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Engaging with Parents and Families as Co-teachers

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Engaging with Parents and Families as Co-teachers

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Engaging with Parents & Families as Co-teachers

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How can co-teachers establish and maintain a positive and collaborative relationship with parents and families? (Confession: We recorded this vlog almost a year ago and forgot to post it! Major fac...

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by Ready, Set, Coteach

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This 15-day co-teaching challenge is designed to help you make the most of your co-teaching partnership all while having fun! If you decide to participate, use the hashtag #coteachingchallenge so we can follow along!

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A Purposeful Plan for Parity (Blog Post)

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A Purposeful Plan for Parity (Blog Post)

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by Ready, Set, Coteach

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A Purposeful Plan for Parity
What is Parity?
Parity's general definition is the state of being equal. When that is applied to a co-teaching model it refers to the equality between the two teachers delivering instruction to the same class. Believe it or not, parity may just make or break your co-teaching dynamic REGARDLESS of the quality of your instruction.
The History of Our Parity
Back when Allyson and John had their first EVER conversation about co-teaching, parity was the first thing discussed. Both Allyson and John had previous experience working in or observing a co-teaching dynamic. They felt that whenever a co-teaching team fizzled out it was often due to a lack of parity. So Allyson and John set up a shared plan, and this plan informed Allyson's dynamic with Ashley a year later. Not everything we have done has been successful, however we feel that building a shared plan of parity has been the biggest factor in our success as a co-teaching team.
Parity for the 18-19 School Year
The Ready, Set, Coteach! team recently sat down for our beginning of year meeting. Like many other co-teaching teams, we spent time discussing how we intended to purposefully establish parity this coming school year. This discussion was necessary, as it provided a chance for us to reflect on how our early parity decisions either blossomed into success or wilted when forgotten. Our biggest focus for this school year is that we want both students AND parents to recognize the equality in the classroom from day one. Thankfully we have a few years under our belt now, so here are some key points from our 18-19 plan:
Meet the Teacher
Our school has two days of staggered entry for all grade levels. This allows teachers to build relationships with both parents and students before the first full day of school. Even if your school doesn't do this, it is important that both teachers are in the classroom meeting and greeting. The introduction of a co-teacher should not be a curveball for your parents and students. By having Allyson in Ashley's and John's classroom, we set the stage and the tone for the school year. If parents are confused about the classroom structure, or why their child was chosen to be in this class, we can address those concerns right out of the gate with clear and consistent communication.

Now the question we most often get about this topic is directed to Allyson, our ESL teacher. How can you be in two places at once? Well obviously she can't be so how do we solve this problem?
Vertical Alignment
We are set up for success as the students that were on Ashley's roster last year move up to John's roster this year. Allyson is the consistency for this group of students, and she has already built relationships with many of these families. Our co-taught class enters 2nd grade already aware of what co-teaching is, and knowing that they will have two teachers. The language and strategies used in 1st grade are consistent or grown upon in 2nd grade. This frees up Allyson to spend the first part of the meet and greets with Ashley in 1st grade. By both greeting students as they enter, Ashley and Allyson set the stage for parity, which lasts over the course of school years.
Welcome Letter
As we all know, not all parents can make it to school for Meet the Teacher. This is why we send out a welcome letter at the start of the school year covering the topics we discuss during the Meet the Teacher day. This letter is translated into student's home language, and it serves as the first line of communication with our families. PLUS writing the letter together can provide the opportunity for team-building and development of your shared voice.
Space in the Classroom
A very simple way to show respect to your co-teacher is by providing them a space in the classroom. Now usually people consider this to just be a place to pull small groups, but consider expanding that space! Allyson has a collection of teaching supplies, a comfortable chair, and small mementoes that she leaves in both Ashley's and John's classrooms. The students in both classrooms refer to it as her table, her cabinet and shelf, even her pencils!
Field Trips
Consider how during assemblies, field trips, and even field day you are outside of the classroom. When a class has an experience that one teacher misses out on, that can be damaging to the parity dynamic. Instead, consider having both teachers attend these events. This gives you the perfect opportunity to promote your parity with the students! A fun 3D movie, a visit to a farm, a trip to the museum, or even a boring assembly can create opportunities to build relationships and the sense that both teachers are invested. This year Allyson, Ashley, and John planned for these events to ensure that the parity continues outside of the classroom!
Substitutes
Lastly, consider how much of a disruption having a substitute can be. When a classroom teacher leaves a lesson plan for a sub, rarely is the lesson taught, work completed, and behavior managed in a comprehensive fashion. Yet having two teachers that have ownership of the lesson plans can ensure that there is no lost momentum in the unit when one of us is out. Last year when Ashley was out for an extended period, she could trust that Allyson was in her classroom, teaching daily. That factor gives the students a sense of normalcy and that a day with a sub is not a day to goof off!
Communicate! Communicate! Communicate!
We have all heard the comparison between co-teaching and a marriage due to the amount of communication needed. If you want your co-teaching experience to be successful, then you need to have open and honest communication with your co-teacher!

While some of these may have been obvious, we hope this post helps you think about how you can purposefully plan for parity!
Posted on: October 3, 2018John Cox

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What is Parity? Parity's general definition is the state of being equal. When that is applied to a co-teaching model it refers to the equality between the two teachers delivering instruction to the same class. Believe it or not, parity may just make or break your co-teaching dynamic REGARDLESS of the quality of your instruction.

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Editable Lesson Plan Template for Co-Teachers

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Editable Lesson Plan Template for Co-Teachers

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Get organized with this easy to follow lesson plan template specifically for co-teachers! Editable so you can add anything you need or take out anything you don't! Includes sections for:

-Subject & Topic
-Essential questions
-Content Vocabulary
-Other language needed
-Standards & Objectives
-Materials & Assessments
-Day tracking
-Co-teaching approach(es)
- Lesson Activities
-Teacher assignments/duties
-Exit Tickets

Looking for more co-teaching resources? Follow us on Twitter @readysetcoteach and subscribe to our blog at www.readysetcoteach.com

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Editable Coteaching Lesson Plan Template

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Get organized with this easy to follow lesson plan template specifically for co-teachers! Editable so you can add anything you need or take out anything you don't! Includes sections for: -Subject & Topic -Essential questions -Content Vocabulary -Other language needed -Standards & Objectives...

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by Ready, Set, Co-Teach

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Two Heads are Better Than One: Co-Planning (Blog Post)

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Two Heads are Better Than One: Co-Planning (Blog Post)

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by Ready, Set, Coteach

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Two Heads Are Better Than One: Co-Planning

Collaborative planning, or co-planning, is a commitment that both teachers must make in order for co-teaching to be most effective. Exactly how important is it? Plain and simple, planning together is KEY.

Our routinely scheduled planning times are Tuesdays after school and Sundays (time varies). We love meeting outside of school in a more relaxed environment like a coffee shop or bookstore. We set these times because they work for all of us and we don't deviate unless there are unforeseen circumstances (i.e. family visiting, other obligations, etc). We hold each other accountable to be come prepared and be present and engaged the whole time so we can accomplish what we have on our agenda.

What we've found is that lesson planning together is not only a best practice, but also makes it so that both co-teachers take ownership over the plans. Just like we use the terms "our" class and "our" kids, we want them to be "our" plans. Both teachers create them, so both teachers are responsible for the preparation and delivery of the lessons.

Additionally, we each bring a unique perspective and area of expertise that is invaluable. We know each other's strengths (and weaknesses) and we use them accordingly. Often, brainstorming together produces the most creative, effective, and fun lessons!

I'm sure you're thinking, "okay, but where do we start?" For every lesson/unit we discuss the following questions:

What are we teaching?

Standards

Lesson Objectives (content & language) Look for an upcoming blog post on writing language objectives!

Vocabulary/Language needed

How will we teach it?

Step-by-step lesson procedures & activities

Co-teaching model(s)

How will we know if students understand?

Exit Ticket(s)

Assessment(s)

To keep ourselves organized we developed this planning form: Co-teaching Lesson Plan Template

Use it if you like it and, if you'd like to make some adjustments based on your own co-teaching situation, email us and we will send you an editable version!

Once the lesson we are working on is complete, we focus on choosing our approach. Doing this last allows the lesson plan to determine the approach, not the other way around. Check out our Do's and Don'ts of choosing an approach:

Choosing A Co-Teaching Approach

Consider:

The benefits and challenges to each approach

The goals of the lesson

Student characteristics & needs

Teacher characteristics & needs

Type of content & instructional strategies

Keep in mind any physical space limitations

Plan your approach ahead of time

Use the same approach all the time

Choose your approach based solely on teacher preference

Neglect to plan ahead

To wrap up, we maintain that the two most essential parts of a successful co-teaching partnership are (1) the relationship you have with each other and (2) collaborative planning. We get it. A lot goes into co-planning. It takes time and effort by all parties. One thing we have discovered though is that it gets easier and quicker as you become more comfortable and more experienced co-teachers. The first time we co-planned together it took us HOURS just to get through one lesson! Now, a year and a half later, we can plan a whole week in under an hour if we focus! Take it from us, we promise, the more you do it, the easier it gets! Not to mention, it is absolutely worth it! You will see the difference it makes not only in your delivery but in the growth of your students.

Happy planning!
Posted on: September 30, 2017Allyson Caudill

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Two Heads Are Better Than One: Co-Planning

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Collaborative planning, or co-planning, is a commitment that both teachers must make in order for co-teaching to be most effective. Exactly how important is it? Plain and simple, planning together is KEY. Our routinely scheduled planning times are Tuesdays after school and Sundays (time varies).

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by Tan Huynh

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This is Part 2 of the Co-Planning Series.

Continuum of Collaboration

I have been lucky enough to collaborate with dozens of truly amazing teachers. What has surprised me the most about my collaborations is the various forms that they take.

After analyzing all the ways I collaborate with colleagues, I created this Collaboration Continuum to describe the different types of collaboration between content teachers and English language teachers (ELTs) and what needs they address. This Collaboration Continuum includes levels of both co-planning and co-teaching. However, I'll focus on just co-planning in this article and will discuss co-teaching in a subsequent series.

Informal Co-Planning

For content teachers who need just a little support, Informal Co-Planning works best. Informal Co-Planning is when two teachers collaborate on a specific aspect of a lesson and the ELT can explain the solution quickly and with little effort. These teachers usually have only a few ELs who are also fluent in social, but not academic, language.

In one example, Ms. M, a 9th grade science teacher at my school, was struggling to explain the concept of validity and reliability to her ELs. When Ms. M emailed me to ask for suggestions, I directed her to my article about writing a science lab report. T h e a r t i c l e g a v e e x a m p l e s o f built-in scaffolds like sentence frames and the diagrams that supported students in Mr. Arno's science classes.

When we found 10 minutes to conference, I showed her the sample scaffolded lab report. I pointed out the two diagrams below that were used to visually communicate the concepts of reliability and validity. I also explained the two questions above them that were designed to help students complete this section.

The advantage to Informal Co-Planning (next week's article) is that you don't need to spend a lot of time or energy when using it and you can easily participate via e-mail if you don't have time to meet. However, if the task is not so specific, consider the next level instead:

One-Off Co-planning

One-Off Co-Planning (also called "Low Risk Co-Planning") is when two teachers collaborate on just one aspect of a lesson, but the solution takes slightly more time to address or implement. While there might be a few more ELs in the class, these ELs usually have a strong command of social language but a developing mastery of academic language.

The request for support is also usually one-time event to help the content teacher scaffold one activity or prevent an assessment from becoming a reading test. Because an ELT can't briefly explain the solution, One-Off Co-Planning requires more than a 10-minute meeting.

For example, Mr. M , the Physical Education teacher, once asked me to look over a document he planned to have students work on. He knew that there were three ELs in particular who would benefit from having a scaffolded document and e-mailed his draft to me. Once I finished scaffolding it, we scheduled a one-time meeting to go over the changes.

I wanted to meet with him in person to ensure that the scaffolding improved students' comprehension of the instructions without changing the skills being assessed. Unlike the insertion of a simple diagram from Ms. M example, the collaborative discussion Mr. M and I had on his document could not have been completed with a quick e-mail.

Temporary Co-Planning

Temporary Co-Planning requires even more time than the previous two forms because the content teacher wants support that spans over several days. It's also likely that there's a sizable group of ELs, but most should have developed at least social language.

Often, content teachers will have a multi-day activity that requires the assistance of an ELT. A one-time event is not sufficient to guide the ELs through the learning experiences because each phase of learning is connected to the next. Scaffolding needs to occur at each phase of learning.

For example, Mr. J, a history teacher, wanted to teach his students how to assess the reliability of a resource through a process called Origin, Purpose, Value, and Limitation (OPVL). He emailed me in frustration because he struggled with having many students, not just ELs, misunderstand this complex process. We decided to meet to collaborate.

In the first meeting, we talked about each part of the OPVL process and analyzed what had stumped the students. We decided to turn the process into a flowchart and scheduled another meeting. At our next meeting, I shared a draft flowchart I had created, and we spent the entire period making modifications. I finished the second draft and we met one final time to finalize the flowchart below:

Mr. J liked the flowchart so much that he decided to use it for all his students, and he offered them the opportunity to create their own flowchart using the same infographic software ( Piktochart ) I used to create the OPVL flowchart. We never know how much impact our collaboration can have on students and teachers.

Our schedules didn't align so that I could co-teach the flowchart myself, but we had a brief, informal follow-up one day while passing each other in the hall. Mr. J reported that students found it much easier to analyze the reliability of a resource following the visual scaffold.

Sustained Co-planning

Sustained Co-Planning is the most robust form of collaboration because the content teacher and ELT co-design all aspects of the unit together - from mapping out the sequence to teaching the standards, scaffolding learning experiences and creating assessments.

Usually, Sustained Co-Planning is needed if one or more of three factors apply:

1. You have a group of 2-3 Beginning ELs who are completely new to English,

2. You have a large group of Developing ELs (10+), or

3. Your ELs have a wide range of language proficiency.

Often, all three converge into a perfect storm.

This is what it looks like in practice:

Currently, I have Sustained Co-Planning partnerships with three science teachers and three history teachers who each have a group of beginners in their classes. I'm assigned to work with them the entire year or until the Beginning ELs have developed sufficient independence.

I meet once an eight-day cycle with each of the departments to discuss EL supports. During the meetings, we establish specific co-teaching practices, which I'll cover more extensively in future posts.

In an ideal world, the content teacher and ELT would co-plan daily. However, I am only able to co-plan with each teacher once every eight days. Mr. A created a clever solution to managing this time gap: a Google Doc that keeps track of the learning objectives. He fills in the table, and, after reviewing the objectives, I describe how I'll scaffold learning.

Because Sustained Co-Planning requires the content teachers and ELTs to be interdependent , it naturally leads to co-teaching. Co-planning coupled with co-teaching is one of the most effective models of collaboration.

Notice that Sustained Co-Planning provides the greatest opportunities for students to develop academic language. This is because the content teacher and ELT have a continuous working relationship where content and language standards are taught together. When students regularly read, write and speak about content, they reinforce their literacy skills. Though this is the best-case scenario, I understand that it's not always possible to have Sustained Co-Planning due to staffing limitations.

These Co-Planning examples from my Collaboration Continuum are by no means exhaustive; they're just representative of my experience. But they do show that whatever your needs, there's always a way for ELTs to support content teachers. And when teachers and administrators can easily identify these different forms of co-planning, a school can better utilize their faculty's expertise.

Takeaways

I hope that this article has provided you with a basic introduction to the forms of teacher co-planning. I also hope that it has peaked your interest and calmed your concerns about collaboration with content teachers.
If you'd like an in-depth inquiry into teacher collaboration, I strongly encourage you to read Andrea Honigsfeld and 's book entitled Collaboration and Co-Teaching: Strategies for English Learners because they are the ultimate gurus of collaboration within the context of EL instruction.

Next Post

Now that we have a firm understanding of the basics of collaboration, I'll describe each of the phases of the Collaboration Continuum next week, starting with Informal Collaboration. I'll share two philosophies that work well with Informal Co-Planning, in particular, but that can also be applied to any form of teacher collaboration.
Which level of co-planning do you find the easiest? Or the hardest? Let me know in the comments below.
Honigsfeld, A. & Dove, M. (2010). Collaboration and Co-Teaching: Strategies for English Learners. SAGE Publications. [Kindle version]. Retrived from http://www.amazon.com/WhereYouDownloadedTheBookFrom

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#44. The Collaboration Continuum: Forms of Teacher Co-Planning - ELL Strategies | TanKHuynh

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This is Part 2 of the Co-Planning Series. Continuum of Collaboration I have been lucky enough to collaborate with dozens of truly amazing teachers. What has surprised me the most about my collaborations is the various forms that they take.

