Science Teaching Through Universal Design and Inquiry Co-Teaching

1. Science Teaching Through Universal Design and InquiryCo-Teaching Flo Muwana, Ph.D. University of Wisconsin Oshkosh

2. Day 2 Getting Co-Teaching Started at the Building and Classroom Levels HOW?

3. Action Steps Administrators should • Provide information and encourage proactive preparation for teachers • Assess level of collaboration currentlyin place • Pre-plan • Implement slowly . . . BABY STEPS! (Murawski, 2005)

5. Preparing to Co-teach: Take Baby Steps Break out of your room and routine. Assess the current situation and environment. Begin to establish rapport with others. Yelling is out! Use good communication skills. Start to provide in-class supports. Take the initiative. Exemplify best practices. Provide information about co-teaching approaches. Share the co-teaching worksheet.

7. Key Elements of Co-teaching Co-planning • Specify goals and objectives • Indicate expected outcomes Co-instructing • Specify responsibilities Co-assessing • Design assessment measures • Consider how you will assess students (Murawski & Spencer, 2011)

8. Pre-Planning • Co-teaching requires thoughtful planning time. • Administrative support is essential. • Here is where the alignment of special and general education occurs • Make this time as focused as possible • Take turns taking the lead in planning and facilitating (Murawski & Dieker, 2004; Dieker, 2002)

9. CO-PLANNING EFFICIENTLY • Regular time to plan collaboratively • 20 mins. minimum per week • Appropriate environment without distractions • Shut door with “unavailable” sign • Turn off phone • Save rapport building for another time • Agenda/snacks • “Hungry teachers do not make the most agreeable or creative collaborators”

10. CO-PLANNING EFFICIENTLY • Determine regular roles/responsibilities • Teaching strengths/preferences • Divide and conquer • Regrouping, teacher-student ratio • Keep list of individual student concerns • Build in time for assessment/feedback • Open communication on teaching/interaction • Document/save planning for future reference • Avoid recreating wheel

11. CO-PLANNING EFFICIENTLY: USE WHAT/HOW/WHO APPROACH • WHAT • Standards • Objectives • Big idea • Essential question • Timeframe (Murawski, 2012)

12. CO-PLANNING EFFICIENTLY WHAT/HOW/WHO APPROACH • HOW • Comfort level with content • Most effective co-teaching model for beginning/middle/end of lesson • Each teacher’s responsibilities for planning, materials, implementing, assessing (Murawski, 2012)

13. CO-PLANNING EFFICIENTLY WHAT/HOW/WHO APPROACH • WHO • Might struggle behaviorally/socially/academically • Accommodations/modifications/adapted materials • Additional differentiation strategies • Other professionals (speech teacher, occupational therapist, etc.) (Murawski, 2012)

14. Co-instructing • Most difficult but also the most rewarding • maximizing success and rewards: • Review the different approaches to co-teaching and think about how each might look in a classroom • Discuss each other’s learning style preferences to see how these can be incorporated into the lesson to assist students with varying styles (Murawski & Dieker, 2004)

15. Co-instructing • Consider completing a teaching style inventory • Compare how each of you prefers to structure assignments, lessons,classroom schedule, etc. • Example • http://www.longleaf.net/teachingstyle.html

16. Co-teacher’s Perspective… “We get along very well. We are both flexible and have developed similar expectations for students and similar classroom management styles. We feed off each others’comments and teaching styles. We switch which groups we work with so that we both get to perform a variety of roles with all our students. We work together; develop together; and bounce things off each other. Working as a team makes you feel good.” (Salend, Gordon, & Lopez-Vona, 2002)

17. Co-teacher’s Perspective… “I don’t think I’d like to work in this type of program again. She felt like a visitor in my classroom, and we never connected personally. We struggled because of differences in roles, teaching and communication styles, and philosophy. The students also were confused. They felt that I was the teacher and she was my aide. I felt like she was always watching me and judging me. We didn’t know how to do it and received little support from our principal.” (Salend, Gordon, & Lopez-Vona, 2002)

18. Instructional Tips • Develop signals for communicating with co-teacher • Create consistent/common signals for students • Vary instructional practices • Clearly display agenda for the class, including standard(s) and goals • Avoid disagreeing with or undermining each other in front of students • Demonstrate parity in instruction, switch roles often • Avoid stigmatization of any one group of students (Murawski & Dieker, 2004)

19. More tips… • Show commitment and enthusiasm. • Post both teachers’ names on the door and in the classroom. • Reflect participation from both teachers for all meetings and correspondence with families. • Trust the professional skills of your partner.

21. Co-assessing: Before co-teaching begins • Discuss assessment strengths/needs • Decide how to share grading responsibilities • Discuss IEP assessment accommodations and modifications (Conderman & Hedin, 2012)

22. Co-assessing: Before Instruction • Collect data on students’ existing knowledge and skills • Create system for monitoring assessment data • Plan post instruction assessment • Align co-teaching models with assessment practices • Plan assessment activities to activate prior knowledge (Conderman & Hedin, 2012)

23. Co-assessing: During Instruction • Organize classroom/instruction to facilitate ongoing assessment • Plan opportunities for demonstrating understanding through active engagement • Determine method of collection and use of students’ responses data (Conderman & Hedin, 2012)

24. Co-assessing: After Instruction • Conduct formative/summative assessments aligned with objectives • Use different types of assessments • Follow IEP requirements for accommodations and modifications (Conderman & Hedin, 2012)

25. Types of Assessment, Use, and Example in Co-taught Classroom

26. Summing up… “Co-teaching is like a marriage…and just like marriage, any time individuals are going to share this type of responsibility, they need time to get to know each other, to share beliefs, to problem solve, and to communicate their own needs. The result can be well worth the effort” (Murawski & Spencer, 2009, p. 96)

27. Questions

28. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME!