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Pull-Out ESL vs Push-In ESL
by S. on Jun 17 2009 2:25 PM
My principal wants to switch our ESL program to a predominantly push-in model of instruction, and I'm concerned about how this will play out. I'm the only ESL teacher in the building covering a caseload of approximately 35 kids (grades 1-5). The students are spread across the grade levels and are not all clustered in one classroom per grade level.
Any suggestions? I currently pull out 30 minutes a day for each grade level 5x a week.
I'd also love to hear some input on how you run your pull-out program. I'm expected to follow our content standards but I'm not given any other real guidance past that, and I'm always having trouble figuring out what to teach and how to teach it.
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Re: Pull-Out ESL vs Push-In ESL
1.Does your principal know anything about ESL?
2.Is your principal simply responding to complaints from classroom teachers who don't want their students pulled out, and who won't include the students' accomplishments in your ESL class in their grading?
3.I've never seen good push-in. Only one teacher can teach one lesson at a time. Typically, the ESL teacher will just be another warm body in the room. Another possibility is that the ESL teacher will give a lesson to the whole class -- a lesson that the mainstream teacher could be giving.
3. Push-in is nonsense that nobody analyses too closely because the powers within the school want it. In most schools, ESL teachers have no political power and sense that they better go with the flow.
4. Push-in dissolves actual delivery of services while providing mere paper compliance.
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Re: Re: Pull-Out ESL vs Push-In ESL
I agree that an effective push-in would in fact be a team teaching experience. It would work only provided both mainstream and esl teachers plan together, coordinate and the like. Otherwise, a push-in makes an esl teacher a "dignified aid" (if she/he is lucky to accomplish something).
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Re: Re: Re: Pull-Out ESL vs Push-In ESL
Good luck getting mainstream teachers to plan with you.
In most Northeastern school districts, ESOL is considered a fifth wheel -- if it's considered at all. With such low regard, the message that most building cultures send to teachers is, "Making time for this ESOL teacher is not a priority."
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Pull-Out ESL vs Push-In ESL
I do workshops with mainstream teachers in school districts all over the U.S. I also taught in N.J. for 27 years. I think that we need to find ways to collaborate with classroom teachers to help our ELLs. It won't happen overnight but we must keep working. I don't think we can generalize and say that ESOL is considered a fifth wheel in Northeastern school districts.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Pull-Out ESL vs Push-In ESL
Dear Judie,
What advice do you have for ESL teachers pushing-in to mainstream classes? I am an ESL teacher with 6 kindergarten classrooms to push into. I don't have common planning time with any of my teachers.
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Re: Pull-Out ESL vs Push-In ESL
Our school is doing mostly pull-out this year. Here's the rationale I wrote up for our principal:
GENERAL CONTENT
We have MAPS data on each grade level that tells us what content each student needs introduced to them. (Of the three options that MAPS gives--what they've mastered, what needs to be developed, and what needs to be introduced to them--the latter is the one we've chosen to focus on per Wendy Long’s recommendation [refer to Krashen’s idea of “+1 instruction”].) We would like to use that information combined with ISTEP terms (vocabulary) that Maria Peacock provided us with from the DOE to guide our instruction. Additionally, we have created a list of science and social studies essential vocabulary based on the state standards books. We have also created ILPs (Individual Learning Plans) for each of our ELLs; these ILPs include language goals based on their LAS Links scores from this past spring.
Additionally, we have curriculum maps from each grade level letting us know what content will be taught in the classroom and approximately when. We will be adhering to their schedule in a fashion that allows us to pre-teach concepts as much as we can (some cases will call for re-teaching, which can be just as valuable).
SCHEDULE AND MORE SPECIFIC CONTENT
ESL programs help students with the English language. One of WCS’ ESL program’s goals is for students to “pass the ISTEP+.” Our content will then focus on information our students need to be successful not only in their classroom setting, but also on standardized testing (another WCS ESL goal is for “students to be lifelong learners.”) In a book we were given on the SIOP model of instruction, the authors say, “content-based ESL teachers seek to develop the students’ English language proficiency by incorporating information from the subject areas that students are likely to study or from courses they may have missed if they are fairly new to the school system…teachers need to provide practice in academic skills and tasks common to mainstream classes” (Echevarria 2008).
A unique aspect of our ELLs is their need for oral language development. “The most successful literacy instructional practices for ELLs are programs that provide instructional support of oral language development in English, aligned with high-quality literacy instruction” (IDOE, LMMP). Due to our smaller class size and deeper understanding our the needs of our ELLs, we are able to spend a good deal of our time developing that oral language that mainstream teachers don’t have time to do.
