This year is a
NEW year where I will embark on a
CHALLENGE, a challenge to
CO-TEACH 100% of the time! How will this impact student learning? How will I grow and develop as a teacher? How can I make this work really well?
Jane M. Sileo stressed how important it is for special education teachers to know the
curriculum. When teachers know the curriculum, they can more confidently participate in lessons. They should have
common plan time to plan lessons together and discuss how things are going. It's important they constantly review how things are going and
communicate.
Co-Teaching Methods
1. One Teach, One Observe—when one teacher is responsible for whole
group instruction while the other teacher observes the students and gathers
information on their academic, social, and behavioral skills. This co-teaching
structure allows co-teachers an opportunity to gather information about
their students, and each other as well.
2. Parallel Teaching—when the co-teachers place the students into two equal
groups and each teacher simultaneously teaches the same material to his or
her small group. The benefit of this co-teaching structure is that it allows
for increased teacher interaction and student participation as well as differentiation
of instruction.
3. Station Teaching—when the co-teachers arrange the students into two or
three equal groups, and the students rotate through each of the instructional
stations. In this structure, the stations should not build on one another, but
rather be nonsequential. The advantage of this co-teaching structure is that
it also allows for increased teacher and student interactions.
4. Alternative Teaching—when one teacher teaches the whole group and the
other teacher teaches a small group of students. The grouping for this structure
should change according to students’ needs. This co-teaching structure
allows either teacher the opportunity to teach (e.g., remediation, preteaching,
vocabulary development, and enrichment activities) for a short period
of time.
5. One Teach, One Assist—when one teacher instructs the whole group and
the other teacher assists individual students. The co-teaching structure
allows the drifting teacher the opportunity to provide brief periods of individualized
instruction to students who may be struggling with the academic
content.
6. Team Teaching—when both teachers deliver instruction simultaneously to
a large group of students. This structure affords the team teachers the
chance to interact with the students. It also provides them with an opportunity
to ask clarification questions of one another, thereby eliminating the
potential confusion in instruction.
(Taken from "Co-Teaching: Getting to Know your Partner" by Jane M. Sileo)
