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Video created by veteran co-teaching teachers. One teacher is a general education teacher and the other is a special education teacher

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Quick video with several academic references about the benefits of co-teaching

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Benefits for Co-Teaching for English Language Learners

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Benefits for Co-Teaching for English Language Learners

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This journal article describes how Co-teaching can benefit ELL students

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This article describes co-teaching between a general teacher and a special education teacher.

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Are two teachers better than one? That's a question many school districts throughout the United States are contemplating. The issue fueling this question is the need to mainstream students with special needs into general education courses. The attempt to answer this question is an experiment often called co-teaching.

Co-teaching--also known as "co-taught"--is a system in which an academic course is taught by a general education teacher and a special educator together. The classes are a mix of special and general education students. Despite the mix, however, the course is considered a general education class.

Not all co-teaching courses use a combination of general and special education teachers.

Co-Teaching Defined by Districts

The way it is used throughout the country varies, and can be different in each school within a district. One example of this can be seen in two school districts outside Los Angeles.

In one affluent district, one high school offers co-teaching courses and has done so for years. In a nearby "struggling" district, many of the schools have begun to implement this program.

In many cases, co-teaching is utilized for remedial courses or English language development classes (ELD). However, there are numerous schools that have converted standard courses in English and Algebra into a co-taught class.

Not all co-teaching courses use a combination of general and special education teachers. Some regular education courses--in particular the English support courses--will use two regular education reading teachers. A special education reading program may consist of two special ed teachers.

Another trend is to combine another program, the learning center, with co-teaching. In some districts, resource teachers specializing in different academic areas are paired up to coordinate it.

How Teachers Employ The System

The success depends on how the teachers approach and plan for this project. Those who are proactive establish a system and a role in the classroom. In most cases, the regular education teacher will take the lead, while the special education teacher will monitor the students (regular and special needs).

Monitoring in this system may include pulling students with special needs to the side to review notes or the basics. They may also assist in the use of accommodation tools the students may need (this can include note-taking).

In many cases, co-teaching works when the classroom is organized into collaborative groups. In this fashion, the two teachers can work with small groups of students within the classroom.

Another configuration that works with co-teaching is the establishment of stations in every corner of the classroom. Every 15 to 30 minutes the students will rotate to these stations where a different part of the same lesson is taught. Here, something is taught in every area. An example of this process would be to have a general education teacher lecture about a lesson. After time is up, the group of students will move on to the next station, where they may receive an assignment to practice what they've learned at the lecture station.

Types of Co-Teaching Models

There are several models for a co-taught (or co-teaching) classroom. Here are four examples:

Station teaching - the two teachers divide the class and teach certain topics to groups of students. Or they establish stations focusing on several categories within a curriculum (for instance, a co-taught English class will have stations for reading, grammar lessons, writing, or listening/speaking.

One Teach-Support- One teacher (usually the regular education teacher) will create and presents the lesson and the other teacher merely assist students with the lesson (usually the special education teacher). The special education teacher's duty will include using accommodations tools with students with disabilities in the classroom.

Team Teaching - The teachers work as equals. They will share duties of lecturing and assisting students. Unlike the One-Teach-Support model, both will create the curriculum.

Alternative Teaching - This may be a combination of the other models. Also, it has elements of a pull-out style in which the special education teacher will pull out the students with special needs or anyone in need of additional help to a station in the room or to another classroom for a short time to assist them.

Critics of the Program

Not everyone is excited about co-teaching. In one district, several special educators feared that they would become glorified teacher's assistants who would have to run errands during class time for the general education teachers.

The general education teachers, on the other hand, believed that their classes would be inundated with students they felt would be difficult to teach.

Also, there were teachers (general and special education) who felt co-teaching would hinder their ability to teach and write their own lesson plans.

... Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 have established rules in which students with special needs are to be given equal and reasonable access to the same curriculum...

Benefits of the Program

Many of these concerns have been unfounded. In fact, the programs have led to better teacher collaboration. Special educators have been able to educate general education teachers on ways to accommodate and effectively teach students with special needs.

Laws such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 have established rules in which students with special needs are to be given equal and reasonable access to the same curriculum as their non-disabled peers. Co-teaching is an attempt to fulfill these needs by placing them in general education class with built-in support.

Co-teaching, in many respects, is an experiment. Some of the practices associated with it have never been tested or observed on a large scale. Still, it can incorporate other proven factors such as collaborative groups, learning centers and directed instructions and remediation.

Also, it has the potential to open more educational opportunities for students who need the most attention.

Still, I have questions about the sudden elimination of the program for the co-teaching model.

Replacing Specialized Academic Instruction

The co-teaching model is proving to be very popular. As a result, it is starting to replace programs such as Specialized Academic Instruction (SAI) -- at least in my school. Next year, my school will be the first in the district to go full-inclusion for students with mild learning disabilities.