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Co-Teaching Logistics: How We Make it Work (Blog Post)

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Co-Teaching Logistics: How We Make it Work (Blog Post)

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by Ready, Set, Coteach

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Co-Teaching Logistics: How We Make It Work

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Probably the most common question we get asked is, “How do you make co-teaching work logistically?” We wish there was a magic answer here, but the truth is every situation is dramatically different…

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5 Ways to Strengthen Your Co-Teaching Partnership

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5 Ways to Strengthen Your Co-Teaching Partnership

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by Ready, Set, Co-Teach

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by Education Week

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by Oklahoma State Department of Education

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by Ready, Set, Co-Teach for WeAreTeachers

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Three years ago, to more effectively serve our English Learners, the three of us-Allyson (ESL), John (2nd grade), and Ashley (1st grade)-began co-teaching. And, if we're being completely honest, we really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. We quickly learned that co-teaching takes time, dedication, and adaptability as well as constant effort, communication, and flexibility. Marrying teaching styles, perspectives, and different sets of expertise is complicated and often challenging. Yet, we're here to tell you from experience-it's worth it. We are better teachers because of co-teaching and our students have shown unprecedented growth.

But, let's start from the top.

What really is co-teaching?

Co-teaching is a practice in which two teachers lead a classroom, creating an inclusive setting where expertise is shared for the benefit of a diverse group of students. Whether a general educator and special education teacher, general educator and ESL teacher, or one of many other possible combinations, successful co-teaching requires extensive collaboration. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach, here are 8 co-teaching tips that have worked for us:

1. Build rapport

First things first: When you begin co-teaching you may or may not know your partner on a personal level. Building that relationship, both personally and professionally, is key to successful co-teaching. Trust can make or break you and establishing that trust takes time and effort. Put in the work. Invite your co-teacher to grab a coffee outside of school. Get to know each other as people. Share your favorites. It may seem arbitrary but don't skip this step! The best co-teachers know and trust each other completely. For ideas, try this fun 15-Day Co-Teaching Challenge!

2. Use inclusive vocabulary

It might seem basic, but this is one of our most important co-teaching tips. Use the language OUR classroom, OUR students. Change your language, change your mindset. In order for both teachers to be viewed as equals, you have to speak it into existence. The language you use helps shift your mindset towards the belief that the class and classroom space belong to both teachers. Your students and your co-teaching partnership succeed because of both of you.

3. Communicate

What are your expectations for your partnership? How will you manage your co-taught classroom? These conversations are not only vital to establishing parity, but also to building a classroom environment that is consistent for your students. Successful co-teachers set themselves up for success at the beginning of the year by putting a plan into place and having the tough conversations. It may not always be comfortable, but it's necessary.

Try using a co-teaching contract to make sure that you hit all of the important pieces. The little things that might not bother you, may make your co-teacher crazy! The rules shouldn't change when your co-teacher walks in the room. Norms should be agreed upon and consistent. Otherwise, you may just find yourself pulling your hair out when the kids only bring their work to you or your co-teacher corrects a behavior in way you don't prefer. These things may be small but they make all the difference.

Think of setting up a classroom management plan alongside your co-teacher. What do we do when someone blurts? How will we reward students when they do well? How should we make transitions? What are your biggest pet peeves? Plan everything out at the beginning to avoid frustrations later.

4. Establish parity

Parity's general definition is the state of being equal. When that is applied to a co-teaching model it refers to the equality between the two teachers delivering instruction to the same class. Believe it or not, parity may just make or break your co-teaching dynamic regardless of the quality of your instruction.

In order to establish that parity, your co-teaching team can take some concrete steps before the school year even begins. Consider the impact that having both teachers in the classroom for a Meet-the-Teacher or Open House night. Introducing yourself to parents and students using the pronouns of "we" and "us" will go far in establishing parity. If your school does not offer these opportunities, then send out a welcome letter stating that their child will have TWO teachers this year.

Go a step further, analyze the physical layout of the classroom. Do both teachers have a physical space where they can store their teaching materials? If not, then consider how small steps impact student perception. Taking concrete steps before the start of school will go far in presenting your co-teaching dynamic as a unified team. When true parity has been established, the students will not realize why the specialist is there and will see both teachers as their teacher, parents will be comfortable contacting either teacher and staff members who visit may not even be able to tell who is the classroom teacher and who is the specialist.

5. Know each other's strengths and weaknesses

No two teachers are the same and each of us have our own defined teaching philosophy. Some of us can surgically create a line of questioning to broaden a student's understanding, while others run and jump on a table to engage a class of students. Expecting both teachers to completely match their styles is unrealistic. Luckily for us, there are many different co-teaching models to make use of our differences. Take the time early on in your co-teaching dynamic to have the conversations about strengths and weaknesses. Keep that knowledge of your co-teacher in mind whenever you are co-planning a lesson. If you capitalize on each others strengths, you will find instruction to be stronger and more impactful.

6. Take risks

In order to foster a growth mindset and encourage risk-taking in our students, teachers must be willing to take risks themselves. Taking risks, and even failing in front of students, demonstrates that not everything always goes as planned and making mistakes is part of the learning process. Modeling for students how to fail gracefully instills perseverance and mindfulness in our students. Taking risks can be uncomfortable, but the beauty of co-teaching is you're in this together. Try new strategies, activities, ideas, or student groupings on a regular basis. Then, reflect as a pair. Co-teachers who take risks together, grow together.

7. Be flexible

One of the biggest challenges of co-teaching is scheduling. As a teacher it is already hard to find time to plan, assess, reflect and meet with parents and working around your co-teacher's schedule only adds to this. It is important to remember that even when carefully planned, things happen that are out of your control. Ask yourself, how often do things really follow a set plan in school? We as teachers need to be ready to change our lessons at the drop of a hat in order to meet our student's needs. Be willing to adapt and change when challenges are thrown at you. Communication is key when these situations arise. Real life happens, which is why it is important to communicate with your co-teacher. Try to be understanding when your co-teacher has something come up and be willing to work around it.

8. Learn together

It is important to make sure that you are always growing and learning together as co-teachers. When you are co-reflecting, try to find something that you could both improve on and participate in professional development opportunities as a team. Co-teachers have the unique opportunity to try new things together and the students will benefit as you fill your teacher toolboxes with new ideas and strategies. Whether it's a webinar, a conference, observing another professional or inviting visitors to observe or give you feedback, find ways to develop your expertise and evolve together.

We'll leave you with this: Co-teaching is like riding a tandem bike. It brings together teachers with different expertise, talents, strengths, and abilities to synchronize instruction for the benefit of all students (Dove & Honigsfeld). Begin with a shared vision for equitable learning practices and enjoy the ride!
We'd love to hear any co-teaching tips you might have. Come and share in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook. Plus, how to deal with a difficult co-teacher.

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Three years ago, to more effectively serve our English Learners, the three of us-Allyson (ESL), John (2nd grade), and Ashley (1st grade)-began co-teaching. And, if we're being completely honest, we really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. We quickly learned that co-teaching takes time, dedication, and adaptability as well as constant effort, communication, and flexibility.

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by Sherry Teacher

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A great way to start your co-teaching journey! Use the co-teaching contract to start the important conversations with your co-teacher.

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Ready, Set, Co-Teach! (Allyson, John & Ashley)

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Ready, Set, Co-Teach! (Allyson, John & Ashley)

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www.readysetcoteach.com
Follow our journey as co-teachers :)

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Collaboration & Co-Teaching (Honigsfeld & Dove)

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Collaboration & Co-Teaching (Honigsfeld & Dove)

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Collaboration and Co-Teaching Strategies for English Learners

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Collaboration and Co-Teaching Strategies for English Learners

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Information about collaborative teaching practices and co-teaching or team teaching for English Learners; Applications of the Common Core for English language learners, ELLs

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Buy Here: https://us.corwin.com/en-us/nam/co-teaching-for-english-learners/book245424

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Buy Here: https://www.amazon.com/Elevating-Co-Teaching-through-Elizabeth-Stein/dp/1930583583/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=coteaching&qid=1554745368&s=gateway&sr=8-5

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Buy Here: https://us.corwin.com/en-us/nam/collaborating-for-english-learners/book261045

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Buy Here:

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Co-Teaching: A Simple Solution that Isn't Simple at All

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Co-Teaching: A Simple Solution that Isn't Simple at All

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by Marilyn Friend

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William & Mary School of Education

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Reflective Dialogue for Co-teaching Pairs | W&M School of Education

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Although reflection is often a personal experience, it is beneficial for co-teaching pairs to engage in reflective dialogue. Such exchange of information allows partners to examine the working environment from another person's point of view and to understand their colleague's goals, values, and beliefs about instruction (Richardson, 2002).

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BY TAN HUYNH

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A MiddleWeb Blog

I look back at the field of language education and feel so proud of how far we have come. We have gone...

from pull-out interventions that segregate language learners...

to remedial intensive English programs that prevent students from accessing grade-level content...

to push-in services that devalue language specialists as skilled experts...

to finally arriving at co-teaching where language educators play a key role in designing instruction alongside general classroom teachers.

Bes of all, we now have an expanded and refined understanding that teacher collaboration encompasses more than just co-teaching. It also includes co-planning, co-reflecting, and co-assessing with our skilled colleagues.

Together, these four components are termed the Collaborative Teaching Cycle, detailed in the book Collaborating for English Learners (Honigsfeld & Dove, 2019).

Co-assessing (in all of its forms) is the focus of this post, and I want to highlight many of the key ideas that Allyson Caudill, NBCT and co-founder of @ReadySetCoteach, shared during a recent conversation with me.

Co-formatting the assessment

As EL specialists, we do not have to know the course content as deeply as our teaching partner to have a role in designing the paper-and-pencil assessment. Our role is to collaborate with colleagues to make assessments equitable and engagement possible for language learners.

Co-formatting means coming together to scaffold an assessment that is already designed by our colleague. Together, we look for opportunities to scaffold the document to ensure that it is still rigorous while achievable for all students. When designing the assessment, we can format the language by:

using synonyms and cognates

providing word banks

integrating sentence frames and starters

incorporating visuals

chunking multi-step questions

clearly identifying the language function (e.g., recall, explain, argue, discuss).

Scaffolding the assessment does not water it down. It simply makes achievement by all possible. If we are testing students on the content, we should use whatever language scaffolds students need in order to show us that they know it. Co-formatting the assessment ensures that the language needs are addressed while maintaining the rigor.

In the following screenshot, you will see a science lab report. My science colleague and I sat together to create this for the language learners to use. As he explained his expectations, I added scaffolds into the lab report.

Co-constructing a template

Sometimes an assessment will be an aspect a multi-page document that's part of the learning plan - such as a science lab report, a history report, a design brief, a literary analysis of a text, or an art portfolio. With this type of assessment, students often engage with the document over a period of days or units. Students then submit the document as a form of assessment.

In these cases the language specialists can co-construct the assessment by creating a template from scratch that can go to any student that needs the extra scaffold. You can use the same strategies as recommended in the section above to help format the template.

Co-constructing templates provides an added benefit to you (the language specialist). As you co-teach and provide in-class support services, you can more easily support all students in engaging with the content and using content-specific language. A well-written, well-structured assessment benefits everyone - not just the English language learners.

In the screenshot below you will see a lab report that had to be co-constructed with even more scaffolding than the one above - for a dual-identified student. We sat together to restructure the lab report by changing the sentence starters to fit the particular experiment. The yellow highlighted parts were the sections that this student had to fill in. She was the only student who received this particular form of the experiment.

Co-writing a rubric

Since teacher clarity is linked to high student achievement, one of the best ways we can serve language learners is by co-creating rubrics. When we create rubrics, we can identify:

the content knowledge students need to learn

the language function students must use

the product students are to produce

the process students are to follow

When a rubric is co-created, language specialists know exactly how to support language learners while co-teaching. We know the most important concepts to be mastered, and we can be more prepared with creative and well-structured scaffolds right when students need them. Co-creating rubrics is also a form of high-impact co-planning. Time spent co-creating rubrics will produce dividends for the entire unit.

Norming responses

If you are familiar with the content being assessed, then you can certainly assess the task alongside the content teacher. But to ensure the feedback you each give is aligned, it is best to co-assess several pieces of student work together. Come to a consensus on what feedback to offer, how much to give, and what score the piece of work should receive.

This agreed-upon norming prevents a student from being graded too harshly by one teacher while the other grades more generously. To norm your responses, make sure you are using an agreed-upon rubric.

Equity and achievement

Assessments that deal with mastery may lack equity. And assessments that aren't designed with language learners in mind perpetuate the equity gap. Our role is to make sure we offer just the right amount of challenge and support for each student based on our co-knowledge. We must co-assess with colleagues to ensure that language learners achieve at the highest level. With these various forms of co-assessing, we can!
Reference
Honigsfeld, A., & Dove, M. G. (2019). Collaborating for English learners: A foundational guide to integrated practices. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

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4 Ways to Co-assess English Learners with Colleagues

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A MiddleWeb Blog I look back at the field of language education and feel so proud of how far we have come. We have gone... from pull-out interventions that segregate language learners... to remedial intensive English programs that prevent students from accessing grade-level content... to push-in services that devalue language specialists as skilled experts...

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Honigsfeld & Dove

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Honigsfeld & Dove 2018

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Co-Assessment: The What, Why, & How (Blog Post)

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Co-Assessment: The What, Why, & How (Blog Post)

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by Ready, Set, Coteach

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Co-Assessment: The What, Why & How (Part 1)

When we first started co-teaching, we assumed co-assessment simply meant sharing student data & outcomes. Now, 3 years in, we realize in order to get the most out of assessment, we both need to be involved in every part of the co-assessment cycle.

What is Co-Assessment?
Co-assessment is the collaborative process of collecting data on student performance to inform instructional decision making. There are 4 steps to the co-assessment cycle: co-plan, co-collect, co-analyze, & co-reflect. Co-assessing provides a unique opportunity for co-teachers to discuss assessment & grading practices, share assessment responsibilities, and collaborate on ways to differentiate assessments based on learner needs (Conderman 2012).

Why Co-Assess?
Honigsfeld & Dove (2018) tell us that co-assessment is critical in determining how well students have performed in order to plan the necessary language and content learning targets to help all students meet grade-level expectations. True co-assessing also allows for both teachers to have ownership over the assessments & shared goal(s).

Personally, we've always known assessment results are critical for planning lessons but, over the years, we've found so many additional uses & types of co-assessment. But first, let us be completely transparent & share our beliefs about co-assessment before ( myths) vs. what we know now ( truths).

Myth - We didn't think it mattered who created the assessment, collected the data or administered the assessment as long as we shared the results. Truth - Now we know we both need to be involved in all aspects of the co-assessment cycle.

Myth - We assumed assessment was always of learning. Truth - Now we know assessment has several uses: as learning, for learning, and of learning. (that's a whole other blog topic!)

Myth - We thought we only needed to be assessing the content standards. Truth - Now we know we need to be consistently & continuously assessing both content AND language.
So, how can we go about co-assessing? What should it look like?
The framework we use is the Five-Step Protocol for Co-Assessment of Student Learning from Co-Teaching for English Learners by Dove & Honigsfeld (2018). We like it because it's easy to follow and provides us with a step-by-step guide to co-assessing as well as key considerations. We don't always physically fill-out the document because we enter a lot of the information into our lesson plans. However, we do keep it with us so we can refer to it as we develop objectives & assessments and analyze student data. Get a copy here.

What are some approaches co-teachers can use when co-assessing?

When doing the actual assessing, we use different strategies depending on the assessment and student needs. We ask ourselves: Which approach to co-assessment is best for this particular assessment? In which model can most students be successful? Are there any students who may need a modified setting? There are an abundance of ways to co-assess including splitting the class or one-on-one. However, the following are the approaches we find that we use most frequently:

One monitor, One assess. One of us administers the assessment to the class as a whole while the other floats to monitor & answer any questions.
When we use this approach: Spelling tests and not much else if we're being honest 🙂

One teach, One assess. One of us administers the assessment to small groups while the other teaches either the rest of the class or, if done during rotations, a small group at their table.
When we use this approach: When we have students who require the test to be read aloud, make-up tests, when it's a text-based test and we only have 6 copies of the book, etc.

Divide & Assess. Both teachers are assessing small groups of students at the same time. We usually do this during rotations so each teacher has one group while the other groups are engaged in academic activities (literacy or math depending).
When we use this approach: progress monitoring (MCLASS), When we think students may need guidance with the instructions, etc.

