Learner Analysis Patrice Toulson

8/3/2019 Learner Analysis Patrice Toulson

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Learner Analysis

Introduction

The learning environment that will serve as the content for my learner analysis will be a

public school in Jefferson County. It is a middle school with approximately 300 students.

The standard that will be used for this class project is:

S6E3 Students will recognize the significant role of water in earth processes

b. Relate various atmospheric conditions to stages of the water cycle

Demographics

Wrens Middle School is made up of 53% African Americans, 44% Caucasians, 1%

Hispanics and 1% Multi-Racial. 18% are students with disabilities and 75% of ourstudents eat free or reduced lunches. The students that I am focusing on for my learner

analysis are sixth grade students.

Student Gender Race Age

SpecialEducation

Free or

ReducedLunches

DH M W 14 No Yes

EC F H 12 No Yes

CJ F B 12 Yes Yes

KL M W 12 No Yes

SR F B 13 No YesBS M B 12 Yes Yes

NU F B 12 No Yes

AW F B 12 Yes Yes

NF F B 12 No Yes

The school information was gathered from the Georgia Department of Education websiteand the student information was gathered from their Student Folders from the school

counselors office.


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Entry Skills and Prior Knowledge

In addressing the students entry skills and prior knowledge, I will use the studentsCRCT scores for 2010. I also was in the classroom with these students in a math support

class and a science class each morning so I was able to evaluate the students and their

learning behaviors.

Student 2010 CRCTReading Score

2010 CRCTMath Score

2010 CRCTScience Score

Special Needs

DH 830 819 801 No

EC 790 796 789 ESOL

CJ 805 811 800 ADD/ADHD

KL 813 815 801 No

SR 810 824 802 No

BS 800 794 786 ADD/ADHD

NU 803 804 798 NoAW 775 780 770 Hearing

Impaired

NF 810 811 804 Vision

Impaired

Academic Motivation

Based on my observation of the students each day in their math and science classes, I see

these students being unmotivated for the most part. It is very difficult to keep their

attention. This class has a lot of behavior issues and they are constantly talking out andarguing with classmates. The teacher has to constantly entertain them or speak to them

to get them re-focused. Based on their CRCT scores, 4 out of 9 failed science. The other

5 that passed the CRCT in science did not pass with a lot of breathing room.Also, whenever the CRCT Science section is mentioned, the students always are quick to

announce that you dont have to pass that section. So, I would not anticipate much

motivation from these students on this science standard that has been chosen.


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Learner Characteristics

We have an advisement program in our school where new 6th graders are assigned anadvisor within the school. That specific advisor will stay with the student through 8th

grade. One of the first things we do is a learner evaluation to determine how each student

learns the best. This information is kept in a folder for each child. After looking at thesestudents advisement folders, I found that four students are kinesthetic learners. These

students are very competitive in the classroom, always wanting to finish first and get

praised for getting the questions correct first. These students also participate in extra-curricular sports activities at school. KL plays baseball and soccer. SB plays basketball.

BS plays football and NU is a cheerleader. DH is a logical-mathematical intelligence

learner. He is very good at math and thinks the math problems out logically a lot of times

versus the way the math teacher explains how to do the problem. Hes always askingwill it work this way? EC and CJ are spatial learners. These students enjoy drawing

for pleasure as well as during note taking. Sometimes they will draw diagrams or

pictures to help them with their notes. The other two, AW and NF, are linguistic

intelligent learners. These students enjoy writing stories and poems.

Another factor that needs to be considered for this learner analysis is how culture and/orethnicity may influence these learners. Of my target learners, one is Hispanic, two are

Caucasians and six are African Americans. The Hispanic students first language is

Spanish. Monitoring her in a classroom, I see that her limited ability to understand

English is a disadvantage for her. Her teacher or classmates may use a phrase that she isnot familiar with. Paul Miller and Hidehiro Endo (2004) referred to this as cultural

load. Non-English students must struggle to learn when and how to use new words that

teachers and co-students take for granted. Her parents do not speak English very well. Ifeel this is another disadvantage to her because they cant help her with her studies.

