Co-Teaching: Definition, Methods, & Application in Education

1. Co-Teaching Sarah Larrison Education Specialist Office of Special Education @EducateIN

2. Bell Ringer What I already know about co-teaching... • Write a definition for co-teaching. 2. List one or more methods of co-teaching. 3. List one way you could make time to plan a lesson with your colleague. 4. What college did you attend? @EducateIN

3. Learning Objectives Learners will be able to: • Define co-teaching • Understand the models of co-teaching • Understand how to utilize co-planning time @EducateIN

4. @EducateIN

5. What is Co-Teaching •When two or more professionals co-plan,co-teach, and co-assess a group of students together. (Murawski, 2010) •Co-teaching is sharing the expertise of professionals to create a teaching and learning environment conducive to positive student outcomes and teacher success. (Hentz and Jones, 2011) •A service delivery option where professionally licensed educators share instructional and related responsibilities…primarily in a single shared classroom…where all students are full members of the class. (Friend, 2014) @EducateIN

6. Who Can Co-Teach? General Education Teacher ELL Teacher General Education Teacher Media Specialist General Education Teacher Gifted and Talented Teacher • Special Education Teacher • General Education Teacher • Speech Language Pathologist • General Education Teacher • Literacy or Math Coach • General Education Teacher @EducateIN

7. One Teach One Assist Opportunities: *One teach one assist allows instruction to go on while the second teacher provides individual or classroom supports Challenges: *Sidebar conversations may further pull the student’s attention away from the lead instructor missing key concepts *Tends to support continuing to teach as if there is only one teacher in the classroom *The resources of a licensed teacher are underutilized when their role becomes that of instructional assistant *Can make co-teaching difficult to justify when one teacher in the room is not teaching What it looks like in the classroom: One teacher has a lead role in instructing the class, the second teacher is managing behaviors, answering questions Recommended Use:Seldom @EducateIN

8. One Teach One Observe Opportunities: *Allows for gathering observational data on student while the instruction is occurring *Can be used to observe co-teacher for types of questioning, opportunities to respond, pacing, etc. Challenges: *Co-teachers need to identify the metrics to be measured to get meaningful data What it looks like in the classroom: One teacher manages the instruction of the entire group while the second teacher gathers data the teachers decided is important Recommended Use:Frequently, but for brief periods of time @EducateIN

9. Station Teaching What it looks like in the classroom: *Students are divided into three or more small groups *Teachers can provide direct instruction or facilitate/monitor students working independently *Students work all of the different tasks or topics within the same lesson Recommended Use: Frequently @EducateIN

10. Station Teaching (Cont.) Opportunities: •Students can be assigned to groups to meet various instructional goals (heterogeneous or skill based) •Teachers can more closely watch student learning in the smaller groups •Teachers can group students to proactively address behavior concerns or groups that need specific supports Challenges: •Activities must function independent of each other; all students will not do the tasks in the same order •Noise levels and time management may be a challenge when instructors engage in instruction with their groups •Managing time for completion of work in each station @EducateIN

11. Alternative Teaching What it looks like in the classroom: Each teacher leads a group, with the focus on a specific skill or need relative to the class lesson, Example: Teacher one has group for extending the lesson, Teacher two has group for re-teaching the concepts of the lesson Recommended Use:Occasional @EducateIN

12. Alternative Teaching (Cont.) Opportunities: •Can identify or group students by need and then focus on that (ex: pre-teaching, re-teaching, expanding the concept) •The groups can be different sizes, provides instructional flexibility •Can provide intensive small group sessions Challenges: •Avoid always having the same students in the groups; don’t want to reinforce a “pull out” group •Avoid leaving the room to work with the second group @EducateIN

13. Parallel Teaching What it looks like in the classroom: The students are divided into two groups each working with a teacher Teachers may cover the same instructional content in the same way, or Cover the same content in different ways Recommended Use: Frequently @EducateIN

14. Parallel Teaching (Cont.) Opportunities: Students can be assigned to groups to maximize participation and minimize behavior problems Reduce teacher: student ration; increased instructional intensity Opportunities to respond are increased for each student Challenges: Teachers must be able to provide equivalent instruction Teachers’ pacing of the instruction must be similar @EducateIN

15. Teaming What it looks like in the classroom: Both instructors are fully engaged in the delivery of instruction; one writes notes while the other speaks; one explains the other models. They may take turns. Recommended Use: Occasional @EducateIN

16. Teaming (Cont.) Opportunities: • Can be energizing for the teachers; • Increases student engagement; • Can be a strong blending of content and learning process for students Challenges: • Co-teachers must be able to comfortably complement each other, not lose focus of the content, the flow, and opportunities for students to respond to the content • Be aware teachers can “over talk” • It may be difficult for younger children to track two • adults talking and determine which one to attend to @EducateIN

17. Six Approaches...Now What? Think, Pair, Share! • Which of the six approaches have you already used? • What worked? How did you know? • What didn’t work? • What approaches do you want to try in your classroom? @EducateIN

18. Co-Planning and Co-Assessing Virtual Opportunities: • Google Docs and other shared documents or electronic planners • FaceTime or other chat programs • Messaging • Email • New technology? Face-to-Face Opportunities: • Release time • Fewer supervision duties • Common prep periods (variations) • Team meeting days • District staff development days • Before or after school day • Scheduled summer time meetings • “Trading Places and Spaces”- one grade covers another grade’s classes to free co-teaching pairs @EducateIN

19. Getting Started Explore Potential Co-Teaching Partners Get Training! Plan, Plan, Plan! @EducateIN

20. Contact Me! Sarah Larrison slarrison@doe.in.gov 317-232-9186 @EducateIN