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In Lauren Eisinger and Kara Houppert's co-taught 5th grade classroom, every instructional choice requires a lot of planning.

When Eisinger, a special education teacher at Naples Elementary School in upstate New York, and Houppert, a 5th grade teacher, wanted to start a class book club last year, they knew they would have to think creatively to accommodate reading levels spanning 2nd to 6th grades.

So they did a "book tasting," giving students a choice among several different, appropriately-leveled texts. Once they grouped students, teachers ran the activity like "more of a guided reading," said Houppert, with both of them reading aloud to different groups to support special education students who struggled with fluency and decoding.

"You need to be very flexible, and underneath everything, you need to trust each other," said Eisinger, who co-teaches 1st and 5th grade classes at Naples Elementary. "If you don't have that kind of mindset-that you're both there to do the best that you can for your kids-I think it would be really difficult."

Co-teaching, in which a special educator and a general educator share the responsibility of instructing and assessing students, has long been a standby in inclusion classrooms, which encompass both general education students and those with disabilities.

When done well, co-teaching should enable students with disabilities to receive the general education curriculum and special services that they need in the same setting, said Sara Cook, an assistant professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, who researches special education.

But for it to work, teachers need the time, training, and resources to effectively integrate their distinct instructional expertise, said Marilyn Friend, a co-teaching expert and professor emerita of education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

"Co-teaching used to be called a professional marriage, and I'm kind of tired of that metaphor," she said. "It really needs to be more like a business partnership."

Research Is Mixed

Co-teachers should have parity in the classroom, Friend said. And in Eisinger and Houppert's 5th grade class, they co-sign all emails to parents; both of their names and pictures are displayed in the classroom.

But even though they're equals, co-teachers shouldn't perform the same roles, Friend said. While general educators are the experts in the curriculum and content, special educators devise and implement a plan for addressing students' individualized education programs.

It's difficult to determine how many students are in co-taught classrooms nationally or how popular co-teaching is in comparison with other inclusion models.

The federal government collects data on special education students' instructional environment: In 2015, a little more than 60 percent of students spent 80 percent or more of their day in a general education classroom. But there's no information included on how students are receiving services, Friend said.

Still, she said, there's evidence that co-teaching is becoming more popular. "A lot of states with high populations are really actively encouraging this as a service model," said Friend, citing Texas, which revised its co-teaching guidance this year, and California, which has scaled up its co-teaching efforts over the past several years.

Findings on co-teaching's effect on student outcomes are mixed, said the University of Hawaii's Cook. (The Center for Exceptional Children's 2018 practice recommendations for co-teaching, which Cook co-authored, suggests that educators proceed with caution.)

"It is hard to determine, from current research, what may make some co-taught classrooms more effective than others as co-teaching is not always clearly described in studies," Cook said. The strategies and interventions used aren't always explained, she said.

"Research should look at what's happening in the co-taught classroom," Cook said. "Are teachers using evidenced-based practices in the classroom to meet the individual needs of students?"

Time: The Key Component

The Naples school system, where Eisinger teaches, doesn't yet have comprehensive results regarding whether co-teaching has raised student achievement, said Katie Piedici, the director of pupil-personnel services in the nearly 700-student district. But the model has helped the district put more students in the least-restrictive environment, she said.

To meet student needs in their classes, Eisinger, Houppert, and 1st grade teacher Brittany Ritz use different strategies from day to day and lesson to lesson.

In the 1st grade classroom, for example, one teacher sometimes leads whole-group instruction while the other provides support, or students will break into teacher-led math and reading groups.

"I have some kids right now who struggle with just knowing that they have five fingers on each hand," said Ritz. Still, she's able to keep the pacing of the general curriculum consistent, she said, as Eisinger can work with students who need modifications to master foundational skills.

To do this kind of collaboration, all three teachers said, they need time-to plan together, to debrief lessons, to talk about how they want the classroom to run.

Eisinger shares one 40-minute planning period a week each with Houppert and Ritz, a scheduling triumph she attributes to her school leaders intentionally making time for co-teachers to work together.

The district has communicated the expectation to building leaders that co-teachers need this time, Piedici said. Pairs also have a half day they can take during the year to catch up on planning, and new co-teaching partners undergo summer professional development.

It's important that school systems have a plan for how to prepare, schedule, and set norms for co-teachers, said Friend. "It doesn't matter how good the teachers are: If there's not an administrator really actively supporting [co-teaching], it's really difficult to implement and sustain."

District-sponsored training was Ritz's main introduction to co-teaching-she doesn't remember her general education preservice program covering the model in any detail.

Source: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
Some general education programs offer courses that address co-teaching, like Syracuse University, which requires all elementary teacher-candidates to get dual certification in special education. But many programs at the middle and high school levels don't cover the method, Friend said. "It varies wildly."

The Naples district sent Ritz and two other co-teachers to a conference, and she also attended workshops in the district. She learned how to use different co-teaching methods-parallel teaching, team teaching, small-group instruction. "Before then, I really had no idea what those even meant or would look like," said Ritz, who has taught for eight years at the school.

As the sole classroom teacher, "You don't really need to communicate to someone else what you're doing or how you're thinking," Ritz said. "You just do it." Looping in a co-teacher on all her plans was a hard adjustment to make at first, she said, and something she still struggles with occasionally.

During especially busy weeks, co-planning periods can get taken up by other tasks-like prepping for parent-teacher conferences, Houppert said. In those instances, she and Eisinger rely on the professional relationship that they've built. It's important, said Houppert, that she knows Eisinger will be able to jump right into a math lesson with just a two-minute briefing about what they're doing that day.

"It takes a lot of communication, and realistically, it does take a lot of trust in one another," Houppert said.

Related Video

Two Baltimore-area school teachers explore what it's like to share a classroom every day:

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Published in Print: December 5, 2018, as Co-Teachers Combine Forces on Strengths and Specialties

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In Lauren Eisinger and Kara Houppert's co-taught 5th grade classroom, every instructional choice requires a lot of planning. When Eisinger, a special education teacher at Naples Elementary School in upstate New York, and Houppert, a 5th grade teacher, wanted to start a class book club last year, they knew they would have to think creatively to accommodate reading levels spanning 2nd to 6th grades.

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Co-teaching is a model of delivering special education services in general education classes to students with disabilities. Within this model, two or more profe ssionals are expected to deliver instruction together to a diverse group of students in the same classroom. As increasing numbers of special educators and general educators co-teach, teachers are looking for the best approaches to teaching content to all students.

Friend and Cook (2007) found the following co-teaching approaches to be used most often in schools:

One teaching, one observing,

Station teaching,

Parallel teaching,

Alternative teaching,

Teaming,

One teaching, one assisting.

According to Friend and Cook (2007), one teaching, one observing, "sometimes becomes the sole or primary co-teaching approach in many classrooms, particularly when planning time is scarce" (p. 128). Wendy Murawski, an associate professor at California State University, is often requested by school districts to provide professional development in the areas of inclusive education, collaboration, and co-teaching. Murawski (2009) discussed possible reasons for special educators taking on a less active, more supportive role of assisting general educators in co-taught classes, noting that both general and special educators contend that they received "no training, no time for planning, no shared knowledge of content or students, and no true understanding of the goal or rationale for this professional marriage" (p. 21).

As a result, in many instances, general educators continue their role of leading all the instruction while special educators complain that they are treated as assistants in the classroom (Murawski, 2009).
The Challenge
Friend (2008) identified the one teaching, one assisting approach to co-teaching as the teaching variation with "the greatest potential to be over-used and abused" (p. 79). Even though no single approach is thought to be the best, co-teaching partners must move beyond one teaching, one assisting in order to create the powerful instructional partnership that is needed to effectively support students with disabilities and others at risk for academic failure.
One Solution
A commitment from administrators to build common planning time into master schedules, as well as a commitment from teaching partners to honor and use that time in a structured planning process, may be strong first steps in moving beyond the one teaching, one assisting approach.