Looking at our most difficult subjects and other things, I've set up the following schedule for our Monday-Thursday routine: M: reading, T/W: writing, R: math. Within the reading and writing portions, I envision us delving into many science and social studies concepts. While cultural fiction reading is my love, I would like our main focus to be on materials that include non-fiction ideas (not necessarily exclusively non-fiction reading, though: e.g., Magic Tree House books include many scientific/ historical facts through a fictionalized story). Wendy Harges has helped us become familiar with the Reading Room (and we have many content-specific books ourselves provided by Wendy Long), so our resources are truly unlimited in the types of books we can interact!
As far as math goes, there are many concepts--and vocabulary within those concepts--that are not understood well by our students, even some Level 4s! I foresee us working strongly on the vocabulary behind the math, more so than the math itself (of course, we will practice the words we study in actual problems; it’s just our focus will be primarily the language).
SMALL GROUPS
Within each day, I have allotted two 45-minute periods for small groups or mainstream classroom time. That gives the potential for six small groups within each day, six classrooms getting an ESL staff member, or any combination of the two. We already have some teachers who have requested one or two of us during those times, and we’re already aware of some students who will need that more individualized instruction during those times. I hope to keep these groupings flexible. I’d love for us to reevaluate the groups/classrooms at least at the semester break, if not at every quarter.
FRIDAYS
Fridays will be spent on various things—collaboration, testing, homework, Reading Buddies, other things (?).
(1) Collaboration. The more I hear from our more experienced ESL teachers, the more invaluable collaboration becomes to me. I would love to touch base with EACH teacher at least once a month. That gives us four Fridays to find them during their Friday special to see how their students are doing in the classroom, to get information on the content they see coming up (so we can pre-teach their students), or any number of beneficial conversations we could have.
(2) Test administration. Many tests are given on Fridays. We would like to make ourselves available to read tests to students, give them a quiet place to test, give them more time, take away some choices (i.e. on multiple-choice questions), and the like. We realize that not all tests are given on Fridays, however. I would like to see students take tests on the days they are given. If they earn a poor grade, I envision the teacher letting us know and us offering to have them retake the test in our room on Friday. If they take it during the regular testing timeframe and did well on it, then kudos to them!
(3) Homework. While we will host a homework time first thing every morning (8:40-9:00am), we realize that that may not be enough for some students, especially those working on long-term projects. We’d like to be available to students for their homework needs on Fridays.
(4) Reading Buddies. We will be collaborating with a Lakeview Middle School Basic Language Arts class for reading purposes. On Fridays, the group of ~20 students chosen to participate will have some time to write e-mails to their buddies, read e-mails from their buddies, or actually read with their buddies! (The 8th graders will be bused to Harrison in the afternoon during their Tiger Time on selected Fridays.) We will also do some writing and illustrating with them. We’re so excited about this opportunity to collaborate even at the student level!
What does this sound like to you? A big change for us, I can assure. We started working on this back in April 2009! But it's already been sooo worthwhile!
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Re: Pull-Out ESL vs Push-In ESL
Oh, and I forgot. Push-in. Can be effective (in rare cases) when mega collaboration and team-teaching efforts are made. But it's usually last-minute, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants type of teaching since very little time is given for the collaboration necessary to make push-in effective. Good luck!
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Re: Pull-Out ESL vs Push-In ESL
A push-in model can't be implemented with 35 students across 5 grade levels with one teacher. Your principal would also have to consider when you went into each class and find times for the five day program. The only way this would happen is if more teachers were hired.
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Re: Pull-Out ESL vs Push-In ESL
I work in a school that does both. Honestly, it works out great, depending on the classroom. If it's a room that tends to be noisier, or won't give you an actual space to work in, it can be difficult. Otherwise, it is really the same. Hope that helps.
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Re: Re: Pull-Out ESL vs Push-In ESL
I am in a district where there has been one ESOL center high school for about twenty years. Students were bussed to this school from all over the district if they had ESOL needs. Because of the growing ELL population in our city, we had added an ESOL program to another high school within the district. At the moment, I am the only ELL teacher here, but there are plans for another full-time ELL teacher and hopefully a TA next year. Our school also uses both push-in and pull-out. I also find that push-in only works well if I collaborate with the teachers on a regular basis and my time in the classroom is consistently the same time. The pull-out time with ELLs is working well, and I think it's because I am getting so much support from my colleagues, administration,and the ESOL professionals in the ESOL center at the other high school. That has been key to building a strong foundation this year. I like the idea of adding an ILP (Individualized Learning Plan), but I haven't had time to look for examples. Does anyone have an example that we could look at?
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Re: Re: Re: Pull-Out ESL vs Push-In ESL
Guys the issue here is not doing Pull out or push in. The question is: Is the school prepared to offer an ESL model that is consistent, collaborative, inclusive. I am proud to say that my school has arranged the entire shcedule to make sure that ALL students are in a foreign language elective at some point, those enrolled in ESL will go to the ESL classroom during that time. In addtion to that, ESL teachers offer push in support during a content areas by co teaching and sharing information with colleagues. It is this collaborative model the one that I have felt most comfortable with in the past few years.
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