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April 23, 2020

5 min (est.)

Vol. 15

No. 16

Abstract

Three Keys to Unlocking Deeper Discussions

Key 1: Identify the thinking product produced through discussion.

Key 2: Prepare, discuss, evaluate, and reflect.

Key 3: Adjust roles, rules, turns, and time.

Developing Deeper Discussions in Daily Lessons

Applying the Three Keys to Online Discussions

Abstract

Three Keys to Unlocking Deeper Discussions

Key 1: Identify the thinking product produced through discussion.

Key 2: Prepare, discuss, evaluate, and reflect.

Key 3: Adjust roles, rules, turns, and time.

Developing Deeper Discussions in Daily Lessons

Applying the Three Keys to Online Discussions

The classroom bursts with energy as the teacher says, "Turn and talk with your partner." Let's listen to a common student discussion.

Jasmine: "How about if you go first?"

Jasmine: "Are you ready?"

Jasmine: "We are talking about the pictures."

Andi: "OK, who goes first?"

Following the "turn and talk" directions, most students engage in casual, surface-level conversations. However, if teachers change how they give directions, entirely different discussions take place. Three keys in teacher directions guarantee opportunities and provide access for diverse learners to engage in meaningful deep discussions.

Three Keys to Unlocking Deeper Discussions

Some 30 years of classroom teaching has shown me that discussion directions do much more than articulate tasks and manage behavior. Key elements in teacher directions engage students as leaders and listeners, build academic language, further subject understanding, and support students in learning to value their peers' contributions as well as their own.

Key 1: Identify the thinking product produced through discussion.

Instead of instructing students to "turn and talk," shift the directions from "talking" to producing a product of thinking such as questions, inferences, comparisons, and evidence. Teachers simply change the directions-"turn and talk" to "turn and compare" or "turn and generate questions" -to prompt students with a clear discussion goal that deepens learning.

Key 2: Prepare, discuss, evaluate, and reflect.

Students use a four-step, iterative process to develop the thinking product (from Key 1) through discussion: 1) students prepare initial thinking, 2) peers discuss, 3) teacher and students evaluate discussion products, and 4) students revise their initial thinking, while the teacher considers how to adjust the next part of instruction based on student responses (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Four-Step Process for Deeper Academic Discussions. Process repeats as needed to refine ideas.

Direction Correction: Getting the Discussions You Want-table

Students build a thinking product through discussion (e.g., questions, elaborations, comparisons, inferences).

1. Prepare initial ideas.

2. Discuss with peers.

3. Evaluate thinking products from discussion.

4. Revise initial ideas.

Figure 1. Four-Step Process for Deeper Academic Discussions. Process repeats as needed to refine ideas.

For example, students may prepare for discussion by annotating a text or picture, writing a response, ranking a list, or drawing a picture. Then, students transition into assigned groups for a discussion. Next, the teacher gathers responses from each group via written responses or verbal share-outs. Once gathered, the teacher and students evaluate the responses looking for patterns; missing information; misunderstandings; and other high-quality criteria such as connections, vocabulary, and evidence. Students return to their initial idea to add information or make revisions based on learning from the discussion and then reflect on how their revised response demonstrates growth from the initial response. While students complete their reflection, the teacher plans adjustments to instruction that build on student responses and challenge misconceptions.

Key 3: Adjust roles, rules, turns, and time.

Teachers adjust four elements (roles, rules, turns, and time) in their discussion directions in order to ensure that every student has meaningful access to the task and a guaranteed opportunity for speaking, thinking, and receiving feedback.

Roles. Teachers rarely provide students with an explicit purpose for the essential roles of speaker and listener. For example, the speaker isn't just talking; the speaker may articulate a perspective, read a written response, repeat and build on an idea, or challenge a previous statement. The listener needs a compelling reason for listening, such as identifying the speaker's perspective or reasoning, noticing how the speaker makes connections, or recognizing the use of vocabulary words. Assigning a purpose to the roles of speaker and listener pushes students from casual conversations to rigorous academic discussions.

Rules. Rules for engagement ensure access and equity for all students. For example, a rule might be that students either contribute a new response or confirm a response of a previous student. This rule allows a student to simply repeat a previous response, ensuring access for students who were absent. English learners may be supported with a rule of point and repeat, where students point to someone and they will repeat their response, or show and share, where responses are shown through drawing or writing instead of spoken out loud. Rules deliberately provide a wide range of students with greater capital in the academic conversation.

Turns. Turns enable teachers to choose the student response that launches small-group discussions. Controlling at least who begins the discussion ensures that more reserved students are sometimes in leadership roles. Teachers may state, "the person nearest the window speaks first" or "each person offers feedback before the next speaker." By controlling who speaks first and how turns are taken, the teacher provides opportunities for students to practice new discussion habits and reduces time used for negotiating turn-taking.

Time. Unlike casual conversations where one speaker is immediately followed by the next, in an academic discussion, active listening is promoted by holding quiet thinking time after each speaker. The discussion completely stops while the listener and the speaker both think about what was just said. Then there is additional thinking time to prepare a response before the next speaker begins. This approach, very different from fast daily interactions, provides time to think, values each response, and allows students who need additional time for language processing (such as English learners) the opportunity to understand the conversation. Explicit attention to roles, rules, turns, and time in teacher directions increases access for students with specific learning needs. In addition, these four elements enable teachers to adjust discussion directions in order to increase student engagement and active learning during lessons.

Developing Deeper Discussions in Daily Lessons

The three keys to equitable discussions free teachers from primarily managing student participation during discussions to listening, thus providing teachers with a real-time window into student understanding. The three keys require no special materials, only deliberate attention to the elements in teacher directions. With the three keys, daily casual conversations can easily be adjusted to rigorous equitable academic discussions that engage all students in deeper learning.

Applying the Three Keys to Online Discussions

Online peer discussions promote deeper learning and equitable student engagement when teachers apply the three keys. For example, during small-group online breakout rooms, students can use a common Google doc, also called a note catcher, to be reminded of Key 1: the thinking product and the high-quality criteria. During small-group online discussions, when students may be distracted by other things happening in their different physical environments, clear outcomes and criteria encourage students to stay focused on achieving the goal of the discussion. When teaching online, Key 2, the design for deeper learning, should not be overlooked. Teachers can ask students to jot their ideas on a paper and show and share their thinking into the web camera so that the teacher can see that students are prepared to enter the breakout rooms for peer discussions. After a discussion, students can be directed to take a moment to return to their initial thinking and reflect on how their thinking has changed as a result of the discussion. Key 3, the direction elements of roles, rules, turns, and time, helps teachers foster equity in virtual peer discussions. This is particularly important in online breakout rooms or asynchronous discussion boards where students are working with greater independence and thus need supports from the teacher, such as clarity in how turns will be taken and rules for productive engagement. (See " Practical Tips for Teaching Online Small Group Discussions " for more details.)

Most important, practicing the three keys now while teaching online will make using the three keys to promote equity in face-to-face classrooms even easier in the future. Peer discussions play a vital role in fostering student belonging and deeper learning. Whether learning online or in face-to-face environments, the three keys ensure that every voice is heard and valued.

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Direction Correction: Getting the Discussions You Want

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April 23, 2020 5 min (est.) Vol. 15 No. 16 Abstract Three Keys to Unlocking Deeper Discussions Key 1: Identify the thinking product produced through discussion. Key 2: Prepare, discuss, evaluate, and reflect. Key 3: Adjust roles, rules, turns, and time.

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Learning routines guide student thinking, collaboration, self-regulation, care for oneself and peers, and engagement with curriculum materials. They are an essential tool for effective deeper learning and are a critical component in building equitable classroom community culture. Every learning routine calls for a unique recipe of choice, help resources, and structure. By weaving together a unique set of elements, each routine is able to serve a particular set of goals and needs. We organize learning routines broadly into two goals: well-being and curriculum.

We dive deeper into each kind of routine and provide examples of each in the sections below. Click on any routine to learn more about it and access resources to help you implement it in your classroom.

Care Routines

Self-care routines invite students to take time to care for themselves. These routines help students release stress and prepare for learning.

Organization Routines

These routines help teachers and students gather and organize student responses and move into small groups for peer discussions.

Individual Regulation Routines

Individual Regulation routines prompt students to reflect on the strengths that they are brining to each task and set concrete next steps or goals for their learning.

Group Learning Routines - Discussion

In pairs or small groups, students use these group learning routines to promote learning through discussion. The routines promote the use of academic language and accurate information and equitable engagement in discussions with peers. Students use group learning routines to elaborate on their ideas, challenge thinking and misconceptions, promote the use of academic language needed for literacy tasks, perceive peer strengths, and understand themselves in relation to their peers. Group Learning Routines can be used at any point in a lesson and require no preparation other than teaching the routine and organizing the groups.

Group Learning Routines - Reading Comprehension

Group Routines for Reading Comprehension are discussion routines that revolve around understanding a text (i.e. may include images, works of art, poems, and readings).

Group Learning Routines - Topic Understanding

Building topic understanding routines promote student interaction with specific curriculum content. Teachers prepare digital media including primary or historical sources, graphs, data tables, vocabulary, collections of mistakes in student work, art, poems, or news articles. Sources and collections of sources are used to introduce or investigate a topic. The routine structures prompt student self-regulated learning to promote deeper more durable learning. The routine requires the use of a source or collection of sources, either printed or digital. Each routine has both individual and group discussion components and therefore takes longer to implement during lessons. Crop It is available for use digitally and to print on paper. These routines were first developed through the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Northern Virginia Partnership.

Directed Learning Routines

These routines are designed to provide information using strategies that increase student comprehension and memory of the information. Provide information routines often include individual regulation and group learning to ensure learners acquire the needed information and are equipped to use the information in future learning tasks.

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Learning routines guide student thinking, collaboration, self-regulation, care for oneself and peers, and engagement with curriculum materials. They are an essential tool for effective deeper learning and are a critical component in building equitable classroom community culture. Every learning routine calls for a unique recipe of choice, help resources, and structure.

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Longwing Learning I ELA Worksheets for Upper Elementary

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A Quick Guide To CHAMPS: A Classroom Management Strategy - Longwing Learning I ELA Worksheets For Upper Elementary

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Develop a classroom management plan that sets clear expectations, rules, and procedures. This CHAMPS acronym will guide you through developing a set of better classroom management practices.

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Many schools want students to engage in rich discussions. How do teachers ensure that those discussions are focused, productive, and result in learning for all students? This session trains teachers in the technique of . Habits of Discussion has two components:

Instilling student fundamentals: This section of the Plug and Play equips teachers to teach and reinforce the habits that support students' ability to listen carefully to one another and develop and refine ideas as a group.

Leading disciplined discussions: This section reveals the planning that great teachers do before discussion and presents key interventions they make during discussion to ensure all students emerge having reached (or at least moved closer to) a specific understanding.

Through analysis of master teachers' techniques and deep practice, participants in the session will develop understanding and strengthen skills with:

Planning disciplined discussions

Intervening during discussion using two key tools-Strategic Restate and Knowledge Feeding-to guide students towards deeper understanding

Stamping to ensure all students gain from the discussion

Teaching and reinforcing fundamentals to help students develop life-long habits for listening, speaking, and developing ideas

READY-TO-USE MATERIALS
Our goal is for you to save time that you would otherwise spend creating a PD session from scratch and dive deep into the small concrete actions that advance your teachers' skills from good to great. The Plug and Play provides you with:

✓ A fully customizable PowerPoint presentation with embedded videos of Habits of Discussion in action

✓ Facilitator notes for what to say and do for each slide

✓ Detailed analysis of 14 video clips (including 2 montages of teachers at different grade levels and content areas)

✓ Carefully designed practice activities

✓ Participant handouts for interactive note taking

✓ Next steps to ensure what's learned in the session carries over to classrooms
100 LEVEL: NO PREREQUISITES
This module can be used by any school. It does not require leader experience with or school-wide implementation of Teach Like a Champion techniques.

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Habits of Discussion - Teach Like a Champion

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Many schools want students to engage in rich discussions. How do teachers ensure that those discussions are focused, productive, and result in learning for all students? This session trains teachers in the technique of .

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group work expectation rubric ideas.docx

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Habits of Academic Discussion Guide-Secondary

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Grading Decisions for Co-Taught Classrooms

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Common Planner | AI-Powered Lesson Planning for Teachers

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With AI built in, we help teachers write their best lesson faster than ever and collaborate with colleagues and administration.

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Emerson CT Session--Plan for Success 11.2025

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Playbooks Article Quick Read Activity

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Brief Playbooks Article

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Training Activity Choice Board

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Activity Stations with Links for Training

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Use the B.A.S.E. co-planning examples and materials to plan for an upcoming unit.

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B.A.S.E. Model hyperlinks, Examples, & templates

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Tweak Routines to Increase Rigorous Thinking (5)

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 Combined Goals at a Glance by Class.docx

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Review the co-teaching models benefits and barriers, then identify one model to try in an upcoming lesson.

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Co-Teaching Video Choice Board-All Levels

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Co-Teaching Video Choice Board-All Levels

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Class SDI Summary w-Tracking Template.docx

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Progress Monitoring/IEP Goals & SDI Tracker

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Progress Monitoring/IEP Goals & SDI Tracker

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A walk-through taking a vertical lesson plan and adapting it horizontally across stations.

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EdTech Tips & Tools #5:  Station Rotation Lesson Design

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scroll down to access a webinar and materials for designing your own coteaching playbooks

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New Jersey Coalition for Inclusive Education

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Webinars — New Jersey Coalition for Inclusive Education

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New Jersey Coalition for Inclusive Education

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Planning Heterogeneous Groups

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Quick Tool Links: Picker Wheel, Yes No Picker Wheel, Number Picker Wheel, Letter Picker Wheel, Country Picker Wheel, Date Picker Wheel, Image Picker Wheel
1. What Is Team Picker Wheel?

Team Picker Wheel is a random team generator developed by Picker Wheel team. It helps you to split a list of names into teams or groups. It is also known as a random group generator or can be used as a random pair generator.

By inserting the list of names into the team generator, the team generator will randomize all the names you entered into equal groups. You can set the number of groups or the number of people/group you want to create, generating equally into random groups.

There is another unique feature from this tool where you can choose to balance the gender of participants equally into groups, in the condition you have set the gender of each participant after filling in the names.

Besides, you don't need to download the groupings result manually from this group randomizer. You can save the group's result as an image or download the group's result in a CSV file for further use.

2. How to Use the Random Team Generator?

Insert participants' names (Two methods available).

Choose distribute equally based on what kind of characteristic. You can choose Default, Gender or self-defined Label.

Default - Just distribute equally the list of people into the groups without considering anything else.

Gender - Distribute the same number of genders from the list of people into the groups.

Label - Distribute the same number of labels from the list of people into the groups.

[In Condition] If you choose the Gender or Label mode, you can choose whether to show gender or label icon before their names when the result is replayed.

[In Condition] If you choose the Default mode, you can also decide how many people are chosen from the given list. The selection is totally random.

Modify the inputs or redo the whole process again to get a new result.

These are just the basic steps to use the random team picker. There are still other great features, for example, custom team names, customization, and others we will describe in the following few sections.

3. Set Team Names

In case if you want to change your team names, it is also doable.

When you save the list or share the list with other people, the team names will also be included if you have assigned them.

4. Tool Customization

You can customize the team maker to suit your needs.

Below is the customization you can do:

Confetti & Sound

Disable/Enable confetti.

Sound on/off.

Customize starting, spinning, and ending sounds.

Tool Colors - Change the wheel colors with several themes provided.

Background Color - Change the background color of the whole section.

Background Image - Add a background image at the wheel section. (Premium Users)

Banner | Logo - Adding your own logo or banner. (Premium Users)

5. File Storage - How to Save/Open/Delete File?

For all users, by default, the lists will be saved automatically in your browser's storage. So, you can still access the same data the next time when you visit again at the same browser. *please take note the data might be lost if you clear the browser's history or when your browser's memory is overloaded.

For logged-in users, you have more benefits when using the file storage.

You can save more than 1 name list in file. (Free Users - 15 Files available, Premium Users - Unlimited)

You can access the files with any device.

Feeling peace of mind without worrying the data loss.

Below are the steps for how to save/open/edit/delete your file after signing in to your account.

For save: Choose "Save List to File.." when want to save fresh data to a new file or replace another file. You can see the "Save" button available to click once you have a file saved before. Choose a file to be saved or replaced and assign it with a file name (optional). You can also choose to whether include current settings.

