Carol,
Thanks for throwing your thoughts into this important discussion. I
understand completely what you go through with scheduling, and commend
you for taking the time and effort to consider children's overall
school experience through a lens wider than your own.
When scheduling art classes, I came up with some resistance from some
teachers (not all, but some) who did not want their children to be
going to art class during the morning. Well, guess what? I teach all
day. Somebody has to go in the morning. And this was different from a
small group pullout; it was the whole class, for an hour only ONCE
every three weeks on average. Not every day, not even every week.
Sometimes there would be a longer break between sessions. In the end,
things worked out and most people were on board once they saw how the
schedule would work.
BUT.... there were times when art class was at the same time as a a few
students' reading intervention class, and a few teachers insisted that
these children miss art because they had to go to reading intervention.
The problem I had with that is that reading intervention was EVERY DAY
and art class was ONE HOUR ONCE EVERY THREE WEEKS. So to go to art
class, these students, at most, would have missed 9 out of about 150
days of reading intervention. Instead, they never got to go to art.
When the reading intervention teacher discovered this the second year
of the art program, she began to send them to art instead. When the
school counselor found out, she wrote "art instruction" into their
IEPs.
The bottom line is that scheduling is a nightmare, and people need to
work together for the students.
Renee
On Jul 17, 2011, at 11:50 PM, C McLoughlin wrote:
This has been such an interesting and thought-provoking discussion -
I'm thrilled it continued until I had time to join in!My point of view
is that of a Reading specialist and ESL Teacher - I am the one who has
to pull students out of ... something! ... in multiple
classrooms/grades/subjects. Here are a few of the thoughts I've had in
response to the many comments made on this topic: I do believe
pull-out is generally more effective than push-in. One of the reasons
for this is that in my experience that many classroom teachers are
either not open to true collaboration, or they are but we don't have
time to plan together. And the bottom line is that unless instruction
can be adapted to my students' needs they are not getting what they
need to get to advance their
learning. For example, a student who is two grade levels behind
everyone else is not going to be able to keep pace with grade-level
instruction in reading or content area studies requiring decoding and
comprehension skills they don't have. A 5th grade ESL student with a
vocabulary below K-level (less than one year in the country) will have
no idea what is going on if faced with standard English-only
instruction in any subject, with the possible exception of Math. Can
the classroom teacher differentiate for them? Yes, but it's difficult
to differentiate every subject that far down, and do it in a way that
allows the student(s) to maintain self-esteem among their classmates.
Pulling students into a small group instruction setting allows the
instruction to be scaffolded at their level, and reduces their anxiety
about looking foolish in front of their peers. I have successfully
pushed into reading workshop periods and that can work well with
both teachers pulling small groups and other students working
independently. It's just difficult to conduct small group instruction
in the classroom if the classroom teacher is simultaneously teaching
whole-class. So in my mind,
pull-out is often the better option.As for what to pull out from, I
try not to hit any one subject too hard. In my school the students
have two of each special (Art, Music, PE, World Language) every week,
and I flip my schedule back and forth to make sure the students get at
least one of everything each week. Because PE is mandated, I don't
pull from that class unless I absolutely have no other option. In my
school there is a 90 minute reading period, with about half of that
for whole class instruction and half for workshop/small group. I try
not to pull from whole-class reading instruction, but I may pull from
or push in to the workshop time to do reading support. If I pull from
other content area instruction, and I try not to hit the same content
area subject more than once or twice a week, I will usually plan
something related to the classroom teacher's instruction. (As an ESL
Teacher I provide support for both reading and
content area.) My schedule is a nightmare as a result of all the
things I work around, and it usually takes a few weeks to work the
kinks out. I sympathize with the classroom teacher, especially when
some of their students are being pulled out for multiple support
purposes, but I think it is often the better option for the student.
That said, it is vital that the classroom and support teachers
consult often to make sure that the student is progressing in both
settings. If I know a student is falling behind in a particular
subject I can preteach, reteach, or parallel teach the subject matter
when I do my pullouts.I absolutely agree that students who are
struggling with reading need to read more. However, skill instruction
is also very important. Students with reading difficulties may be
missing key pieces of phonemic awareness that impacts their spelling,
or key phonics knowledge that impacts their decoding. Research has
shown that direct
instruction followed by drills can be effective in practicing these
building blocks of reading. Explicit instruction on identifying
definitions in context is another example of instruction that is
needed for some students while others pick up this skill without
needing instruction. I do agree that skill instruction can't be the
only exposure students have
to reading however. Readers need to read! As a Reading Specialist,
when I pull out I usually focus on the skill instruction because
that's the piece the classroom teacher may not have sufficient time or
resources to address. The rest of it must still come from the
classroom teacher.
Carol McLoughlinReading Specialist/ESL TeacherLong Island, NY
---From: Flemming, Melanie E. <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] adding instruction for remedial...
T
My school has amazing special are teachers that ask for our imput
every month. They make sure to reinforce whatever we are working in in
the classroom! It is amazing to see how they apply Reading skills to
all aspects. It's great for those kids who are so low, they get
exposed to Reading in a completely different way. To take away
specials is a shame for all. Instead of take away incorperate!
Sent from my Android phone using TouchDown (www.nitrodesk.com)
Melanie Flemming
5th Grade
Franklin Elementary
-----Original Message-----
From: Sally Thomas [[email protected]]
Received: Sunday, 17 Jul 2011, 1:36pm
To: mosaic listserve [[email protected]]
Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] adding instruction for remedial...
You have me thinking as I am going to bring the two emails to my class
on
Thursday for discussion.
Maybe there should be a "push in" with knowledgeable support teachers
co-planning with the regular teacher to help create better reading
workshop
type classrooms. And two informed teachers have to be better than one
in
terms of giving differentiated support to children????
Sally
On 7/17/11 7:54 AM, "Renee" <[email protected]>
wrote:
Oh my..... I SOOOOO disagree with this! No child should be excluded
from equal access to the curriculum, and that includes Art, Music,
P.E., or whatever else, no matter where they are performing. In fact,
I
would say that low-performing children might need these parts of
curriculum most of all.... to help them see and experience the grand
intertwining of all parts of learning. Children who are
"underperforming" according to some standardized assessment shouldn't
be punished and have their curriculum narrowed down. Children don't
need *more* reading instruction, they need *better* reading
instruction
(and in my opinion, that means more actual reading and less actual
drilling).
I understand too well the frustration of having students pulled out of
class for small group instruction and in fact I am not particularly
supportive of trading students around among teachers that people do so
much of these days. But narrow the curriculum because a child is
reading below grade level? Sorry..... can't support that one.
Some food for thought:
10 Lessons the Arts Teach
On Jul 16, 2011, at 3:13 PM, Amy Lesemann wrote:
We had arguments about this, and I lost until a new teacher came in
and
supported me. Frankly, if a student is 2 or more years- even less,
frankly -
then they really do need to sacrifice music, or art, or another
special for
extra reading instruction, and stay in the regular class for regular
reading
instruction. Before I got that extra vote in the faculty meetings,
the
remedial kids were getting pulled out of their regular classes to
meet
with
me...so they
were getting exactly the same amount of instruction as
everyone
else. That's not the idea. They should be participating in reading
and
writing workshop, and then going to the specialist to target their
weak
areas - in phonics, using context clues, and so on.
Good luck!
--
Amy Lesemann, Reading Specialist and Director, Independent Learning
Center
St. Thomas the Apostle Elementary School
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~ John Lennon / Paul McCartney ~ Carry That Weight
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