Roles in the Co-Taught Classroom

        "Regular and special education teachers are largely unprepared for the co-teaching role, despite the great extent to which co-teaching has been adopted in public schools" (Faraclas, 2018, p. 538). Unfortunately.... and I hate to admit it, my first year of co-teaching as the content teacher in a co-taught classroom was horrendous (and embarrassing). In my defense, my education preparation program in college did not emphasize co-teaching, so it was a new experience. My first co-taught class was Geometry with a veteran intervention specialist. This intervention specialist had co-taught for two decades at this school, and she was also assigned as my mentor, which was amazing! Over the duration of this year, my role in the co-taught classroom was the primary teacher, teaching ALL content and grading all assignments. My co-teacher served primarily as a second person to keep students on task and pull students out to provide them with extra support on assignments or assessments.

    I knew nothing different, so I thought this was a bit odd, but that this was how co-teaching was supposed to look like. It wasn't until the end of the school year when I sat down with my mentor and we made plans for my improvement that I realized just how unproductive and, frankly, disrespectful to my co-teacher and the knowledge she brings to the classroom that we were not utilizing. After a lot of open dialogue and reflecting on the school year together, we decided that from then on, we were going to change our way of co-teaching!

    Upon much research over the summer and figuring things out and making adjustments as we went, my co-teacher and I were able to become a successful force in the classroom the following year. It required honestly with one another, an increased friendship that developed, and trust that each of use would follow through and be prepared for our part of lessons. We found that it was important that we understood one-another's teaching philosophies and whether we were an equitable pairing, all of which we should have checked during the first year. According to Rexroat‐Frazier and Chamberlain (2019), the three main themes for a successful implementation of coteaching are teacher preparation and choice in participating, planning and collaboration, and school district support. I can honestly say that we were definitely lacking in the first two categories as I was just trying to stay afloat in my new school.

Effective Roles of in the Co-Taught Classroom

    No that we were comfortable working with one-another, we had to be sure that we both had roles in the co-taught classroom that was valuable for the students and respectful to both my co-teacher and my own teaching strengths. The most important thing to both of us was making sure that our students, from day one, knew that my co-teacher and I were equal partners in their learning, whether they were special education students or not. Second, we created an environment, where everything in my classroom was shared and belonged to the both of us. Third, it took quite some time for students to determine which teacher was content teacher and which was the intervention specialist, as we took turns giving directions, leading direct instruction, disciplining and communicating with parents.

Roles in the Classroom

    As the math content specialist, and because of my strengths, it was determined that I would be in charge of identifying the standards that students needed to meet, created notes/ assignments and created assessments for the students. Before my co-teacher and I would meet at 6:45am once a week for planning for the following week, I would create a rough framework of what Geometry lessons I wanted to get through in the week, what assessments needed to take place and identify any areas of confusion or frustration that students may have. This way, when my co-teacher and I would meet, she was able to better do her job. In addition, I would make answer keys of all of the notes, assignments and assessments at the beginning of the unit, allowing her adequate time to prepare to teacher specific lessons, make accommodations to any materials and create learning strategies for the lessons, if she thought additional support was necessary.

    In our co-taught classroom, my co-teacher led just as many lessons through direct instruction as myself. She would also come prepared during out planning time at 6:45am with ideas we were able to use to provide additional differentiation ideas and learning strategies to help all of the learners in the classroom. These learning strategies can consist of reinforcement activities, enrichment activities, memorization techniques and review opportunities that all students are able to benefit from. Together, we decided on who was responsible for discipline and parent communication as needed and shared grading responsibilities. Additionally, and possible more importantly, we shared classrooms. In a later post, I will be sharing about some of the models we use in our co-taught classroom, many of which require the use of two spaces. For this reason, my co-teacher and I take turns using each other's classrooms for group activities. We also use a variety of grouping methods (heterogenous, high-low, etc). Because ALL of the students belong to both of us, we take turns taking students down to my co-teacher's classroom and the other teacher staying in my room. This way, there is no negative connotation that exists for either room or either teacher.

    Most importantly, I have found my role as a co-teacher to be the most enjoyable part of the school day. I get to work with one of my closest friends, put together the best lessons for the most success possible and go through the challenges of the class period together. It is like I have someone to "go to battle" with every day. Of course, there are days when one of us, or both of use, fall short, but with open communication, reflection and honesty, there is always room for improvement. We know each other so well now, the looks of panic on the other's face, the glance we give one other when we both know that a train wreck is about to occur and the laughs we get to have after class after holding them back during a lesson, prevent the days of struggle from overshadowing the enjoyment of co-teaching.  As I look forward to the upcoming school year and the fourth year of getting to co-teach with a friend, I cannot wait to see how we are able to continue to improve our co-teaching craft in order to help all of our students find success!

References

Faraclas, K. L. (2018). A Professional Development Training Model for Improving Co-Teaching                       Performance. International Journal of Special Education, 33(3), 524-540.

Rexroat‐Frazier, N., & Chamberlin, S. (2019). Best practices in co‐teaching mathematics with special needs                 students. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 19(3), 173-183.