FRIT 7231 Instructional Design

Design Document
Jessica Mobley
Dr. Hodges
Fall 2016

Identification of Learning Problem

I am currently a certified 4th grade ELA teacher where most of my students come from a
lower-income background. I have only one year experience with this subject area but I have
quickly caught on to examining needs assessments and utilizing the data gained to better design
my instruction and engage my students using instructional designs and techniques. My target
audience includes my lower level reading class. This group of learners are struggling with
proficiency in phonics and using context clues to help comprehend a text. This falls in the
standard category Reading: Foundational Skills which includes the standard RF.4.3., Phonics and
Word Recognition.
The learning problem was identified by the previous years achievement test, Georgia
Milestones. Therefore, I used a Normative Needs Assessment. According to the text, a
normative need is identified by the comparing the target audience against a national standard
(Morrison et. al.). The GMS identified the students normative need of deficiency in reading
comprehension and fluency. The current level of lower level students in my ELA class is
between 210-474. The students at this low level of reading comprehension and fluency are
considered to be in the beginning learner, level one achievement, according the GMS score sheet.
The desired score ranges from a Proficient Learner in level three achievement, scoring 525-573,
to a Distinguished Learner in level four, scoring 574-775.
The instructional method performed in 3rd grade was mainly direct instruction and
independent reading. When comparing the student's scores, it is safe to say that this method of
instruction was not effective. Instruction for these lower level students is needed to fill in the
gaps of learning strategies and techniques that they have not yet mastered. If they continue on

this path without having this knowledge of reading comprehension and fluency, they will
continue to fall behind the norm and struggle not only as students, but in their future careers as
well.
GOAL: The goal for my students is to have them accurately and fluently reading passages
with little to no errors. The goal of my instruction is to design and implement instructional
strategies that engages the students in their learning as well as helps them to not only understand,
but master their areas of weakness. As stated earlier, the most predominant weakness that my
target audience has is phonics and word recognition. After my instruction, the students will be
able to accurately read unfamiliar words using phonics and text clues.

Learner Analysis
The targeted learner for my analysis is one of my 4th grade ELA/Reading classes. These
students are classified as my lower level and inclusion classroom. As stated in my work,
Identification of Learning Problem, the standards that need instruction are phonics and word
recognition.
The general characteristics of my learners are those fairly typical of any fourth grade
student. Most of my students are either nine or ten years old. The class consists of thirteen
students; six boys and seven girls. There is not a lot of diversity as far as race in that classroom
as shown in Table 1. However, the school itself is quite diverse.

Table 1: Diversity of Race

Black

White

Hispanic

Other

Mal
e
3

Female
5

Male
1

Female
3

Male
0

Female
0

Male
1

Female
0

The specific entry characteristics of my students have a low achieving score and
understanding of phonics and word recognition. These students have a deficiency in
phonological awareness, the ability to know words can be broken down into smaller units such as
syllables and phonemes. They are also deficient in using context clues in a text to help
understand a word or phrase. This is paired alongside using phonics in a text.
The typical academic performances of these students are very low. Within every subject,
including Mathematics, students must be able to read and comprehend text to understand what is
being said and asked of them. Therefore, their grades really suffer. We have not been in school
long enough to give and report cards or progress reports, but their permanent records from their
last semester in 3rd grade showed that all students in this class were just barely passing with a 70
or slightly above. All thirteen students in this class scored on the Beginning Level for Reading
(Table 2 explains the levels in greater detail).

