Push-in model of intervention? Any sucess stories or warnings?

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Permalink Reply by Mark Mitrowski on December 31, 2008 at 8:01am

Hi Mrs. H,
As an Elementary teacher I have experienced push in math instruction and I never liked it. Our math specialist was always more interested in doing things she wanted to do instead of relevant math topics. She used old methods and never tried to integrate anything new into her instruction and didn't follow our classroom instruction. Now I refuse her help and instead I use the pull-out method where at least I can dictate what my students are learning from the math lab by sending appropriate materials with them. My suggestion would be to stay in contact with the classroom teacher and take advantage of the schema the students already have. Work with the students on whatever topic they are currently working on and you should be able to expand their knowledge base. It sounds like a simplistic answer but I have experienced push ins that do not work.

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Permalink Reply by Mrs H. on December 31, 2008 at 9:03am

Hey - Thats exactly what i want to avoid-stepping on someone's toes and make things worse. But we're trying to get away from the my students or your sudents but our students. We're a low performing school with 1 4th and 1 5th grade class having less children fell than pass. I cannot say the same for anyother 3-5 class. Reading in 3rd grade was 43% passing. Its got to be a collective effort becasue we've proved that closing our door and worring about our own students isnt going to bring student success or growth.
But I get how stressful it can be. I had the luxury of teaching from an intervention program first in my own room. The problem is it isnt aligned to our standard curse of study so its not using the same language. I want to be saying what the teacher is saying but give the oppurtunity for the children to have support at themoment they need it. Those high need children would still come out but only if they are 1-2 semesters behind.
I hope real collaboration and my colleague thats going to do this with me address this issue.
Thanks for sharing your perspective as a classroom teacher.

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Permalink Reply by Tanya Travis on December 31, 2008 at 4:12pm

Hi Mrs. H.,
I am also a teacher at a Title 1 school, but my recent experience has been much different. My school provides push-in instruction and an intervention period. During push-in instruction I co-teach with a special ed teacher. Students have the opportunity to work on current topics with the benefit of being taught strategies from two teachers. We design our lessons together so we have the same goals and methods in mind for what we want to accomplish. During the intervention period we each have our own class to focus on building skills. My school has been using this two tier approach for the past 3 years. During those 3 years we have gone from having 46% of students passing to 76%.

This method has been successful in large part because of the new administration my school received 3 years ago. The administration paired teachers who are open to co-teaching, provided time before school started for pairs to meet, gave time for collaboration during the school year, and instituted the extra intervention time. Another plus is that all of our push-in teachers, who are special educators, do not have to stress over how to meet their hours so they don't have to focus on just their assigned students. They have the intervention period to accomplish what they need to do so they can focus on truly co-teaching during the regular period. My co-teacher especially likes knowing that she can help ALL students.

Before the changes at my school, we encountered many of the same issues you mentioned. Having a strong, creative, and supportive administration has made all the difference.

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on December 31, 2008 at 4:51pm

*Sarcasm Alert* Now what kind of thinking is that? "The administration paired teachers who are open to co-teaching, provided time before school started for pairs to meet, gave time for collaboration during the school year, and instituted the extra intervention time. Another plus is that all of our push-in teachers, who are special educators, do not have to stress over how to meet their hours so they don't have to focus on just their assigned students. They have the intervention period to accomplish what they need to do so they can focus on truly co-teaching during the regular period. My co-teacher especially likes knowing that she can help ALL students".

Perish the thought that admin and district would provide appropriate training and give teachers support in working with all kids with all kinds of needs!! Kudos to you and your district.

I hope they are doing as well with their gifted and high ability kids.

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Permalink Reply by Tanya Travis on January 1, 2009 at 3:30am

The intervention time is also used to provide gifted and high ability kids opportunities to extend their knowledge. Students in these groups complete projects that extend beyond what is learned in their regular classes in Reading, Math, Science, and Social Studies. The groups rotate every two weeks so students receive extensions across the curriculum. During the regular period co-teachers work with all ability groups. Since I work with a rotating Reading and Math group, I share what the higher level groups are working on. This allows my co-teacher and I to add additional extentions when we rotate between students in the regular period.

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Permalink Reply by Mrs H. on January 1, 2009 at 10:25pm

THANKS! I'm printing this so I can share with my admin.

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Permalink Reply by Kathleen Vickers on April 5, 2009 at 11:05pm

Hey Tanya, love the response. I am a Resource Specialist at a middle school in California. Our district is struggling to get push-in to run efficiently. Who did your training??? Training is so important. Would love to hear from you.

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Permalink Reply by Heather Todisco on September 2, 2010 at 11:50am

Tanya,

Who did your training? And where do you work, do they have any openings? LOL

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Permalink Reply by Patricia Muller on January 11, 2009 at 5:27am

Hi Mrs. H.
We have an extra teacher like yourself that targets 3rd to 5th grade students. (Probably because these are the years tested by the state). She has her own classroom. For 3rd grade she does remedial math, pulling all 3rd graders in a homogenous group everyday during the math time. For 4th and 5th it is the opposite, she offers advanced classes for them. This allows for smaller groups within the classrooms. Some grade levels have taken this a step further and made ability level groups within their teams. So reduced class size, ability groups, plus lots of technology integration has been very successful.
For the push-in model, I've found there isn't time to have the communication necessary to effectively use a certified personnel in that position, not that there is a lack of wanting to have that communication.

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