Erin - Journal #2

As teachers, I believe we constantly do needs and task analyses without even thinking about it most of the time. I most commonly do a needs analysis before starting a new story in the Anthology. I need to look over the story and the teaching materials to see what concepts are taught in the story, and then choose one or two to focus on with my students. I think about what skills the students still need to learn or need more practice with, and what background knowledge they need before starting to read. Looking at the needs analysis models in chapter 5, I believe this most closely corresponds to the Rossett’s Five-Step Approach because it involves looking at already-created materials, seeing what the students know about a concept before beginning a unit, and look for or create any other needed materials.

One time I completed a task analysis was before starting the first full-process writing assignment this year. I needed to analyze the steps I would need to take with the students to complete a well-written paper. The goal was a 5 paragraph “Response to Literature” essay, which is a difficult skill at the beginning of the year. I needed teach the students how to choose text support, create a thesis statement, and write an interesting beginning, among other things. Then, I needed to decide how to teach each so that the students could write these essays, but also understand how to apply this technique to similar essays they may have in the future. This relates to the Dick, Carey, and Carey model because I looked at the subordinate skills the students needed to complete the larger project.

I believe that learner analysis is closely related to task and needs analyses, and that all three are necessary for effective instruction. In looking at chapter 7, one question that arose for me was: Can motivation be both intrinsic and extrinsic? For example, completing my master’s degree will help me further my career, but I also chose a path that seemed interesting to me.

School children are definitely a captive audience, and I wonder if there isn’t a way to allow middle and possibly elementary school students to at least have choice in one class, such as an elective. I know this is something that comes up every time I work on persuasive essays with students – they want to get to choose a class that they take. Maybe if they were able to choose just one, it would make them more willing participants in their other, required classes.

Regarding the different approaches, Mager’s approach seemed very involved to me and almost like you could end up with too much information. Smith and Ragan’s was confusing at first with the stable and changing similarities and differences, and took some rereading before I felt like I began to understand it.