For open: Choose "Open/Edit File.." then select a file to open or edit.

6. Create New Team and Switch Team List

Click the "Create New Wheel" button to get a new empty default Team Picker Wheel. You can produce up to five lists and switch back and forth among them. *Please take note only the data of the current active team list is kept for the next visit. Once you refresh the page, all lists other than the active list will be lost.

7. Modify Title Section

By using the title, description and popup message, your audiences know what the purpose of the generator is.

You can open title section by clicking the More Button from the Inputs section. And modify the texts at there.

Click the share button from the Team Picker Wheel site.

The system will automatically capture your inputs (statuses are not included) and title to be included in the share link. You can choose to include "Settings" as well, where the sounds, colors and other settings will be included as well.

Click the "Create Share Link" button. You will see a link is produced. Copy the link's address or click the copy button to share the Team Picker Wheel with other people.

9. Specification

The random team generator is free of charge.

There are no limits for the number of participants you can insert.

You can produce a maximum of 100 groups.

10. Random Group Generator Use Cases

There are many places where you can use the team randomizer. You can use it in the classroom, games, sports, or when doing pairing.
Use Case 1 - Classroom
It can perform as group maker inside a classroom. A lecturer can distribute the students quickly, equally, and immediately into groups for assignment or discussion. Lecturer can also directly replace the team names with the task names.
Use Case 2 - Game
There are a lot of games involving grouping. Hence, participants can be grouped easily by using this random group generator. You can also enable the balance gender distribution mode for fairness.
Use Case 3 - Sport
During sport competition, you can use it to decide the participants for each of the groups.
Use Case 4 - Random Partner/Pair Generator
You can also use it as a random partner generator or random pair generator by setting the number of people/group as 2. In this way, you randomly produce several pairs of partners from a list of names.

11. We Want to Hear Your Feedback

If you have any feedback or discover any bug about our team randomizer. Please response to us as well. We may take your feedback to make the Team Picker Wheel become better.

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Team Picker Wheel - Randomize a List of Names into Group

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Team Picker Wheel is a specialized random team generator that can produce random groups from a list of names. Download results in a CSV file or an image.

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click on this and go to the column in the padlet labeled "coteaching playbooks"

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Co-Planning Meeting for Middle School Math Lesson

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Link to Snapshots Folder

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Snapshots Strategy Summaries and Cheat Sheets

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B.A.S.E. Model hyperlinks, Examples, & templates

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Inclusion Resources - MS Math - Planning for SDI & IEP Goals

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Macro Planning using the B.A.S.E Model - Think Big Picture - Unit Planning (make a copy of an editable document here)

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Make a copy of this google doc and use in co-planning activity OR download the forms from the post below...

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Co-Planning Template (SDI, model, activities, barriers)

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Putting Things in Context--Video about "Average" and Learner Variability

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Systematic instruction includes the direct presentation of skills and concepts in a pre-specified sequence taught in a logical, defined order that builds on prior learning. For example:

Skills and concepts begin with simple and move to complex.

Student objectives are clear, concise, and driven by ongoing assessment results.

Students are provided with appropriate practice opportunities which directly reflect explicit instruction.

Explicit instruction includes instructional routines that consist of teacher modeling, guided practice, supported application, and independent practice. For example:

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Systematic instruction includes the direct presentation of skills and concepts in a pre-specified sequence taught in a logical, defined order that builds on prior learning. For example: Skills and concepts begin with simple and move to complex. Student objectives are clear, concise, and driven by ongoing assessment results.

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From 2004 to 2010, a team of researchers and teachers at FCRR collected ideas and created Student Center Activities for use in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms. The activities are designed for students to practice, demonstrate, and extend their learning of what has already been taught, sometimes with teacher assistance and sometimes independently. Students can complete the activities in small groups, pairs, or individually.

Accompanying these Student Center Activities is a Teacher Resource Guide that offers important insights on differentiated instruction and how to use the Student Center materials.

Component

Name of the reading component: Phonological Awareness (PA), Phonics (P), Fluency (F), Vocabulary (V), or Comprehension (C). Each component is color coded: PA is purple, P is orange, F is red, V is green, C is blue.

