5 Things I Have Learned as an ESL Push-in Model Teacher That I’m Taking into the Next School Year.

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1) The importance of the lesson flow routines

Everyone knows about that, don’t they? Routines and procedures are the backbones of any lesson, and they determine the success of it to a great extent. You might ask, “what routines are you talking about if you are in an ESL push-in model?” The reality is you don’t control the flow of the lesson, which is controlled by the content area teacher.

On some occasions when you do pull out your English language learners (see one of my posts here), there IS a place for lesson routines and procedures. However, when you push-in your language learners in math, science, social studies, or other areas, routines and procedures may look a little different but still be part of your teaching.

In my own experience, specific routines and procedures serve the purpose of grabbing my students’ attention, implicitly presenting my expectations, and making sure my students know the end product of our collaboration. This works for groups with 2-3 or even 6-7 students in a content area classroom. I usually work with my groups of students at a separate table in one section of the class.

Here is the list of procedures and routines I implement when I work with my ESL students daily:

1. Ask students what the task is about. If they are not sure, they need to ask a content area teacher again or refer to the objective on the board or the activity description.

2. Let students know how much time they have for the completion of the task.

3. Clarify whether the assignment will become homework if not completed on time, or extra time will be granted to complete the assignment the following class.

4. Don’t start an explanation until all the students have their materials in front of them and are ready to listen and participate.

5. Stop explaining if students are distracted or not participating.

6. Include checks for understanding to make sure students are engaged in the task.

7. Encourage peer-to-peer teaching if the group has students with different levels of English proficiency.

8. Compliment great examples of language production as well as taking risks in speaking the language.

9. Find time to ask students about things that worry them, or they struggle with beyond the classroom. Personal connection makes a small group (ESL teacher -students) teaching more meaningful and productive when students feel you are the ambassador of their interests.

2) Learn how to teach on-the-go

For the past couple of months that I have been working as an ESL push-in teacher, I have been in the situations when I had to work with students in an “on-the-spot” moment.

The reality is when you push-in while serving students in 4 different content areas for 2 or 3 different grade levels, it would be a delusion to think you can write a modified lesson plan for each class you go into.

Most often, you would come in, take a minute to look at the lesson objective, create your language objective, glance over the materials provided by the content area and ..start teaching.

My go-to mode is to preview and read the assignment text together. As we read, I pick the vocabulary I want to clarify. On my dry-erase portable mini board, I create sentence stems for students to practice as we go through the assignment. I also ask my higher English language proficiency students to help their peers who struggle to follow. I act as a dictionary, a speller, an illustrator. I usually have about 15-20 minutes to work with language learners separately from the whole class.

Finishing the assignment is not always an option. Not everyone gets the material from the first try. Interruptions happened very often.

The truth is teaching on-the-go will happen more often than not in your area. It’s essential to be flexible, inventive, nonjudgemental and to have fun no matter the circumstances. No one expects you to be perfect. Expertise grows with practice and errors.

3) Make students understand clearly what they can expect from you

There is always a risk of misinterpretation of your role in a classroom by students and sometimes by a content area teacher. Therefore, it’s crucial to clarify your role as an ESL teacher.

\By no means, you are a helper in doing exercises. By no means, you are responsible for students’ completing their homework. You are not a translator, nor are you a content area teacher. Your role is to teach English to ESL students, not to babysit them.

To set expectation clear, I always have a conversation with my ESL students about my role in a classroom. From time to time, I return to the conversation about my position once I notice students forget about my expectations for them.

These are some significant points I elaborate on in discussion with my students:

1. Working with ESL teacher provides help with the language, it’s not a ticket to 100% grade for the content area.

2. Incomplete classwork or homework started with an ESL teacher is still the responsibility of a student.

3. If you are missing work, talk to a content area teacher.

4. ESL teacher is not the sources of answers for the assignment, but the source of support with the English language.

4) The importance of documenting your contact with the students

I got this great idea from one of my colleagues when I was visiting her in a nearby school. ESL teachers might have some responsibilities other than teaching. For example, many of us administer or oversee ACCESS testing or testing and placement of incoming students. Sometimes (sadly), ESL teachers are asked to perform substitute duties, which takes our instructional time away.

My colleague records all the losses in instructional time for the reasons related to school duties on a spreadsheet.

It’s a smart move since our students are still assessed in many ways, and their scores are looked upon by the administration as the indicators of our efficiency and work. Once recorded, this data may be crucial to shed some light on the status quo related to your situation if any questions about the scores rise.

5) Looking into problems to find solutions

There has never been a better way to learn than looking into problems to find possible solutions and, therefore, to grow. As a new ESL teacher, I was eager to turn to reading to make myself prepared to a certain degree for the potential problems I might face in my profession.

The truth is, to my perception, the reading has always been about generic situations and generic students. Some advice turned out to be too dated, some ideas proved inefficient for current students and current circumstances. Indeed, you can’t grow in your profession relying on books only.

What proved to be more informative and more effective in my career is dealing with problems relying on the advice of more experienced colleagues and my own intuition. There is never a solution that will fit all. Each situation will add to the toolbox of tricks that will eventually give you enough confidence to tackle hard or unpleasant situations at work.

Have a happy day! Keep creating!

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Check out these articles on the topic of ESL teaching:

How To Become an Irreplaceable Teacher in Your School.

5 Things an ESL Push-in Teacher Should Consider Doing Differently or Start Doing.

5 Things an ESL Push-in Teacher Should Consider Doing Differently or Start Doing.

A Minimalist ESL Teacher.

How NOT To Create Dependent ESL Learners.

How “WIDA Can-Do Charts” Help Me Plan and DifferentiateInstruction for English Language Learners?

ESL Push-In: What To Focus On.

8 Things To Focus On For A New ESL Teacher.

8 Pitfalls To Avoid For A New ESL Teacher.

What I Do For My Lesson Planning: ESL Push-in.