The Middle Years Learner vs. BC IRP

Middle School


The title itself represents perfectly where students are in both their life and their learning.  They are in the middle; they are in-between having generalized topical units like science and having the option to take more specialized classes like physics, chemistry, and biology; they are also transitioning into a new space - a new school a new learning environment, new teachers. They have moved from elementary school to something that's not quite high school and is no longer in the comfort of the lower-to-the-ground water fountains and little desks that were held within the elementary school walls.

Some Characteristics of Middle School Learners


There are many characteristics to the middle years learner.  Middle years English language arts learners are (but not limited to):

1. beginning to develop symbolic ideas and abstract concepts 
2. developing the ability to think critically about those ideas and concepts.  
3. starting to depend on themselves rather than others to design their learning (but not entirely let's not forget that these learners are in transition)

In our Language Arts textbook Piaget states that children construct their knowledge from their experiences; at the middle years stage, the students have had considerable experiences in an elementary school and are now diving into being able to gather the tools to start thinking critically about their own learning.  The process of assimilating and accommodating information goes hand in hand with the way middle years learners can be characterized in an English Language Arts setting.  They are expanding their repertoire of information and modifying and re-adapting information with what they are learning in a middle years class.  In other words middle years learners are being introduced to and developing their metacognitive abilities.

Teacher Support From the IRP's

Teachers must support, coach, and assist in this liminal developmental stage that middle years students are experiencing by the support and processes of the BC ELA IRP.  There are both positive and negative impacts of this document in the support of teaching students in this transitional stage of their public education.  For grades 4-7 the role of the teacher is to "model, coach, and support students" through oral language, reading and viewing, and writing and representing.

Good Cop/Bad Cop

The IRP document itself is an extremely large and extensive document that, as I've seen already in my ELA class, almost requires its own course on how to use it.  Thus bringing forward one of the negative impacts this document has on the role it plays in supporting the teacher in the classroom.  The document is daunting and can (and I don't doubt that it probably does) cause a lot of stress to inexperienced/experienced/pre-service teachers when trying to become familiar with a thousand page (hyperbole) government document.  On the upside of this realization, by having the IRP's available online in PDF format, it makes the documents easily accessible and the "search within document" function allows a teacher to get straight to what it is they are looking for.  For an even better overview of the IRP's there also happens to be a condensed version of, for instance, the K-7 IRP that highlights the important aspects of each individual IRP and condenses them into one document (almost like looking at the bigger pictures, with the obvious option of being able to narrow it down).

The IRP's rationale and information about accommodations and exceptions, in my opinion, is a great starting point when considering teaching English.  The IRP's leave a lot of room for interpretation, further examination, ways to assess etc., and does not limit the teacher to how or what they are expected to teach.  Although I find this extremely helpful, I can also see how the structure of the IRP's promote a linear way of learning, where one thing is taught and then you can continue onto the next prescribed learning outcome, then onto the next and so on and so forth.  But again, the IRP is a broad limitless guideline (although is it THE guideline) to the ways you can build and, thank you Vygotsky for coining this term, scaffold the information in your class.  The IRP is the foundation or support that guides a teacher's way to the top in order for them, the teacher, to support the in-between learning that middle years students are facing.