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Self Contained ESL classrooms
by Anonymous on May 20 2008 8:59 PM
I am currently working in a elementary school where there is a high population of ELLs. Over the past 2 years our principal has been creating more ESL self contained classrooms. Most of the faculty disagree with our principal and strongly feel that the self contained classrooms are not as effective as the push-in/pull out programs. However, I strongly believe that the self contained clasrooms do indeed work and in fact are more effective than the other programs. What is your view on this situation? Has there been any research on self contained ESL classrooms? Which program is most beneficial for ELLs?Do you believe that self contained classrooms have potential to be more successful than push in/pull out programs? Why or why not?
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Re: Self Contained ESL classrooms
I think it may depend on the school. If you have classes were a small # are ESL, then the extra support of a pus-in ESL specialist may be sufficient.
I am a push-in teacher at a school where each class is majority ESL, and I feel a self-contained classroom would be far more beneficial to the students. The classroom teachers are poorly versed in the special needs of ESL students and often end up treating them as "dumb". The students have a difficult time in content areas such as science and social studies, but I am only there during reading (and rarely writing).
So, I think it could depend on the school, but definitely if the choice is push-in versus pull-out, push-in is better b/c the student is not missing the lesson for the whole class.
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Re: Self Contained ESL classrooms
Self-contained classrooms are definitely better for a large population of ELLs. Sheltered English (SIOP model) has proven to be one of the best models for ELL student success. These classrooms should be led by certified ESL teachers who are trained in SIOP. The students are taught the same curriculum as other classrooms in their grade level, but it is presented differently, with an emphasis on proven ESL methods, including previewing, building background, vocabulary building, lots of visuals and hands on activities, making connections, and making sure to provide lots of opportunities for speaking and listening, not just reading and writing.
It has been my experience that push-in programs are the least successful, because the proponents of this model call it co-teaching, but unless you are working with 3 or fewer teachers, you don't have time to co-plan and it becomes hectic and inefficient. You end up being more of an assistant in the mainstream classroom and there are too many distractions when working with your small group.
Pull-out is better, because you can structure the lessons according to best practices for ELLs, but students sometimes feel stigmatized, they may miss something important in their classrooms, and the ESL teacher is somewhat isolated from the mainstream classroom curriculum in terms of keeping pace with what's going on in the students' classrooms as well as the way it is being presented and what is being emphasized. Unless you can work closely with all the teachers whose students you serve, it can be somewhat difficult, but it is possible to make it work fairly well. It works better if you emphasize reading and know what skills the teachers want you to work on.
Your principal is correct to create self-contained classrooms. Perhaps the staff disagrees because they feel threatened (their jobs are in danger if they don't speak another language or aren't certified in ESL). Your principal might get a better response if training were offered, or tuition rebates to encourage teachers to get ESL certification. Also, there is a lot of staff development that can be done to help mainstream teachers understand how to work with the ELLs in their classrooms. With knowledge, resistance breaks down!
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Re: Self Contained ESL classrooms
Probably the worst model for ELA students is the pull-out which is what most schools do. The students miss out on what is happening in the classroom and then come back to having missed 30 or more minutes of lessons.
The push-in model is horrible for the ELA teacher because usually it ends up that this teacher is not utilizing her expertise at all, taking complete direction from the classroom teacher, and is nothing more than the co-teaching model of supportive teaching. This is like a glorified TA.
Our school is a year round school with four tracks, and I will be the only ELA teacher next year. Due to our low numbers, but they are across all different grades and tracks, we will have to still do the pull-out model. However, we are also going to co-teaching which will require planning between myself and the classroom teacher. This will benefit the students because we will be using parallel teaching which is one of the four co-teaching models. This way, both of our skills are utilized, but the classroom teacher still drives the lesson idea, we plan how to utilize this with SIOP methods. Hopefully, if the teachers are open to sharing their classroom this will benefit most of the kids.
If we had the manpower and the numbers of ELL's that it sounds like your school does, I completely agree with the principal about doing sheltered classrooms. This has been proven by research that it benefits students a lot more than the pull-out model. There is a school in Minnesota that is doing co-teaching if you are interested in statistics. While this isn't quite sheltered instruction, it gives the kids the benefits of two teachers and two minds sharing ideas. It is the St. Paul Public School district. They have successfully been closing the achievement gap between ELL's and native speakers.
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Re: Self Contained ESL classrooms
I teach pull-out with another teacher who has several years experience in self-contained. Although we feel our pull-out teaching is effective, it take lots of work to make it effective because we see so many groups of so many grade levels for such a short amount of time. I started to feel right away that self-contained would be a more natural and effective model, and my co-teacher has confirmed this. I am trained in SIOP and plan to switch to a self-contained school district.
Some people may object that self-contained is discrimination, but the reality is that different students have different needs and it's the school system's responsibility to provide them with the educational model most suited to learning.
As far as push-in, I would say that is the least effective model unless the teachers are extremely good at collaborating and the ESL teacher has lots of time to devote to the class. This is rare.
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