These aren't the only options, of course, but the ones that have quickly become our go-tos. Keep in mind, we also teach 1st & 2nd graders so small group assessments, despite the extra time they take, usually yield better & more valid results because students can be read the instructions, guided so as not to miss any part of the question or skip anything, and so on. We have found our students also tend to get the assessment done faster in the small group setting because they are monitored closely which leads to improved focus. Additionally, small group assessment is great for non-paper-based assessments which we do a lot in math. For example, students make 13 with base ten blocks & we watch & assess via checklist & anecdotal notes. This type of assessment is rather difficult to do whole group.

However you assess, just make sure you're doing it together as co-teachers and the results are driving your instruction. We highly recommend checking out Dove & Honigsfeld's books on collaboration & co-teaching for additional resources. If you have any other approaches to co-assessment we'd love to hear them!

Sources:

Conderman, G., & Hedin, L. (2012). Purposeful Assessment Practices for Co-Teachers. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 44(4), 18-27. https://doi.org/10.1177/004005991204400402

Dove, Maria G., and Andrea Honigsfeld. Co-Teaching for English Learners: a Guide to Collaborative Planning, Instruction, Assessment, and Reflection. Corwin, A SAGE Company, 2018.

Posted on: April 8, 2019Allyson Caudill

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Co-Assessment: The What, Why & How (Part 1)

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When we first started co-teaching, we assumed co-assessment simply meant sharing student data & outcomes. Now, 3 years in, we realize in order to get the most out of assessment, we both need to be involved in every part of the co-assessment cycle. What is Co-Assessment?

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Launching into Co-Teaching: 3 Steps to Help You Get Started (Blog Post)

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Launching into Co-Teaching: 3 Steps to Help You Get Started (Blog Post)

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With the end of the school year fast approaching, now is a good time to start planning for next year. Are you considering co-teaching? Or maybe you are being asked to do it by your administrators? Well, don't fret because, while it can seem like a daunting task, here are some easy steps to getting started.

Step 1: Get your administrators on board.

Nothing is more important while embarking on this journey than making sure that you have the support you will need. Gaining this support may be difficult initially, but hopefully your admin will recognize your great results and jump on board by the year's end. If you want to learn more about this, see Allyson's blogpost on obtaining admin support. Trust us-you NEED them on board and excited about what you are doing.
Step 2: Informally get to know your co-teacher.
This one may seem unnecessary-I mean we work with people that we don't know on a personal level every day, right? Well, not exactly. As you share the same room with your co-teacher for a huge chunk of your day, you will become more like friends (or even family). Building that relationship with your co-teacher so that your PARITY is strong from the beginning is so important. Building trust in the classroom is so much easier when you have spent some time outside of work getting to know each other.

Step 3: Complete a co-teaching contract.
When we say complete a contract we mean an actual formal contract. Get together and discuss EVERYTHING. Make sure that you are all on the same page about what you want to achieve. What are the routines and procedures for the classroom? How will you share responsibilities? How will you solve conflict? When and where will you plan? You cannot expect your co-teacher to know what you need if you don't establish these norms from the beginning. We are making our contract available to you, but be sure to modify it according to your own needs. When you get to the document click make a copy in order to edit and modify.
We are so excited by your interest in co-teaching and we would love to support you in any way you need. Want a FREE coaching session? We're available through email and Skype to help you through any obstacles! Just fill out this form to set up your session.

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Launching Into Co-teaching: 3 Steps To Help You Get Started

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With the end of the school year fast approaching, now is a good time to start planning for next year. Are you considering co-teaching? Or maybe you are being asked to do it by your administrators? Well, don't fret because, while it can seem like a daunting task, here are some easy steps to getting started.

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Obtaining Admin Buy-In for Co-Teaching (Blog Post)

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Obtaining Admin Buy-In for Co-Teaching (Blog Post)

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by Ready, Set, Coteach

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Obtaining Admin Buy-in for Co-teaching

As much as developing ourselves and our skills as co-teachers matters, the buy-in of school leadership is just as important to the overall success of co-teaching. Ideally, it needs to be a systematic approach. A co-teaching initiative can easily fail, or be less effective, without school leaders' commitment to doing their part to support and encourage the initiative.

For example, the following require admin support and are vital to the co-teaching initiative:

The creation of a master schedule with co-teaching in mind

Strategic student class assignments

Scheduled common planning time

Time away from the building to participate in shared professional development

So, how do you obtain buy-in from building and district administrators? Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to this critical question. However, here is how our co-teaching team accomplished this formidable task:

Step 1 : Come Prepared

The best time to bring it up is probably before the start of a new school year. This gives all parties time to really think it through and have a solid plan. When you do present it, be specific and bring the research. How will this work in your school? How will it benefit students? Who are the potential co-teaching partners? What will the proposed schedule look like? What will need to be done on the part of the administrator to make this work? You might even want to identify and prepare a few scholarly articles and/or research that discuss the effectiveness of co-teaching for your target population.

Step 2 : Show Enthusiasm

You're bringing the prospect of a new model that will create a collaborative environment all for the benefit of students. It's okay to be, and we even encourage you to be, excited. Enthusiasm is contagious. Show them there is something to be excited about and why you are so eager to take on this new initiative. It is important that your own dedication and commitment comes through.
"When both teachers (John & Allyson) came together to propose the idea with great enthusiasm and clear thought and preparation, I was confident that they would put in the work needed to make co-teaching successful."
-Ms. Carey, Principal, BRES

If and when you finally do get the okay, it is critical that your co-teaching team is consistent. If your administration notices that you aren't really co-teaching or you're cutting corners, they may be hesitant to say yes to future ideas or endeavors. Show them you meant it when you said you wanted to give co-teaching a go, that you are committed and are following through with everything you promised. After all, you can't claim it didn't work or even that it did if you didn't see it through. In the beginning we had a bumpy ride with one of us often being pulled for testing during our co-teaching block. We went to our admin and explained why our co-teaching time needed to be protected and how pulling one of us affects the whole lesson and even the parity we had built. Once we explained ourselves, and they had seen that we were dedicated, regularly co-teaching every day at the designated time, they really made the effort to adjust and not pull us out as much during that critical co-teaching time.

Whether we like it or not, data is a catalyst for decisions in education today and it's a language all school and district administrators understand. After co-teaching for a set amount of time, schedule a meeting with your administration to sit down together and analyze the data from the co-taught classroom(s). Hopefully the data will show the intended academic growth and speak for itself, as was our experience. We collected tons of data in the form of formative assessments, anecdotal notes, standardized assessments, you name it, and presented it to our administration to show what a difference co-teaching was making in our students' academic success. Truly, it was this step that made us finally feel as if we had officially solidified the support of our school leaders. We left the meeting feeling not only validated, but also knowing that from that point forward we would have the complete backing of our admin that we had been so diligently working toward.

Invite your school leadership team to observe co-teaching in action. Ask them to be a part of a planning meeting or a quarterly reflection where you discuss what is going well and what can be improved. Involving them in as much of the process as possible will keep them informed and allow them to feel part of the team. We have found this to be invaluable when something comes up or we have something to run by them. They take ownership of the initiative as much as we do because we include them and they want us to be successful. We have even gone as far as to invite them to participate in a co-teaching book study we are leading for the district!
"I felt convinced when I was able to walk in and see you (John & Allyson) in action and how well the kids responded. Your DIBELS and TRC data helped as well!"
-Mr. Hegedus, Assistant Principal BRES

There's one last thing we want to touch on...

Ya'll, we can't stress enough how much trust matters. If your administration knows you do your job, that you go above and beyond, that the needs of students are truly your priority, you will face less adversity. Focus on proving yourself first and you will go far! After all, everything goes back to relationships. Nothing is ever perfect, but we need them and they need us. When everyone works together, we can make awesome things happen for our students!

So there it is! Hope it helps! Drop any questions you may have in the comments and happy co-teaching!
Posted on: February 28, 2018Allyson Caudill

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As much as developing ourselves and our skills as co-teachers matters, the buy-in of school leadership is just as important to the overall success of co-teaching. Ideally, it needs to be a systematic approach. A co-teaching initiative can easily fail, or be less effective, without school leaders' commitment to doing their part to support and encourage the initiative.

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by Tan Huynh

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Welcome to the Collaborating for English Learners Series. When collaboration and co-teaching time was planned into my schedule, I had no idea how to work with content teachers. I was thrown in the ring without ever receiving training. I wish that I had had these four teacher collaboration faqs to point me in the right direction.

Collaborating allows me to share literacy practices with content teachers who are usually (and understandably) focused solely on developing content instruction. It's a mutually beneficial relationship because, in collaborating with content teachers, we create a context for ELs to use language and provide opportunities to make connections between ideas.

There are many frequently asked questions about collaboration, many of which can be answered by reading Collaboration and Co-Teaching: Strategies for English Learners by Andrea Honigsfeld and .

Before we consider specific teacher collaboration strategies , let's examine a few FAQs about collaboration in general.

Q1: What is Collaboration?

Friend & Cook (1992) define teacher collaboration as, " [a] style of direct interaction between at least two co-equal parties voluntarily engaged in shared decision making as they work toward a common goal " (p. 5) . In our field of work, collaboration is when at least two teachers have equal opportunities to decide curriculum and shape instruction in order to enhance learning for ELS.

Sometimes the journey of collaboration can be smooth and at other times rough, but if you have these essential elements in place, they'll act as like guardrails to direct your work and prevent you from falling off the track.

Q2: Why should teachers collaborate?

We should consider collaborating with other educators because research on teacher collaboration proves that it leads to increased academic achievement f or ELs. Pardini (2006) conducted a multi-year study of the effects of teacher collaboration in St. Paul's School District in Minnesota. After looking at the results from the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment Test, he found that the reading gap between ELs and non-ELs fell 7 percentage points (from 13% to 6%). Pardini also looked at results from the Test of Emerging English from 2003 to 2005 and found that ELs who attended St. Paul's Public Schools consistently outscored their peers statewide in reading and math for those three years.

Pardini also looked at results from the Test of Emerging English from 2003 to 2005 and found that ELs who attended St. Paul's Public Schools consistently outscored their peers statewide in reading and math for those three years.
Pardini suggested that the positive academic achievement occurred because the content teachers and English language teachers (ELTs) collaborated to make content more comprehensible. Studies such as Pardini's encourage us to collaborate beyond our individual departments because such partnerships produce measurable academic achievement for all students, not just ELs.

Q3: How does collaboration work?

Teacher collaboration is usually divided into four categories: co-planning, co-teaching, co-assessing, and co-reflecting. In this series, I'll mainly be commenting on co-planning and co-teaching. Co-planning means jointly making decisions about curriculum, unit design, lesson planning, and prioritizing state standards. Co-teaching means agreeing on how to deliver content, clarifying the roles of each teacher, and identifying ways to differentiate and scaffold instruction.

It's important to have both of these because co-planning informs co-teaching and vice versa. Collaboration is a cycle - not an event; a process - not an outcome.

Co-teaching without co-planning relegates an ELT as an education aide by disregarding the valuable contributions an ELT makes in directing ELs' education. Furthermore, it always puts the ELT behind the 8-ball, scrambling to find out the lesson's objective instead of spending the time working with the ELs.

Moreover, co-planning without co-teaching disproportionately places the burden on the content teacher. For example, a reading strategy that was shared during co-planning is best modeled by an ELT, who has expertise in that area. The content teacher might need the ELT there to describe the strategy or help students as they implement it.

Q4: Who does what when collaborating?

I liken the roles of a content teacher and an ELT to oars on a rowboat. Although the person in the front provides the momentum while the person in the rear stirs the boat, both are needed to successfully arrive at the dock. Content teachers offer expertise of a specific discipline such as nuances of the content, the sequence of content standards, and the connections to things outside of school. Content teachers should be the ones deciding the content standards, selecting the topics, arranging the scope and sequence, and sequencing the learning activities.

ELTs play a significant but distinctly different role during this collaboration. Our expertise is in supporting language development, ensuring that all cultures are respected, and scaffolding activities to facilitate student engagement. We're particularly valuable when working with ELs new to English , helping ELs understand instruction , and empowering ELs to demonstrate their thinking though differentiated tasks .

Without the expertise from ELTs, ELs might not fully access or engage with content. Without the expertise of content teachers, ELs might not form a deep understanding of the content or have a context to apply language (Honigsfeld & Dove, 2010).

Ying can exist without Yang in the short run, but it produces an unbalanced, disjointed reality in the long term.

It takes a village to educate a child, and everyone is invited to contribute from their area of expertise. Content teachers offer content knowledge while English language teachers support language development. They each play a distinct, but vital role in teaching ELs.

Now that we have a shared understanding of collaboration, I'll examine co-planning and co-teaching respectively in the following post. There's a range of strategies on the continuum between co-planning and co-teaching, and knowing what type of collaboration to offer is critical to successful collaboration.
What should other FAQs about teacher collaboration? Please comment below.
Friend, M., & Cook, L. (1992). Interactions: Collaboration skills for school professionals. White Plains, NY: Longman.

Honigsfeld, A. & Dove, M. (2010). Collaboration and Co-Teaching: Strategies for English Learners. SAGE Publications. Kindle Edition.

Pardini, P. (2006). In one voice: Mainstream and ELL teachers work side-by-side in the classroom teaching language through content. Journal of Staff Development, 27 (4), 20- 25.

Ronfeldt, M., Farmer, S., McQueen, K., & Grissom, J. (2015). Teacher collaboration in instructional teams and student achievement. American Educational Research Journal, 52 (3), 475-514.

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#43. Four Teacher Collaboration FAQs - ELL Strategies | TanKHuynh

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Examines teacher collaboration FAQs - its benefits, the difference between co-planning and co-teaching, and who does what in the process.

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The 6 Approaches & When to Use Them (Blog Post)

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The 6 Approaches & When to Use Them (Blog Post)

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by Ready, Set, Coteach

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The 6 Approaches and When to Use Them

Mr. Cox working with half the class while Ms. Caudill works with the other half (parallel teaching)

The first thing you probably learned at the beginning of your co-teaching journey were the six approaches. However, if you're like us, it might have left you asking, but how do we know which approach to use and when?

It's a loaded question. Hopefully, this helps!

When co-planning (see blogpost on co-planning here), choosing an approach should be the last portion tackled. Once the entire lesson is planned, then you choose your approach based on which is best for the lesson activities. Skim through the lesson plan stopping and occasionally asking yourselves, which approach will best meet the needs of students for this part of the lesson?

Other considerations when choosing a co-teaching approach might include:

Student characteristics & needs

Curriculum, including content & instructional strategies

Pragmatic considerations

Teacher characteristics & needs

Recommended Use : Level of Collaboration: Seldom Low

This is the approach we use least. Why? Because it damages our parity (equality) in the classroom that we worked so hard to establish. That being said, there are some times where the One teach, One assist model may be beneficial.

You might want to use this approach if you:

Recommended Use : Seldom Level of Collaboration: Low

When I first was introduced to the One Teach, One Observe model I assumed it meant one teacher observing the other teacher. I was quickly corrected. This model is for when you may need to gather data on students.

You might want to use this approach if you want to collect data on:

Recommended Use : Frequent Level of Collaboration: Low

During the ELA block we have whole group instruction and also a modified version of Daily 5 rotations. Students meet with one or both of us during this station teaching time. Allyson (ESL Teacher) focuses on language needs in her groups while Ashley or John (Classroom Teacher) pulls guided reading groups.

You might want to use this approach to:

Differentiate based on ability & student need

Divide the content into parts

Reduce student-teacher ratio while providing small group instruction

Review previously taught content

Quick Note : Be flexible! Usually we group our students for station teaching based on ability and/or reading levels. However, sometimes we switch it up! Really analyze the lesson and student need in order to decide how best to group students. It could change with each lesson!*
Recommended Use : Occasionally Level of Collaboration: Intermediate

We probably use alternative teaching once a week. Based on the demographics of our classroom, we often use alternative teaching to provide extra support for our lowest students. However, alternative teaching is also a great way to provide extension and challenge those high flyers!
Quick Note on grouping: It is ideal for the alternative support to not always be provided by the same teacher. It is crucial that you rotate roles so the parity isn't interrupted. It is also best if the group of students separated isn't always the same.
You might want to use this approach for:

Recommended Use : Frequent Level of Collaboration: Intermediate

Parallel teaching is great in so many different scenarios. We often use this approach to tackle more rigorous activities so that the teacher-student ratio is lowered and we can, therefore, give students more individualized attention. In this model, students are grouped heterogeneously and both teachers are teaching the same content, just to a smaller group of students. Again, it is important to switch up the groups to avoid any negative impacts on parity. For example, in Ashley & I's class, we have PB&J partners. One time we parallel teach I might take the peanut butters and Ashley might take the jellys. The next time we switch.

