of the leaf. They would also be asked to list 4 activities they (the leaf) saw people doing along the river. If VoiceThread is used, other students within the class will be able to respond or add on to the story using VoiceThreads voice response option. The other students within the study population are in need of no special needs accommodations. Many of these students are struggling readers, therefore, PowerPoints and other technology presentations (including using the electronic textbook) will be used to aide in presenting the material.

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Peer Review Feedback (Not required for points in this assignment, but includes this information if you did participate in a peer review process within the discussion forum provided to you within Module 4 of the course.)

No peer feedback was given. The only feedback given was by Dr. Kennedy through mail.
References

Viola, H. J., Bednarz, S. W., Cortes, C. E., Jennings, C., Schug, M. C., & White, C. S. (2006). Our state: Georgia. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

Gardner, H. (1991) The unschooled mind: How children think and how schools should teach. New York: Basic Books.

Kruse, K. (n.d.). The magic of learner motivation: The ARCS model. Retrieved from http://www.e-learningguru.com/articles/art3_5.htm

Keller, J. M. (2006). Motivation design. Retrieved from http://www.arcsmodel.com/Mot%20dsgn.htm Parsons, J. (2009). Teach history to make it relevant from the start: Lesson activities and teaching strategies for history teachers. Retrieved from http://www.suite101.com/content/teaching-history-to-make-it-relevant-from-day-1a123276
Appendices

The demographic survey was made using Survey Monkey (www.surveymonkey.com). Listed here is the link to the actual survey that was made: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6RB7375 I have also attached (copied in) the paper version of the survey below.

Demographic Survey
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1. What is your gender?

Male Female

2. What is your age?

25 or under 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46 or older

3. How old is your child? (The child in Ms. Wilson's 2nd grade class.) ______________________________ 4. What is your primary language?
English Spanish Japanese Laos Other (please specify)_______________________________________

5. Where were you born? ____________________________________ 6. What is your marital status? (circle your answer)
Single Married Separated Divorced Widowed

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7. Does your child wear glasses or contacts or have any known deficits that may hinder his/her learning?
Glasses Contacts ADD ADHD Learning Disabled Speech Other (please specify) ______________________ Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No

8. What is your race?

Please specify your race. American Indian or Alaska Native Asian Black or African American Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander White Hispanic or Latino Arab Multiracial

9. What is the highest degree or level of school you have completed? If currently enrolled, mark the previous grade or highest degree received.
Please specify your highest level of education. No schooling completed Nursery school to 8th grade 9th, 10th or 11th grade 12th grade, no diploma High school graduate - high school diploma or GED Some college credit, but less than 1 year 1 or more years of college, no degree Learner Analysis Page 18 of 20

Please specify your highest level of education. Associate degree (for example: AA, AS) Bachelor's degree (for example: BA, AB, BS) Master's degree (for example: MA, MS, MEng, MEd, MSW, MBA) Professional degree (for example: MD, DDS, DVM, LLB, JD) Doctorate Degree (for example: PhD, EdD)

10. Which of the following describes your current employment status?

Choose your employment status below Homemaker Retired Student Unemployed Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, or Hunting Arts, Entertainment, or Recreation Broadcasting Education - College, University, or Adult Education - Primary/Secondary (K-12) Education Other Construction Finance and Insurance Government and Public Administration Health Care and Social Assistance Hotel and Food Services Information - Services and Data Information Other Processing Legal Services Manufacturing - Computer and Electronics Manufacturing - Other Military Mining Learner Analysis Page 19 of 20

Choose your employment status below Publishing Real Estate, Rental, or Leasing Religious Retail Scientific or Technical Services Software Telecommunications Transportation and Warehousing Utilities Wholesale Other

Learner Analysis

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