Opportunity to Teach: Push-In and Pull-Out Models of English Learner Instruction

Abstract

<p><em>As the number of US English Language Learners (ELLs) increases, elementary educators struggle to make decisions related to curriculum and instruction. This research fills an important gap in the research on program models for ELLs by presenting a two-part investigation of push-in and pull-out English Language Development (ELD) instruction from the vantage point of English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers. The first part of the investigation uses nationally administered surveys to capture the practices, beliefs, and challenges of ESL professionals working in these models. The second part highlights the concerns raised by those ESL teachers regarding the extent to which a cohort of 175 ELL students received their ELD instruction. We explore the implications for the academic achievement of ELLs in the primary grades when their access to consistent ELD instruction is curtailed. We illuminate the problematic aspects of both models and call for greater attention to the implementation and monitoring of services for young ELLs.</em></p>

Writing Storybooks as Storytelling: A Case Study of Two Families with Refugee Backgrounds

“…A growing body of research has specifically focused on the multimodal literacy practices of students with refugee backgrounds (Johnson & Kendrick, 2017; Kennedy et al, 2019; Michalovich et al, 2022; Omerbašić, 2015). For example, Kennedy et al (2019) investigate Chin students’ identity construction while they were engaging in multimodal class activities in a pull-out English as a second language (ESL) classroom, in which ESL students acquire the English language in a small group during their normal scheduled times (Baecher & Bell, 2017). Their findings reveal that the students were given opportunities to express and explore their Chin and American cultural identities.…”

Push-in Language Support in English-Medium International Schools

“…However, for collaboration to occur, school leaders need to provide organized opportunities for ELL and classroom teachers to collaborate. While most teachers are willing to collaborate with other teachers, time to meet is often unavailable (Baecher & Bell, 2017;Bell & Baecher, 2012;Vintan & Gallagher, 2019). Studying collaboration between ELL and primary classroom teachers, Vintan and Gallagher (2019) found that a prominent barrier to communication was the lack of scheduled time to plan together.…”

“…Although school leaders and many educators have a favorable view of inclusionary practices and models of instruction, not all teachers are satisfied with SLA IMs using push-in (Baecher & Bell, 2017;McClure & Cahnmann-Taylor, 2010;Spencer, 2021). The level of teacher satisfaction with push-in may be contingent on the support structures available to teachers and the school's overall culture towards ELL teachers and ELL students.…”

“…Moreover, there is documentation of how ELL support teaching is often not recognized as a stand-alone subject (Arkoudis, 2006;Carder, 2014;Creese, 2005). In brief, the marginalization of ELL teachers affects the relationship between the ELL and classroom teachers and the positioning of ELL students within the social construct of a school (Baecher & Bell, 2017).…”

“…During push-in, ELL teachers may be assigned, choose, or fall into several roles, such as helping the teacher, being a coteacher, working specifically with ELL students, or working with all students in the classroom. Not being the classroom teacher, ELL teachers can be positioned as teacher helpers by both the classroom teachers and students(Baecher & Bell, 2017) and the ELL teachers themselves. While the term co-teacher is sometimes used, the term itself does not assure equal status in the classroom(McClure & Cahnmann-Taylor, 2010).…”