The article The Planning Meeting Process: An Excerpt From the Considerations Packet, Co-Planning for Student Success provides the steps of such a planning process, suggestions for finding common planning time, and guidelines for implementing all six co-teaching approaches. This is in keeping with Friend and Cook's (2007) recommendation that to keep "...co-teaching relations and instructional arrangements fresh and effective, teachers should consider trying several of the approaches, regularly changing their co-teaching methods ..." (p.120).
One Example
Ms. Myers, the special education teacher, is partnering with Ms. Bennett, the general education teacher. Their principal, Ms. Walker, has agreed to give both teachers a common planning time. She has provided them with copies of the Co-Teaching and Co-Planning for Student Success T/TAC W&M Considerations Packets and has asked them to use suggestions from these packets to plan and teach lessons in their co-taught class.

Ms. Myers spends the first two weeks supporting Ms. Bennett in the one teaching, one assisting form of co-teaching while becoming familiar with the students and Ms. Bennett's teaching style. During this time, she helps refocus students as Ms. Bennett teaches the content. After two weeks of assisting students and making classroom observations, Ms. Myers has a good sense of how Ms. Bennett delivers the content and what strategies students use to learn that content. While planning together, Ms. Myers and Ms. Bennett discuss all the accommodations needed by the students with individualized education programs (IEPs) and 504 plans. The two teachers also talk about the other variations of co-teaching they have reviewed in the packets and how best to use them when planning lessons.

Specifically, together, the two teachers problem-solve how best to move beyond one teaching, one assisting. They have decided that Ms. Myers will take the lead with several of the opening and closing activities while Ms. Bennett will continue to teach all new content. Both teachers will share the lead when helping students with practice assignments. Also, several types of assessments have been created throughout the unit by Ms. Myers and Ms. Bennett. They will share the responsibility for using these assessments to check for understanding of the content.

Ms. Myers is ready to take a more active role with classroom instruction. Her co-teacher is looking forward to having a partner who equally shares the teaching responsibilities. They discuss station teaching as a way for students to practice content in small groups, as the groups rotate among the various stations featuring different practice activities.

To utilize another form of co-teaching, Ms. Bennett will frontload vocabulary words by working with a small group of struggling students, while Ms. Myers introduces the warm-up activity to the majority of the class. This approach of alternative teaching will give Ms. Myers a chance to lead the majority of the class, while Ms. Bennett works with the smaller group of students. Both educators are excited about moving beyond one teaching, one assisting as they share the roles and responsibilities for jointly planning and delivering the content.
Moving Beyond One Teaching, One Assisting
As educators, we must ensure that students with disabilities have access to the general education curriculum. Co-teaching is one service delivery option that gives students with disabilities that access. To maximize the impact of this service option, both teachers must take an active role in providing instruction and commit to teaching students using a variety of teaching approaches. The following tips are provided to assist co-teaching partners in moving beyond one teaching, one assisting.

Stay focused during common planning time by using an agenda and a lesson plan template. Write everything down!

Become knowledgeable about the six co-teaching approaches and commit to using them appropriately. Follow Friend's (2008) guidelines for using various co-teaching approaches when planning content units:

1. One teaching, one observing: Occasional

2. Station teaching: Frequent

3. Parallel teaching: Frequent

4. Alternative teaching: Occasional

5. Team teaching: Occasional

6. One teaching, one assisting: Seldom

Utilize free educational resources designed to engage all students in co-taught classrooms.

1. Enhanced Scope and Sequence PLUS Lesson Plans www.ttaconline.org

2. Universal Design for Learning http://cast.org

3. Training and Technical Assistance Center Resources http://education.wm.edu/centers/ttac/resources/index.php

At the end of the unit, reflect on your planning and teaching practices. Discuss how the content was taught to students. As a team, were you able to move beyond one teaching, one assisting? As a way to ensure delivering content in a variety of ways, commit to using three or more co-teaching variations for future units.

References

Friend, M. (2008). Co-teach! A handbook for creating and sustaining effective classroom partnerships in inclusive schools. Greensboro, NC: Marilyn Friend, Inc.

Friend, M., & Cook, L. (2007). Interactions: Collaboration skills for school professionals (5 th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

Murawski, W. (2009). Collaborative teaching in secondary schools: Making the co-teaching marriage work! Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

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Co-Teaching: Moving Beyond One Teaching, One Assisting

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Co-teaching is a model of delivering special education services in general education classes to students with disabilities. Within this model, two or more professionals are expected to deliver instruction together to a diverse group of students in the same classroom.