You might want to use this approach if you want:

Students to be exposed to multiple teaching styles

To identify students who may be having difficulty understanding

To lower teacher-student ratio

Greater supervision

Recommended Use : Occasionally Level of Collaboration: High

Team teaching requires the most comfort, the highest level of collaboration, and is the most difficult to implement. During this approach, both teachers are delivering instruction at the same time. As you become more comfortable with this model, instruction becomes more of a conversation and less taking turns. It is great for modeling effective communication skills and cooperation. For us personally, we use team teaching almost every day and prefer it for introducing new material in whole group. But beware of too much teacher talk!

You might want to use this approach when:

No single approach reigns supreme! In fact, our best advice is to vary your approaches and take some risks. Trust us, we know it can be easy to fall into a routine of using the same one or two approaches all the time and, from time-to-time, we have been guilty of this ourselves. Nevertheless, we must keep pushing ourselves out of our comfort zones and into whatever is best for our students. In this case that means examining every lesson and discussing which approach would best meet student needs!

Have fun with it and contact us if you need support! We love collaborating 🙂
Posted on: November 12, 2017Allyson Caudill

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Mr. Cox working with half the class while Ms. Caudill works with the other half (parallel teaching) The first thing you probably learned at the beginning of your co-teaching journey were the six approaches. However, if you're like us, it might have left you asking, but how do we know which approach to use and when?

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by Angela Perry on Cult of Pedagogy

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Impossible. That was my first thought when I saw the class roster. In one of my ninth grade English classes, 13 of my 27 students had IEPs. Additionally, about one-third of the students had failed the class the previous year. I dreaded the first day of school. But then something wonderful happened: The principal assigned me a co-teacher, a special education expert to serve as another set of hands (and eyes and ears!) during this class every day. I was thrilled.

My co-teacher Sandie was a joy to collaborate with, but our relationship was by no means perfect, especially at the beginning. We often struggled to find planning time. Sometimes we disagreed about how to best help a particular student. However, we nurtured the co-teaching relationship and, in time, found a rhythm that worked for us-and for the students we served.

In the years since I co-taught with Sandie and other teachers, I've coached and consulted with dozens of successful and not-so-successful teams. Co-teaching, when done well, offers benefits for both students and teachers. When not done well, it can be confusing or downright frustrating for all involved. If you are or will be part of a co-teaching partnership, this post will show you some ways to make your partnership work beautifully.

What is Co-Teaching?

In a co-teaching relationship, also known as a "push-in" arrangement, a general education teacher partners with a specialist who may be certified in teaching English Language Learners (ELLs), students with learning disabilities, or some other special population. A co-teaching team works in the general ed classroom; for the majority of the time, students with special needs are not pulled out to receive services in another location.

For instance, a middle school social studies teacher may have an ELL teacher co-teaching with him during one class period because five students in that class are newcomers to the United States and speak only Arabic fluently. A high school teacher may have one or two sections of biology to which many students with IEPs for reading are channeled; a co-teacher who specializes in reading disabilities co-teaches in these classes. A 4th grade teacher may have two students with 504 plans and another three who have specific learning disabilities in her class; she works alongside a special education teacher daily during lessons in the four core academic subject areas.

For more background, download this Brief History of Co-Teaching.

Co-Teaching Structures

General education teachers working with specialists in a "push-in" model often work in one of the following structures described by Friend and Cook (1996):

One teach, one observe: One teacher delivers instruction while the other observes student learning. Usually the observer collects data on student understanding so that the co-teaching team can better plan future instruction. Sometimes, specific students are watched closely so that the teachers can determine new strategies to use with them.

One teach, one assist: One teacher takes the lead in providing instruction while the other moves around the classroom, assisting struggling students. This help is not limited to students with special needs; the assisting professional is there to serve whomever needs support.

Parallel teaching: The class is divided in two groups and the same material is presented simultaneously by both teachers. The teachers plan the two groups deliberately to maximize the success of all students; this is not simply a "pull-out" or intervention group sitting in the same room.

Station teaching: Both teachers are actively involved in instruction as students are divided into groups and rotate from one station to the next. There may be stations where students work independently or with a paraprofessional in addition to the two stations the co-teachers facilitate.

Alternative teaching: One teacher takes a small group of students and provides them more intensive or specialized instruction that is different than what the large group receives from the other teacher.

Team teaching: Both teachers teach the content at the same time in tandem or "tag team" fashion.

It is important to note that both teachers have equal status and equal responsibility in all six of these arrangements. In the co-teaching relationships that work best, at no time is one teacher seen as subordinate to the other. Both professionals are credentialed professionals, although each may have his or her specific areas of expertise.

How to Make the Most of a Co-Teaching Partnership

Researchers and practitioners have tons of advice about how to co-teach effectively, and as a person who has been "in the trenches" with several different co-teachers, so do I. The advice below sums up the most common recommendations.

1. Respect each other.

Not surprisingly, mutual respect is critical to the co-teaching relationship. You'll have to share ideas openly and do much of your work facing students together, so respecting each other is paramount. Sometimes you'll disagree, and that's to be expected. As co-teacher and ELL specialist Melissa Eddington says, it's fine to disagree with someone's ideas, but don't make the disagreement about the person.

Teachers in co-teaching situations that don't work well often report feeling disrespected. Amy* is an ELL specialist paired with a middle school social studies teacher. When they collaborate, Amy feels her suggestions for tweaking whole-class lessons are not taken seriously by her partner. "She respects me as a professional," Amy says of her co-teacher, "but I think because I'm not experienced in her content, she doesn't see my input as valuable."

Susan*, who is licensed in both secondary science and learning disabilities, works with two physical science teachers and one biology teacher. The physical science teachers welcome her ideas and eagerly adjust their lessons based on her suggestions. They are seeing a steady increase of students mastering the required standards in the classes Susan supports. The biology teacher, however, dismisses many of Susan's ideas and accuses her of "dumbing down" his content. Susan feels disrespected and finds it hard to even be in the room with the biology teacher because he constantly positions himself as "the expert" and places her in a subordinate role.

Words and gestures speak volumes. Take care to show respect for your partner in all you do.

2. Clearly define roles and responsibilities.

Co-teaching works better when the partners agree on who does what, when. Clearly defined roles and responsibilities prevent either partner from feeling the other has overstepped a boundary or shirked responsibilities.

Natalie Marston (2002-2015), an elementary special ed teacher, recommends co-teachers reach agreement on scheduling, classroom procedures and behaviors, classwork and homework policies, grading, and school/home communication together so they present a united front at all times.

Obviously this type of planning requires a great deal of time, ideally before school starts. If extended time is not available prior to the beginning of the school year, then the co-teaching team should expect to put in extra hours before and after school in the first few weeks so things get off to a good start.

My co-teacher Sandie and I did not have advance warning of our assignment. We found out about it on the first teacher workday, leaving us only a few days before the students arrived. For weeks, we both felt like we were playing "catch up and keep up," but found that having lunch together (and some happy hours together) helped us stay in sync.

3. Be flexible.

Innovation is difficult. That's why so many teachers find themselves falling back on comfortable (and even tired) activities and strategies. Co-teaching allows you to gain another person's perspective on how instruction might be improved, how students might be best assessed, what resources to use, and so much more. Sometimes this means one person has to put aside his or her favorite tried-and-true strategy and try something different.

When Susan suggested a tactile, quiz-like method for reviewing the periodic table to her physical science co-teaching partners, they were skeptical about the time and materials it might require. They initially felt it would be more efficient to simply give additional notes to their students and then pair students to quiz each other. However, they agreed to try the review Susan's way. The students loved the activity, and almost every student with special needs passed the chapter test two days later. All three teachers were thrilled and committed to using the activity in future years.

4. Plan together.

The co-teaching relationship brings together two people with wonderfully rich expertise and experiences. Special educators are typically skilled in individualizing curriculum and instruction based on children's needs (Dettmer et al., 2005; Volonino & Zigmond, 2007). General educators, on the other hand, tend to have broad knowledge of the curriculum, standards, and desired outcomes for the larger group. Therefore, when general educators plan lessons, they tend to aim for the masses (Dettmer et al., 2005). Both perspectives are important, and co-teaching teams need ample planning time to work through how to best utilize each one.

Lack of planning time can lead to territorialism. Without time to plan for a good balance of content and individualization, a general ed teacher may become protective of his subject matter, or a specialist may become protective of his students. Emma*, a high school special ed teacher partnered with two geometry teachers, has experienced this. One teacher often asks Emma to pull aside the five or six students with specific disabilities within his class and work only with them. He sometimes says to her, "You worry about your kids. I'll worry about geometry." The principal is now providing an additional hour of planning time for Emma and this teacher. An assistant principal who oversees the math department facilitates the meetings so Emma feels supported and the geometry teacher has another content-area expert to hash things out with.

Keep in mind that planning must include both instruction and assessment. Considering many students with special needs have legal accommodations for assessment (like being provided translation, extended time, or oral reading), it's best to include both partners fully in designing quizzes, tests, papers, and other high-stakes assessment tasks.

How much time is ideal? One study found that co-teachers desired, on average, 15 minutes to an hour each day for planning (Dieker & Murawski, 2003). This figure corresponds to what worked for my co-teacher and me, and it also confirms what I hear from many co-teachers in the field. Strive to find that time any way you can.

5. Don't take yourself too seriously.

Innovation requires failure. Many times, teachers feel they've failed somehow during instruction, and in reality, the students haven't even noticed. We are often our own worst critics. Revisiting or correcting something later in the day (or the next day) doesn't mean you failed earlier. It means you've learned something since. This is the kind of ongoing learning we want to model for our students.

And, as in most situations in life, a little bit of humor goes a long way. Laugh with your co-teacher. Allow students to see both of you laughing with each other and with them when something is surprising, silly, or just doesn't go the way you planned. In the words of Jennifer Wolf who co-teaches with Melissa Eddington, "Take the work seriously, but don't take yourself too seriously."

Eddington adds, "You gotta laugh at each other! Our job is hard, and if you're not laughing and making light of some things, then it's just not going to be a good place to be."

6. Communicate, communicate, communicate.

Planning time is one thing; constant communication is another. Not only should co-teachers frequently plan for what standards will be covered, how material will be taught, and how students will be assessed, they should also regularly communicate in less formal ways.

Co-teaching teams have different methods to create and sustain that communication:

Eddington and Wolf use the Voxer app throughout the school day and on their drives home to send messages back and forth. Voxer works like a walkie-talkie and allows back-and-forth conversation in real time when two people are not physically close to each other. Melissa says, "We're constantly communicating. We're talking about specific students. We're looking at assessments to see what areas are lacking...different things we want to bring to the classroom, things we don't want to do..."

Some other teams I've worked with use texting and emails throughout each day to share updates. Voxer, texts, and emails can all work well, especially if one teacher has urgent information or an urgent question about a particular student.

Teams can use Google Docs or other shared documents to keep track of lesson planning and to share feedback with each other on how lessons went. Collaborative documents can also be used to provide each other with information about targeted students.

In addition to ongoing communication, Ariel Sacks (2014) reminds us to periodically check in with our co-teacher about how we are doing in general. She recommends asking your partner the following:

Are there management items we should clarify, such as when are students allowed to go to the bathroom?

Are we sharing airtime well?

Are we dividing grading in an equitable way?

Would different teaching formats better utilize the two of us in the classroom?

Finally, co-teachers need to present a united front when dealing with parents. Some partners go as far as to create a shared email address from which all communication flows. This may or may not be practical in your situation. At the very least, important parent communication about a student's progress should be drafted by both parties.

For more in-depth information about communicating and collaborating with your co-teacher, see Communicating and Collaborating in Co-Taught Classrooms (Conderman et al., 2009).

7. Seek administrative support.

Sometimes, teachers have been scheduled to co-teach by administrators but didn't have much advance notice. This is what happened with Sandie and me. We were able to find snippets of time during the school day to use for planning and checking in with each other, but we had no common planning period. If you and your partner don't have a common planning time when you can frequently collaborate, ask for it. Go to your principal with a couple of proposals about how this can work without too much disruption to the rest of the schedule.

Sometimes co-teachers may not understand fully why they are being asked to team. If this is the case, ask for a meeting with the principal and any others responsible for the assignment. Ask them why they thought the two of you would be a good fit and what they hope you will accomplish with students.

If you're already in a co-teaching partnership that's not working well, and you've tried to address this with your partner, turn to a trusted administrator next for advice. If you and your co-teacher have not recently been observed, ask the administrator to come sit in on part of a lesson. Tell him or her what you'd like feedback on or what feels like it's not working well. Debrief with the administrator, ideally with your co-teaching partner. When an observer offers data and feedback to both of you, it may feel different for your partner than when you share things from your perspective. (This co-teaching observation form can help.)

It's important not to go to other teachers with your concerns. Respect the collegial relationship you have with your co-teacher and don't do anything that might undermine it. And it should go without saying that you don't want students to perceive any problems within the co-teaching relationship. Be cognizant of your demeanor, tone, and body language. Students are quite perceptive and can easily spot trouble. They are also experts at "good cop/bad cop." Don't let students play you and your partner against each other. If your colleagues or students give you any evidence that they know the co-teaching arrangement is ineffective, head straight for that trusted administrator to support you. ♦

*These names have been changed.
References:
Conderman, G., Johnston-Rodriguez, S., & Hartman, P. (2009). Communicating and collaborating in co-taught classrooms. Teaching Exceptional Children Plus,5(5). Retrieved January 26, 2017, from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ967751.pdf

Dettmer, P., Thurston, L., Knackendoffel, A., & Dyck, N. (2009). Collaboration, consultation, and teamwork (6th ed.). Columbus, OH: Pearson.

Dieker, Lisa A., Murawski, W. M. (2003). "Co-teaching at the Secondary Level: Unique Issues, Current Trends, and Suggestions for Success." The High School Journal, 86(4). Retrieved January 26, 2017, from http://search.proquest.com/docview/220220652/13494E2D48D1DB506F0/8

Friend, M. & Cook, L. (1996). Interactions: Collaboration skills for school professionals. White Plains, NY: Longman.

Marston, N. (2002-2015). Six steps to successful co-teaching: Helping special and regular education teachers work together. National Education Association. Retrieved January 26, 2017 from http://www.nea.org/tools/6-steps-to-successful-co-teaching.html

Sacks, A. (2014, October 15). Blog post. Eight tips for making the most of co-teaching. Retrieved January 26, 2017, from http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2014/10/15/ctq_sacks_coteaching.html

Volonino, V. & Zigmond, N. (2007). Promoting research-based practices through inclusion. Theory into Practice, 46(4), 291-300.

Learn More

Angela Peery is the author of The Co-Teacher's Playbook, which will be available in September 2019.

Links to this book are Amazon Affiliate links. Cult of Pedagogy gets a small commission for all purchases made through these links.

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When done well, co-teaching offers benefits for both students and teachers. When not done well, it can be confusing or downright frustrating for all involved.

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by Ready, Set, Coteach (adapted from Honigsfeld & Dove)

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Do's & Don'ts

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Classroom Management Tips for Co-Teachers

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Classroom Management Tips for Co-Teachers

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by Rich Mehrenberg for Edutopia

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The old adage "two heads are better than one" holds special significance in the classroom. Schools are increasingly recognizing the potential benefits of co-teaching for many students across a variety of settings.

Co-teaching expert Wendy Murawski defines the strategy as "two or more educators who co-plan, co-instruct, and co-assess a group of students with diverse needs in the same general education classroom." While co-teaching was originally designed to enhance inclusive opportunities for students with disabilities, it is now also embraced as a valuable tool for reaching English language learners and gifted students, and for teaching collaborative content.

The instructional aspects of co-teaching have been examined, but it's important to address the unique classroom management challenges of co-teaching and specific tactics that can be used to address these issues.

Peanut Butter and Mayonnaise

While peanut butter and mayonnaise are both tasty, few of us are brave enough to mix them on the same sandwich. Some foods that are wonderful on their own may not be the best combination. The same could be said for co-teachers. Two solo educators might be excellent in their own classrooms, but forcing them to work together may not produce the best results.

Differences in personalities, teaching styles, or classroom management priorities are a few of the reasons that teachers may clash. When co-teachers are unable to compromise, students suffer.

