Needs Assessment
WHAT: Needs assessment is done as way to discover what students need to learn for their new life in Canada. Each student must have an example of their identified needs and preferences in their portfolio.
WHY: Needs assessment is crucial for teachers to inform planning and teaching throughout the course. It generally helps a teacher get a sense of the needs of the class as a whole, helping to identify common themes or topics that students are interested in learning. Conducting needs assessments and basing instruction on those needs makes learning relevant and meaningful for students.
HOW: Introduce possible themes, topics, or tasks that the students can choose from. Make sure that students understand what kinds of things they will learn at their CLB level for those themes, and make sure that any choices you provide will be language related and relevant to their daily lives. Needs assessment is very closely related to goal setting. Needs are also assessed on an ongoing basis, as the teacher discovers gaps in the abilities of students. Just because a student is not interested in a topic doesn't mean they don't need it!
Needs Assessment Warm-Ups, Activities and Strategies:
WHY: Needs assessment is crucial for teachers to inform planning and teaching throughout the course. It generally helps a teacher get a sense of the needs of the class as a whole, helping to identify common themes or topics that students are interested in learning. Conducting needs assessments and basing instruction on those needs makes learning relevant and meaningful for students.
HOW: Introduce possible themes, topics, or tasks that the students can choose from. Make sure that students understand what kinds of things they will learn at their CLB level for those themes, and make sure that any choices you provide will be language related and relevant to their daily lives. Needs assessment is very closely related to goal setting. Needs are also assessed on an ongoing basis, as the teacher discovers gaps in the abilities of students. Just because a student is not interested in a topic doesn't mean they don't need it!
Needs Assessment Warm-Ups, Activities and Strategies:
- Have pictures up around the room that relate to certain topics, and have students stand next to the picture that they need to learn English for (or use stickers/post-it notes)
- Look through the student portfolio binder and choose pages they want to learn more about
- Use the topics in the “Helpful English” section of the student portfolio binder to choose appropriate language tasks for your level
- Students brainstorm different language tasks they need to do for each skill (Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing), and/or for each topic
- Students can choose their own personal top choice, then discuss with a partner or group and choose a top choice for the group
- Group students according to their top choice and have them informally present their choice and give reasons, trying to persuade/convince others
- Have students vote in a secret ballot
- Write a paragraph indicating their preference with reasons to support it
- Once the topics are narrowed down to a top 5, create a list of possible assessment tasks within each topic and have students choose specific assessment tasks they want to do
- Have students conduct a survey with each other, compile results into charts and graphs
- Fill in a questionnaire
Samples
Samples are provided in Word format as they should be adapted and modified for your own students and level. Samples are listed in order from lower levels to higher levels, although all can be modified to fit any level.
To download the documents below, you can either click on the button under each image (downloads to your computer directly) or download from Scribd by clicking on the download arrow icon (requires a login/password - free).
To download the documents below, you can either click on the button under each image (downloads to your computer directly) or download from Scribd by clicking on the download arrow icon (requires a login/password - free).