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10 Tips for using Co-Planning Time more Effectively

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10 Tips for using Co-Planning Time more Effectively

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Shelly Moore

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Sample Co-teacher Collaboration Methods

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North Penn's definition of Inclusion

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UDL & Differentiation

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Power Point Presentation

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Copy of Co-Teaching_ How to Make it Work

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CAST Professional Publishing produces books that help educators at all levels improve their practice-and change students' lives-through Universal Design for Learning (UDL). We create, nurture, and distribute exceptional media products that inspire and inform educational research, instructional practice, and policy making for the betterment of all.

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CAST Professional Publishing - Until learning has no limits®

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CAST Professional Publishing produces books that help educators at all levels improve their practice-and change students' lives-through Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

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Tips and Strategies for Co-teaching at the Secondary Level

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Tips and Strategies for Co-teaching at the Secondary Level

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Thank you Robin :)

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Michael Yurus
Sharing Comments on Station 1 Articles.
Article #1 Kathleen Morris: "Tips For Team Teaching"
This article concerned team teaching by 2 elementary school regular ed teachers. Of course, this meant that not all the tips would apply to a co-teaching model between a content area teacher and Special Ed teacher in a high school setting. However, the author made some salient and applicable points. Among the benefits Ms Morrison notes for teaming were:
+ It can lessen the stress on individual teachers (We all have "those days" or activities which are valuable but may not match our individual strengths, Having a partner can make these less stressful.)
+ Teachers can be powerful role models of collaboration. (This certainly coincides with our district emphasis on the goals of the SCP)
+ Teachers can learn from one another.
+ Focus on strengths (For instance in our partnership my co-teacher is much more expert than I on implementing students IEPs and managing our Google Classroom to our students benefit.
+ Bounce ideas off each other
+ Ms Morrison's #1 Tip was "Schedule Planning Time" (She mentions that her administration recognizes the importance of it by providing an hour each week built in to their schedule. Our group  brought up our lack of scheduled planning planning time as a concern in our last meeting.)

Article #2 Cal Poly School of Ed.:
Co-Teaching in the Elementary Classroom
I have less to share with this article since its focus was on Cal Poly student teacher candidates placed in elementary schools, neither of which correlates to my co-teaching situation. However, some elements are common to both situations:
+ Station teaching can be facilitated by taking advantage of two sets of eyes and doubling the contact time available to students. The same was mentioned in reference to small group instruction.
+ Obviously, having a Special Ed co-teacher greatly increases opportunities for individual instruction

Article #3 Andrew Hawk: Creating an Inclusive Classroom for Students With Special Needs
Mr. Hawk has presented a thoughtful overall plan,which I think would be very helpful to a new teacher, or one teaching in an inclusion setting for the first time.
+ IEPs - Mr Hawk points out that all planning begins with building your inclusion students IEPs into your physical setting and seating arrangements. I thought the sections regarding Co-teaching and collaboration were especially relevant.

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We all know lesson planning takes time and a lot of effort. Co-planning for co-teaching requires dedicated time and collaborative effort by two or more people. Whether co-planning with another educator or a student teacher, the co-planning process involves additional tasks not found in individual planning. Not only must co-teaching strategies be agreed upon, but also the roles and responsibilities for each participant must be considered. I am hoping the guidelines presented below will facilitate this ever-important task and help you keep track of all the details as you prepare for co-teaching.

Co-Planning Considerations

While the following ideas are appropriate for any ongoing series of meetings, you may want to discuss their importance when you first. Initially, co-planning often takes place as teachers are creating and building their professional relationships with one another. Considerations include:

Setting a regular time for planning where both or all participants can comfortably attend on time and give full attention.

Selecting a time and place where interruptions will be minimized.

Staying focused on the planning. (Otherwise, the time may easily become enjoyable and entertaining, rather than professionally productive.)

Respecting each person's contributions. (Not only does each person brings strengths, but also listening to other points of view may lead to novel and constructive ideas.)

As a result, you will build and continue to develop a mutually satisfying relationship in which each person involved in the lesson is supported.