Although some teaching partnerships are dictated by administration, participants should approach these relationships with flexibility and an open mind. Early and frequent communication is one of the best ways to avoid, or at least minimize, significant disagreements. Tools like a co-teaching partnership checklist give partners the opportunity to discuss their individual approaches and priorities and to identify areas for compromise, if need be. Co-teachers should establish their approaches and work on compromises before students even set foot in the classroom.

Mom Said I Could

Kids are pretty savvy at getting what they want. For example, Mom may tell a child they cannot attend a sleepover because it's a school night. Not being satisfied with that answer, the child may later seek permission from Dad, never mentioning that Mom was already asked. Some kids may even go so far as to finesse the truth to make it seem that the other parent is already fully on board with their requests. Unsurprisingly, these types of manipulation usually lead to frustration and anger between the adults when the truth finally comes out.

Co-teachers need to be aware of how students engage with each teacher in the classroom. For minor requests, such as signing bathroom passes or borrowing school supplies, consider assigning specific requests to only one member of the team, and inform students of the division of labor. For example, Mrs. Caspero handles all restroom requests, while Mr. Longo is the person to see if you need to borrow a pencil. Assuming both co-teachers have similar expectations, such an approach minimizes confusion and redundancy.

For more complex requests, such as extra-credit opportunities or project deadline extensions, an immediate answer is not required. Explain to the student that you need to run the idea by your colleague, and give them a clear estimate as to when a joint decision will be made. This approach shows students that you value collaboration and respect your partner.

Good Cop, Bad Cop

Buddy cop movies often feature interrogation scenes. One officer plays the role of the bad cop, acting tough and doing everything to intimidate the suspect. The partner plays the good cop, who tries to bond with the suspect in an effort to make them drop their guard.

While this approach may be successful in the movies, it will be ineffective and lead to confusion in a co-taught classroom. Teachers need to calibrate behavioral expectations and consequences. Consistent consequences and ongoing discussion between partners regarding which behaviors should be addressed are important. Remember that disagreements should be discussed promptly and professionally, but not in front of the students.

Furthermore, co-teachers need to feel comfortable confronting students rather than let their more assertive colleague handle it. Addressing misbehavior need not be adversarial. Nonverbal strategies such as eye contact or closer proximity are effective ways to quickly get a student back on board without undue attention.

Sherlock and Watson

Although the great literary duo Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson have shared the spotlight in dozens of adventures, they are rarely perceived as equals. Watson is always a few steps behind Holmes, who is portrayed as having a superior intellect and brave sense of adventure.

All too often, co-teachers are also viewed unequally among students. This may lead to less engagement and weaker relationships. One of the most effective ways to overcome this obstacle is to ensure that both teachers are consistently and meaningfully involved in the planning, teaching, and assessing of every lesson. Co-teaching lesson templates can provide both structure and accountability.

Co-teaching is a promising technique that holds educational potential for many students. Using the classroom management skills of collaboration, communication, and equity, teaching partners can establish a learning environment that is both peaceful and productive.

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Classroom Management Tips for Co-Teachers

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The old adage "two heads are better than one" holds special significance in the classroom. Schools are increasingly recognizing the potential benefits of co-teaching for many students across a variety of settings. Co-teaching expert Wendy Murawski defines the strategy as "two or more educators who co-plan, co-instruct, and co-assess a group of students with diverse needs in the same general education classroom."

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Examples of Content & Language Objectives

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Examples of Content & Language Objectives

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by Ready, Set, Coteach

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Every 2nd & 4th Tuesday @ 8:00 EST

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by Justin Garcia

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This week kicked off my first week of Co-Teaching! Hooray! I survived! I'm still employed! I still love my job!

In all seriousness, over the past year I've been researching, reaching out to professionals, reading , and meeting with administration to set the stage for a productive Co-Teaching school culture. I came in with a plan, and this week I not only executed, but took time to reflect so I can improve for next year (already!). I can't thank my fabulous twitter PLN enough; a lot@Toppel_ELD, @TanELLClassroom, @ReadySetCoTeach, @Andrea honigsfel, @specsol, @Larryferlazzo, @CBTennyson, @MsSalvac, and everyone active in our fabulous #ELLchat for getting me started! I couldn't have done this without your amazing help.

This blog post is narrative, part informative, but also part reflection. I came into the year with a plan, but I also didn't want to micro-manage my interactions with teachers. After all, teaching is a profession where we work with . Not everything runs smoothly, so I felt it necessary to get organized on a basic level and tackle the nitty gritty details as the week progresses. Over the course of this week, I realized that a lot of what I planned worked really well for myself and teachers, but there were a few things that I wish I would have done a little differently.

Definitely do: Make your role known

One thing I'm glad that I organized was a brief presentation about Co-Teaching. It contained the basic definition of what Co-Teaching is, but also the definition I developed with my administrative staff. Having everyone take part in what a collaborative teaching environment looks like gave us a more united front, which helped validate what we are trying to accomplish. I didn't review every Co-Teaching model or the components of Co-Planning as to not overwhelm teachers new to having a teaching partner (which was essentially the entire staff). Since I'm the only ELD Co-Teacher for the 12 elementary staff, tackling what it would look like for each teacher team during our first Co-Planning session would be a better time to delve into the specifics. My feedback afterwards was mostly positive; it was the perfect amount of information for new teachers, but returning staff wanted to know more details.

I started creating it in May before the school year was over and worked on it piece by piece over the summer (adding and editing information as I learned more). Sometimes I slept on it for a week then came back to it with fresh eyes and a fresh perspective. I met with my administration over the course of the year as I created it, too, so they can provide input on what to add / edit / omit. It's all about a balance of being specific enough to make your point clear, but also general enough as to know overload teachers with too much input. At the start of the year, there's usually loads of the latter, so be sure to adjust accordingly.

I wanted to stress the importance of assets based conversations during collaboration.

Creating a shared definition with administration is crucial to gaining relevant support.

Definitely do: Give a Co-Teaching Quick Write

Maria Dove and Andrea Honigsfeld suggested providing a Co-Teaching Quick Write at the start of the year to gauge everyone's background knowledge of what collaborative instruction looks like, how it's organized, and what it isn't. It was also a great ice breaker activity to get our meeting started. Teachers broke off into their teacher teams (specialists also were included in this!) to complete the handout. Afterwards, teachers shared some of the points with the whole group. Later, I compiled all of the information into a word cloud that I shared with teachers so I can pinpoint consistent language and ideas.

One piece of feedback I received was that I could have outlined the purpose of the Quick Write a bit more thoroughly at the start of the meeting. Some teachers weren't very sure why they were doing it and what would be done with it afterwards, so I'll be sure to incorporate these points in the future.

Having everyone take part in what a collaborative teaching environment looks like gave us a more united front.

Definitely do: Start Co-Planning

One of my goals for the first week was to get the common planning times for teachers so I can get involved with Co-Planning right away. It's always difficult to change up routines in the middle of the year, so starting the first week with a (mostly) set schedule was at the front of my to-do list. I managed to meet with all six grades during week one! We didn't delve right into Co-Planning lessons, though. Instead I provided a laminated list of Co-Teaching models as well as an adapted menu similar to John Nordmeyer's Collaborative Teaching Menu to use a reference for "on the spot collaboration". Teachers really appreciated the baby steps that I have been taking to get ourselves used to this process. It's not only new to them, but new to me, too!

Now that I have my Co-Planning schedule completed, I can build my Co-Teaching schedule around the times I plan. While I'm involved in everyone's planning meetings, I will not be Co-Teaching with every teacher, but instead teaching with teachers I a.) have a positive working relationship with and b.) have the need in their class. We'll see how the schedule plays out in the coming weeks as it's already filling up quickly!

Probably wait on: Co-Teaching

While I appreciated that some teachers wanted to jump into Co-Teaching right away, I expressed that Co-Teaching can wait until at least the second week of school. Depending on your comfort level with your Co-Teacher (especially if both of you have Co-Taught before) you could jump into this on day one. In my case, more than half of the elementary teachers were brand new and none of them have had experience Co-Teaching (including myself!), so I wanted to take it slow and ease into collaborative practice. Co-Planning was a great first step!

We'll start Co-Teaching once a week and gradually increase frequency as we all become comfortable with the new dynamic. I want to make sure that we do this rather than jump into anything too intense from the get-go. Also, teachers need their space to get settled into their new classrooms and environment. Ideally, once we establish a positive working relationship and gain more experience, we can start Co-Teaching earlier in the school year.

Should do: Help model classroom routines

After reflecting this week on my presence in classrooms, I thought that a great way to ease in to Co-Teaching would be to model lessons about classroom routines together. It's low stress, low prep, and non-academic so planning and teaching would be an easy way to get used to Co-Teaching models. Not only would teachers become more used to two people teaching at the same time, but the students would also get used to having two teachers in the room as well.

There are plenty of opportunities to model classroom routines and expectations. A few colleagues use "Responsive Classroom" and "Morning Meeting" into their daily schedule. Working with another teacher during these lessons is a great way to model examples and non-examples of greeting each other and playing games. When modeling reading / writing stamina, a second teacher can fill in an anchor chart while another teacher models expectations. It's also helpful to have another set of eyes in the classroom to formatively assess which students have more stamina than others. I'm already in classrooms helping with pre-assessments, which gives teachers another set of eyes to interpret and record assessment data at the start of the year.

Definitely do: Create collaborative goals

I adapted a form by @ReadySetCoteach the outlines three variations of collaborative goals: Co-Teaching, Professional, and Student goals. I also notated which goals we considered short term (being accomplished in three weeks or less) and long term (exceeding three weeks). I sent an editable Google Doc to teacher teams outlining goals that we discussed during our first Co-Planning session for teachers to review, edit, and comment on (plus I'm making an attempt to go 100% paperless this year). We're starting with short term goals like establishing Co-Planning routines and Co-Teaching our first lesson together. This is also a great way to keep me organized and focused on what we're working on together with students and our own professional practice.

With one teacher team, we made a short term goal about using DRA pre-assessment data to guide our future instruction for the first reading unit. Using that assessment data, we can create a long term reading goal for our students. These goals helped us focus our first weeks of collaborative instruction!

I started using this template, adapted from a form by @ReadySetCoteach, to make collaborative goals for the staff that I Co-Teach with.

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I'm SO excited to jump into Co-Teaching in the coming weeks! All of this research has really paid off, and I'm looking forward to working with my colleagues this year to not only help our students grow, but to improve our professional practice as well.

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This week kicked off my first week of Co-Teaching! Hooray! I survived! I'm still employed! I still love my job! In all seriousness, over the past year I've been researching, reaching out to professionals, reading , and meeting with administration to set the stage for a productive Co-Teaching school culture.

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The Far-Reaching Benefits of Co-Teaching for ELLs

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The Far-Reaching Benefits of Co-Teaching for ELLs

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Teaching Channel

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How to Make the Most of a Co-Teaching Partnership

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How to Make the Most of a Co-Teaching Partnership

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Cult of Pedagogy

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Hint: They're NOT the same.

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Everything you need to schedule & plan co-conferences with your co-teacher!

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Educator & Author of Two Teachers in the Room: Strategies for Co-Teaching Success

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About | Elizabeth Stein, Special Education/UDL Educational Consultant

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About | Elizabeth Stein, Special Education/UDL Educational Consultant

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Elizabeth Stein: Transformative professional development opportunities to guide equitable, meaningful instruction in inclusive settings. Resources to elevate co-teaching relationships, instruction, and learning outcomes through a Universal Design for Learning lens.

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Two Teachers in the Room: Strategies for Co-Teaching Success by Elizabeth Stein

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Two Teachers in the Room: Strategies for Co-Teaching Success by Elizabeth Stein

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https://www.amazon.com/Two-Teachers-Room-Elizabeth-Stein/dp/1138689998

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GREAT blog for co-teaching in the middle grades!

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by Ready, Set, Coteach

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Co-Reflecting for Success

In the past, Andrea Honigsfeld and Maria Dove have brilliantly compared co-teaching to riding a tandem bike. Imagine riding this bike in a race with your co-teacher but you can't talk to each other. You may plan and prepare with your co-teacher before the race, but if you can't communicate along the way will you ever get to the end? What if you DO somehow finish the race? Great! You've accomplished your goal, but was it the BEST you will ever do? Probably not. So, after the race you look at your results and reflect. Was there weather you could better prepare for next time? How can you be more in-sync in your pedalling?

When we teach (especially co-teach), without reflecting we may finish the race but we are disregarding the results. What's the point in planning, teaching, and assessing if all we are going to do is use the same format, assessment, or lesson plan with no adjustments? Reflecting on our practice is what makes the difference between mediocre teachers and exceptional teachers. Unfortunately with limited time, reflection can often be thrown out with our race results. However, reflection is how we GROW. That's why it is important to intentionally plan for reflection with your co-teacher.

During the Race: Weekly Reflections

One part of reflection is purposefully communicating and checking in along the way. We co-reflect on a regular basis. Consider adding a place in your lesson plan where you can jot down reflections as a team each week. Add it into your meeting agenda so you don't forget about it. When reflecting, think about the goals that you set as a pair. Was your instruction and classroom practice in line with your goals? Take time to think about students who struggle. What more could you do for them? What about students who need a challenge? Did you miss an extension opportunity? You could use a plus/delta chart like this one or you could try the Glows and Grows Weekly Co-teaching Reflection shee t. Formally co-reflecting can feel uncomfortable at first but it's so important to building your practice!

After the Race: EOY Reflections

Another part of reflection comes after the race. As we wrap up the year to prepare for a new one, we think about the year as a whole. This is hard for teachers because the end of the year can be a busy time. If it's difficult for you to fit it in, try meeting with your co-teacher over the summer for a cup of coffee. For us, getting away from school helps us to feel less stressed and more open.

We like to look back at our goals and see if we met them. Here are some questions you can use to reflect with your co-teacher:

1. What are some things we accomplished this year as a co-teaching pair?

2. What is something your co-teacher inspired you to try this year?

3. What is something that was difficult this year? Why was it difficult? What is a possible solution?

4. Are there particular students to discuss from this year? Did one student grow tremendously? Were there students who may have needed a bit more?

5. What is something you would change about co-teaching this year if you could?

6. Are there any changes that we need to make to the classroom routines, rules, and procedures for next school year?

7. Is there anything you would change about the classroom environment or layout to make co-teaching more effective?

Another option is to complete the End-of-Year Co-teaching Reflection worksheet as individuals and then come together to share. Completing the sheet before hand gives you more time to think & reflect on your own. Then, when you come together you have an opportunity to discuss anything that may not be working. It should be data driven but it's also worth discussing classroom management, individual students, or anything that has not gone smoothly. Don't forget to take the time to discuss the positives too!

We would love to hear any other ways that you fit in reflection. It's an essential part of the co-teaching cycle!
Posted on: July 13, 2019Ashley Blackley

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In the past, Andrea Honigsfeld and Maria Dove have brilliantly compared co-teaching to riding a tandem bike. Imagine riding this bike in a race with your co-teacher but you can't talk to each other. You may plan and prepare with your co-teacher before the race, but if you can't communicate along the way will you ever get to the end?

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by @readysetcoteach

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RSC Co-Teaching Resources for Parents/Families

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Guiding Questions for Co-teaching Visits

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Guiding Questions for Co-teaching Visits

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by Maryland State Dept of Education

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5 Keys to Successfully Managing the Co-taught Classroom

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5 Keys to Successfully Managing the Co-taught Classroom

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One day (pre-COVID) in John and Allyson's classroom, a student asked if he could get a drink of water. John reminded the student that dismissal was in ten minutes and he needed to pack up before getting water. Two minutes later John heard the door open and saw the same student leaving the classroom after asking Allyson the same question. How should a co-teaching team handle this situation?

This true story highlights the importance of clear and consistent behavior expectations between co-teachers. If students don't view their teachers as a team, they are more likely to attempt to manipulate the situation. While it may seem like a minor situation, moments like this one can add up and potentially damage a co-teaching dynamic.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when developing a behavior management plan as co-teachers:

1. Create a classroom management plan together.

Whether in the physical classroom or virtual, behavior management is no different than anything else in co-teaching. It works best when both teachers have ownership over the routines and structures. Some teachers may feel that since they are not the content teacher, behavior management is not their strength or even their responsibility. Conversely, a content teacher may feel that their routines have worked for them in the past and therefore rigidly hold onto their previously implemented structure. Unfortunately, both of these mindsets can be incredibly damaging to parity. The goal is for students to see consistency in behavior expectations and hear the same language from both teachers. Sitting down at the beginning of the year to create a list of rules and expectations, and plan for every routine is highly beneficial in any co-teaching situation.