Subcomponent

Name of the reading subcomponent, which is a subskill of the component.

Activity Name

Activity Number

The letters correspond with the reading component (PA, P, F, V, or C). The numbers are listed in ascending order within each component. The activities are sequenced from simple to more complex within each component and subcomponent.

Student Icon

The suggested number of students for the activity. One student icon indicates that students may work independently or with a small group. Two student icons indicate that the activity requires students to work in pairs. Two student icons with a plus sign indicate that the activity requires two or more students.

Objective

States the goal of the activity, which is aligned with the subcomponent.

Materials

Materials are located on the pages that follow the Activity Plan. Most materials are non-consumable to be prepared and used repeatedly (e.g., word cards can be laminated). Some materials are consumable and will need to be duplicated for each student doing the activity. Other materials, such as counters, are commonly found in most classrooms.

Activity Statement

One sentence explanation of the purpose of the activity and what students do to complete the activity.

Activity Steps

The first step describes how to setup the center. The second step begins with: The student, Students, Working in pairs, or Taking turns depending on the number of students needed to complete the activity. The second step also starts the series of steps to complete the activity. The next steps explain what the student does to complete the activity. The last step lists one of three accountability methods: Self-check, Peer evaluation, or Teacher evaluation.

Example

A visual of the activity and key materials.

Extensions and Adaptations

Suggestions that extend or provide an adaptation for additional practice on the skill addressed in the activity. Materials for the extensions and adaptations are included after the pages that align to the Activity Plan.

Users may use the FCRR Student Center Activities resources as long as modifications are not made, the resources will only be used for non-profit educational purposes, and the copyright belong jointly to the Florida Department of Education and the Florida Center for Reading Research. These resources may not be used for any commercial purposes. These resources on our site may be linked to but not reposted, reproduced, modified, or copied to other sites. For questions about the use of these resources, please contact The Florida Center for Reading Research at fcrr@fcrr.org.

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From 2004 to 2010, a team of researchers and teachers at FCRR collected ideas and created Student Center Activities for use in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms. The activities are designed for students to practice, demonstrate, and extend their learning of what has already been taught, sometimes with teacher assistance and sometimes independently.

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Co-teaching-the arrangement in which a general education teacher and a special education teacher or other specialist work together to educate students with special needs-has become relatively common.

But in a recent conversation, a principal raised this point:

"When co-teaching was new at our school, the achievement scores for students with disabilities improved. I think that was because they were getting access to the general curriculum that they hadn't had before. But lately, our achievement scores have stalled. When I conduct classroom observations, I see co-teachers who are clearly comfortable with one another and who seamlessly share teaching roles, and students who are engaged and apparently thriving in a two-teacher class. Am I missing something? What else should I be looking for in co-taught classes?"

The principal's comments reflect both the traditional notion of good co-teaching and the emerging expectations for co-teaching today-what we might call Co-Teaching 2.0.

As co-teaching was originally conceived, its most important goal was to place students with special needs in general education so that they could learn alongside their peers. Co-teachers were told that they should build a relationship that was like a professional marriage, sharing instruction equally. They typically used the general education curriculum as the basis for their shared work, and student mastery was demonstrated through improved performance on high-stakes assessments (Solis, Vaughn, Swanson, &amp; McCulley, 2012; Walsh, 2012). What co-teachers often gave up was meticulous attention to the unique needs of students who had been identified as eligible for special services-and the individualized instruction necessary to meet those needs.

No more. In contemporary co-teaching, educators focus on integrating into daily lessons the special education strategies and techniques that will enable students to achieve the goals of their individualized education program (IEP). Instead of just providing on-the-spot prompting and coaching simply to get students with disabilities through the academic content at hand, the most effective co-teachers now also provide the same kind of explicitly designed and carefully documented instruction that has always characterized special education.

The Right to Specially Designed Instruction

The basis for the redesign of co-teaching comes from renewed attention to the rights of students with disabilities. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 states that any student entitled to an individualized education program must receive specially designed instruction. Professionals generally agree that this means

Instruction directly connected to the student's IEP goals and his or her documented needs.

Teaching in any domain in which the student has special needs (for example, academic, organizational, vocational, communicative, behavioral).

