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I think your task analysis is fine. We have the additional
piece of determining following the pre-assessment, which step
on the task analysis each kid will start. But, you have the
main points.

My concern is your objective. You have a BEHAVIOR but not a
LEARNING. I know what they're going to do but not what
they're going to learn. Only the learning is transferable.
The learning states the level of Bloom and the content being
taught. Your objective is at the comprehension level so the
learning should read something like:

TLWD* comprehension of ............... BY (then add your
part). *TLWD = the learner will demonstrate

What is the overarching learning: understanding of problem
solving, reading a word problem, mathematical equation,
algebraic equation. Actually, it's probably this statement
from the standards: Represent relationships of quantities
in the form of mathematical expressions, equations, or
inequalities

Your objective would read TLWD comprehension of
representing relationships of quantities in the form of
mathematical expressions and equations BY reading a word
problem and correctly writing a mathematical expression and
an equation for the problem.

The big learning for the kids is representing relationships of
quantities. This is ONE thing they will do to master this,
but they will also do other things. The teacher needs to
keep in mind the overarching objective which is what will
transfer. If we only teach behaviors, nothing transfers
because the kids don't have a larger generalization to hand
the behavior on.

This is the objective Sue teaches and the task analysis
process is also Sue's. She cut it down to a manageable size.
It was horrendously complex before....she really got the
essence of it and got it into her 5 steps. We are forever
grateful!!!

This is a great content for task analysis because it is clear
cut and will be a good lesson to teach and then to teach
other teachers. Your task analysis is good....it should go
very well.

On 10/24/09, dc wrote:
> OK, so I told all of this to Jan already, but I thought
> that you all might be interested in the thought
> processes/discussion here. If not, scroll on by or delete
> or ignore or whatever!
>
> I have been assigned to an "alternative evaluation process"
> this year at my site. Instead of doing the dog/pony show
> 20 minute observation, I have to do a year-long project on
> a subject of mutual choosing by my principal and me. We
> have chosen "Teaching to the Correct Level of Difficulty"---
> 1) because it is a challenge for me; 2) because she wants
> me to present this subject to our staff in the spring.
>
> I attended a 1-hour training by my district on this subject
> and it just left me hungry for more information. Here is
> what I learned at that training.
>
> The steps to this process are as follows:
> First, determine the terminal objective of the lesson or
> unit.
> Second, do a task analysis for each step of learning on the
> way to the terminal objective.
> Third, design a pre-assessment for each step of the task
> analysis (can't be a multiple choice, has to be an answer
> given by child, so you don't get lucky guesses).
> Fourth, interpret the data. Who understands which part of
> the task analysis? Who can skip parts of the lesson? Who
> needs more development in prior fundamentals before even
> beginning the lesson?
> Fifth, design lessons for each "group" of children based on
> the pre-assessment data.
>
> Next week, I'm going to start a unit based on the following
> standard in math. Third Grade Algebra 1.1
> Represent relationships of quantities in the form of
> mathematical expressions, equations, or inequalities
>
> My terminal objective is: Students will read a word
> problem and write a mathematical expression and an equation
> for the word problem.
>
> So here is my task analysis:
>
> Students have to be able to 1) define a mathematical
> expression
> 2) give an example of a mathematical expression
> 3) read a word problem and write the mathematical expression
> 4) define a mathematical equation (written as "number
> sentence" in our text book)
> 5) give an example of a mathematical equation
> 6) read a word problem and write the mathematical equation
>
> Then I designed a pre-assessment based on those six
> questions--open-ended, short-answer questions.
>
> Am I right so far? I gave the pre-assessment on Friday, so
> I could analyze the results and interpret the data this
> weekend and begin the process of planning my lessons for
> this unit. Can you all read this and give me feedback
> before I start planning my lessons? Is this something any
> of you do regularly? They told me in my one-hour inservice
> that EVENTUALLY you will SAVE time in your classroom
> because you will be teaching more efficiently, but right
> now it TAKES a lot of time, because I'm not skilled at it
> yet. I do believe in it, because I'm a mother of two kinds
> of kids (GATE kids and struggling kids) and I know that
> teaching to the correct level of difficulty would be so
> helpful to them in their classrooms, so I'm really
> motivated to try this and try it well. I also want to have
> a good amount of actual experience DOING it in my classroom
> before I have to present it to staff, so they can see that
> the time is well-spent too and can learn from my trials and
> tribulations along the way.
>
> GIVE ME HONEST FEEDBACK. I'm in a state of wanting to
> learn and grow, so nothing will offend me as long as it is
> given in that mode of helping me to grow!

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