Co- Teaching: a collaborative journey. . . Adapted from “Supervising Co-Teaching Teams: Whose line is it Anyway? www.k8accesscenter.org

Aligning Practices through Co-Teaching Co-teaching is becoming one of the fastest growing inclusive school practices Despite this rapid increase in popularity, co-teaching remains one of the most commonly misunderstood practices in education

Collaboration won’t just happen Deliberate Structured Systematic Ongoing Collaborative teaching isn’t something you can just start doing tomorrow. It should be a careful, thoughtful, gradual process, that continues to grow over time. In some cases, we’ve heard of the process taking 2 years to get to a comfortable collaborative relationship. What does this mean? Simply, don’t give up, don’t worry, it is going to take time, and no one does it perfectly.

Why won’t it just happen? Some findings… General educators begin with the curriculum first and use assessment to determine what was learned ESL educators begin with assessment first and design instruction to repair gaps in second Language learning Sometimes we speak in Different languages If we start from different places, no wonder our paths are different as well. More confusion—rarely are we working with the same curriculum.

Defining Co-Teaching Co-teaching occurs when two or more professionals jointly deliver substantive instruction to a diverse, or blended, group of students in a single physical space (Cook and Friend, 1995, pg 1) Handout breaks down each part of the definition—go over Interestingly, co-teaching originated in the field of general education, and has only recently been applied as a way to provide services to students with disabilities

Three Major Models Consultant model Coaching Model Collaborative (or Teaming) Model In the consultant model, the special educator serves as a consultant to the general educator in areas pertaining to curriculum adaptation, skills remediation, and assessment modification. The coaching model involves the special and general education teachers take turns coaching each other in areas of the curriculum and pedagogy in which they are the acknowledged experts. The teaming or collaborative model incorporated equitable sharing of the lesson planning, implementation, and assessment. The teaming or collaborative model is increasingly becoming recommended as the preferred model by researchers, particularly because of it’s efficacy in valuing the contributions of both teachers through task and responsibility sharing

In the consultant model, the support staff serves as a consultant to the general educator in areas pertaining to curriculum adaptation, skills remediation, and assessment modification. The coaching model involves the support staff and general education teachers take turns coaching each other in areas of the curriculum and pedagogy in which they are the acknowledged experts.

The teaming or collaborative model incorporated equitable sharing of the lesson planning, implementation, and assessment. Highly recommended by researchers

Most Common Approaches One Teaching, One Drifting Parallel Teaching Station Teaching Alternative Teaching Team Teaching

Co-Teaching Models* Station teaching One teach, one observe One teach, one support Parallel teaching Alternative teaching Team teaching Station teaching HANDOUT Adapted from: Friend, M. & Barsack, W. (1990). Including students with special needs: A practical guide for classroom teachers. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Co-Teaching Models Working Form

One Teaching, One Supports Easiest approach to start with One teacher plans and instructs, one teacher provides adaptations and other support as needed Requires very little joint planning Should be used sparingly Can result in one teacher, most often the general educator taking the lead role the majority of the time Can also be distracting to students, who may also become dependent on drifting teacher This approach is also known as “One Teaching, One Supporting” or “Lead and Support.” It is the most commonly seen approach used—why? Because it is the easiest approach to start with, since it does not need much time for co-planning. This is also a fall-back approach However, this should be paid careful attention to, because if one teacher continues to take the lead, it can diminish the role/credibility of the other teacher.

Parallel Teaching Teachers share responsibility for planning and instruction Class is split into heterogeneous groups and each teacher instructs half on the same material Content covered is the same, but methods of delivery may differ Both teachers need to be proficient in the content being taught Because both teachers need to be proficient in the content area, it is difficult to use this approach initially. The primary goal here is to limit the student-teacher ratio This approach requires significant coordination between the teachers so that all students receive essentially the same instruction and that grouping decisions are made based on maintaining diversity. Noise and movement levels should be monitored, and teachers will need to pace their instruction similarly.

Station Teaching Teachers divide the responsibility of planning and instruction Students rotated on pre-determined schedule through stations Teachers repeat instruction to each group that comes through--though delivery may vary according to student needs Approach can be used even if teachers have very different pedagogical approaches Each teacher instructs every student Since each teacher has separate responsibility for instruction, this approach can be used if the teachers have differing pedagogical approaches. Drawbacks to this approach can be the amount of movement and noise it can entail--can be distracting. Although many classrooms make use of stations, or centers, so this can usually be integrated fairly seamlessly. Some noise may be minimized by using headphones, study carrels, or by having the teachers move rather than the students.

Alternative Teaching Teachers divide responsibility for planning and instruction The majority of students remain in large group setting, while some students work in a small group for pre-teaching (Frontloading) , enrichment, re-teaching or other individualized instruction Allows for highly individualized instruction to be offered Teachers should be careful that the same students are not always pulled aside (may differ with ESL students). One consideration here is that teachers should be mindful of the groupings and vary the groups so that one group of particular students are not always pulled aside. A benefit of this approach is that it acknowledges the fact that there are times when small groups of students need instruction that is different from what the large group is participating in.

Team Teaching Teachers share responsibility for planning and instruction Teachers work as a team to introduce new content, work on developing skills, clarify information, and facilitate learning and classroom management This requires the most mutual trust and respect between teachers, and that they are able to mesh their teaching styles While one teacher explains or speaks, the other can demonstrate a concept or strategy (such as note-taking or summarizing). When this approach is used, co-teachers should engage in frequent checks for level of comfort and satisfaction (b/c the approach can be intensive).

Handout

Benefits of collaboration Shared responsibility for educating all students Shared understanding and use of common assessment data Supporting ownership for programming and interventions Creating common understanding Data driven problem solving Working together can be very exciting. For, as much as we may acquire high levels of knowledge and experience on our own, increasing the interaction with others within and across education, creates opportunities for learning beyond these traditional boundaries and encourages learning as a system. It becomes more than “what can each of us do for OUR kids,” but rather, “what can we do together for ALL kids.”

Getting co-teaching started at the building and classroom levels Sounds good…now what? Getting co-teaching started at the building and classroom levels http://www.cehd.umn.edu/CI/faculty/projects/bigelow/technique.html So, once you’ve familiarized yourself with co-teaching, you know the different approaches, and you’d like to give it a try. We’ll go over some tips and steps to go through to make the process easier.