Changes in content (but usually not standards), methodology, or delivery of instruction.

The use of approaches and techniques that other learners do not generally need.

These guarantees apply regardless of the setting in which instruction takes place. So when special educators function as co-teachers in the general education classroom, they have the same responsibility to provide specially designed instruction that they would have in a self-contained special education classroom. Specially designed instruction is not the same as differentiation, which today is considered just good teaching. Nor is it the same as the accommodations that students with disabilities receive; those are tools given to students (story starters, word banks, calculators, and so on) that facilitate their learning. Specially designed instruction is what teachers must do to ensure that students reach their goals.

For some students, specially designed instruction entails highly structured remedial reading or math programs that are difficult to implement in a general education setting. But for most students with IEPs, specially designed instruction can be more specific, using evidence-based strategies to improve speaking, reading, writing, computing, problem solving, or other skills. The challenge facing co-teachers is how to incorporate such strategies into the already-crowded agenda of a contemporary classroom.

The New Look of Co-Teaching

" The Six Approaches to Co-Teaching " (Cook &amp; Friend, 1995; Friend, 2014) are still the basis for Co-Teaching 2.0. The difference is that the new version of co-teaching uses these approaches to integrate specially designed instruction into the classroom. Here are some examples.

Station Teaching

Station teaching is such a versatile way to co-teach that it offers almost endless options for integrating specially designed instruction. For example, Ms. Neal and Mr. Perkins are teaching Steve, a student with autism, how to participate more effectively in small groups by speaking, letting other students speak, and responding appropriately when peers ask him a question. During math, which is an area of strength for Steve, students at one station are learning about the commutative property of multiplication by completing an activity with a partner. At a second station led by one teacher, they are learning about the associative property; at a third station led by the other teacher, they are learning about the distributive property.

When Steve is at the teacher-led stations, the teachers use a social story-a strategy that teaches social skills in a concrete, reassuring way-to guide him in taking turns while he interacts with his peers. The social story consists of several simple sentences illustrated with appropriate pictures. In part, it says, "At school we discuss many different things. When I am very interested in a topic, I like to talk about it. But it is important to let my classmates talk about the topic, too. This is called taking turns. If my friends don't get to talk, they may not be interested in the topic anymore. When we take turns, everyone gets a chance to talk and we learn from each other."

Ms. Perkins wrote this social story and introduced it to Steve one day while other students completed an assignment. Steve has the social story on his desk, and each teacher points to appropriate pictures and sentences to coach Steve during group discussions. Thus, Steve is learning and practicing skills related to his IEP goals without being separated from his classmates.

In another classroom, Ms. Garcia and Ms. Crichton also use station teaching, but in a slightly different way. Based on data they've gathered, they know that five students in their class who have learning disabilities, as well as three English learners, need intensive vocabulary instruction. When the class works at stations, the teachers sometimes group these students together so that when the students work at the vocabulary station, the special educator can focus on the most essential words, using a multisensory approach that other students don't need.

For example, the words apprehensive and vigilant are essential to an upcoming lesson. The special educator shows brief video clips that illustrate these words (and the others on this week's list) before she formally introduces them. Then she asks the students to demonstrate through facial expressions what it looks like when peoples are apprehensive or vigilant. She also systematically reviews previously taught words to make sure the students still know them.

Parallel Teaching

Co-teachers can use parallel teaching to implement two different instructional approaches that address their students' learning needs. For example, in the culminating project of an interdisciplinary unit on nutrition and health, students create an imaginary family of four, outline a healthy exercise regimen for each family member, create a weekly menu for each member, identify the ingredients for making that menu, and determine the budget for purchasing the items. Students are expected to provide evidence for the exercise regimen, the menu selections, and the budget. Four students-Tomas, Emily, Richard, and Michael-have IEP goals that address their difficulties completing complex tasks and staying organized. Another student, James, has a behavioral disability and often expresses frustration with angry outbursts; his IEP includes a goal regarding working with peers and self-managing his behavior.

The co-teachers decide to divide the students into two groups. One group includes James, as well as Sonia, another student whose IEP goals relate to reading comprehension, and a heterogeneous sample of 12 other learners. The other group includes Tomas, Emily, Richard, and Michael (the students with IEP goals related to organization); Sean and Stephanie (two more students who often seem overwhelmed with multiple-step activities, although they don't have IEPs); and a heterogeneous sample of seven other learners.

