Co-Teaching: ICS Teaching Models Robert Matthius Beers St.School Cove Road School Grade 5- LAL

Action Research Question Which ICS model would work best for a fifth grade LAL inclusion class? Complementary Teaching Station Teaching Parallel Teaching Alternative Teaching Shared Teaching

Complementary Teaching “One teach, one assist” Lead teacher models organization, identifies skills and strategies Support provides content support approach Lead teach conducts formal teaching Support teacher assists

Complementary Teaching Benefits Having two teachers allows for individualized instruction after the lesson is presented Lowers student to teacher ratio Allows support teacher to assess skills of students during the lesson Allows support teacher to teach component of lesson with small group of students

Complementary Teaching Mrs. Fisher and I began with this model Allowed for a “break-in” period between our two styles Found it to be very beneficial in beginning of the year Gave us immediate feedback about the students

Parallel Teaching Lead and support teacher collaborate to organize and plan lesson content Lead and support teacher jointly decide how to divide students into two groups Lead and support teacher jointly identify and evaluate strategies for each group Lead and support teacher each teach same lesson to their own group simultaneously

Parallel Teaching Results We hoped to increase level of participation and sharing by students Our students found it to be too disruptive Students weren’t able to focus on their own group Noise level rose as lesson progressed One teacher always seemed to finish before the other

Station Teaching Lead and support teacher plan to divide the lesson into various stations Each teacher is responsible for a number of stations Each teacher responsible to plan activities for their stations Lead and support teacher pre-assess the students to form groups Facilitates small group learning through differentiated mini-lessons

Station Teaching Results We tried having three stations, two were teacher led, and one was independent Split the class into three groups for 20 minute rotations Two groups were able to rotate and work independently Third group wasn’t able to work independently Distraction created by third group’s behavior minimized effect of grouping

Station Teaching Results (cont.) Student Teacher joined our class in Jan. We were able to revisit this model with better results We were able to eliminate independent station and replace it with one “manned” by student teacher Students responded to smaller group setting in this model

Alternative Teaching Lead and support teacher plan lesson Lead teacher and support teacher pre-assess students for alternative lessons Lead teacher and support teacher assess students during the formal lesson to identify students who would benefit from alternative lessons Can extend or re-teach lesson using more visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic approach

Alternative Teaching Results Allowed for the opportunity to re-teach and extend the lesson in smaller group setting Allowed for the opportunity for multiple means of delivery (i.e. smart board, Elmo) Worked well with students who were struggling. Made them feel they were “not alone” Test grades showed marked improvement

Shared Teaching Lead and support teacher both pre-assess the students Lead and support both plan lesson and delivery Both lead and support teacher jointly deliver the lesson. Students should not “know” who lead teacher is

Shared Teaching Results Most effective model used Students were actively engaged when two teachers were “teaching” Both teachers could deal with discipline and other issues “Tag Team” style enabled us to build a good teacher to teacher relationship Comprehension scores, class participation improved

Thanks to Room 11 - Afternoon Class

Survey Results “Having two teachers was great, it helped me learn” “It made class fun” “I was always able to get the extra help when I needed it” “Why does my friend’s class only have one teacher” “Mr. Matthius is awesome”

References Cook, L. H., & Friend, M. (1995). Co-teaching guidelines for creating effective practices, Focus on Exceptional Children, 28(2),1-12 Cook, L. H., & Friend, M. (2003). Interactions: Collaboration skills for school professionals (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon Gately, S.E. (2005). Two are better than one. Principal Leadership, 5(9), 36-41 Gately, S.E., & Gately, F.J.(2001). Understanding co-teaching components. Teaching Exceptional Children, 33(4), 40-47