Questions to consider:

What classroom rules & expectations will we set?

How will students enter & exit the classroom?

How will students be permitted to move throughout the room?

What guidelines will there be for getting supplies (sharpening pencils etc)?

Do we want to use call backs and/or attention getters? If so, which ones?

How will we build community?

What will our bathroom procedures be?

We also try to schedule parent conferences when both teachers can attend. Together we present our academic, social, and emotional goals to parents. We have found that our consistent message during meetings does wonders for parent buy-in and support. (If you want to know more about how we approach these meetings, see: Engaging with Parents & Families as Co-teachers)

*Note for virtual instruction: Just like in the brick-and-mortar classroom, consistency is key when establishing expectations. We still review our rules daily and have plans to manage student behavior. Remember: every child is in a unique situation during the pandemic. Consider giving more grace and flexibility when it comes to student participation. Don't force students to turn on their cameras. Instead, remind them that they must participate in some fashion whether that be orally or in the chat box. We believe in tough love and we have high expectations for our students, but we also address things more individually because some students are managing a lot.

Link to Co-teaching Contract
2. Present a united front.

In every class, there are outliers to the normal routines and expectations that are best handled in the moment. Even when making a decision on the spot, we try to consult each other. If you disagree with how your co-teacher handles a situation, it's best to wait and approach the subject after class. Alternatively, if disagreements are handled in the moment, it is important to demonstrate respect for your colleague and ALWAYS assume positive intent. Remember, your students are watching and can pick up on tension between their teachers.

3. Plan for positive reinforcement.

Positive reinforcement and feedback can be a huge motivator for students. Remember: the best type of positive feedback is behavior specific. Try saying, "I love the way you raised your hand to speak" rather than "You are a good student." Ongoing and consistent positive reinforcement is an enormous factor in student engagement and motivation. Motivated and engaged students are much less likely to act out. There are many ways to do this. We like to use Class Dojo to reward students on a regular basis. This app is perfect for co-teachers because there is an option to add a co-teacher and give them the same permissions and accessibility to the class. Each day in Ashley and Allyson's class, whichever student has the most points on Class Dojo becomes the VIP. This means that they get to sit in a special seat and assume a leadership role that day. John and Allyson take this to the next level in their class by having a "Dojo Store" where students can trade Dojo points for rewards like "Netflix and Lunch" or "Teacher Assistant for the Day."

*Note for virtual instruction: In the virtual classroom, we have to be even more intentional about giving feedback. Our students notice if we are monitoring their participation and how we respond to them in class matters. Giving verbal praise is one way to show students that you are acknowledging their effort. Get creative with how you recognize students (more ideas ).

4. Utilize the power of two.

Two teachers in the classroom means more eyes on the students. Sometimes, just increasing proximity to potential behaviors is beneficial. Many times when we are team teaching, one teacher will closely monitor a student who is off task while the other teacher keeps teaching. Simply doing this can correct a behavior without disrupting class AND increase students' attention during whole group instruction. Another benefit to having two teachers in the room is disturbances can be less detrimental if you co-teach and co-plan effectively. Instruction can carry on while one teacher handles the disruptive behavior to the side. We like to switch roles often so that students don't begin to view one teacher as the "behavior police."
*Note for virtual instruction: If something needs to be addressed with a particular student (or group of students), try utilizing break out rooms or simultaneous Google Meets. The way we manage this is one teacher continues to teach the lesson while the other pops over to either a breakout room or different Google Meet with the specific student(s) to address the situation. Handling it this way avoids continuous interruption to instruction and keeps the communication private.
5. Include outside personnel.

When student behavior becomes constant enough to impact the education of a particular student and/or their peers, we start a behavior plan to begin tracking and intervening as early as possible. We go as a co-teaching team (or attend virtually) meetings with parents and specialists (counselor, social worker, etc) to create a clear plan for student success. We feel that it is important for both teachers to be involved, informed, and prepared to implement any interventions in the classroom. If one teacher cannot attend, it is important to share the information. Remember, in true co-teaching, both teachers are responsible for all aspects of the co-taught classroom.

To sum it up, avoid frustration by getting on the same page when it comes to routines and expectations for the co-taught classroom. Your sanity and parity will thank you!

If you have other ideas on how to effectively co-manage a classroom drop us a comment. We'd love to hear from you 🙂

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5 Keys to Successfully Managing the Co-taught Classroom

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One day (pre-COVID) in John and Allyson's classroom, a student asked if he could get a drink of water. John reminded the student that dismissal was in ten minutes and he needed to pack up before getting water. Two minutes later John heard the door open and saw the same student leaving the classroom after asking Allyson the same question.

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by Sherry Liptak

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Guest Post by Sherry Liptak, December 2020

Every year our department's administrator expects each ELL specialist to set a professional development goal for ourselves. Each year we seem to have a different administrator and last year we fell under the 'curriculum' branch of learning services. This year we fall under the 'student services' branch. Since 2018, I have set some sort of goal along the lines of co-planning. Here are the 3 questions given to guide us:

1. What goal do you want to focus on this year?

2. How does your goal tie back to the work you do?

3. What support do you need to support your goal?

Every year since 2018 I always get stumped around time- when is there time to coordinate schedules to arrange a time to meet? Asynchronous planning, through shared online templates, just isn't a viable option.

This year, despite COVID-19, I was keen to continue trying, but with a little more focus. My 2020 goal: Co-planning with a select few (to start), willing classroom teachers. Focusing on teachers and classes in the same cohort, and unit planning as opposed to single lessons. Here's some context- I have 54 students, speaking 16 different languages, in 23 different classrooms. Soon to be 56 students, speaking 16 different languages, in 24 different classrooms. I can be in each class for about 30-45 minutes each week. Some classes I can visit a couple of times each week.

I decided to start a presentation to track my efforts with my goal and to reflect on at the end of this school year. I also decided to contextualize my efforts through RTI (Response To Intervention) because that is the focus of the Learning Services department of our school district this year.

Even though it's only December, I realized that I have already experienced some successes!

I had an 'ah-ha' moment when realizing the HUGE impact that co-planning can have (over and above co-teaching)! Co-planning enables me to collaborate with my colleagues to ensure that language goals are embedded right into the lessons. This means language learning is supported whether I am in the room or not! Talk about bang for your buck, right?!?

My next 'ah-ha' was realizing that all students need access to the curriculum and to their peers, as opposed to isolation. I am a firm believer in time & place- there is a time for isolated/ sheltered mini-lessons. I used to pull all of my students from their classrooms for service. It was the default service model for our department... NOT ANY MORE! Muahaha!!! Now it is my exception, not my rule. I may pull a student to target something that no one else in the class needs. Or I may pull a student who needs a quiet break. I just prefer to work with my colleagues instead of in a separate room. I call it "keeping the student in their natural environment".

My final 'ah-ha' was that language support should really be a tier 1 support available to ALL students. When I co-plan with classroom teachers we can support any student with a need versus only students with a label.

What support do you need to support your goal?'Support' is where the wheels always fall off.

1. (SUCCESS) I get myself professional development (pro-d) opportunities. I've developed relationships with neighbouring districts so I often get invites to their pro-d workshops. Since they have larger ELL populations, they get larger opportunities. Otherwise, I am quite happy to take online courses. I have taken Tan Huynh's course about teacher collaboration twice. I just may take it a 3rd time this summer!

2. (HELP!) There has to be a way to build some co-planning time into the day... So far I am resigned to working with anyone willing to stay after school. Learning Services is working on finding funding for relief teachers to cover co-planning time... fingers (toes, eyes, etc.) are crossed!

3. (LIMITED SUCCESS... SO FAR) Willing co-teachers- It takes time to cultivate relationships so more co-Ts will become interested and take the risk. And let's face it- COVID-19 has everyone experiencing new levels of exhaustion.

4. (SUCCESS) I always have an open-invite to staff meetings. They even try to put me at the top of the schedule so I can leave early (to attend the staff meetings for the learning services department)

5. (HELP!!!) 1-of's will be the death of me! Classes that have only a single identified language learner. I understand that class-size and composition is a nightmare, but language learners NEED to be included in the conversation (even though they don't officially count as a composition element). It would mean the difference between collaborating in 24 classrooms or in 17!

Well... despite COVID-19, I am really setting myself up to be closer to achieving this goal that I have set for myself this year. I really think there is an element of 'relationship' that I can cultivate to overcome some of the system. My boss and coordinator are advocating for the same things I am so seeds are being planted... all over the place! Check out the presentation I linked at the top of this post to see how I have done later in June 2021.

Sherry Liptak (@SherryTeacher on Twitter) is a district ELL teacher in Chilliwack, BC, Canada. She is lucky enough to be at a single-school this year, instead of traveling across the district. She began teaching language learners in the public school system of Chilliwack in 2013, but really began to 'take off' after a life-altering keynote at the BCTESOL conference of 2018. There she met Tan Huynh, joined twitter, met Andrea Honigsfeld and Carol Salva, and discovered ReadySetCoteach. She says, "I am living my dream!"
Interested in guest blogging? Email us at readysetcoteach@gmail.com

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Guest Post by Sherry Liptak, December 2020 Every year our department's administrator expects each ELL specialist to set a professional development goal for ourselves. Each year we seem to have a different administrator and last year we fell under the 'curriculum' branch of learning services. This year we fall under the 'student services' branch.

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Co-teachers feel more connected as a team when there is clear and ongoing communication. Effective communication contributes to a positive culture of collaboration, helping both parties to feel heard, respected and valued. As with any relationship, a focus on personal connection and trust can strengthen the bond between co-teachers. However, it can be challenging to find the time to sit down and check-in on a regular basis especially if co-planning time is limited.

When remote learning became the norm, we noticed colleagues incorporating daily online check-ins for students so learners felt connected, known and understood even at a distance. These check-ins were quick, but yielded pertinent information. We got to thinking, how could we adapt this practice for co-teachers?

Thus the Co-teacher Check-in was born. We plan to use it on a weekly basis to stay connected and keep dialogue open even when we can't meet. The questions are simple:

How are you?

Which norm is a glow this week?

Which norm is a grow this week?

Ideas to share

Questions I have

Support I need

It is intentionally brief as to not become a burden on either party yet provides an avenue for sharing and a temperature check on the co-teaching relationship. The form is editable because our questions may not fit every partnership. Let us know if you use it! We'd love any feedback.
Click here for a copy of the Co-teacher Check-in form

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Co-teachers feel more connected as a team when there is clear and ongoing communication. Effective communication contributes to a positive culture of collaboration, helping both parties to feel heard, respected and valued. As with any relationship, a focus on personal connection and trust can strengthen the bond between co-teachers.

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10 Best Practices for Virtual Co-teaching

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10 Best Practices for Virtual Co-teaching

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Co-teaching is complex all the time. Add in a virtual or remote environment and it exponentially compounds those complexities (Friend 2020). The good news is many of the best practices in the brick-and-mortar classroom can easily be transferred online. However, there are also adjustments that need to be made in order to maximize our effectiveness as co-teachers during this time.

Treat virtual co-teaching as a new relationship (in many ways it is).

Whether a new co-teacher or a veteran, to set your partnership up for success consider completing a new co-teaching contract. In many ways virtual co-teaching is a new kind of relationship and working out the nuts and bolts and having the vital conversations is essential to starting out on the right foot.

Co-construct a plan for routine collaboration.

Setting a schedule for consistent collaboration is nothing new. However, we didn't want to leave it out because it is so much easier to get overwhelmed and disconnect when we're not face-to-face. Set a regular day/time to meet and keep it. Look at your combined responsibilities and make sure you schedule enough co-planning time each week to effectively complete lessons and tasks. In some ways our schedules are more flexible when working remotely, so you may end up with more time for collaboration. Take advantage!

Prioritize and expand co-planning for both synchronous and asynchronous learning.

We always say there is no co-teaching without co-planning and that is even more true remotely. The good news is planning can be done just as effectively remotely. Work with your co-teacher to develop schedules that allow for live co-teaching whenever possible. When planning asynchronous learning, consider recording the lessons together. If this is not possible for whatever reason, at the very minimum co-plan every lesson together to integrate content and language and scaffold learning tasks.

Utilize break out room for alternative, parallel & station teaching.

Break out rooms are a game changer because they allow co-teachers to employ alternative, parallel and station teaching virtually. If you're using Zoom, creating and utilizing break out rooms is simple. Here's a tutorial:
Break out room tutorial (Zoom)
Unfortunately, if you're like us and using Google Meet, it's a little more work (though not impossible). The good news is, according to Google, a breakout room feature is in development. Until then you have a couple of options. The first option is to create parallel meets. Here's a tutorial:
Break out room tutorial (Google Meet)
The second option is to download a breakout room chromebook extension. Disclaimer: We have not personally tried a breakout room extension. If you do, please let us know how it goes!
Google Meet Attendees & Breakout Rooms Extension

Strategically co-plan for student interaction every 3 minutes.

Keeping students engaged in the virtual classroom can be challenging. Students have many distractions and responsibilities at home that may affect focus. When planning lessons, use the 3:1 rule. For every 3 minutes of instruction, at least one minute of interaction. Expecting students to talk, type, or tap (click) every three minutes will not only keep them engaged, but will also make the content more accessible for students because we are chunking the material into easily digestible pieces.

Closely monitor student participation and provide appropriate and specific feedback.

Data on student participation and engagement is powerful information, especially for remote learning. Since we cannot be with students face-to-face, co-teachers can use this data to support students and (hopefully) prevent learning loss. Discuss how you will track participation and respond to attendance challenges.

Additionally, set up a feedback-oriented learning system with your co-teacher. Decide how and when you will deliver feedback that is:

Consider using student-friendly rubrics, checklists & self-assessments to engage students in self-reflection. Quick Tip: If you are already assigning work to students in Google Classroom, make sure that you take advantage of their "comment bank" feature - which allows teachers to create a series of comments before reviewing assignments and add those comments to student work quickly and easily. That's a huge win for meaningful feedback because it means that you can write a thoughtful comment once, and add it to student assignments again and again without having to retype it!

Comment Bank Feature in Google Classroom:
How to Set Up Doc Tutorial Video

Offer virtual office hours for students and families.

Communication with students and families becomes even more important in the virtual classroom. Opening up your office hours to families allows for them to be involved in the students' education and helps them when they are "teaching at home." Last spring we had great success with this and it minimized the amount of clarifying texts, emails and calls we received throughout the day. So, in the long run, inviting families into office hours actually saved us time and students were producing higher-quality work since their parents/guardians understood the objectives and instructions. Plus, it's just another way to strengthen relationships with students' families and truly partner with them for student success.

For virtual team teaching, allow students to see both teachers.

Just like in the brick-and-mortar classroom, in order to achieve and sustain parity, it is vital that students see both teachers on a regular basis. Ask yourselves: How are we both truly present in remote instruction whether synchronous or asynchronous (Friend 2020)?

For asynchronous video lessons, consider recording with both teachers videos on. Our district requires the use of Google Meet for live learning but we record our asynchronous video lessons using Zoom because it easily allows for this. It's free for recordings up to 40 minutes.

Identify each other's strengths and designate roles and responsibilities accordingly.

Strengths-based collaboration not only values both parties skills and experience, but it's also more efficient and effective. We can complete jobs and tasks that we are good at in less time and with higher quality. Additionally, when we can only collaborate remotely, it's imperative that co-teachers are able to rely on each other to accomplish their agreed-upon responsibilities. We are more likely to feel comfortable if we have these conversations and maximize our strengths.

Guiding Questions:

1. What are our respective strengths?

2. How can we use them to our advantage as we co-plan and co-instruct?

3. What roles are a "best-fit" for each of us?

Give yourself and your co-teacher grace (these are unprecedented times).

Most importantly, breathe. These are highly stressful, unpredictable times. Everyone is doing their best to learn and improve as we go. Empathy, compassion, understanding and flexibility are crucial in this journey. Wellbeing comes first, always.

Sources:

Quick Take: Co-teaching with Remote Learning (Friend & the Council for Exceptional Children 2020)

Co-teaching in an Age of Remote Learning (Beninghof & Kunkel 2020)

Co-Teaching During Distance Learning: Tips for Partnering Virtuall y (Hodnett 2020)

How to Co-Teach from your Couch (Murawski & Karten for ASCD 2020)

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10 Best Practices for Virtual Co-teaching

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Co-teaching is complex all the time. Add in a virtual or remote environment and it exponentially compounds those complexities (Friend 2020). The good news is many of the best practices in the brick-and-mortar classroom can easily be transferred online. However, there are also adjustments that need to be made in order to maximize our effectiveness as co-teachers during this time.