Preparing for Co-Planning

Before actually meeting with your co-teacher to co-plan, spend a few moments on your own anticipating the development of the first, or next lesson, in your curriculum. Collect relevant information to bring to the meeting. The following items may serve as relevant resources during your planning session and it will be helpful to have them readily accessible:

Content Standards

English Language Standards

Potential objectives in rough draft form with concepts, skills, and vocabulary included

Textbooks, supplementary materials, list of equipment, websites that might be useful

Accommodations and modification for your students with special needs

English language proficiency levels of your English learners

Examples of student work, if appropriate

Planning Objectives and Assessments

As you and your co-teacher(s) come together to begin the first steps in lesson planning,

ask yourselves, "What standards might be addressed in this lesson? Are the students ready for the lesson? What do students already know or what are they already able to do? How will progress be monitored? How will students demonstrate mastery of the standards?" The next tasks are to pinpoint specific objectives and corresponding assessments. Co-planners work collaboratively to:

Identify the specific Content Standards and English language standards that relate to the lesson.

Write clearly-stated objectives in the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains.

Identify essential vocabulary, key concepts, skills and use of technology.

Determine entry-level assessment, if needed, as well as progress monitoring and summative assessment as appropriate.

Ascertain which students will need adaptations or modifications and the types of adaptations and modifications needed for assessment.

Ascertain which English learners will need differentiated assessments based on their language development proficiency levels.

Decide on the roles and responsibilities for each co-teacher, such as who will conduct progress-monitoring during the lesson, who will write directions for assessments, who will create the grading rubrics or checklists, who will differentiate the assessments, and who will assess the learning.

Planning the Lesson Introduction

Prior to developing the Lesson Introduction, ask each other, "How might we immediately engage attention in a way that will intrigue student interest?" After brainstorming, together pick an activity that feels mutually comfortable and then address the following tasks:

Determine who will gain students' attention (and how, if not pre-determined).

Decide who will be responsible for

Sharing and explaining objectives for the lesson.

Presenting the agenda to the class.

Choose opening questions/prompts/ anticipatory set/"hook" activity and who will present this portion of the Lesson Introduction.

Select resources, materials, and equipment to be used and who will gather them as well as put them away.

Establish how technology will be utilized, who will be using it, and how it will be acquired.

Decide what needs to be pre-written on the board or in presentation slide(s) and if visual aids and language support or other support will be constructive for specific students with learning needs and which teacher will take care of this task.

Identify what and how to review previous learning as well as who will be responsible.

Estimate length of time for Lesson Introduction.

Determine the means to transition students to a learning mindset and who will lead the students to begin the Lesson Body.

It might also serve you well to pre-determine who will:

Record and report attendance

Review, stamp, and collect homework

Implement other administrative procedures.

Planning the Lesson Body

Before delving into the body of your lesson, ask, "How will co-teaching improve student understanding and skill development? What student grouping(s) of students would be most useful? How might the room be arranged to facilitate learning? How will materials, resources, and equipment, including technology, be utilized?" By asking these questions, you'll be able to:

Determine the specific co-teaching strategy/strategies to be implemented and the instructional method(s) to meet the lesson objectives.

Identify or create student activities that have students processing information and developing skills that have connections to students' daily lives.

Select resources, materials and equipment to be gathered or created and determine which teacher will be responsible. Also, decide how these items will be distributed and collected during the lesson.

Establish how technology will be utilized, who will be using it, and how it will be acquired.

Decide what needs to be pre-written on board/in presentation slide(s) and who will be responsible.

Ascertain the adaptions and modifications to meet individual students' learning needs and who will be responsible for preparing them.

Ascertain the language supports needed to meet the English learners' language needs and who will be responsible for providing this support.

Identify the roles and responsibilities for each co-teacher.

Estimate the time for each activity, considering the students' attention span and adjust, if needed, to allow time for a lesson closure.

Planning the Lesson Closure

In anticipating the lesson closure, ask, "What would be the best way to summarize the new learning? How might students review what was learned in a meaningful way?" While, typically, a short portion of the lesson, this section is essential for students to contextualize the lesson in a way that they will be able to remember it. Tasks are to:

Create or choose a short closing activity which summarizes the learning (Again, include adaptations for students with learning needs or lower levels of English language development as appropriate.)