Miller and Endo (2004) stated usually ESOL students go home and their parents want to

communicate with them in their native language so that they can still be connected totheir homeland. Many immigrant students think that if they are fluent in English then

they will soon be considered an American by others. These students are sometimes

caught in the middle at home and at school with their language. (Miller and Endo, June2004) Some strategies that teachers may do to help ESOL students is 1) choose activities

and assignments that take into consideration previous knowledge and experiences that the

student can relate to, 2) treat the English learners homes and cultures with respect, and

3) the teacher should be alert to vocabulary used in the classroom. The teacher needs toselect words and sentence structures that will make it easier for an English learner to

understand. (Miller and Endo, June 2004) The majority of the students in my analysis

live in rural areas, are from low-income families with family instabilities where themajority of their parents are uneducated. All of these factors can affect the students

learning. If these parents do not see education as important, they are not going to push

their children to do well and the lack of parental interest, support, and guidance promotea lack of interest, lack of motivation or low self-esteem in uneducated and lower income

households such as the families involved in my study. Some interventions suggested by

Cruickshank, Jenkins, Metcalf (2009), that a teacher can do to assist low income less

educated students is 1) expect that all students can and will learn, 2) set and maintain


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high expectations for behavior, 3) respect each students background, 4) provide mixed

academic grouping as well as providing individual help and 5) plan interesting and

engaging learning experiences. Another contributing factor in minority groups is that lowsocioeconomic status families usually do not provide their children with the kind of early

stimulation and academic preparation that middle and upper class families provide. So if

the students in this study did not get this at an early age, they may still be affected by thatin middle school. This can aid in low self-esteem and higher drop out rates.

(Cruickshank, Jenkins, Metcalf, 2009) Sue Watson (2009) states when students feel

good about themselves, they are more apt to perform better in the classroom.Developing can do attitudes and building students' confidence by providing positive

feedback along with praising the student are necessary tools for teachers to do in order to

improve self esteem issues.


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Accommodations

As mentioned earlier, this class has an ESOL student, two ADD/ADHD students, onevisually impaired student and one hearing impaired student. So accommodations are

going to have to be made for these students. The special education teacher will assist me

in making modifications with the children that are in the special education program.

For the student who has English as her second language, according to Miller and Endo

(2006), I need to choose activities and assignments that will allow her to draw on herprior knowledge and life experiences. Other items that may assist her will be when I re-

write difficult task into simpler task, break complex sentences into smaller sentences.

Another method that I can use is to model academic language surrounding it with

appropriate content clues and other information to help her learn the words and increaseher vocabulary.

As far as the ADD/ADHD students, I will set a time limit for specific tasks, let them

stand at their desk when they feel they need to move around, let them take theirassessments alone so they will not be distracted and allow extra time for test. I will also

reduce assignments into manageable sections and have frequent check points.(Suggested Classroom, n.d.) Transitions are especially hard for ADD/ADHD students

so I will try to warn them when a transition is going to take place. (Andreas, 2006)

The hearing impaired student that is in this class has a speech therapist that works withher weekly. She also wears a microphone that enables her to hear the teacher better.

Other strategies that may be used are sitting her in the front of the class, facing her when

I talk and trying not to move around too much when I am talking. Visual aids may beuseful when appropriate. (Sue, 2006)

For the visual impaired student, I print material in larger print for her. I also provide amagnifying glass for her to use in the classroom. I allow her to use a computer when

appropriate because she can increase the font size to her liking. Sitting in front of the

room helps her. Other strategies that may be tried are using audio/visual presentationswhen appropriate and reading what is being written on the board.

