¶ … student data is vital to the student's readiness, interest, learning profile and affect. As studies have shown, the more comprehensive the data about a student, the more capable a teacher becomes in tailoring lessons to use each student's strengths and address each student's challenges. By assessing X with even a simple tool like "Learning Style Inventory" and discussing the student's strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes, a clearer picture is obtained for accommodating her strengths and addressing her challenges with unique lessons. The Importance and Value of Collecting Data

Rather than relying on happenstance to discover information about our students, teachers are now consciously collecting pertinent data about students, for "research and experience in increasingly global classrooms are revealing the complex interplay of factors that influence a student's learning" (Powell & Kusuma-Powell, 2011). The goal of such data collection is "personalized learning -- to use what we find out about our students as a key to unlock their learning potential" (Powell & Kusuma-Powell, 2011).

"Student readiness" for learning is dependent not only on "knowledge, understanding, and skills," but is also "profoundly influenced by an individual's prior learning success or failure, self-esteem, sense of efficacy, cultural norms, social status within the class or group, life experience, dispositions and attitudes, and habits of mind" (Powell & Kusuma-Powell, 2011). Consequently, the more specific data we can collect and examine, the more able we are to accurately assess each student's readiness and tailor instruction to that level of readiness. Data collection and examination are also important in the area of "student interest," for "There is a considerable research base to support a strong correlation between the degree of student interest and levels of student motivation, achievement, productivity, and perseverance" (Powell & Kusuma-Powell, 2011), for at least two reasons: interested students are motivated to "pursue learning experiences of ever-increasing complexity and difficulty" (Powell & Kusuma-Powell, 2011); in addition, interested students can more readily see connections between current schoolwork and their personal, future goals (Powell & Kusuma-Powell, 2011). "Student learning profiles" are also greatly aided by data collection and examination, which is recommended in 5 areas: biological traits, including the student's "gender, age, physical development, physical disabilities, health,...

Collecting and examining data in these 5 categories should give a useful, extensive profile for tailoring lessons for each student. Finally, data collection and examination is valuable for "student affect," which is defined as "the attitudes, interests, and values that students exhibit and acquire in school" (Popham, 2009). According to Popham, student affect is possibly even more important for the student's post-school life than his/her school life. Popham recommends collecting this data through students' anonymous responses to "self-report affective inventories" (Popham, 2009). Clearly, collecting data regarding attitudes, interest and values will assist teachers in playing to each student's strengths in developing lessons.
Assessing the Learning Style of Student X

Student X ("X") was assessed with the "Learning Style Inventory" (Anonymous, nd). The data was collected by…