Select resources, materials, and equipment to be gathered or created.

Establish how technology will be utilized, who will be using it, and how it will be acquired, as appropriate.

Identify the roles and responsibilities for each co-teacher.

Determine which Co-Teacher will dismiss the class.

The Rewards of Co-Planning

Having a well-planned, purposeful lesson in which the planners have a vested interest sets the stage for effective lesson implementation. With a detailed lesson plan that includes the responsibilities and roles of each person, you will be able to gracefully implement Co-Teaching strategies. A quick review of the plan will let you know what you need to do to prepare ahead of time and the plan will serve as a guide on the day of the lesson. There will be clear communication between/among the co-teachers and with the students. May you co-teach with confidence as you and your fellow co-teacher(s) provide opportunities for student success!

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author: Diane Sweeney and Leanna S. Harris

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Co-Planning for Co-Teaching - Corwin Connect

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We all know lesson planning takes time and a lot of effort. Co-planning for co-teaching requires dedicated time and collaborative effort by two or more people. Whether co-planning with another educator or a student teacher, the co-planning process involves additional tasks not found in individual ...

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In my classroom, we most commonly use One Teach - One Observe.  Since my co-teacher is spread across three different subject areas, this method works well for us.  In time, we would like to do more station teaching or parallel teaching.  My co-teacher is able to identify trouble areas for students and address their needs.

The other method we use quite often is One Teach - One Drift. All students in the classroom know that both the co-teacher and I are available to help every student. There is no delineation between general education and special education students in class. There is no stigma since all students feel comfortable to ask either of us for help.

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Copy of Chrome Extensions for Struggling Students and Special Needs

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Copy of Copy of Lesson Plan_ Station Teaching

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Copy of Copy of Lesson Plan_ Parallel Teaching

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Copy of Copy of Lesson Plan_ Alternative Teaching

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Copy of Copy of Lesson Plan_ One Teach, One Assist

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Guided Math in Room 139 with Miss Tangredi and Miss Gilmartin

Station 1: Enrichment menu options/ check-in with Ms. Tangredi

Station 2: Basic introduction of new concept/repeated opportunities for practice 

Station 3: Moby Max leveled instruction/Fast Math fact fluency 

Station 4: Center Activities/games based on previous skills taught within unit

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Guided Math in Room 139 with Miss Tangredi and Miss Gilmartin

Station 1: Enrichment menu options/ check-in with Ms. Tangredi

Station 2: Basic introduction of new concept/repeated opportunities for practice 

Station 3: Moby Max leveled instruction/Fast Math fact fluency 

Station 4: Center Activities/games based on previous skills taught within unit

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Kris Daeira and Maria Lutinski

Station 1: Interactive smartboard activity. ABC YA.com is displayed on the smartboard and students work together as a group to complete various games/activities that reinforce Math concepts taught previously.

Station 2: Partner Math game
Games reinforce current concepts being taught in Math. For example, bump it game, reinforces addition facts to 20. Students learn to work together with a partner and practice appropriate partnership rules. For example, taking turns and checking each other's work and being honest.

Station 3: Differentiated Math worksheets/activities. This station reinforces previous and current concepts being taught. Manipulatives are used and strategies are implemented to complete tasks.

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6th Grade Science - Test Review (general lesson)

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6th Grade Science - Test Review (general lesson)

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Station 1 - review HW

Station 2 - Interactive Smartboard Activity (self checking)

Station 3 - Hands on review activity

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Outline

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Copy of Copy of Lesson Plan_ One Teach, One Observe (1)

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Power Lesson: Note-Taking Stations | Cult of Pedagogy

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To take quality notes, students need to be taught how. This fantastic station-rotation lesson gets the job done, and it can be used with all kinds of other content as well.

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Inclusion Co-Teaching in the Makerspace

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Inclusion Co-Teaching in the Makerspace

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Eure, Olson, Looby Humanities Makerspace, English 10R & 11R

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This is a guide to inclusive teaching practices in Room 210, which is the Humanities makerspace at the high school. The post provides an overview of the process alongside a cross-section of strategies and techniques in English 10 and English 11 courses.

