Chp 4

Situation analysis sounds very much like a pilot study to me. Isn't the intent of the pilot study to see if the new program would work or fail? I know documentation of how the program was implemented and how its materials were used is important, so if the program were to be adopted, its quirks and kinks are worked out. Although I was having some difficulty understanding why the factors were treated as separate entities, rather than a combination of all when implementing a new program. Or am I just misunderstanding the format? As I was reading through the chapter, I kept referring to the SLATE Program, in which various factors are involved (ie, societal institutions, teachers, learners). In regards to curriculum, I know LKSD has done pilot studies before. The ones I remember are the Lado Series (I thought they were BAD!), the Language Alive! Series, and the Reading Literature Series. All of these are supposedly to "help" our "ELD" students' "improve" their English speaking, writing and reading skills. Interestingly, there are people behind these programs that pushed these to be adopted curriculums. Was situation analysis used? That I don't know, but something to think about if we become proponents of some program that comes our way!

Chp 3 Needs Analysis

This chapter has made me go "Ah, that's why!" I am so relating it to our current studies for our masters. What are the needs of our own students? They are our stakeholders. These studies could make a major impact on Second Language Acquisition! What we are really doing is analyzing what works and find out what else needs to be done to acquire second language or to keep the first language.

Some of our staff meetings have focused on students' test results. What we are doing is actually doing some sort of a needs analysis-what are the weak areas of our students? What can we do to help improve their scores? Wow.

My understanding of "needs analysis" has just taken 180 degree turn! I just had this general notion that it solely focused on basic needs like food, clothing, shelter... All the years of figuring out what we need to help our students... and the district's effort in training our new teachers must have evolved from such an analysis.

Needs analysis is like a seive-getting rid of what doesn't work and keeping what works to improve. Wow.

Anna

Chps 1, 2, 7

I thought Chps 1, and 2 were dry reading. My impressions were that there is more to curriculum planning and material-does one need a degree to do all that work? If so, whew! Now I'm grateful for the people who put all our curriculum together for the district. Now I understand what my principal has gone through as he and a few others made changes in our writing curriculum last year. It's still in the works, and since it's not quite 100% done, it's been painful making lesson plans for my writing class.
Chp 7 is nothing new to me. In fact, majority of it described me-as one who has been here a long time. I've learned to work with Kassaq teachers from all walks of life who either have been ideal or the opposite. Chp 7 may be ideal but it can be real too-depending on the personalities of the teachers. There have been some who were "team players" and they were a joy to work with-and those who have all the answers already and don't need no help from nobody! They feel the rules don't apply to them either!

Anyway, chp 7 is idealistic, that can be achieved provided the "right" people are there.

Anna