Table 2: Achievement Levels for Georgia Milestones

Level 1:
Beginning Learner

Level 2:
Developing Learner

Level 3:
Proficient Learner

210 to 474

475 to 524

525 to 573

Level 4:
Distinguished
Learner
574 to 775

The target students have very unique personal and social characteristics. From my past
experience with lower level students, I have found that they are more submissive, timid, and

reserved socially and academically in the classroom. However, this group of students is quite the
opposite. They are affectionate, sociable, and very lively. The mental maturity level and physical
maturity level of this group is very diverse. The girls are involved in the typical female drama,
but they know when enough is enough. The boys, however, are very immature and frequently get
into trouble for going too far. The girls have also physically matured much more quickly than the
boys. However, I do not hear or see the boys really noticing their differences yet.
My students are also a unique situation, from my personal experience, when it comes to
the cultural diversity. All of my students have the same cultural background. I do have English
Language Learners in some of my other classes that I am currently teaching, but my target class
does not include any.
I have one student in my target class that has a disability. One of my black males has an
intellectual disability. He has a special education resource teacher with him in all of his classes to
provide individual attention and assistance. I, as well as the special education teacher, provide
many modifications. Every test, quiz, and class assignment is modified.
On the first day of school I gave two pretests. One pretest was to gather data on the
students interests and the other on the students personal reading goal for the year. I plan to use
the interest survey to incorporate different texts that appeal to my students and will engage them
in their reading. My target learners varied with their interests and it ranged anywhere from
basketball, football, softball, horses, dancing, fishing, and going swimming. Not many learners
were interested in biographies and artifacts. The students also stated that they preferred fictional
books instead of nonfiction and that they were not excited about reading big chapter books. The
students responses to their reading goals for this year showed that many wished to double their

reading Lexile scores and stated that they would do so by reading more at home and checking
out more books from the school library.

Task Analysis
The type of task analysis that I will be performing will be a procedural analysis on how to
improve reading fluency. This type of analysis is most beneficial because it breaks learning tasks
into a series of small, simple steps that are needed for improving and mastering reading fluency.
This is a very helpful component for my 4th graders who are very visual and need to work on
tasks that have just one or two steps at a time to follow. I will serve as the subject matter expert,
or SME. I am qualified to do so because I have a bachelors degree in Middle Grades Education
in ELA and Reading and I am a certified educator in the noted content areas.
The first initial task, after instruction over steps for reading fluency, is to list all the
strategies that they can use to improve their reading fluency. Secondly, the students will record
their reading and use of reading fluency steps to submit online. The students will demonstrate
mastery by successfully using these reading fluency steps.

Steps for reading fluently:

Step 1: Sound out the beginning sounds of the word and read on until you get to the end of
the word. Continue to read the word again and again until you have successfully read the
word with no error.
Step 2: If you cannot read the word in its entirety, slow down, stretch out the word, and
separate the word from its prefix and/or affix. Then, go back and read it again.

Step 3: Rearrange the vowel sounds. Try saying the vowel with a short vowel sound. If that
doesnt sound correct, try saying it with a long vowel sound.
Step 4: If you still cannot read the word, read on and finish the sentence and search for
context clues in the rest of the sentence that could help you to identify the meaning and
pronunciation of the word.

Procedural Analysis for Reading Fluently

Where you able to sound out all of the
words in the text?

Yes

Great! Keep
reading.

No

Sound out the word again and again

and again

tur-tle

Slow it down!
Break the word into
chunks.

Flip flop the vowels. Try reading with a

short vowel and then again with
a long vowel.

Read on!
Search for clues to help
identify the word.

Instructional Objectives
1.) The student will improve reading accuracy and fluency of the text using phonetic
strategies and context clues with 90% accuracy.
2.) The student will accurately use intonation and expression to read with a clear and audible
tone while expressing punctuation correctly when reading.
3.) The students will correctly identify all steps that can be used to improve reading fluency.

All of my instructional objectives are classified as cognitive domain. Morrison states that
they are stated in broad terms to encompass a domain of learning these general statements
indicate the overall outcome of the instruction (pg. 109). The overall outcome of this
instructional objective is for students to show improvement in accuracy of reading and fluency,
use knowledge of strategies learned, and decode and use word recognition skills to help identify
unknown words. All objectives have a learning outcome for the students.