WilsonJ_LearnerAnalysis

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Learner Analysis Page 1 of20

Learner Analysis

Georgia Southern UniversityInstructional Design

FRIT 7430 - Fall 2010

Jennifer Wilson

September 27, 2010


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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, CoastalPlain, 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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0

1

2

3

4

56

7

White Black Hispanic 2Ethnicities

NoResponse

# of Students 2 6 7 1 0

#

ofStudents

Ethnic Groups

7 - Females44%9 - Males

56%

Gender

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

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

class being analyzed.


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77

7

7

7

7

777

7

7

7

7

7

77

Age

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

Students Age 8 = 0 No Response Given = 0

0 2 4 6

25 or under

26-30

31-35

36-40

41-45

46 or older

Age of Parent

25 or under

26-30

31-35

36-40

41-45

46 or older

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

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


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63%

31%

6%

Primary Language

English Spanish Japanese Laos Other (please specify)

01

2345678

#ofPeople

Race American Indian orAlaska Native

Asian

Black or AfricanAmerican

Native Hawaiian orOther Pacific Islander

White

Hispanic or Latino

Arab

Multiracial

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

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


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0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Georgia

Florida

New York

California

Minnesota

Mexico

Puerto Rico

Georgia Florida New York California Minnesota MexicoPuertoRico

# of People 4 2 1 1 1 6 1

Where were you born?

44%

37%

6%

13%

What is your marital status?

Single Married Separated Divorced Widowed

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

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


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0

0.2

0.4

0.60.8

1

1.2

#

ofStudents

Learning Deficits?

Glasses

Contacts

ADD

ADHD

Learning Disabled

Speech

Other

0 1 2 3 4 5

Homemaker

Student

Umemployed

Construction

Hotel or Food Services

Utilities

Other

Homemaker Student Umemployed ConstructionHotel or

Food ServicesUtilities Other

# of people 5 1 2 3 2 2 1

Employment Status

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

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


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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.

6%

44%

25%

6%

19%

Highest Level of School

Nursery school thru8th grade

High school grad;diploma or GED

Some college

Associate Degree

Bachelors Degree

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


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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.

StudentsReading

CRCT

Language Arts

CRCTMath CRCT

EIP/DI

Reading

EIP

MathSCORE

DIBELS -

ORFESOL

Student 1 Exceeds Meets Exceeds No No Yes Benchmark No

Student 2 N/A N/A N/A Yes Yes No Intensive No

Student 3 Exceeds Exceeds Exceeds No No Yes Benchmark No

Student 4 Exceeds Exceeds Exceeds No No Yes Benchmark No

Student 5 N/A N/A N/A No No Yes Benchmark No

Student 6 Exceeds Meets Exceeds No No No Benchmark No

Student 7 Meets Meets Meets No No No Benchmark No

Student 8 Meets Meets Exceeds No No Yes Benchmark No

Student 9 Does Not Meet Does Not Meet Does Not Meet Yes Yes No Intensive Yes



Student 12 Does Not Meet Does Not Meet Does Not Meet Yes Yes No Intensive No

Student 13 Does Not Meet Does Not Meet Does Not Meet Yes Yes No Intensive No


Student 15 Does Not Meet Meets Does Not Meet Yes Yes No Strategic No

Student 16 N/A N/A N/A Yes Yes No Intensive 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 thestudy 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.


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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 feelthat 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 MultipleIntelligences.

Garner's Multiple Intelligences

Visual-

Spatial

Bodily-

KinestheticMusical Interpersonal Intrapersonal Linguistic

Logical-

Mathematical

Student 1 X X X

Student 2 X X X

Student 3 X X

Student 4 X X X X

Student 5 X X X

Student 6 X X

Student 7 X X X

Student 8 X X

Student 9 X X X

Student 10 X X

Student 11 X X X

Student 12 X X


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Student 13 X X

Student 14 X X

Student 15 X X X

Student 16 X X

Visual-SpatialThese 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 dailytasks because they are easily distracted by other things or daydreaming.

Bodily-kinestheticLearners 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.

MusicalThese 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.

Visual-Spatial17%

Bodily-Kinesthetic

15%

Musical12%

Interpersonal10%

Intrapersonal

19%

Linguistic12%

Logical-Mathematical

15%

Learner Characteristics


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InterpersonalThese 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.

IntrapersonalThese 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 -MathematicalThese 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


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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, travelbrochures, 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 floatingdown 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-1-

a123276

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
http://www.e-learningguru.com/articles/art3_5.htmhttp://www.e-learningguru.com/articles/art3_5.htmhttp://www.arcsmodel.com/Mot%20dsgn.htmhttp://www.arcsmodel.com/Mot%20dsgn.htmhttp://www.suite101.com/content/teaching-history-to-make-it-relevant-from-day-1-%09a123276http://www.suite101.com/content/teaching-history-to-make-it-relevant-from-day-1-%09a123276http://www.suite101.com/content/teaching-history-to-make-it-relevant-from-day-1-%09a123276http://www.surveymonkey.com/http://www.surveymonkey.com/http://www.surveymonkey.com/http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6RB7375http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6RB7375http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6RB7375http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6RB7375http://www.surveymonkey.com/http://www.suite101.com/content/teaching-history-to-make-it-relevant-from-day-1-%09a123276http://www.suite101.com/content/teaching-history-to-make-it-relevant-from-day-1-%09a123276http://www.arcsmodel.com/Mot%20dsgn.htmhttp://www.e-learningguru.com/articles/art3_5.htm


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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 thatmay hinder his/her learning?

Glasses Yes No

Contacts Yes NoADD Yes No

ADHD Yes No

Learning Disabled Yes No

Speech Yes NoOther (please specify) ______________________

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? Ifcurrently enrolled, mark the previous grade or highest degree received.

Please specify your highest level of education.

No schooling completed

Nursery school to 8th grade9th, 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


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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

StudentUnemployed

Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, or Hunting

Arts, Entertainment, or Recreation

Broadcasting

Education - College, University, or Adult

Education - Primary/Secondary (K-12)

EducationOther

Construction

Finance and Insurance

Government and Public Administration

Health Care and Social Assistance

Hotel and Food Services

Information - Services and Data

InformationOther

Processing

Legal Services

Manufacturing - Computer and Electronics

Manufacturing - Other

Military

Mining


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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

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