Peer Review Feedback

As of Sunday at 10:00 pm, I had not received a peer review. However, I looked over my

learner analysis again and made some changes to the Learner Characteristic section. I

added some strategies that a teacher could use to meet the needs of learners of differentcultural and ethnic backgrounds. I also added a new reference on self esteem.


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References

Abrams, L., Flenner, C., Frazier, W., McKinney, S. (2006). Responding to the Needs of

At-Risk Students in Poverty. Retrieved June 9, 2010 from

http://www.usca.edu/essays/vol172006/mckinney.pdf.

Andreas, D. (2006, August 24). Classroom Strategies for ADHD. Retrieved June 9,

2010 from

http://addcdhd.suite101.com/article.cfm/teaching_the_adhd_child_part_1.

Cruickshank, D., Jenkins, D., Metcalf, K. (2009). The Act of Teaching. New York:

McGraw-Hill.

Kincheloe, J. (2004). Why a Book on Urban Education? In Steinberg, S. and Kincheloe,

J. (Eds.) 19 Urban questions Teaching in the City. NY: Peter Long.

Miller, P., Endo, H. (2006, June). Understanding and Meeting the Needs of ESL

Students. Retrieved June 9, 2010 from

http://faculty.weber.edu/mtungmala/Hybrid4270/Articles/MeetNeeds.pdf.

Sue (2006). Strategies for Hearing Impaired Students. Retrieved June 9, 2010 from

http://specialed.about.com/cs/teacherstrategies/a/hearing.htm.

Watson, S. (2009). Improving Self Esteem. Retrieved June 13, 2010 from

http://specialed.about.com/od/characterbuilding/a/esteem.htm

Classroom Strategies for Regular Education Teachers Who Have Students with Visual

Impairments. Retrieved June 9, 2010 from

http://www.tsbvi.edu/Education/Strategies.htm.
http://www.usca.edu/essays/vol172006/mckinney.pdfhttp://addcdhd.suite101.com/article.cfm/teaching_the_adhd_child_part_1http://addcdhd.suite101.com/article.cfm/teaching_the_adhd_child_part_1http://faculty.weber.edu/mtungmala/Hybrid4270/Articles/MeetNeeds.pdfhttp://specialed.about.com/cs/teacherstrategies/a/hearing.htmhttp://specialed.about.com/od/characterbuilding/a/esteem.htmhttp://specialed.about.com/od/characterbuilding/a/esteem.htmhttp://www.tsbvi.edu/Education/Strategies.htmhttp://www.usca.edu/essays/vol172006/mckinney.pdfhttp://addcdhd.suite101.com/article.cfm/teaching_the_adhd_child_part_1http://faculty.weber.edu/mtungmala/Hybrid4270/Articles/MeetNeeds.pdfhttp://specialed.about.com/cs/teacherstrategies/a/hearing.htmhttp://specialed.about.com/od/characterbuilding/a/esteem.htmhttp://www.tsbvi.edu/Education/Strategies.htm


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Suggested Classroom Interventions For Children with ADD and Learning Disabilities.

Retrieved June 9, 2010 from

http://childdevelopmentinfo.com/learning/teacher.shtml.

2008-2009 Report Card (2009). Retrieved June 7, 2010 from

http://doe.k12.ga.us/ReportingFW.aspx?

pageReq=102&SchoolID=5758&T=1&FY=2009.
http://childdevelopmentinfo.com/learning/teacher.shtmlhttp://doe.k12.ga.us/ReportingFW.aspx?pageReq=102&SchoolID=5758&T=1&FY=2009http://doe.k12.ga.us/ReportingFW.aspx?pageReq=102&SchoolID=5758&T=1&FY=2009http://childdevelopmentinfo.com/learning/teacher.shtmlhttp://doe.k12.ga.us/ReportingFW.aspx?pageReq=102&SchoolID=5758&T=1&FY=2009http://doe.k12.ga.us/ReportingFW.aspx?pageReq=102&SchoolID=5758&T=1&FY=2009

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Learner Analysis Patrice Toulson