When I read this topic it really hit home. I feel like the question of whether an IRP helps or hinders you as a beginning teacher is a very personal one that I can answer, at least in my opinion, with honesty and experience.
What I went through in China as a beginning ESL teacher with no training I feel is an excellent example of beginning teaching with no IRP. I had no idea even what an IRP was, let alone be given one to work off of as a framework. I was given five days of classroom management training and team-building, and literally three days later I was standing in front of a classroom of 25 high school students who had no idea how to speak English. I was told earlier that day that I would be teaching the four Ancient Civilizations for two weeks. No IRPs, no curriculum, no textbooks, no library and no resources. If this isn't the opposite of starting with a B.C. curriculum IRP package I don't know what is. I have experienced first-hand what it feels like to begin teaching with no IRP, and it isn't fun.
So, I strongly believe that as a beginning teacher IRPs are absolutely invaluable. I have gone through and browsed the Grade 8 IRP in the past few days. I am blown away by how advantageously detailed it is regarding vast amounts of information that is (and I know this from my days in China) so incredibly relevant to hands-on teaching in the classroom. I love the fact that right at the very beginning it gives you the aim of what the course is supposed to provide for Grade 8 to Grade 12 students so you as a teacher get an idea right from the start of the general direction of the course, what to look for in student's progress and how it relates to the outside world. I wish I had this in China, just any idea of what I was supposed to be doing or working towards would have really helped me.
Other aspects of the IRP that I believed would have really helped me are the curriculum organizers because it would have given me an idea of what the purpose of each aspect of ELA is and how the students' thinking process should be around the content provided. Another area of the IRP which I believe would really help me as a beginning teacher is the 'Key Concepts' section. This provides a framework for the teacher to know what to look for and the reason that the material is being given. I believe it even gives the teacher an idea of how to assess the student because it lists the projected student abilities, and these projections give the teacher a good idea of whether a student is "on pace" developmentally during the year.
Other valuable aspects of the IRP are the timeframe because it gives a beginning teacher who has never done this before an idea of how to time manage her classroom, helping them plan their lessons in the most time efficient way possible. Also, being a support worker who has worked with disabilities, I really found the section on inclusion to be very helpful. Many teachers, not just the ones who are just starting out, would find trying to teach a class with a student with a disability something they don't have a lot of knowledge in. Inclusion is a topic that needs to come to the forefront because more and more students are being seen in the classroom as having a right to be there, so we as beginning teacher's must think progressively and educate ourselves on how to teach everyone. So the IRP section on this will help give an idea on how to do this.
Finally, I believe one of the most important factor of the IRP for me as a beginning teacher are the PLOs. I never had these in China and it would have changed everything. I would have known what I needed to teach each and every class, how I could assess them and how I would distribute the material evenly throughout the term. I even love the fact that the IRP explains what a PLO, something I never learned until halfway through the school year. By having PLOs, the beginning teacher is given the macro-view of the lesson and also is given a micro-view as seen in the lesson objectives. I understand the two are not the same, PLOs are more based on what the students will learn for the unit or topic, lesson objectives are more what you want the students to gain from a single lesson. However, PLOs being provided means these give an idea on which to base your lesson objectives on.
Overall, the IRPs are absolutely invaluable. They give a beginning teacher the framework on which to structure their entire teaching pedagogy on. Teaching can be incredibly intimidating, but having an IRP, that helps teacher's deal with everything from key concepts, timeframes, PLOs and assessment, is something that will be seen as extremely beneficial come day one.
As far as today's ELA students, I feel like they are a new generation not just in age but also in the way they process school material. I believe that the old days of teaching Shakespeare may be short-lived. Students are increasingly exposed to social media, electronics, television and a vast other selection of short "clips" of information that is causing their attention spans to shorten. The question is, "How do we deal with this as teachers?"
Students are more interested in material that they feel they can relate to. This has never been more true than right now. How they will learn is if we include them actively in class discussions, group activities, and presentations. Let's get them involved; give them the power and freedom to digest and share information with the people around them.
There are some perfect examples from class that I believe will work with students in the Middle Years' ELA classrooms. The first was the "talking circle", in which we went around and only the student holding the "talking stick" could talk. The way we could use this in the ELA classrooms is read a story to the students or have them read the same story. Then you bring the students into the circle and each student can share their thoughts on the story. I believe this will work because you are integrating every student; each person feels they are a valued part of the group. Another example from class that would work is "Jigsaw", which sees the students form an intial group and talk about a specific topic. Then, have the students split up and form a separate group, each member a different "expert" on their previous group's topic. My idea for this in the ELA classroom would be to have the students form an intial group discuss an element of ELA, such as composition. The other groups would be other elements such as essay writing, speeches, active listening and poetry. After, have "experts" from each of these groups join each other and share what they have learned. Finally, the last teaching strategy that I believe would work in the ELA classroom that we learned in class is "group reading" or reading a poem as a class. First, have a student read a poem out loud and ask if other students want to read, as well. Try and get as many students to individually read the poem out loud while the other students listen. Once everyone that wanted to read has had a chance to, tell the class that everyone will be reading the poem together. Get the whole class to read the poem in unison, creating a communal effect that includes every student, making them feel that they are part of the group and causing them to become more interested in the content.
If we can grab their attention in the classroom with inclusion strategies that will help create a connection between them and the material being taught, how ELA students learn may just change for the better.
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