What Does Push-in Support Look Like?
For those who may not know, I am a middle school reading specialist and literacy coach. For the past 3 years, I have been working closely with my principal, teachers, and other colleagues to build a MTSS program that works for my school. Before I came onboard, my school did not have a reading specialist, so it’s been a learning process for all of us. In previous posts, I discussed building my schedule as well as what I do with my pull-out support classes. For the past few weeks, I have focused on the Literacy Coach aspect of my role and how I support teachers. This week, I plan to outline my process for providing push-in support for teachers and students.
My Responsibilities as a Literacy Coach
- Analyze data and provide reading partner lists for all the teachers in my building.
- Provide professional learning and word analysis for our building-wide vocabulary routine.
- Provide push-in support for teachers and students.
Pushing In For Small Groups
The most common way that I use my push-in time is working with students. Sometimes I work with a small group of students, while other times I work with individual students one-on-one.
I have a 6th grade ELA teacher who likes to implement WIN time. WIN stands for What I Need. She takes the first 10 minutes of each class period for differentiated instruction. In the afternoon, she has a co-teacher, which makes that time easier. She can take a group, her co-teacher can take a group, and the rest of the students have silent reading time. During 1st and 2nd period, she struggles to implement this time because she does not have a co-teacher to assist at that time. When she voiced her frustration to me, I offered to help and take a group of students during that time.
Since the class dynamics are different from 1st to 2nd period, what I do during WIN time varies. During 1st hour, there are a few students who struggle with phonics and decoding gaps. In that case, I take them and work on the REWARDS program. We can usually get through one lesson in a week, which isn’t ideal, but it’s better than nothing. I’d rather give those students some strategies to help them decode unfamiliar words since, at the middle school level, decoding is not a focus.
During 2nd period, there is only one student in my WIN time group. This student needs help with fluency, so we use the Wide Reading Strategy from Fastbridge during this time. When using the Screening to Intervention Report, this was the intervention recommended for that particular student. It’s a variation off the 6-Minute Solution routine.
Pushing In for Individual Students
One of my 7th grade ELA teachers has concerns about a particular student. She expressed those concerns to me, so I came into her class and observed the student “in action.” After observing and working with her one-on-one for a couple of days, I was able to make some recommendations for the student. I printed off some materials for her that I felt would be helpful. I’m also continuing to check in with this student during passing periods and before/after school.
Pushing Into All Areas
Sometimes, when teachers are working on research or writing projects, they want me to come in and provide support for different students. I can help students read the research and ensure that they understand the content. Then, I help students take that research and incorporate it into their own writing.
One prime example of this is our 8th grade math class. That’s right, math. They do a career research project at the end of the year, complete with graphs for income and expenses. While I’m not much help with the graphing, I can help as students get started. They choose a career to research. That’s where I come in. I can help them as they research their career and make sure their notes are complete so that the rest of the project runs smoothly.
Pushing In to Support Teachers
The last way I push into classes is to support teachers. I know that there is no way that I can reach every student who needs my help. I’m only one person after all. But if I help the teachers, we can reach every student.
Sometimes, when I present different lesson ideas to the staff at my school, teachers need a little extra help getting started. I can push in to model a lesson or get the partner reading routine going.
What are some ways that you push in to support students and teachers? Leave a comment to share!
