Benchmark - Literacy Mini-Unit Plan

Data Use, Collection, and Application

Jason Duesler

EDU 480

11-29-19

Professor Denny

Needs Assessment

1. Demographic profile of the school and student

John, a 6-year-old adolescent is a Hispanic student at Poinciana Elementary School, in Mrs. Vollrath’s classroom. Mrs. Vollrath communicated to me that the student uses English, but he cannot effectively communicate because of the stammering problem. Mrs. Vollrath also stated, John is raised up in a single-family since his father and mother had divorced forcing him to live with his mother alone. The mother is working at the nearby shop where she earns $400 monthly. John is currently having an Individual Education Program (GIS) to help him meet his communication goals. Moreover, John has also been recommended for speech therapy. He started stammering at the age of 6. Later, a psychology assessment established that John was suffering from a serious cognitive disorder. In most cases, he was sad and moody, and sometimes he could withdraw from social situations and become irritable even if no one had annoyed him (Morrison, 2009).

2. Use the chart below to assess the student’s English language arts skills. Check the appropriate box for the selected student.

Scale	Almost Always	Sometimes	Every once in a While	Rarely	Never
	5	4	3	2	1
The student speaks with the teacher and fellow students with fluency.				·
The student speaks socially with fluency.				·
The student can fluently read grade-level texts.				·
The student can demonstrate comprehension of grade-level texts.				·
The student writes using grammar and punctuation expected of his or her grade level.	·
The student has clear handwriting.	·
The student has no major spelling issues.	·
The student writes without struggle.	·
The student listens to the teacher and peers with ease.	·
The student completes all tasks and homework as assigned.	·

3. My observations of the student regarding listening, speaking, writing and reading skills

John did not have any listening and writing difficulty as he was able to write using grammar and punctuation expected of his grade level. He was also able to write without struggle, listen to the teacher and peers with ease and complete all tasks and homework as assigned. Nonetheless, the main problem with John was speaking because of stammering. In this respect, John could hardly speak with the teacher and fellow students with fluency. He was also unable to can fluently read grade-level texts and could not demonstrate comprehension of grade-level texts as well.

Responding to the Needs Assessment Data

4. John’s short-term and long-term goals would include:

· To emphasize the commitment to speak and align words to the standards

· To engage the teacher and get the opportunity to pronounce words correctly

· To ensure that John learns speaking and readings skills in a manner that reflects quality research-based communication practices

· To ensure John reads fluently at grade level

· To teach John reading and speaking strategies regarding the complex content area texts

· To improve John’s performance on speaking and reading

The research-based instructional strategies entail all the learning approaches that a teacher can use to assist a student with speech disorder better learn and understand the course materials (Persaud, 2018). The learning instructional strategies can be either active or assessment-based instructional strategies. In the active instructional strategies, the teacher uses simple questions and ask the student what he/she has found most interesting in class or ask him/her to state what they intend to learn more about (Persaud, 2018; Morrison, 2009). The teacher can also slightly tighten the approach ask the student to draw a sketch that illustrates the things they have learned and ask them to connect the key concepts they learned in class to real-life situations. On the other hand, the assessment-based instructional strategies use tests, examinations, quizzes, and projects to assess the student’s progress.

References

Morrison J. (2009). Why Teachers Must Be Data Experts. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/dec08/vol66/num04/Why-Teachers-Must-Be-Data-Experts.aspx

Persaud C. (2018). Instructional Strategies: The Ultimate Guide. https://tophat.com/blog/instructional-strategies/