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The 3 P's of Successful Co-teaching and Collaboration

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The 3 P's of Successful Co-teaching and Collaboration

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by Fred Pleis

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Guest post by Fred Pleis
As I put down my thoughts of creating a welcoming environment and building professional relationships during a worldwide pandemic, I am struck by the overarching issue that affects both situations...fear. School districts, administrators, and teachers are scrambling to know what to do in this uncharted territory, and I can't help but see the same issues when it comes to uncharted territory in classroom teachers and ESOL teachers working together to teach ELLs. I in no way am trying to equate a global pandemic with the uncomfortable feeling that some teachers feel about the idea of co-teaching, but the root causes are very similar. Fear can often lead to knee-jerk reactions, which can lead to decisions that are not in the best interest of all parties involved. This is what often happens when it comes to new initiatives in education. People may react initially in a skeptical way, "We've seen this before." "When are we going to have time to do this?" "Will we get training?" "I already have to do A...B...C..., why are they piling this on me?" All legitimate reactions. This is where understanding, collegiality, and a bit of finesse is critical from the ESOL teacher in order to quell the fear and open eyes to what possibilities exist. Albert Bandura, a psychologist at Stanford University wrote, "... In schools, when educators believe in their combined ability to influence student outcomes, there are significantly higher levels of academic achievement" (Bandura, 1993).

Kurt Angle, a 1996 US Olympic gold medal winning wrestler, often put forth his "3Is" Integrity, Intensity, and Intelligence. I submit, my good people, that we as ESOL teachers must put forth the "3Ps" Positivity, Persistence, and Patience in order to create a welcoming environment and grow a strong professional relationship with your fellow grade or subject teachers.
Positivity
Co-teaching is not a natural process for teachers, even though we ask our students to collaborate or work in groups, sometimes, on a daily basis. This is where the first aspect of Positivity must take place. We must assume positive intent. Now, I know what you are thinking, "You know what happens when you assume...sometimes you're wrong." We must come to this new opportunity with the understanding that we are participating in a process that is putting student learning and achievement at the forefront of our practice. Researcher and professional learning facilitator Jenni Donohoo PhD states, " When educators believe in their collective ability to lead the improvement of student outcomes, higher levels of achievement result" (Donohoo, 2018). As language support teachers it is important to bring as much clarity to your roll as you can in order for teachers to have an understanding of what expertise you bring to the partnership and how much of an asset you can be to the students. This is part of establishing yourself as an additional expert in the room. " In co-taught classrooms, ALL students can receive improved instruction. This includes students who are academically gifted or talented, students who have average ability, students who are at-risk for school failure as well as students with identified special needs" (Cooke, 2004).

Persistence

There is always the real possibility of resistance or push back against the idea of co-teaching, even when there is agreement on the validity of the practice. Fear can drive this resistance, because there may be more work, planning, and compromise involved with the successful implementation of co-teaching. There has to be persistence with the process, but also with administration and our collaborating teachers, to help them understand the commitment of time, talent, and resource for successful implementation. We may have to persist through skepticism of the effectiveness of the process, or the fear of giving up classroom control, or the uncertainty of a paradigm shift in thinking. Andrea Honigsfeld, one of the leading researchers and advocates for co-teaching, writes, When an inclusive, collaborative framework is in place, the ESL program does not exist in isolation; ELLs and their ESL and English language development specialists do not become marginalized, second class citizens; and ELLs' education becomes everyone's priority" (Honigsfeld, 2010).

Patience

Co-teaching does not happen overnight. As my friends at Ready, Set, Co-Teach will tell you, it takes several years of trial and error, relationship building, and learning what works and what does not work to make co-teaching successful. This involves a commitment to the process and a willingness to build partnerships that are long-term and grounded in trust. Patience with the process is critical because co-teaching is not just a new program that the district can purchase, it is a mindset. We as the ESOL teachers are driving this new mindset. It is important to understand, as we do with our own students, that learning takes time. Having patience with our colleagues, administrators, and the process can be the hardest of the 3Ps, but might be the most critical. Donohoo states, "Research has demonstrated that in schools where there is a high degree of collective efficacy, teachers display a positive attitude to professional development, exhibit deeper implementation of evidence-based instructional strategies, and have a stronger focus on academic pursuits. In addition, student behaviour improves, and they exhibit more positive beliefs about their ability to grow and learn at school" (Donohoo, 2017).

We are seeing more and more examples of teaching working together, collaborating, and building relationships with each other and with students that are bringing significant changes to education. In these times of true uncertainty and fear, we have an opportunity to reset ourselves as a society and as educators and examine how we are teaching and is it effective in who we are teaching. Creating a welcoming environment for teaching and building strong professional relationships is foundational to this reset of our practice and one of the ways to eliminate fear and grow as professionals.

1. Bandura, A. (1993) Perceived self-efficacy in cognitive development and functioning. Educational Psychologist, 28(2), 117-148.

2. Donohoo, J., Hattie, J. & Eells, R. (2018) The power of collective Efficacy. Educational Leadership Vol 75 No 6 ASCD

3. Cook, L. (2004) Co-Teaching: Principles, Practices, and Pragmatics. New Mexico Public Education Department Quarterly Special Education Meeting Albuquerque, NM

4. Honigsfeld, A., & Dove, M. G. (2010) Collaboration and co-teaching: Strategies for English learners. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

5. Donohoo, J. & Katz, S. (2017) When teachers believe, students achieve. The Learning Professional. Vol. 38 No. 6

(In Northeast Philadelphia, born and raised. On the playground is where he spent most of his days. Go Birds!) Mr. Fred Pleis is currently an ESOL teacher/leader in Berkeley County Schools in Moncks Corner, SC. He has a Master's Degree from Regis University in Denver, CO in Educational Leadership. He received his Elementary Education/Early Childhood Degree from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA and his CLAD certification from the University of San Diego. Fred has spent 15 years as a classroom teacher in Philadelphia, PA, Corona, CA, Aurora, CO, Jacksonville, NC and Moncks Corner, SC. In addition, he worked for 3 years as an educational researcher and High Reliability Schools Manager for Dr. Robert J. Marzano and Marzano Resources in Centennial, CO. His wife, Jacquelynn, is a professor in the School of Education at Charleston Southern University and has two sons, 12 and 9.

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The 3 Ps of Successful Co-Teaching & Collaboration

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Guest post by Fred Pleis As I put down my thoughts of creating a welcoming environment and building professional relationships during a worldwide pandemic, I am struck by the overarching issue that affects both situations...fear.

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Co-Planning: Five Essential Practices to Integrate Curriculum and Instruction for English Learners

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Co-Planning: Five Essential Practices to Integrate Curriculum and Instruction for English Learners

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https://www.amazon.com/Co-Planning-Essential-Practices-Curriculum-Instruction/dp/1544365993/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=BgSgw&pf_rd_p=205b21f0-8557-4ea8-a863-e58f77379cf8&pf_rd_r=CNTDXDTM6SR4G5P6DRS1&pd_rd_r=b7cbf5e4-210c-4677-bb9f-7550bc7beb14&pd_rd_wg=0EeYB&ref_=pd_gw_ci_mcx_mr_hp_atf_m

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Co-Planning: Five Essential Practices to Integrate Curriculum and Instruction for English Learners

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Co-Planning: Five Essential Practices to Integrate Curriculum and Instruction for English Learners [Honigsfeld, Andrea, Dove, Maria G.] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Co-Planning: Five Essential Practices to Integrate Curriculum and Instruction for English Learners

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https://www.readysetcoteach.com/5-tips-for-co-teaching-with-newcomers/

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Build Community

We feel like a broken record with how much we push community building in the classroom, but ya'll, it is THAT important. Think about how you teach acceptance, model kindness, and celebrate diversity. The more these things are ingrained into your classroom community, the better the climate for newcomers (and all students). We call our class a family and encourage students to think of each other as brothers and sisters. Our kids know each other and we mean really know each other. Ask any one of them to name three things so-and-so likes or dislikes and they can do it. Ask them who is the fastest runner, they know. When a new student joins our family, the students know how to welcome them with open arms - and it lowers the affective filter. If you know ahead of time, consider sharing a bit about the new student before they arrive and brainstorming ways as a class to make them feel welcome and supported.

L1 Support

Is it appropriate to incorporate students' L1 into classroom instruction? YES. We would argue that, especially for newcomers, it is crucial. That being said, there is such thing as overuse of the L1. We don't want students relying too heavily on teacher translation or only ever using the L1 in class. We can't tell you how many teachers have come to us with concerns that their multilingual students are "not even attempting" English or just translating everything. As usual, the best approach is a balanced approach.

A couple of notes here:

Balanced is best.

Bear in mind which stage of second language acquisition the student(s) is in. This can affect the amount of English they are comfortable attempting. Learn more about the stages here.

Come to an agreement with your co-teacher about when, why, and by whom the L1 will be used with students. We use native languages the most with our beginners and much less with our moderate to advanced learners.

A few times when a teacher who speaks students' L1 can be especially helpful:

Giving instructions

Connecting concepts and knowledge to L1

Collaborative dialogue between students

Clarifying material

Allowing students to ask questions in L1

Finding out what students know but cannot express in English

But what if neither of us speaks another language? Have no fear! Here are some strategies to support and encourage the use of the L1 without having to be fluent yourselves:

Double dip (when possible)

In our district, co-teaching is not recommended as the only support for newcomers because specialized and targeted instruction is necessary to develop Tier 1 language. If there is space in the co-taught classroom, we include newcomers because co-teaching is great for them for the same reasons it is great for moderate to advanced language learners. However, it is often still necessary to schedule daily small-group language instruction for these students to meet their needs. We have seen impressive growth from newcomers that have been "double-dipped."

Implement a "buddy" system

This strategy is similar to L1 study buddies except it spans further than just academics. Imagine showing up in a new place, with new rules and routines you don't know and you don't understand the language. Scary, right? Having a peer who speaks your language and can show you the ropes can make all the difference. From showing you where to put your bookbag to explaining expectations, we want to make sure our newcomers have someone they can rely on when they have simple questions. Not only will this save you as the teacher time, but also foster student leadership all while helping newcomers feel at home. Just one quick note: we recommend rotating buddies if possible so one student isn't always responsible. This avoids student burnout and also allows for multiple members of the class to build relationships with the new student.

Utilize the One Teach, One Assist approach

Newcomers often require a little extra support. The good news is one of the benefits of co-teaching is having two teachers in the room. When we have a newcomer, we utilize the One Teach, One Assist approach, especially during whole group lessons. With this model one of us can provide that extra support to the newcomer while the lesson continues. What exactly does this look like? It may look like one of us partnering with him or her for turn and talks, helping to take notes, translating instructions, or providing scaffolds. One of us may sit next to them on the carpet, simply being there for them if they have questions. What it doesn't look like is separating them from the class or having them work on irrelevant below grade-level work during the whole group lesson. Consider switching roles frequently to keep parity intact and to ensure both teachers are building a strong relationship with the student(s).

Do you have newcomers in your co-taught classroom? How do you support them? We'd love to hear your ideas!

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We feel like a broken record with how much we push community building in the classroom, but ya'll, it is THAT important. Think about how you teach acceptance, model kindness, and celebrate diversity. The more these things are ingrained into your classroom community, the better the climate for newcomers (and all students).

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5 Keys to Successfully Managing the Co-taught Classroom

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5 Keys to Successfully Managing the Co-taught Classroom

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https://www.readysetcoteach.com/5-keys-to-successfully-managing-the-co-taught-classroom/

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One day (pre-COVID) in John and Allyson's classroom, a student asked if he could get a drink of water. John reminded the student that dismissal was in ten minutes and he needed to pack up before getting water. Two minutes later John heard the door open and saw the same student leaving the classroom after asking Allyson the same question. How should a co-teaching team handle this situation?

This true story highlights the importance of clear and consistent behavior expectations between co-teachers. If students don't view their teachers as a team, they are more likely to attempt to manipulate the situation. While it may seem like a minor situation, moments like this one can add up and potentially damage a co-teaching dynamic.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when developing a behavior management plan as co-teachers:

1. Create a classroom management plan together.

Whether in the physical classroom or virtual, behavior management is no different than anything else in co-teaching. It works best when both teachers have ownership over the routines and structures. Some teachers may feel that since they are not the content teacher, behavior management is not their strength or even their responsibility. Conversely, a content teacher may feel that their routines have worked for them in the past and therefore rigidly hold onto their previously implemented structure. Unfortunately, both of these mindsets can be incredibly damaging to parity. The goal is for students to see consistency in behavior expectations and hear the same language from both teachers. Sitting down at the beginning of the year to create a list of rules and expectations, and plan for every routine is highly beneficial in any co-teaching situation.

Questions to consider:

What classroom rules & expectations will we set?

How will students enter & exit the classroom?

How will students be permitted to move throughout the room?

What guidelines will there be for getting supplies (sharpening pencils etc)?

Do we want to use call backs and/or attention getters? If so, which ones?

How will we build community?

What will our bathroom procedures be?

We also try to schedule parent conferences when both teachers can attend. Together we present our academic, social, and emotional goals to parents. We have found that our consistent message during meetings does wonders for parent buy-in and support. (If you want to know more about how we approach these meetings, see: Engaging with Parents & Families as Co-teachers)

*Note for virtual instruction: Just like in the brick-and-mortar classroom, consistency is key when establishing expectations. We still review our rules daily and have plans to manage student behavior. Remember: every child is in a unique situation during the pandemic. Consider giving more grace and flexibility when it comes to student participation. Don't force students to turn on their cameras. Instead, remind them that they must participate in some fashion whether that be orally or in the chat box. We believe in tough love and we have high expectations for our students, but we also address things more individually because some students are managing a lot.

Link to Co-teaching Contract
2. Present a united front.

In every class, there are outliers to the normal routines and expectations that are best handled in the moment. Even when making a decision on the spot, we try to consult each other. If you disagree with how your co-teacher handles a situation, it's best to wait and approach the subject after class. Alternatively, if disagreements are handled in the moment, it is important to demonstrate respect for your colleague and ALWAYS assume positive intent. Remember, your students are watching and can pick up on tension between their teachers.

3. Plan for positive reinforcement.

Positive reinforcement and feedback can be a huge motivator for students. Remember: the best type of positive feedback is behavior specific. Try saying, "I love the way you raised your hand to speak" rather than "You are a good student." Ongoing and consistent positive reinforcement is an enormous factor in student engagement and motivation. Motivated and engaged students are much less likely to act out. There are many ways to do this. We like to use Class Dojo to reward students on a regular basis. This app is perfect for co-teachers because there is an option to add a co-teacher and give them the same permissions and accessibility to the class. Each day in Ashley and Allyson's class, whichever student has the most points on Class Dojo becomes the VIP. This means that they get to sit in a special seat and assume a leadership role that day. John and Allyson take this to the next level in their class by having a "Dojo Store" where students can trade Dojo points for rewards like "Netflix and Lunch" or "Teacher Assistant for the Day."

*Note for virtual instruction: In the virtual classroom, we have to be even more intentional about giving feedback. Our students notice if we are monitoring their participation and how we respond to them in class matters. Giving verbal praise is one way to show students that you are acknowledging their effort. Get creative with how you recognize students (more ideas ).

4. Utilize the power of two.

Two teachers in the classroom means more eyes on the students. Sometimes, just increasing proximity to potential behaviors is beneficial. Many times when we are team teaching, one teacher will closely monitor a student who is off task while the other teacher keeps teaching. Simply doing this can correct a behavior without disrupting class AND increase students' attention during whole group instruction. Another benefit to having two teachers in the room is disturbances can be less detrimental if you co-teach and co-plan effectively. Instruction can carry on while one teacher handles the disruptive behavior to the side. We like to switch roles often so that students don't begin to view one teacher as the "behavior police."
*Note for virtual instruction: If something needs to be addressed with a particular student (or group of students), try utilizing break out rooms or simultaneous Google Meets. The way we manage this is one teacher continues to teach the lesson while the other pops over to either a breakout room or different Google Meet with the specific student(s) to address the situation. Handling it this way avoids continuous interruption to instruction and keeps the communication private.
5. Include outside personnel.

When student behavior becomes constant enough to impact the education of a particular student and/or their peers, we start a behavior plan to begin tracking and intervening as early as possible. We go as a co-teaching team (or attend virtually) meetings with parents and specialists (counselor, social worker, etc) to create a clear plan for student success. We feel that it is important for both teachers to be involved, informed, and prepared to implement any interventions in the classroom. If one teacher cannot attend, it is important to share the information. Remember, in true co-teaching, both teachers are responsible for all aspects of the co-taught classroom.

