The goal of this activity is to give you an opportunity to explore a student’s DAACS summary report, and discover ways in which you might use DAACS to support this student.
The student we will be working with is Jim Clevis. To get started, review Jim’s DAACS summary report by clicking here. As you read it, try to imagine how the information, resources, and tips in the summary report might be used to support Jim as he begins college.
Now that you’ve read Jim’s summary report, consider the questions below. Try to think about each question before clicking for more ideas. It might even help to jot down or type your answers in a separate window.
Overall, what are your first impressions about Jim’s preparedness for college? What do you think are his greatest strengths, and what areas will be the most challenging?
Overall, Jim seems very capable of succeeding in college. He has excellent writing skills, and has mastered many areas of math and reading. He also has the motivation needed to succeed. He struggled in a couple areas of math and reading, and needs to work on his metacognition and strategy use, as he mentioned in his essay. With some encouragement and support, Jim could use the feedback and resources offered by DAACS both before and during his first year of college to increase his chances for success.
What would you suggest Jim do to improve his math and reading skills?
Jim could start by checking the reading and math items he got incorrect, and reviewing the explanations for the correct answers. He could also read the feedback he received, especially for the specific areas of math and reading he struggled with.
Jim might also use some of the free resources that are linked in the feedback and in his summary report (e.g., mathisfun.com, the Online Reading Lab, and more). Finally, Jim could benefit from some of the many resources available at your school, which are also listed in the first page of the summary report.
What did you learn from Jim after reading his essay and writing assessment results? What suggestions might you provide?
After reading his essay and seeing his writing assessment results, we can see that Jim is a good writer, which will help him to succeed in college. If Jim wanted to improve or brush up on his writing skills, he could visit the Online Writing Lab, or any of the resources available at your school tailored towards assisting students with their writing.
Based on the content of the essay, we can see that Jim is motivated to succeed and committed to utilizing the tips offered by DAACS to make this success happen. He made a solid plan of action to improve his metacognition, so you might consider following up with him to remind him of his plan, encouraging him to follow through on it.
He did not, however, make any plans to improve how he manages his time and environment. You might suggest a few strategies from the summary report, like keeping a calendar to improve his time management, and identifying a few good study places aside from his house. Some of the issues he is dealing with, especially in his home life, might be beyond his control, so it is important to empower him to find the best possible ways to cope with a difficult situation. A referral to your school’s counseling center might be appropriate, given some of the issues he mentioned in his essay.
What did you notice about Jim’s self-regulated learning results? What tips might you suggest to him to become a more self-regulated learner? Hint: check out the third page of the summary report.
Jim already mentioned a few ways to improve his self-regulated learning in his essay, especially in regards to metacognition. However, there are more tips he can utilize, as you can see on the third page of his summary report, which identified a few tips for the three areas of self-regulated learning he struggled with most. For example, he mentioned managing his environment as a struggle in his essay, but did not identify any strategies for managing his environment. The summary report offers three suggestions, which you might encourage Jim to try.
What did you notice about Jim’s self-efficacy? Consider not only his self-efficacy results from the self-regulated learning survey, but also what he wrote in his essay. How does Jim’s self-efficacy in reading, writing, and math match up with his performance in the reading, writing, and math assessments?
Jim is clearly dealing with some self-doubt about his ability to perform well in college. This is evident from his self-efficacy results, which were low in all areas except for math. It’s important to encourage him by reminding him that with effort and support, he can achieve success in college.
We can also see that in Jim’s essay, he only focused on the areas that he struggled in. He could benefit from being reminded of his strengths as well, and encouraged to capitalize on these strengths. For example, his willingness to seek help, his growth mindset, and his ability to manage test anxiety will all play a major role in his time in college.
He also has more reading and writing ability than he is giving himself credit for. Although he had low self-efficacy for reading and writing, he did very well on the reading and writing assessments. Some students, like Jim, are more capable than they realize, and need encouragement to realize their potential and not give up on themselves. Jim’s growth mindset makes him more likely to benefit from such encouragement.
What questions would you want to ask Jim based on his DAACS results and essay?