Co-teaching in a makerspace starts with flipped instruction - all lectures and notes posted online well in advance of any unit, individual lesson, or assignment. We plan instruction around student needs and curricular requirements. It's done collaboratively: We discuss; I write and post. That keeps instruction consistent and clear1.

We collaborate with other teachers whenever possible, which also helps with alignment and consistency. In 2018, that meant partnering up our English 10 classes with another teacher's unit on A Long Way Gone, including a UNICEF service project. And we otherwise follow our district's ELA framework, sticking to assured experience and common texts as a means of teaching the same universal skills and traits.

That universal framework leads into our profile-based assessments, which use consistent expectations and language. There is flexibility for us to differentiate and even individualize assignments, because the substructure remains the same. The universal profiles, skills, and traits also give us a consistent basis for feedback and redirection. At all times, all teachers and students in the space are speaking the same language.

Next, we use redundancies to help students. This is the engineering version of redundancy: backup resources and systems to insure that all students get what they need. Instruction is posted here, to this website, and then cross-posted to Google Classroom; depending on need, we also print copies of these posts for distribution in class. All central texts are available in multiple formats, from audiobooks to PDF files to photocopies. Assignments are started and often finished in class, and then something is always handed in through Google Classroom or Google Drive. Copies of all writing are submitted as evidence of grade abatement profiles through Classroom, but students can also share directly with us, print and submit hard copies of assignments, or complete the work entirely by hand. Many assignments - most that aren't essays - also have a Google Forms component, which makes it easier for us to sort responses by class, target missing work, look at patterns in the whole class, identify individual needs, etc., in addition to creating a further redundancy.

All these options - especially the multiple ways to hand in work - create plenty of opportunities for feedback, and feedback is the key to a co-taught classroom. In-class feedback is a given; it happens during every period, and we make a point to dedicate our time as evenly or effectively as possible. The "or" is operative: Due to our use of flipped or interstitial instruction, there is rarely a need for groups of students to stop and do the exact same thing at the exact same time. We are able to circulate constantly in order to intervene as necessary - to reinforce positive choices and correct negative ones. It's a better form of feedback. In fact, the logic of that hyperlinked essay is stronger in a co-taught class than it was in the solo AP course for which it was originally written: We both act as experts, giving every student twice the opportunity to learn and then to teach others.

Examples of ICT Work

Here is an example of co-teaching in a Regents-level English 10 class:

A Long Way Gone: The First Five Chapters

The instructions were posted online for all students. They were given seven questions based on the first five chapters of A Long Way Gone and our pre-reading exercises and discussions, which are visible here. This is a screenshot of what the instructional post looks like:

That showcases the other flipped instruction happening in the makerspace. In English 11, another co-taught class, the students are receiving the same level of instruction. What's more interesting is the evidence of feedback through this interstitial site. Both teachers developed that general feedback, using recent student work to generate feedback on the first profile scores of the year. (This is common, as seen in this general feedback post from the next scoring cycle.)

The English 10 assignment required answers to seven questions about the novel and the reading process. This is part of our unit on A Long Way Gone, and as an example of what we mean by "redundancies" in instruction, here is what that looks like on Google Classroom:

The assignment for the first five chapters - again, seven guided responses to seven questions about characters, plot, and the reading process itself - had to be typed in a Google Doc and submitted through Classroom, but it also had to be copied over into a Google Form. That gave my co-teacher and I a chance to monitor student progress and provide feedback in different ways.

The next screenshot shows me sharing the responses to that Google Form with my co-teacher:

This is one way to split the responsibilities of giving feedback. We can use the technology to talk to each other where students can't see, like this:

I'm highlighting an obviously deficient response and preparing to ask how we should intervene. That's a common question: What kind of feedback is going to motivate this particular student? How can we get more out of him in order to develop his writing? This is especially useful with students who haven't done the assignment in full.