To sum it up, avoid frustration by getting on the same page when it comes to routines and expectations for the co-taught classroom. Your sanity and parity will thank you!

If you have other ideas on how to effectively co-manage a classroom drop us a comment. We'd love to hear from you 🙂

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5 Keys to Successfully Managing the Co-taught Classroom

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One day (pre-COVID) in John and Allyson's classroom, a student asked if he could get a drink of water. John reminded the student that dismissal was in ten minutes and he needed to pack up before getting water. Two minutes later John heard the door open and saw the same student leaving the classroom after asking Allyson the same question.

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The Benefits of Coteaching (for both students and teachers)

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Let’s dig into some of what the research says about the benefits of co-teaching for both students and teachers.

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The Benefits of Coteaching (for both students and teachers)

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So you're co-teaching. We are so excited that you are ready to set forth on this incredible professional journey. Co-teaching can be one of the most rewarding experiences as a teacher, but it can also be challenging, especially when figuring out where to start. Set yourself and your co-teacher up for success with these five steps.

Gain a better understanding of co-teaching

Even if you are not co-teaching multi-lingual learners, try to get your hands on a copy of Coteaching for English Learners by Honingsfeld and Dove. We used this book when we were getting our feet wet with coteaching, and we continue to refer to it today. It's important to know that co-teaching is so much more than just putting two adults in one classroom. Co-teaching involves a higher level of collaboration than traditional in-class service models. When you co-teach, both teachers plan, deliver, assess, and reflect together. If you want to learn more about the difference between push-in and coteaching models, see our blog post on that here.

Familiarize yourself with the approaches to co-teaching. The approaches allow content teachers and specialists to take on different roles in different parts of each lesson. Challenge yourself to test-drive each approach and see which works best during different lessons. Once you feel comfortable, try not to limit yourself to one approach. We routinely use multiple approaches depending on the content and expected outcomes.

If you want to see what co-teaching looks like in action, check it out here.

Start with relationships.

You and your co-teacher are entering into a new kind of relationship. We won't sugarcoat it. It's hard work. So, it's essential to build a foundation of trust and mutual respect from the start. You don't have to be besties with your co-teacher, but respecting them as a professional and a shared belief that you are both there to do what's best for students goes a long way. Try spending some informal time with your new co-teacher, just getting to know each other.

Students and families require different kinds of relationships. For co-teaching to be successful, students must see the content teacher and the specialist as equals in the classroom. We've yet to run into a professional that preferred to be a "helper" in the room. Both specialists and content teachers are experts in their fields, and you want students and families to recognize it. We start with a letter to our families outlining co-teaching: what it is, why it's effective and how it will look for their child. We label everything with "Mrs. Blackley and Ms. Caudill's class" so that students internalize our equal partnership. If someone is coming into your classroom, consider designating a space so that they can house materials. This not only makes them feel welcome, but it also shows the students that your co-teacher is an essential member of your classroom community.

Plan for everything.

At the beginning of each year, we always complete a c oteaching contract. This contract allows us to plan how we interact and what we expect to get out of co-teaching. We set co-planning times and expectations for each other, plan for assessing students, and stick to them the best we can. The contract also allows us to break down how we want things to go in our classroom. We decide our rules, discuss our classroom management styles, and elaborate on classroom routines and structures. Having a shared agreement on these things alleviates unforeseen problems day-to-day.

The contract also gives you something to go back to if you begin to feel like your partnership is struggling. There is nothing wrong with revisiting the contract as needed to make adjustments.

Set norms:

When you first meet for co-planning, it's a good idea to set up norms. We use this template each year. Co-planning time is precious, so use your time wisely. We try to come prepared with our pre-planning work finished. We hold each other accountable for our norms during meetings and then divide up any tasks.

Try the coteaching challenge.

Once you are ready to dive into coteaching, try the coteaching challenge. If you want to do it with us, we will be starting the 2021 #coteachingchallenge on September 20th. The challenge is designed to help you make the most of your co-teaching partnership, all while having fun doing it! If you decide to participate, tag us @readysetcoteach and use the hashtag #coteachingchallenge so we can follow along. One set of co-teachers will win inclusive educator totes!

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So you're co-teaching. We are so excited that you are ready to set forth on this incredible professional journey. Co-teaching can be one of the most rewarding experiences as a teacher, but it can also be challenging, especially when figuring out where to start. Set yourself and your co-teacher up for success with these five steps.

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#141. Coteaching Commitments That Build Collaboration

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#141. Coteaching Commitments That Build Collaboration

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At the beginning of the year, many of us co-write expectations with our students. These are agreements that we all promise to adhere to so that everyone starts strong. We can transfer this helpful practice into our co-teaching relationships as well.

Anne Beninghof, author of Co-Teaching That Works: Structures and Strategies for Maximizing Student Learning (2020), shares three essential commitments of co-teaching that can ground our collaborative work.

1. Teach the same content

Commit to teaching the same content when co-teaching. This means that language learners learn the same grade-level content as the rest of the class. Language learners who are in 6th grade cannot be expected to learn 3rd grade curriculum. This demotion would widen the achievement gap and produce an inequitable learning experience.

To teach the same content:

► Language learners engage in the same tasks but with appropriate scaffolds provided through sheltered instruction (Nora & Echevarria, 2016).
► Language specialists access the same content-specific materials (videos, articles, manipulatives, resources, etc.).
► Language learners must be in the same class along with fellow classmates.

2. Teach content-specific language

Each discipline follows different language rules and conventions. It's imperative that content and language teachers pair up to explicitly teach content-specific language. Otherwise, language learners will struggle to access content-based videos and articles; not be able to engage in content-specific activities (e.g., case studies, experiments, demonstrations, etc.), and not develop content-specific writing skills.

To teach discipline-specific language, teachers must:

► Identify key content-specific vocabulary words.
► Highlight how content-specific vocabulary is used in a sentence ( Gottlieb & Ernst-Slavit, 2014).
► Model how content-specific sentences are organized ( Staehr Fenner & Snyder, 2017).

3. Co-plan instruction

I like to share with teachers that the fruit of co-teaching is rooted in intentional co-planning. Without co-planning, there is no co-teaching. Instead, the ML teacher is relegated to in-class support. Students can certainly benefit from the specialist supporting the learning, but in-class support is less effective than co-teaching that was co-planned.

A commitment to co-planning would entail:

► Having a consistent co-planning time scheduled into both educators' timetables;
► The language specialist having access to the grade-level curriculum guide and materials;
► Designing high-yield items such as long-term summative projects, assessments, rubrics, and unit plans;
► Planning that identifies the content, process, and product ( Tomlinson, 2014);
► Agreeing on how and what to scaffold and differentiate to make content comprehensible and output possible ( Ferlazzo & Hull Sypnieski, 2018);
► Identifying who receives the scaffolds and when to receive the differentiated instruction;
► Selecting the co-teaching model or arrangement that works best for a particular lesson ( Honigsfeld & Dove, 2019).

Don't default to any role less than co-teacher

I wish I had established these commitments when I first started co-teaching. Because I began without these, I defaulted to becoming an instructional aide for many years. While I did help many students as an aide, I also learned that language specialists could be so much more. Try starting your first co-planning meeting of the year by introducing these three commitments with your co-teacher. This opening will help hone and shape the intention of the collaboration, starting everyone off with clear common goals in place.

Which of these commitments will you recommit to in your collaborative practice? Which commitment is most present in your relationships?
Resources
Beninghof, A. M. (2020). Co-teaching that works: Structures and strategies for maximizing student learning (2nd edition). Jossey-Bass.

Ferlazzo, L. & Hull Sypnieski, K. (2018). The ELL teacher's toolbox: Hundreds of practical ideas to support your students. John Wiley & Sons.

Gottlieb, M. & Ernst-Slavit, G. (2014). Academic language in diverse classrooms: Definitions and contexts. Corwin.

Honigsfeld, A. & Dove, M. G. (2019). Collaborating for English learners: A foundational guide to integrated practices (2nd edition). Corwin.

Nora, J. & Echevarria, J. (2016). No more low expectations for English learners (Not this but that). Heinemann.

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#141. Coteaching Commitments That Build Collaboration - TanKHuynh

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At the beginning of the year, many of us co-write expectations with our students. These are agreements that we all promise to adhere to so that everyone starts strong. We can transfer this helpful practice into our co-teaching relationships as well.

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#140: The Collaborative Instructional Cycle

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#140: The Collaborative Instructional Cycle

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#140: The Collaborative Instructional Cycle - TanKHuynh

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The Collaborative Instructional Cycle is a process where teachers co-plan, co-assess, co-teach, and co-reflect.

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#140: The Collaborative Instructional Cycle

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#131. Turning around my co-teaching relationship

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#131. Turning around my co-teaching relationship

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Every teaching partnership has a story. One of my partnerships started off with tension but became the most collaborative experience of my 14 years of teaching.

Let me share with you how Shawna Carnahan and I turned our relationship into a thriving, dynamic relationship that we all strive for.

Starting off without a plan

The year we started working together was when we both taught 5th grade. Shawna had already worked in the school for a year, and I was just entering my first year.

The year I joined was also the first year each grade in the elementary school had a designated language specialist, so everyone was trying to figure out the definition of that role. All we knew was that I had to work with the five grade-five teachers and work with their multilingual students.

We had an in-class support schedule where I went to classes to assist students. But unfortunately, I failed to establish a co-planning schedule with each teacher individually. We only met during grade-level team meetings. My intention was to co-plan, but with five teachers on the team, it was impossible to "group plan" with each teacher having a different teaching style.

I spent most of that first year in classes supporting language learners, but there was very little co-teaching. That was a predictable outcome since one cannot truly co-teach without co-planning first.

Because we could not co-plan, we lost the ability to know each other as people and professionals, and to draw on each other's skills and experiences. Co-planning is not just for instruction. It also serves to incubate a newly born teaching relationship. Without co-planning time, I usually was resigned to supporting from the side.

Restarting with co-planning

I returned the second year with renewed hopes for dynamic teaching relationships. Now that I was no longer a new teacher at the school, I understood the school's systems and how I could fit into them. Therefore my first goal was to establish a schedule with my team. At one of the meetings, I had them co-create my schedule. My only criteria were:

There must be one co-planning period per 10-day cycle

Schedule co-teaching times during double blocks (i.e, 70 minutes of instruction), no more 35-minute co-teaching blocks

More time given to teachers with more language learners

With a co-planning and co-teaching schedule made, I now had the opportunity to start over with trying to form a dynamic teaching partnership.

Co-plan strategically

There were two strategic things I did that made co-planning successful with Shawna. Unlike the first year - when some of my colleagues wanted me to plan literacy lessons they would teach - I co-constructed lessons with teachers who wanted to co-plan. With this approach, I was able to support instruction in ways that felt familiar and comfortable to Shawna because I simply built on her ideas and worked to be responsive to her personal teaching style.

The second thing I did was use the collaboration time to engage in High-Impact Co-planning, which is characterized by the following phases:

Phase 1 - plan the unit's assessment tasks and rubrics

Phase 2 - plan backward from the assessment

After planning the assessment tasks and rubrics, I was able to focus on planning at the weekly level. I would always ask, "What do we want students to do by next Friday." This simple question would always lead us back to the assessment tasks and the rubrics.

We would outline our ideas on a week-at-a-glance document. Co-constructing this document made our instruction crystal clear, which in turn made our collaboration much more defined (Frey, Fisher, & Hattie, 2016).

One trick that really made formatting easy was as we were co-planning, I turned our ideas into visuals directly on the teaching slides. This helped capture the ideas, made them visual, and empowered us to co-construct the big ideas to put on the slides together.

Once we settled on the major push for the week ahead, I added the finishing touches during my personal prep time. It was a better investment of co-planning time to agree on the objectives of next week's lessons than planning out all the small details for each day.

Shawna trusted me enough to leave much of the formatting of the teaching slides to me. This freed her up to do other work and left her feeling that she has an ally in me.

Co-teach intentionally

Co-planning intentionally effortlessly blossomed into co-teaching strategically. By the end of every co-planning session, we had these key co-teaching questions answered:

What are we teaching?

Who is teaching what?

How will we teach it?

When in the lesson sequence am I teaching that?

Whenever it was Shawna's turn to teach, I still stood in front of the room to help scribe ideas, to facilitate conversation, to model a process, and to add ideas. I cannot emphasize enough the power of scribing for your co-teacher because it communicates support and collaboration.

Scribing also allowed me to add ideas more easily than I could from the back or side of the room. I could add with confidence because we had already co-planned, and Shawna and I used a single presentation document.

Even when she led a lesson, I was intimately familiar with the lesson because I often took our ideas and formatted them on our teaching slides. This made co-teaching feel fluid (to us and to our students) like a balanced, coordinated dance.

Whenever I taught, I stood at one side of the board to subconsciously make space for Shawna to join. My body language communicated that I wanted to share the teaching with Shawna, never take over. Additionally, as we co-taught and while students were working on the task, I would often come check in with Shawna to share our observations and determine if it was time to move onto the next phase of the lesson.

When I led a particular lesson, we made decisions jointly. This was purposeful because I knew that I was a guest in her room, and I wanted to nurture a truly collaborative relationship.

Incorporate mini-reflections

As part of the Collaborative Instructional Cycle, co-reflecting is essential (Honigsfeld & Dove, 2019). Fortunately, co-reflecting can occur throughout the collaboration and not just the end. I often would ask, "What did you think about how we did [ x or y]." This simple question would allow us to informally reflect, which then led to more refined instruction.

Sometimes I would do this just after we co-taught; or at the beginning of a co-planning session, after looking at students' work together; or after a co-planning session. Informal reflection was an integrated part of our collaboration.

Nurture relational trust

In our podcast conversation I asked Shawna what she thought helped turn our collaboration around. She kindly said that I was persistent in working together. She also said that I had no ego about working together. Together, this formed our relational trust (Bryk & Schneider, 2003). I did specific things to nurture our relationship (even during our first year) such as:

doing small acts of kindness (e.g. erasing the board, setting up the projector)

building on her ideas instead of offering completely new ones

finding moments to celebrate and things to positively recognize

These moments did occur during co-teaching, but they occurred more often during co-planning as co-planning without students present is a more relaxed and safer place - and a less territorial space - to form trust.

The releasing of control and sharing of a classroom starts during co-planning. For many who have not co-taught before, they need to feel that the language specialist will not evaluate them, will be affirming, and will make them feel comfortable working as a team. Co-planning is the nursery for collegial trust.

My most collaborative relationship

If you had told me in advance that, by the end of my second year working with Shawna, it would be one of the most transformative partnerships and the most collaborative teaching relationship ever, I would have doubted you.

However, when I look back at our turn-around story, it was all possible because we created a schedule that included co-planning time and used co-planning strategically to focus on the big aspects of the unit.

If you had walked into Shawna's room to watch us co-teach (above), you would have thought that we had been co-teaching together for many more years, not just two. It certainly felt like we had a dynamic co-teaching relationship on the surface. What people might not realize is that below the co-teaching success was a foundation of co-planning.

In the comment section, share your own turnaround collaboration story if you have one. I hope you do, or will one day soon.
References
Bryk, A., & Schneider, B. (2003). Trust in Schools: A Core Resource for School Reform. Educational Leadership, 60(6), 40-45. Retrieved July 5, 2020, from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar03/vol60/num06/Trust-in-Schools@-A-Core-Resource-for-School-Reform.aspx

Fisher, D., Frey, N., & Hattie, J. (2016). Visible learning for literacy, grades K-12: Implementing the practices that work best to accelerate student learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Literacy.

Honigsfeld, A., & Dove, M. G. (2019). Collaborating for English learners: A foundational guide to integrated practices. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

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#131. Turning around my co-teaching relationship - TanKHuynh

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Every teaching partnership has a story. One of my partnerships started off with tension but became the most collaborative experience of my 14 years of teaching. Let me share with you how Shawna Carnahan and I turned our relationship into a thriving, dynamic relationship that we all strive for.

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Co-Planning: Five Essential Practices to Integrate Curriculum and Instruction for English Learners

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Co-Planning: Five Essential Practices to Integrate Curriculum and Instruction for English Learners

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Five Essential Practices to Integrate Curriculum and Instruction for English Learners

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SIP Co-Teaching Reference Guide for Parents/Caregivers

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SIP Co-Teaching Reference Guide for Parents/Caregivers