I am a Co-Teacher... Now What? What is Effective Co-Teaching?

Spring has sprung and many school districts will be looking at changing up their continuum of special education services and adding more Co Teaching to the plate.  Whether or not you are currently in a Co-Teaching Model or anticipate becoming a member of a Co-Teaching team, knee jerk reactions sometimes follow..."Why me?"... "Who are you?"... "Not him/her!"… Now is the time to start preparing for an effective next year.

In all honesty, the method we use to determine the actual effectiveness of your Co-Teaching team, is not whether or not the co teachers are there for the whole time… the co teachers speak to each other at the end of the year… or how many kids get sent to ISS, put on a BIP, or sent back to residential placement. Effective co teaching classrooms are determined by student performance. If we are effective teachers (showing up for class with a great plan)… effective teachers working together (speak to and plan with each other)… and offer effective instruction (not just one method for 170 school instruction days with 10 days for assessment)… our efforts should result in objective data that indicates higher levels of student achievement.

Federal law identifies that ALL students are entitled to a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). The State of Georgia has identified the basic public education curriculum to be our identified Georgia Performance Standards (GPS). Our school system has identified co teaching as the preferred model for ‘inclusion’ of students with disabilities in the general education setting. The end result is that, for the most part, every child enrolled in the Long County School system will have access to the GPS curriculum in the general education setting.

Having a designated co teacher immediately identifies a specific class as having ‘a wide variety of abilities’ and interests. However, I would challenge any teacher any where to find a class they teach that doesn’t have ‘a wide variety of abilities’ and interests (even among high achiever and gifted students). Therefore, in order to meet the needs of all of our students and provide access to the GPS, we must become proficient at scaffolding, differentiated the instruction, and holding all of our students accountable to the language and intent of the standards.

Hopefully your leadership team will take the time before school ends to set up success for next year - but if not, there are some things that you can do before that first bell rings... However, I recommend three aditional abstracct goals that will help you explore and create a professional focus for your team:

1. You each need to set a personal goal—Based around your personal growth as a professional - this is personal. 
2. You both must agree to a team goal for planning (at least 1 - 2 hours per week) —this is Non negotiable. 
3. You both must agree to an instructional strategy goal— One is negotiable around an idea and will guide how you grow in this model.

Once you have your goals, you can begin to identify the effective best practices and instructional strategies you want to explore. I recommend that you committ to trying at least 1 new instructional model (there are about 6 identified) around every 2 weeks until you have worked the kinks out and have a good idea of what works good where....

Here comes the NERD REVIEW:

There have been multiple texts and surveys available (just Google or Bing it, or try this Amazon link) that get into the practical aspects of how to share a teaching space but, after attending multiple directional meetings, discussing and identifying with various district and school level initiatives, I have pulled the following resources for specific highlight to use in professional development in Co Teaching.

The focus of these selections is effective teaching practices using differentiated instruction as the foundation. Not only will these selections assist you in meeting  your needs in Co-Taught classes, but also for your other “mixed ability” classes as well.

The first resource that I have chosen is Carol Ann Tomilinson’s How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms, 2nd Edition. She offers a great metaphor for foundation of a differentiated classroom and probably where we are headed—Director of the Orchestra—The director of the orchestra helps the musicians make music (different instruments with individual, small group, and whole group time), but does not make the music him/herself.

The second resource is Cindy A. Strickland’s Professional Development for Differentiating Instruction. A lot of the tools and activities that we will work on will come from this resource. While I love this resource for the tools, etc. that allow me to create (hopefully) engaging activities for you...it is not one that I would recommend for a just a good read—unless you want to develop your own professional development series on differentiated instruction!

The last resource that we will target is Marzano & Pickering’s Building Academic Vocabulary Teacher’s Manual. Again, I would put this in your professional library, and if you have any other resources that you would like for me to look at—Never Work Harder Than Your Students, etc. let me know and I will pick them up.

  

Good luck and remember - you can always find me here - or on Twitter under debra_robinson if you have any questions.

Dr. ThinkPot