Today's learners and the IRP

Who exactly are today’s learners?

Canadian demographics are shifting and the Canadian cultural mosaic is expanding.  In 2005 alone, Canada accepted an additional 262,236 permanent residents into the country, and in 2001, approximately 40% of Canadians claimed their first language is a language other than English (Bainbridge, 15). Today’s learners reflect our countries shifting demographics. They are an incredibly diverse group of individuals who come from different cultures, linguistic backgrounds, countries, family situations, ethnic backgrounds, religions and socioeconomic brackets. Each learner is unique, and brings something special to the classroom community. However, what makes each learner unique also brings challenges.

Classrooms are made up of learners with a wide spectrum of challenges including but not limited to cognitive disabilities, giftedness, ESL and physical disabilities. Every student has a different learning style and level of motivation (intrinsic or extrinsic). Some may be engaged in everything in the classroom whereas others may simply check out. Getting kids to work can be difficult, and motivating them to work and learn for the sake of learning itself can be even harder. As educators, it is our job to figure out how to facilitate the learning process for each and every one of these students while being sensitive to the different backgrounds that they bring to the classroom.

How do they learn?

Children learn new information in a variety of ways. Most people have heard of the VAK learning styles classification model, which determines the dominant learning style using the three main sensory receivers: Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic. This model is useful to keep in mind when developing lesson plans, as most students absorb information best using one, or a combination of these senses. However, defining how a student learns is not as simple as classifying them into one of the VAK categories. Children learn through immersion and engagement. If they are interested in what you are teaching them, they are more likely to retain and understand the information. Cambourne’s condition for learning model addresses the need for engagement and immersion to facilitate student learning. “In the Cambourne’s model there are seven main conditions: immersion, demonstration, expectation, responsibility, use, approximation, and response (Bainbridge, 24).” The authors of our course text, Constructing Meaning have taken Cambourne’s model a step farther and made engagement an umbrella over all the conditions (Bainbridge, 23). They believe (as I do) that the conditions are enabled by engagement and that it is central to the whole learning process (Bainbridge, 24). The VAK model and Cambourne’s conditions are just two of many models that attempt to quantify how students learn. I think both are useful tools for teachers to use when seeking guidance for how best to instruct their students.

Another extremely important factor to consider with regards to today’s learners is technology. Today’s students are immersed in technology to a degree that was unimaginable when I was an elementary school student. Blogs, ipods, ipads, Ps2s, facebook, video games, TVs, computers . . . many of today’s students spend more time plugged into technology in one week than they do in the classroom. The video “A vision of K-12 students today” presents a rather bleak view of the current use of technology and lack of student engagement in the classroom. 21^st century learners are ‘plugged in’ and technology is a key component that can be used to help learners become interested in material. I’ve seen firsthand how effective technology can be as the hook to grab a student’s interest. One of the boys in the classroom I am volunteering in had absolutely no interest in the math exercises that were laid out in front of him. Yet he happily did those same exercises in the form of a game on the computer. Without the technology, it would have been a struggle to get him to complete one question, let alone the entire exercise. Our students live in a technological world, and as teachers it is our job to utilize technology to the best of our abilities (and funding levels) to help keep our students interested.

How does a new teacher figure out what to teach? The BC IRPs . . .

The BC Integrated Resource Package (IRP) provides a framework for curriculum delivery and student achievement and contains the legally required education standards for students in grades K-12. These education standards, called Prescribed Learning Outcomes (PLOs), outline the expectations for what students should know and be able to do in each grade and within each subject area. As a beginning teacher, my initial reaction to the ELA IRP was fear. At 626 pages for K-7, the sheer size of the document completely overwhelmed me, especially when combined with the equally long PE and Art IRPs that we are also looking at this semester.

As I began to delve into the ELA IRP, I realized that it was an invaluable resource for all teachers, not just beginning ones. It is structured in such a way that the overview information for each grade is easy to find and compare between grade levels in the Prescribed Learning Outcomes section (IRP 45-92), and gives further indication with regards to achievement indicators in the Student Achievement section (IRP 93-430). I also found that the inclusion of the Classroom Assessment Model at the end of the IRP particularly useful for beginning teachers as it gives some examples of what student work may look like and methods of assessment. An example of this in the Grade 4 Classroom Assessment Model would be “The Cookie Crime Retold” (IRP 531), which includes a sample of grade 4 writing and the teacher evaluation.

The IRP PLOs are divided in three categories: Oral Language (Speaking and Listening), Reading and Viewing and Writing and Representing. The emphasis on Oral Language is a refreshing change from the curriculum that I had in elementary school, where ‘talking’ was not taught. Talking is something that we take for granted in society. Yet having a serious conversation on a subject is something that needs to be learned. As educators, it is important for us to teach our students how to converse “because at least some of the conversations our students will undertake in the future may shape the society in which we all will live (Probst, 45).”

Upon closer inspection of the ELA IRP, I began to see patterns and repetition emerge as I started to make sense of the document. For example, in grades 3-5 PLO B1 (reading and viewing), states that “it is expected that students will read fluently and demonstrate comprehension of a range of grade‐appropriate literary texts such as . . .” The PLO is the same for all three grades; the only difference is the variability of the material with age and the depth suggested by the corresponding achievement indicators. Many of the PLOs build on the corresponding PLO from the previous year. As a beginning teacher, this is particularly useful as it gives a sense of continuity between grades, and makes it easy to refer to the previous or next grade if required for individual students.

The PLOs appear to be quite flexible in their implementation. This is both a blessing and a hindrance.  As a new teacher I find the idea planning an entire year of curriculum based on loosely defined PLOs a bit daunting. The PLOs themselves give little indication of implementation or what ‘grade appropriate material’ actually looks like. How do I take the theoretical nature of the IRP and apply it to my very real classroom? I imagine that much of my first few years of teaching will be spent conversing with more experienced teachers to get an idea of how to implement what is required. However, the flexibility in the PLOs also allows for flexibility in material to suit student interest. As long as the material is grade appropriate, it is probably possible to create a lesson around it that meets at least one of the PLOs for that grade.

My concerns with the IRP surround the idealistic nature of the document. As a teacher, what happens when my entire class is failing to meet the previous grades PLOs? What about the grade 5 student who is barely meeting the PLOs in grade 3? It is easy to think that you could just simply teach and evaluate to the level of the student, but what happens if you cannot get that class or student up to the expected level by the end of the year? Lack of resources in the public school system further complicate this as many students are simply not getting the support needed to succeed. Not every classroom situation fits in with the IRP ideals. I have been told by many teachers to consider it a guide, and to not be afraid to ‘throw it out the window’ if it is in the best interests of your students. As a new teacher, I feel that the number of PLOs that need to be met at each grade level could be a hindrance, and I am unsure of the best approach in situations where teaching to the IRP will not work. I am also concerned that by trying to follow the prescribed curriculum exactly I may inadvertently take away from my students and what they actually learn. 

“A vision of K-12 students today” (www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8) 

British Columbia English Language Arts Kindergarten to Grade 7: Integrated Resource Package (IRP) 2006.

Joyce Bainbridge, Rachel Heydon et al. Constructing Meaning: Balancing Elementary Language Arts. Fourth Edition. Nelson Education Ltd.: 2009.

Probst, Robert E. “Tom Sawyer, Teaching and Talking,” Adolescent Literacy: Turning Promise into Practice. Heinemann: 2007.