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Recipe for Co-Teaching 

From the very first day we worked together, Ms. Hargett told me, “This classroom is not just my classroom but yours also, and all the students are ours.” That was our team motto for seven years. We were together in the education of every child in our classroom: The only prerequisite was for students to have a need. For us, our students included those with and without disabilities.

Many of you may be wondering how we made that approach work and learned to work collaboratively and cooperatively. As in many things, we set our goals at the beginning and then determined the steps necessary to accomplish them. The process requires a “recipe” with “ingredients” that when mixed create a cooperative and collaborative learning environment for students. Our recipe for co-teaching was comprised of the following ingredients (not listed in terms of which is most or least important):

• Respect for each other as teachers and individuals;
• Celebrating student achievement and consistently displaying our school’s student expectations;
• Providing accommodations/modifications and Individualized Education Program (IEP) goals for each student with a disability in our class to Ms. Hargett;
• Open communication—listening and hearing each other’s point of view;
• Co-planning cross-curricular lessons based on formative and summative data;
• Using “out of the box” activities for all students to practice the skills we taught them;
• Developing and executing an action plan to close gaps and address misconceptions; and
• Encouraging laughter to help lighten the mood in the classroom.

Co-Teaching Models

Our students got what they needed and more from each of us daily. In order to better meet student learning needs, we facilitated small groups, not necessarily made up of the same children every day or in every content area. Every student in our classroom completed a formative assessment. We provided every accommodation or modification required in each IEP. A student’s score on formative assessments determined where they started in the small group instruction rotations, which was made up of four separate groups: two facilitated by Ms. Hargett and I, an independent work group and, at times, a peer-facilitated group where a student who has mastered the taught skill coached his or her classmates. The peer coach was provided with parameters for assisting their classmates to ensure they did not simply tell them the answer.

Both Ms. Hargett and I instructed our students using at least two of the six generally accepted co-teaching models, which are, as spelled out here by veteran teacher and school administrator Dr. Sean Cassel:

• One Teaching, One Observing: One teacher is directly instructing students and the other teacher observes students;
• One Teaching, One Assisting: One teacher directly instructs students and the other teacher assists students;
• Parallel Teaching: Each of the two teachers has a group of students and teaches the same information at the same time;
• Station Teaching: Each teacher instructs a specific skill to different groups as they rotate between teachers;
• Alternate Teaching: One teacher instructs most of the children while the other teacher instructs a small group based on need; and
• Team Teaching: both teachers directly instruct students at the same time

The One Teaching, One Observing and the One Teaching, One Assisting models were rarely used in our classroom. When they were, they were used with at least one other model. The models we executed most often were Parallel Teaching, Station Teaching, and Team Teaching. Parallel Teaching and Station Teaching were what we used for our small groups, choosing which one we’d use based on formative assessment data on skills taught during team teaching.

Co-teaching Benefits 

Using different co-teaching models was a benefit to both our students and us. Ms. Hargett and I had the same expectations for all of our students, which we describe as attempt to complete the task or assignment first, do your best, ask for assistance instead of giving up after you have attempted a task or assignment, and exemplify the scholar that you are in your actions and words. If students did not understand how content was presented during whole group instruction (Team Teaching Model), it was addressed by Ms. Hargett or me in a small group. Students’ formative assessment scores informed us which skills they mastered and which ones needed additional instruction. As a result of our fidelity to those expectations, many of our students with disabilities transitioned out of special education and others showed continuous improvement or growth in their IEP goals. Furthermore, using the Parallel Teaching and Station Teaching Models, many of our third-grade students, both with and without disabilities, passed at least one of their state assessments, such as reading or math.

It wasn’t just our students that benefited from co-teaching, either—Ms. Hargett and I did, too. She taught third grade before she and I became co-teachers, and her familiarity with third-grade standards was an asset. She assisted me with unpacking the standards so we could develop lessons tailored to our students. In our classroom, our small groups included students with and without disabilities. Both our students with and without disabilities could benefit from specially designed instruction (SDI), so I shared SDI methods with Ms. Hargett. According to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), specially designed instruction is “adapting as appropriate the needs of an eligible child under this part, the content, methodology, or delivery of instruction to address the unique needs of the child that result from the child’s disability and to ensure access of the child to the general curriculum.” As a result, Ms. Hargett integrated SDI methods such as explicit instruction during her small group instruction. It was evident that SDI methods were utilized in our classroom when on one occasion district leadership visited our classroom and could not distinguish students with disabilities from those without disabilities, which had always been one of our goals.

Co-Teaching and Technology Resource Teacher Role

This school year is my fourth as a technology resource teacher (TRT) and, in my current position, I continue to use co-teaching models to meet my overarching goal of supporting faculty, staff, and administration in my building. I utilize best practices when doing so: Before co-teaching students, a partnership is established with the classroom teacher. We co-plan standards-aligned lessons integrated with instructional technology (e.g., district applications) and computer science skills. Also, we identify the instructional needs of students (e.g., accommodations) and the co-teaching model(s) we will use to deliver instruction.

When co-teaching with colleagues, the Parallel Teaching, Station Teaching, and Team Teaching models are the ones we most often use. However, another model, Alternative Teaching, may be used when some students demonstrate that they need instruction in a small group during a lesson on a particular skill. Using this model, my colleague or I continue teaching the remaining students while students who need a small group receive instruction on the same skill from the lesson but based on their area of need, such as how to divide two digits by one digit numbers step-by-step to solve a practical problem.

Establishing Co-teaching Partnerships

All my special education teaching experiences have been at the elementary school level. For special education teachers at the secondary level, co-teaching may be a different experience due to the variety of courses students with disabilities are taking and their IEP goals. Whether it is your first co-teaching experience, or you’ve had previous co-teaching experiences, the foundation of co-teaching partnerships will always be respect for each other. That said, the other ingredients in your co-teaching recipe may be different than ours. Be patient, though, because building rapport takes time!

Lenette Hillian, a member of the Portsmouth Education Association, teaches at Brighton Elementary School. She also serves as president of the Virginia Council for Learning Disabilities.