The Individual Progress Plan

Hi Again,
So this week we are discussing the whole idea behind the Individual Progress Plan (IPP); what they essentially are, why we use them, and how to go about creating one. Our group project that we are in the middle of right now for this particular class is actually based around this topic, and we are working on the creation of an IPP for a specific case study. There has been much debate about IPPs recently, and whether or not they are appropriate to use in the classroom. Currently, the students who are 'coded' and involved in a special education program have an IPP, but there is definitely talk about the idea of every student in the classroom having an IPP, and this is something that I briefly mentioned in my previous post. The latter part of this statement is something I am a little unsure about, and something I personally believe is not really necessary. The creation of one IPP is strenuous enough, I cannot imagine creating 30... with 25 of them not even referring to a specific special education program! In this particular blog post I am going to discuss and reflect upon our classroom material from yesterday, and within the next few days, I plan to post another entry that is in regards to the textbook, which will act as supplementary material.

Anyways, we spent yesterday class as I mentioned talking about the creation of an IPP, and essentially broke up the IPP, and discussed all the parts of the document, which is clearly important to be comfortable with, so that we are competent when we are to make them in the future. According to our textbook, "an IPP is a written plan, developed for a student, which describes the program modifications and adaptations for the student and any services that are to be provided" to help the student succeed. An IPP includes 12 separate sections that are all very specific and relate to the child through assessment procedures that have been completed, to strengths and weaknesses that he/she displays in class, to classroom accommodations that are to be made, and of course the goals that the IPP team would like to see the student achieve in the upcoming school year. I guess you could say that the IPP is essentially a recipe of how the teachers and support staff will help the student to achieve. We reviewed SMART goals and ACT HOW objectives for the purpose of your long term planning in an IPP, and I felt that this was important since it refreshed the whole idea of goal setting in our minds, and made the idea of goal setting a little less abstract. It makes sense that goals need to be so specific in a report such as this, because your goals essentially provide you with the details you need to provide specific accommodations for the student, and to go about creating this individualized program for the student so that he/she is able to succeed in your classroom. I do actually have one section on the IPP that I consider to be my "favorite" I guess you could say, and this is the Planning for Transition section. I like the fact that the IPP team is actually concerned about the student's move to the next school, and feel it is important to create a plan on how they will go about making that student more comfortable at the new school. This shows that they are not only worried about the student's current progress, but also the progress that he/she makes in the future, which will demonstrates the whole "caring characteristic" of a teacher. I also like the fact that IPPs keep track of any progress that the student has made over the year because it keeps the report relevant, so that the student's teacher next year can look over the IPP and know exactly what was done, and what helped the student to succeed and where the student is currently sitting in comparison to where he/she was last September. Finally, the informed parent consent section is actually quite important, because it reminds us how essential it is that parents are involved in their child's education. Parents need to by law agree to the IPP that is created, but a responsible parent should actually also become involved with the program, and agree to help their son/daughter along the way, so that the teacher's hard work is actually paying off. This made me think about all the parents in our society who are not involved in their child's education, and how important it truly is. For example, last year I was working with a 10 year old boy name Jeremy who was a code 54 (simple learning disability) and was performing at about a grade 3 math level (probably even less), and it frustrated me that his parents refused to become involved, and essentially left all the work to the teacher. It was clear that Jeremy needed to be working on his math questions at home, and sitting down with his mom or dad for even an hour a night, and reviewing important concepts, but it was clear that this wasn't happening, and it just become very frustrating because it seemed like our progress never really stuck. Unfortunately, this may be something that I have to get used to as a future teacher!!

Next we viewed a film called "Beyond FAT City: A Look Back, A Look Ahead" which is a 'sequel' of the popular movie, FAT City that Richard Lavoie released in 1989, and has since been a huge success in the education world. We watched the original film last year in our EDPY class, so I'm finding it quite interesting to view this film, and be reminded of Rick Lavoie's beliefs, and how true and down to earth they really are. FAT stands for Frustration, Anger and Tension, which are the emotions that students with disabilities face on a daily basis. Rick Lavoie is a brilliant man who has developed a set of beliefs essentially that a teacher should use when working with kids who have disabilities. The whole idea behind these films are to help teachers to develop sensitivity when dealing with kids who have disabilities. Rick Lavoie does not believe in showing teachers how to deal with these kids, he simply wants teachers to understand that these kids are just amazing as the rest of the kids in your class, and they deserve your attention! One of the important lessons I learned from his film thus far (haven't finished it yet) is that it is important to never tell that student you know what they are going through! Feel free to tell the student that you are there to help them in anyway that you can, but never tell them that you know how they feel, because you don't, and never will! He also pointed out that as teachers we have to remember that we like school!! If we didn't like school, we wouldn't have become teachers, and we wouldn't have done good in school, and so with this in mind it is important to remember that school is something that us teachers have never dreaded, and that we cannot treat these students with this in mind, because school is the last place they wanna be! Lavoie also pointed out the kids would rather look bad than dumb to their classmates, and this makes complete sense when it comes to the who dilemma of kids acting out in class. It's because teachers pick on them, make them feel uncomfortable and embarrass them in front of their peers, and they don't want to be judged by their classmates. This is why when a teacher calls a specific student (who has a learning disability) to the front to essentially embarrass them, they will probably hit a student on the way up to the front. This way, he/she will get in trouble for hitting the kid, be looked at as bad, and the teacher will not make the student "perform" in front of the class. After this was mentioned in the film, it made complete sense because I then reflected upon my childhood, and remembered all the kids that acted out in class, and this was probably the reason, 90% of the time! After we finished the first part of the video Rob asked us to to reflect upon Rick Lavoie's beliefs and how we would use them in our own classroom. I think the biggest one for me is the idea of being a compassionate teacher, and being their for the student in anyway that you can, and avoiding any possibility of embarrassing the student because that is just going to make the situation worse. I also think it is important to get to know the student (with disabilities) and make sure he/she feels comfortable in your presence and that you two have an understanding amongst each other. For example, come up with an agreement with the student that you will never ask him/her a question in front of the class unless they volunteer themselves and raise their hand. I think if the teacher has understanding with the student, then the class is going to run much smoother, and the students with disabilities may actually enjoy being there!

I hope you enjoyed this entry, and I will be posting a few more in the next couple of days that are related to this topic.

Thank You