Content Area Teacher and ESL Teacher “Don’t Click”: What To Do?!
As an ESL push-in teacher, I go to other teachers’ classrooms and support my students. I saw some great classes, and others were more hard to work in. This one is tricky, but let me be honest: not everything that happens in the public school system is perfect.
I was in the class when there was no structure or what we call teaching and learning were not happening. Misbehavior was the consequence of students not knowing what to do, struggling, feeling confused.
I did certain things that didn’t work and certain things that I thought would help me survive until the end of the school year. From that experience, I have learned many Dos and Don’ts, and this is what I share with you today.
Let’s start with things you need to avoid doing. Why? Well, first of all, you are not a teacher in a classroom who delivers a content area instruction, and if it’s already the middle of a semester, you can change little by yourself.
Don’ts:
As a co-teacher, you are still responsible for your ELLs, and you are responsible for providing students with quality education. While your head might be spinning, you need to figure out how you can provide quality instruction to your students even amid chaos. I stick to the list of Don’ts, and this saves me from making some mistakes I made before and have no intention to repeat.
1) Don’t try to teach content. It’s not your job.
It might be confusing for many, that’s why it deserves a separate post, but we, ESL teachers, are not really responsible for the content teaching. Our job is to provide language tools and support for ELLs to tackle the content they need to comprehend and manipulate.
2) Don’t try to fix the class discipline problem for another teacher.
Since you work only with a certain number of students in the class, your voice might not always be taken seriously by the whole class. There are other ways to influence most students in a class, but it’s not taking on the role that is not yours to start with.
3) Don’t confront the teacher with questions that are out of your responsibility.
I often felt I needed to speak up for my students if I feel they do not receive quality instruction, but the truth is you can’t always grasp the whole perspective on the problem in a classroom. Besides, it would be unprofessional to imply your colleague is not doing the job. Therefore, skip judgment. Keep in mind, you don’t teach teachers, you teach students.
4) Don’t involve administration unless you have evidence to support that something in the classroom does not allow students to learn.
As an ESL push-in teacher, I have a limited perspective on whether my students’ difficulties in the content area stem from inefficiencies of a content area teacher.
In fact, I tend to
Even when you see your college not doing his/her job in the classroom (it happened to me), your focus is what YOU can DO for your students for them to thrive and get the most out of this class.
Always remember, it’s hard not to be opinionated about what others do, but before you reach to the administration as the last resource, try to offer tools, advice, co-plan, co-teach with a content area teacher to remedy the things you feel go wrong in a classroom.
5) Don’t judge another teacher.
We all learn. We are learners. We can always improve.
6) Don’t take on others’ responsibilities.
Whatever the content area teacher’s job is in the classroom where you work with ELLs, let it be the content area teacher’s job: creating content, assessing all students, creating activities. If for some reason it’s not happening (I’ve been there), don’t think it becomes your job as an ESL teacher.
Do’s
1) Be professional and come up with the plan.
Don’t be bugged don’t by what doesn’t work. Do what works for your students.
2) If possible, pull your students out to give them the instruction they need.
3) Support your students in completing the tasks the content area teacher provides.
Regardless of distractions that might occur while you push-in your ELLs, make sure you give absolute support to students for them to complete tasks provided by the content area teacher.
4) Collect all the work, copy (if necessary) and keep it.
Make sure you make copies of assignments your students complete, and that can be used in your SGO. Copies of completed assignments can be especially helpful if you decide to pull your students out to work on the project. Copies are the proof of the work you have done with students that can also be used by a content area teacher to grade your students.
5) Communicate with the content are teacher about the timing of tasks/ projects to be completed.
As long as you have the timing for completion of a particular assignment, the instructions and criteria for grading, what happens in the classroom should not matter.
6) Let it go.
Teachers are not perfect, schools are not perfect, teaching is not always perfect. Do your job. Stay away from judging. Let it go.
I wish you luck in your teaching!
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