Sadly, push-in does become a glorified teaching assistant
unless you have very cooperative teachers who WANT your
input. Many don't really know what to do when the ESL
teacher pushes in, so they put you in a group with the
lowest readers in the classes, regardless of whether or not
they are ELL's. I have had the experience of the teacher
putting me with the kids she didn't want to deal with.
The powers that be insist that push in for ELL's works
because the guided reading gurus say so. They claim there
is research to prove it, but I have never seen any. The
only time I think it makes sense is for the more proficient,
just barely grade level ELL's.
However, the needs of the ELL's are not the same as the
needs of a SPED kid. The kid who is just a low reader may
have a better speaking vocabulary than the ELL. The ELL may
have good literacy skills in L1, but is lacking in vocab and
background knowledge in English.
Putting a relative newcomer in with a group of low and or
behavior problems is not going to help that student excel.
As for the interview, (I went from secondary to elementary,
so now I am up on the lingo) stress working cooperatively
with the classroom teacher...you are there to support the
classroom learning of the ELL. Ask about common planning
time. Talk about scaffolding the ELL in regard to the ELA
standards. But do emphasize the necessity of vocabulary
development. Many ELLs can decode well, but lack
comprehension skills. They may ask what you will do in a
given situation, how you would lead a guided reading group,
how you would work with kids who are not ELL.
On 5/14/08, interviewing next week wrote:
> I have decided to go for the elementary pistion. I talked
> to the priciapl on the phone and he told me that they use
> a push-in model at their school.
>
> Can any one tell me more about this program.
>
> How do you decide who you are going to see? For which
> classes?
>
> What do you exactly do in the classroom? Where do you
> work with the students? (The building is very crowded.)
>
> One person explaied it to me as a glorified teacher's
> assistent helping with homework. I hope this isn't it, I
> would really like to know more about this before I go for
> my interview.
1996 - 2008. All Rights Reserved. Please review our