Now that I’ve completed my first month of classes, I feel like I am really beginning to grasp what teaching is all about. I visited a middle school with my seminar class earlier this week, and we have begun making lesson plans in several of our classes. I had never heard of the Integrated Resource Package (IRP) a month ago, but now I have read over several of them and can see what a valuable resource they will be for me as a teacher when it comes to planning lessons. That being said, with the set-up of the IRP’s and the subsequent Prescribed Learning Outcomes (PLO’s) being so broad, I think they would be an even bigger benefit to the experienced teacher who has already created numerous lesson plans.
As a new teacher I am a little apprehensive of the freedom the IRP’s give me in lesson planning and teaching. I think it could be beneficial for beginner teachers to have the IRP’s a little more structured and detailed. However, once I have a few years of teaching under my belt, I’m sure I will appreciate the IRP’s for what they are. Only time will tell. I do know that I cannot imagine NOT having an IRP or PLO to base my lesson plans around. As a new teacher, I would be completely lost. I look forward to exploring the IRP’s in more detail as we create more lesson plans in the coming weeks.
I expect the ELA students of today will all have strengths and weaknesses, and will learn at different paces and through different strategies. The middle school years can be a challenging time for kids, and I think that as a teacher it’s important to remember this and to try and be understanding of individual’s needs and learning techniques. The current IRP’s are vague, and I like that. They allow the teacher to spend more time on certain concepts that the student’s don’t understand, yet they still list the PLO’s, so the teacher knows what his students are expected to learn by the end of the school year. The IRP’s act as a great framework for ELA lesson planning, while still allowing the teacher freedom of choice to engage their students in unique ways of reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing and representing. They allow us, as Robert E. Probst says, “to find ways, as Tom Sawyer did, of luring the kids, not into painting a fence, but into serious conversations.” That is why I think the IRP’s will be such a valuable resource.
Probst, Robert E. “Tom Sawyer, Teaching, and Talking.”
Jill I definitely agree with you on liking that the English IRP is vague. I thought it would be intimidating at first, but it actually is nice to have the freedom to take your class in whatever direction you choose. I especially think with middle years the challenges in the classroom are going to be overwhelming and i think keeping the kids engaged will be a never ending battle, but if we as teachers can experiment with what works and what doesn't without being held back back the restraints of a very structured IRP i think it will be a success!
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