As a student in the PDPP, with our first practicum looming, there is a nervousness of not being prepared, of not know exactly what to do and a fear of not being able to do it “right”. This nervousness is slightly diminished knowing that we have such a descriptive guide to follow. In this way, the IRPs are extremely helpful for beginning teachers. They outline in extreme detail what needs to be covered, as well as what students should be able to accomplish once it has been covered. They even go as far as to suggest ways in which the information can or should be covered. For beginning teachers who are somewhat lacking in confidence due to lack of experience, the IRPs are immensely beneficial.
Having said all that, the IRPs from K-12 for English Language Arts alone are approximately 900 pages. Daunting doesn’t even begin to cover it. I’m sure that once we’ve started working through all of the content, and have prepared the mountain of lesson plans that are required, this task won’t seem quite as impossible. As of right now, however, I reiterate: daunting.
A way in which the IRPs hinder us as future teachers is that, when it comes to the content, the material is rather prescribed. To its credit, I have learned that recent changes have made it less so. As future teachers, we are given more freedom than those before us, which I am grateful for. There are many suggestions on how to teach the prescribed material throughout the IRPs and I think that it is important for us as future teachers to take note that these are only suggestions. Everybody teaches differently and with different styles – this is important to remember. Something that I believe does need to be taken away from the IRPs suggestions, however, is the importance of maintaining an active and engaging atmosphere in the classroom. This is how students learn best. Other than their engrossment in technology and the benefit that today’s students will get from the integration of technology into education, today’s students are no different than yesterday’s students. I don’t believe that students learn differently now; I believe that we have developed newer and better ways of teaching.
Daunting is right. You will notice when you read my blog that my concerns are very similar to your own; however, I also believe that once we are in the field, IRP's will be useful in guiding us toward appropriate learning outomes, which will hopefully spark creativity with reagrds to developing lesson plans.
ReplyDeleteSo far, (45 days in), it seems that its pretty easy to write a any lesson and them insert the PLOs with minimal tweaking.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that the IRPs are daunting, but its also comforting to know that it can be used as a reference - certain pages as needed. Its just a matter of sifting through it all.
-Q