What is co-teaching?

   Traditionally, co-teaching has been defined as two teaching professionals sharing in the planning, presentation, and assessment of a class's instruction. Usually, this consist of a content specialist (math, english, etc) and a educational strategist (special education teacher). As federal mandate pushes more and more toward full inclusion of special needs students, this model has been adopted in an effort to ensure that students and teachers have the proper support to implement these changes effectively. The special education teacher, referred to as an 'inclusion' teacher, is equally responsible for the instruction of ALL students in the classroom, not just the students who recieved support services based on an Individual Education Plan (IEP). Her role is to use her expertise to diversify the instruction so that all students have access to the general curriculum to the fullest extent possible.  In a perfect scenerio, both teachers are assigned to only one class at a time so that the inclusion teacher can fulill her role effectively-which means that BOTH professionals are seen by the students as equals. Unforunately, due to staffing limitations, most inclusion staff find that they cannot focus all of their attention in just one classroom per instuctional period. Frequently, they must support 2 or more classes per section and therefore the ideal scenario of equal accountablilty is seldom fulfilled.
   In response to this problem, many schools have expanded the term 'co-teaching' to include any collaborative effort within the classroom. It can be the teacher of record and another professional, paraprofessional, qualified parent volenteer or even a student who has been prepared for the class. Expanding the definition of who can co-teach has lead to more opportunies for successful collaboration. The important factors to remember when two or more people are entering into a collaborative effort are joint accountablity, effective planning, and designation of each participants role in the presentation or instructional activity. If these elements are properly executed, co-teaching is shown, without exception, to enhance student engagement, understanding, and academic performance.

Forward

What is co-teaching and inclusion? Why are they important concepts for both students and educators? Is co-teaching best for ALL students? or Are there some students that are better left in special classes outside of the general classroom? These and many other questions are being constantly rattled around professional developments and conferences these days. Throughout this blog, I will attempt to answer these and many other questions regarding basic definitions, but I hope to accomplish much more than simple understanding. It is important that parents, teachers and students come to appreciate the power of multiple educators and collaborations taking place within our classrooms. Human beings are social creatures. We learn through our socializations. The more we talk, share, rationalize and explore, the better we understand, internalize and apply them to our lives.
As we explore co-teaching, I hope that you consider the topic from every possible angle:

• What are the advantages?
• What are the disadvantages?
• What strategies would work in your classroom and which ones would not?
• Who are the collaborative entities involved? parents? students? professionals?

We'll begin by answering the basic question: What is co-teaching?