I for one, was critical of SAI. It was poorly initiated in my district and was hampered by numerous misplacement of students who either needed or didn't need additional services. Still, I have questions about the sudden elimination of the program for the co-teaching model.

Will the students be ready? Will they be misplaced? And will there be effective team-teaching partners? The school has slowly implemented this program. Now, it's going head first. Time will tell if this transition will work.

Examples of Co-Teaching in Action
© 2014 Dean Traylor

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Are two teachers better than one? That's a question many school districts throughout the United States are contemplating. The issue fueling this question is the need to mainstream students with special needs into general education courses. The attempt to answer this question is an experiment often called co-teaching.

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What can it look like?

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Collaborative Teams Providing Special Ed. Services

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Collaborative Teams Providing Special Ed. Services

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A general education teacher and a special education teacher work together to teach their class social skills.

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Last year, my special education teacher and I brainstormed ways to serve our students with multiple needs. Many of these students have reading, writing, math, speech, social skills, and behavior goals. There are not enough hours in the school week to meet these needs.

So... being the brilliant and cooperative colleagues that we are, we decided to co-teach our social skills group. For thirty minutes each week, the sped teacher, myself, and several instructional assistants gather around these four kids (there is often a 1:1 ratio!) and try to engage them.

Last year was a bust. We tried to do role plays. We tried to do books. We tried everything that we could think of. Instead of participating, one kid would often start galloping back and forth across the classroom while blaring out musical songs. Another student would start burping repeatedly. Another would growl like a dinosaur, repeatedly.

This year, we hit the jack pot and found some new lessons intended for preschoolers. Even though our students were in 2nd and 3rd grade, we figured it was worth trying a new approach.

It. Worked. Beautifully.

These kids are now participating in social skills group! They talk about the characters outside of lesson time. One of the kids will only enter the room when it is time for Social Skills group. And other teachers actually come in to group to watch these lessons. We are that popular. And awesome.

The problem was that there were limited lessons. And we ran out. For Christmas I received some puppets. A turtle, flamingo, and octopus. What am I to do? Well, use the turtle and flamingo and make up my own lesson plans! I named the turtle Tilly and the Flamingo, Frank. Maybe Oscar, the octopus, will show up in guest appearances in the future. 😉

Maybe you too can get lucky enough to co-teach with an awesome colleague! Or bring these lessons into a whole group setting. They are adaptable to fit many chronological ages. And who doesn't love puppets?! Buy some at the dollar store, or just use the print outs that I provide in the packet with a popsicle stick on the back.

Here is my new creation! 5 full lesson plans with scripts, reproducible pages, and home/school connection pages. These 5 social skills lessons are designed to be 30 minutes each and engage children functioning at the 4-6 year old level. Can be used in a small or large group. Use any puppets for a monologue lesson introducing the topic and two short puppet shows. There are reproducible craft projects and/or games to support each lesson.

Lesson topics (can be presented in any order):
-I Do My Work
-I Interrupt Politely
-I Keep My Hands to Myself
-I Speak with a Good Volume
-I Use Nice Words

All lessons follow a similar plan to "I Do My Work" (instructions):
-Introduce the lesson with Frank. (page 2)
-Present puppet show thumbs up example with questions. (page 3)
-Present puppet show thumbs down example with questions. (page 4)
-Read social story. (pages 5-8)
-Do gluing project of cutting out and ordering pieces of the social story. (page 9)
-Do drawing project. (page 10)

For each lesson there is an instruction page, a script for the lesson introduction, a "thumbs up" puppet show script example, and a "thumbs down" puppet show script example.

Each lesson includes a social story book (6-8 pages long) to be read to the group and a gluing activity (sorting and gluing the important parts of the story) that can be brought home for home/school connection.

Several of the lessons include a game/activity, such as the Voice Meter Game (below)

Go here to pick up my new creation and support my work!

Inspired by the lessons at: Connectability.ca Kids
Graphics by: My Cute Graphics and Graphics Factory

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Last year, my special education teacher and I brainstormed ways to serve our students with multiple needs. Many of these students have reading, writing, math, speech, social skills, and behavior goals. There are not enough hours in the school week to meet these needs. So...

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What is necessary to successfully collaborate as teachers?

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Both teachers teach the main lesson simultaneously to the whole class.

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Both teachers teach the same lesson in two different ways.

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One teacher teaches the main lesson at grade level and the other teaches the lesson with modifications.

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Both teachers teach the entire class the same lesson at the same time.

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The teachers teach the same lesson in two different ways.

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Teachers present the same material to half of the class simultaneously.

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Each teacher instructs a group of students at a station.

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One teacher leads and the other assists students.

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One teacher leads the lesson while another teacher observes specific behaviors of students