Form are one of the fastest way to look at patterns in student responses across a roster, which helps when we shift to giving feedback in real-time, as students finish their work, through a few different mediums. Here is what it looks like when we load Google Classroom to check on student progress on that same assignment:

Note that this is before the actual deadline. In a makerspace, especially a grade-abated one, the focus is overwhelmingly on process. You can see in this screenshot a bit of positive feedback to one of the students who finished already, but the real benefit of the workshop model is that it lets us run a kind of triage. We can see at a glance which students need attention first - the ones whose screen-capped work is minimal or missing.

Again, you can see the first part of a private comment left for a student who simply didn't write enough. This is the equivalent of redirecting a student during the period when he gets distracted or discouraged. The advantage to using Google Classroom is that these comments are private, and students are notified about them through their GAFE accounts.

We are also able to open up student work for a particular assignment in Google Drive, which gives us another avenue for feedback:

This is additional redundancy that lets us differentiate. This Google Drive folder gives us access to all student work at once for any particular assignment, even before the deadline. In this case, the first student document was last modified at 9:05 by a teacher. That's actually during the class period - an example of my co-teacher opening up and working on the writing while sitting with the student.

Where the ownership of the document has shifted to me, it means the student's work has been submitted formally through Google Classroom. That sparks the usual feedback loop, in which we read and respond to student writing as a complete artifact.

More on ICT Feedback

All of this online and interstitial feedback exists in addition to the in-class, face-to-face feedback that occurs during the period. The importance of that face-to-face interaction has always been emphasized, and it matters doubly in a co-taught course.

As an example, I'll explain a pre-reading assignment given to a co-taught English 11 class. Students were tasked with responding to a series of articles and ideas, all of which had been flipped online in an instructional post a week earlier. We set aside a class period and noticed, through the Classroom-generated thumbnails, that some students were already handing in work. We ran triage:

The first level of triage, especially in an ICT class, is often based around missing or incomplete work. Writing especially must be develop enough to allow for richer and more individual feedback. In this case, the student in the lower-right corner of that screenshot submitted very little:

Remember that this is still during the period, with a deadline of midnight for the complete writing assignment. My co-teacher found this to explain that this would obviously not be enough to earn credit, and to encourage him to focus on the flexibility and depth built into the assignment. Either teacher can then follow up with a private comment on the piece itself, a comment through Google Classroom, or a conference the next day. It depends on the student's amenability.

When a student needs more direct interventions to be successful, we coordinate around a list drawn from our district's RTI and MTSS implementation:

Accommodation: Additional Time

Accommodation: Schedule regular breaks

Accommodation: Student removed from group to work by himself

Cooperative Learning

Corrective Feedback

Counseling

Differentiated Instruction

Double dose of explicit, systematic instruction

Explicit Systematic Instruction

Goal Setting with regular follow up

Guided Practice

Individual Outreach

Instruction tailored to student interests and/or social situation

Modeling

Monitor with Frequent and Timely Feedback

Multi-Modal Instruction

Positive Reinforcement / Rewards

Remediation and Acceleration

Responsive Scaffolding

Summarizing

Supplemental research-based intervention curriculum

Targeted tutoring outside of class time

Use of manipulatives (concrete) and/or pictorial representations

This list is common to all classrooms, co-taught or not, but it takes on special importance in light of the divergent needs of an ICT roster. As we identify those needs, we are able to coordinate interventions. Here is an example from the very same day as every other example in this post2:

This is a student with self-identified difficulties speaking and writing in English, and this is her chance to write, without risk, about those struggles. This assignment replaces the original essay about A Long Way Gone - a substitution possible through a profile-driven assessment model - so she can grapple with a more pressing academic need. And while she met with only one of us to discuss the possibility of this individual assignment, everything else, from the prompt to the eventual feedback, runs through two teachers.

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This is a guide to inclusive teaching practices in Room 210, which is the Humanities makerspace at the high school. The post provides an overview of the process alongside a cross-section of strategies and techniques in English 10 and English 11 courses.

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Co-Teaching has been a great experience over the years for me.  I have worked with very talented colleagues.  The only point of frustration is the constant change of co-teachers from one year to the next.  In 18 years in this district, I have only had the same co-teacher twice.  In our second year together this year, my co-teacher and I have developed a short-hand.  We can read each other and can adapt our lessons based on the students' needs.

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5 Models of Co-Teaching
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