This is my first year teaching elementary ESL. I taught on the high school level before. I am so tired of the pull-out method! I feel guilty making kids miss classroom instruction! I am trying to cover the same curriculum as they do in their classrooms, but I don't have access to the same materials which makes it very difficult. The administration thinks all I am supposed to be doing is teaching reading, even going so far as to give me me a group of non-ESL students who are low-level readers. I am sharing a reading curriculum with 5 other teachers, which is really fun! I have 10 groups of students, 4 grades and 10 different teachers, and they are at all levels of English proficiency. I have changed my schedule 3 times this year already, and getting ready to have to do it again. Right now, I do not have the same schedule any day of the week! I am about to pull my hair out trying to figure out what to do! I need to stay at this school for at least another year, and the school's not terrible, but I really want to get back to the high school level, where the students are actually scheduled to come for me and I don't have to schedule them myself!
I figure I can making for a few more months, but I really want to have a better handle on it next year. Teachers are starting to pressure me because their ESL students are not at grade-level! Do they not understand that it takes 5 years to get them proficient!
Does anyone who has done this for a few years have any suggestions? I really need some encouragement. Thank you!
We do push in model- this way kids still see the anchor charts and other important things available in classroom. We come in during guided reading time so scheduling a bit easier- up to teachers to make sure ELL kids aren't in a small group when we come in. Scheduling is a nightmare!
I would love to do push-in, but most of my teachers don't really like having me in the classroom. Pull-out is considered "better", so that's what I'm expected to do. Uggh!
Once everyone (and you) accepts that they have to miss something in order to "catch-up," your job with scheduling will become much easier. Language should take a priority because they are behind. We have made some give and takes at our school. Students will miss pe/music and any other Tier 2 intervention for the pull-out. Push in only works if the teacher is willing to team teach the language lessons to all. If not then you are really just doing a small group "in the room." I pull them out during writing in some cases, never during whole group reading or math time. I will pull them out during the small group lessons in independent work time though. You also should be doing English Language Development, not just teaching a lower level of reading. Word Sorts for spelling-Words Their Way with English Learners is good for this-use is to teach spelling, phonics and vocab at the same time. If you have access to technology use Moby Max-Language. It's free for teachers, you can also pay to get more advanced reports and nice features, but I used the free version for many years. It gives them an assessment right away and then creates lessons that are individualized for each student. You have the ability to go in to the settings and change them though. This is wonderful for the varied groups. www. moby max.com
Remember if you want them to get better at reading they need to read, read, read, read.....practice daily at their level. Teach them to choose their own books, at their level, and practice what reading alone looks like and feels like so they can do that at home on their own each day. Most have missed out on that part of the reading lessons because they struggle so much with the act of reading. I even have two groups going at the same time because I have taught my first group to read, work on Moby Max and do writing projects and Word Sorting alone while I teach the other group in the room, then we switch. (Daily 5) Good Luck!!
Thank you! That is very encouraging! Finding books "at their level" is tough, because it seems that most of what we use for teaching reading is not only lower level, but also lower-interest level, i.e. more 3rd graders don't want to read books geared for kindergarten. I will look into Moby Max - I think some of the teachers use this already. I use Raz-Kids - similar concept and they like it. I like your idea of having two groups at once! I may have to try that one.
I do pull out mostly. Any time I go into classrooms I get given the lowest group, regardless of language proficiency and it is, frankly, boring and not doing my job.
My job, as ESL teacher, is not to teach the curriculum, but to teach language so that the students can access the curriculum being taught in their classroom. Especially with new arrivals, almost everything I do is oral - we do very little reading or writing for the first few months. Basic vocabulary, social language, life skills (our local supermarket is used to me wandering in with a group of children each buying their own piece of fruit for morning tea!) and so on. We have a constant stream of new arrivals, from many different countries, and they usually cycle through this program in a year or so.
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02-22-2016, 06:23 AM
