Pros: smaller instructional groups, more time for students to fill in instructional gaps, classroom management is easier. Cons: difficult logistics, takes more time to collaboratively plan, requires that both teachers have content expertise. Station Teaching: Station teaching is a way for each teacher to own a piece of the content and replicate that piece of the lesson multiple times within the same period with different groups of students.
Pros: gives students opportunities to close instructional gaps, can help students with chronic absenteeism, focuses resources on a target student population. Team Teaching: A true team-teaching lesson is a thing of beauty. Two teachers whose personalities complement each other offer benefits for all students in the classroom. Getting to this point requires years of experience, collaborative planning, and a positive, professional relationship that is always being refined and improved.
Supervisors and principals need to know that this model can be achieved by making the teaching pairs a priority when scheduling the building. Cons: often requires experience in working together although it can be done with a new pair of team-teachers , immense planning, and a healthy relationship in order to work.
There are basically six models: One Teaching, One Observing: One teacher is directly instructing students while the other observes students for evidence of learning.
Can be challenging to control for noise, distraction, and space when working in the same classroom. Requires careful timing to make sure both teachers end the lesson at the same time. In station teaching, the class is divided into three or more groups and the classroom has multiple learning centers. As the students rotate through the stations, the teachers teach the same material in different ways to each group. For example, fractions may be taught with a fraction line at one and with cubes at another.
If there are more stations than teachers, some stations may be student-led and at least one will focus on independent work or practice opportunities. Both you and your co-teacher are responsible for planning and teaching an in-depth concept that helps meet the overall lesson goal. Learn more about station teaching:.
Resets student focus with each station rotation, increasing engagement. Provides time for students to engage with the content on their own as well as with teachers. Provides a clear teaching responsibility for each adult in the room. Requires significant planning for teaching and material preparation.
Requires pre-teaching around expectations for independent work time. When co-teachers have varying depths of knowledge on a topic and the students would benefit from differentiated instruction. In alternative teaching, one teacher instructs most of the class and the other teacher teaches an alternate or modified version of the lesson to a smaller group of students. You and your co-teacher will need to find time to look over student data.
This will help you figure out which students need support filling in gaps in background knowledge, which students need remediation, or which students could benefit from accelerated learning because they already know the content or have mastered the skills of the large group lesson.
One teacher is at the front of the room or roaming providing large group instruction, while the other teacher works with a small group of students in a different space. Provides additional support to struggling students without specifically singling them out.
Requires strong data collection in order to group students appropriately. Can be challenging to control for noise, distraction, and enough space when working in the same classroom. When there is a small group of students who need pre- or re-teaching of skills or content or who would benefit from enrichment on the topic. This model of co-teaching can be difficult to negotiate because it may leave one teacher feeling more like an assistant.
Building a strong relationship with your co-teacher and talking through when it makes sense to swap roles can make it easier.
Debriefing after a lesson is also key. Both of you need to know which students needed extra support during the lesson, what that support looked like, and what each student was struggling with. The lead teacher is at the front of the room, where all students can see, while the other teacher roams among students and assists as needed. Allows one teacher to teach a lesson without interruption from students who need assistance. Provides for increased classroom management, which can be helpful if the class makeup is particularly challenging.
Can provide newer teachers with the opportunity to observe more experienced teachers. Can create a dynamic in which students see one teacher as the one who manages behavior. Sets up a possible expectation that one-to-one support can always be immediate.
Requires solid planning to make sure the supporting teacher is used efficiently. When one teacher is more familiar and comfortable with teaching a strategy, and you know many students will need individual support. The instructing teacher is at the front of the room teaching all the students, while the other teacher is stationed somewhere inconspicuous to make observations. Provides data that can inform future instruction, interventions, and student grouping.
Can make it difficult for co-teachers to build a strong partnership. We are often our own worst critics. This is the kind of ongoing learning we want to model for our students. And, as in most situations in life, a little bit of humor goes a long way. Laugh with your co-teacher. Planning time is one thing; constant communication is another. Not only should co-teachers frequently plan for what standards will be covered, how material will be taught, and how students will be assessed, they should also regularly communicate in less formal ways.
In addition to ongoing communication, Ariel Sacks reminds us to periodically check in with our co-teacher about how we are doing in general. She recommends asking your partner the following:. Finally, co-teachers need to present a united front when dealing with parents. Some partners go as far as to create a shared email address from which all communication flows.
This may or may not be practical in your situation. For more in-depth information about communicating and collaborating with your co-teacher, see Communicating and Collaborating in Co-Taught Classrooms Conderman et al. This is what happened with Sandie and me. We were able to find snippets of time during the school day to use for planning and checking in with each other, but we had no common planning period.
Go to your principal with a couple of proposals about how this can work without too much disruption to the rest of the schedule. Sometimes co-teachers may not understand fully why they are being asked to team. If this is the case, ask for a meeting with the principal and any others responsible for the assignment. Ask them why they thought the two of you would be a good fit and what they hope you will accomplish with students. If you and your co-teacher have not recently been observed, ask the administrator to come sit in on part of a lesson.
Debrief with the administrator, ideally with your co-teaching partner. When an observer offers data and feedback to both of you, it may feel different for your partner than when you share things from your perspective. This co-teaching observation form can help.
Be cognizant of your demeanor, tone, and body language. Students are quite perceptive and can easily spot trouble. If your colleagues or students give you any evidence that they know the co-teaching arrangement is ineffective, head straight for that trusted administrator to support you. Conderman, G. Communicating and collaborating in co-taught classrooms.
Teaching Exceptional Children Plus,5 5. Dettmer, P. Collaboration, consultation, and teamwork 6th ed. Columbus, OH: Pearson. Dieker, Lisa A. Friend, M. Interactions: Collaboration skills for school professionals.
White Plains, NY: Longman. Marston, N. Six steps to successful co-teaching: Helping special and regular education teachers work together. National Education Association. Sacks, A. Blog post. Eight tips for making the most of co-teaching.
Volonino, V. Promoting research-based practices through inclusion. Theory into Practice, 46 4 , Links to this book are Amazon Affiliate links.
Cult of Pedagogy gets a small commission for all purchases made through these links. Categories: Instruction , Working Together. Tags: English learners , special education , teaching strategies. Thank you for this article. Of course, time is always the culprit since planning is so critical for a co-teaching partnership to work well.
I am grateful to have a specialist to collaborate with and can see how this relationship has matured since the beginning of the school year. Appreciated reading this article. I, too, had a good experience with a push in model. We planned together and worked well in tag team, station teaching and one-teach-two assist. The end results? As a group we read the text aloud together in less than 3 class periods The Secret Solider, Deborah Sampson.
This alone blew some of the kids away. Students felt empowered and supported with recorded audio tapes of the book read by the 3 teachers to reread the text we had finished as a group , students were engaged, 1st year English language learners engaged with native speakers and struggling writers empowered to write.
I have not had the opportunity to replicate this work again. The trio of teachers planned together during school hours and after school hours. The idea was new. The process was a lot of work up front, but the benefits were great. I would jump in and do this again. I love the practical advice. Co-teaching is such a beautiful thing when done well, but so painful when done badly.
And laugh! At yourselves, at the wonderful things kids say, at the mistakes we all make. Great article.
I have been an intervention specialist for many years and have used resource room, self-contained, and co-teaching models. Thanks so much for sharing! Do you do any consultant work?
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