The general educator facilitates the work of the students in the first group. They have several guiding questions, primary sources to use, and access to online resources. They divide up the tasks, choose partners, and proceed with the project. As they work, the teacher closely monitors James's participation. As needed, she coaches him to use the self-monitoring strategy he has learned to deal with his behavior problems, including leaving the group for brief periods to calm down.

In the second group, the special educator implements a more direct and explicit approach to support students who have difficulty with complex tasks (including the students with IEPs and those without them). She divides the task into several parts: creating the imaginary family and assigning them characteristics, identifying and creating exercise regimens, developing menus, and relating food costs to budgeting. The students have the opportunity to discuss each segment before they work on it, and the teacher helps them outline the steps they need to follow, making checklists to aid their understanding. The project takes several class sessions to complete, but all of the students are successful.

Alternative Teaching

Co-teachers sometimes decide that several students would benefit from instruction in a teacher-led small group. For example, Judy, Lynne, and Paul have IEP goals related to explaining the relationship among literary elements, such as character, plot, setting, tone, point of view, and theme. While other students complete a warm-up activity, Mr. Lessen introduces these three students to today's material on tone and theme. Three other students are also assigned to the group: Sammy, who just moved into the district; Carlos, an English learner; and Sharon, who likes to participate in such small-group activities. In just a few minutes, the students learn the meaning of the terms tone and theme and begin generating their own examples. They are now primed to be successful when these concepts are introduced to the whole class.

Some teachers find other ways to employ alternative teaching to meet student learning needs. For example, while students read independently in their 1st grade classroom, Ms. Taylor and Ms. Harris sometimes provide supplemental phonics instruction to students with IEPs as well as other struggling learners. Sometimes each teacher works with a small group during different parts of this independent reading time, and one or two students work with both teachers so that they are receiving the maximum individualized instruction possible.

In 6th grade, Mr. Robinson and Mr. Walker periodically assess all students' math skill acquisition by working with a series of small groups until all students in the class have been assessed. As a natural part of this assessment, the teachers check on students' progress toward meeting IEP goals without taking these students out of their class or treating them differently.

The Other Co-Teaching Approaches

Co-teachers are finding that they can incorporate specially designed instruction into every co-teaching approach. For example, as Ms. Collins and Ms. Bailey team teach, they have an agreement that if the three students in class with documented language processing problems seem to be getting confused, whichever teacher is not speaking will skillfully interrupt the other teacher, asking all students to answer a question with a partner or to brainstorm ideas related to the topic at hand. These deliberate pauses help ensure that the students with IEPs get snippets of time to process the information that's been presented and to get assistance from the teachers. When students are presenting, the co-teachers use the same approach, interjecting questions designed to manage the rate at which the information is communicated.

Ripple Effects

Co-teaching 2.0 is not only transforming the delivery of instruction; it's also causing educators to reconsider other dimensions of co-teaching. For example, co-teachers are redefining the professional relationship: It's less like a marriage and more like a business partnership. Each teacher brings important knowledge and skills to the classroom, and they learn from each other without trying to be interchangeable. They strive for true parity, being equally valued for their individual contributions, rather than being identical. Their aim is to create a classroom culture of acceptance, in which learning variations and strategies to address those variations are the norm. The result is that students with disabilities learn the grade-level curriculum but also learn the strategies that will help them succeed throughout their lives (Conderman &amp; Hedin, 2014; King-Sears et al., 2015).

So the principal's question about what to look for when visiting co-taught classes does have an answer: Principals should look for the traditional indicators that both teachers have a strong partnership and that the instructional environment is supportive. But they should also seek evidence that the teachers know students' IEP goals and are implementing the strategies, techniques, and programs that will lead to the achievement of those goals. Co-Teaching 2.0 enables students with disabilities to access the general curriculum in meaningful ways, without leaving behind the specialized instruction to which they are entitled-instruction that will enable them to reach their potential.

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The new co-taught classroom not only gives students with disabilities access to the general curriculum, but also provides the specialized instruction they need to succeed.