Co-Teaching: 6 Models and their Uses

Do you remember your student teaching experience?

It really makes me mentally cringe to go there.  It was a great, life-changing experience in many ways, but it was also SO. HARD.  Overwhelming.  Draining.  Terrifying.  The 16 week experience of slowly processing the harsh realization that all the book knowledge you have doesn't equate to being a great teacher.  There are intangibles to consider.  Even when I had a supervising teacher who became a friend, with the best of intentions and the sweetest personality and...it didn't mean student teaching went smoothly.  I felt like a failure most days.  And looking back, I'm glad I don't have to do it again.

But, since taking a step back from the classroom, and looking for ways to still stay connected in the world of education, I have taken on a role of working with area student teachers.  And I am both comforted and challenged by the fact that these individuals will have a much different experience than I did (only 5 years ago, thank you very much).  I was asked to be the college supervisor for Grace College student teachers who are seeking a license in Spanish Education.  I did it last spring for this rising star, and now have the opportunity to do it again this fall for two young ladies.  And as we hit the ground running this school year, Grace provided an intentional time of training student teachers, classroom teachers and college supervisors on how exactly this experience will be different than what many the generation before them experienced.

Traditional Mindset on the left, Co-Teaching Mindset on the right. See the differences?!

You see, Grace is no longer doing the "traditional" method of student teaching.  You know, the one where the supervising teacher shows you what to do for about a week, then heads to the teacher's lounge as you "figure it out" and "sink or swim" on your own? Yeah.  That worked until we met the R.I.S.E. evaluation and the increased teacher accountability.  Then, classroom teachers weren't so fond of the idea of being absent all semester. So, Grace College adapted a new way of training student teachers involving the practice of co-teaching.  Since this topic is generally new, and altogether misunderstood often, I sat through a training on 6 different effective methods of co-teaching.  Welcome to the modern student teaching experience.  *does a happy dance*

   

Model 1: One Teach, One Observe
Sounds obvious, but there's something often overlooked:  The "Observer" is not passive.  They are not glancing around and then grading the occasional paper.  Before the lesson, the two teachers meet and discuss what needs to be observed and recorded.  Perhaps a student or group of students' behavior.  Maybe the amount of wait time given before calling an answer.  In my case, use of target language.  As one teacher instructs, the second teacher is actively gathering data on that topic and then both teachers meet later to discuss how that data will change their future teaching.

Model 2: One Teach, One Assist
This time, one is instructing and one is drifting about the room keeping students on task, answering questions as they arise, and doing whatever the first teacher needs them to do in the moment.  In my experience, this is the one most commonly used in our area schools.  Oftentimes, a para-professional or a special education teacher takes the "assist" role for classes with multiple students on their case load. 

Model 3: Alternative Teaching
After the initial lesson has been presented, many times certain students need the topic re-taught or paraphrased one more time.  This model of co-teaching is perfect for that.  First the lesson is taught by one teacher.  Then, the second teacher selects a small group of students and reinforces the lesson in a different way with discussion questions, review and formative assessments.  The first teacher remains with the larger portion of the class that might be able to do work more independently.  For example, this approach might work well if you have students that specifically struggle with reading comprehension.  After an introduction, one teacher takes those lower students out in the hallway and walks them through the questions step by step.  The rest of the class, however, is working in pairs at their own pace with the supervision of the first teacher.

Model 4: Station Teaching
In this model, you divide students into 3 similarly-sized groups.  Your classroom will have 2 stations led by teachers and 1 independently run station.  The best scenario here is that all stations involve different aspects of the same standard or topic.  That way, they are reinforcing each other without depending on the knowledge of the other stations (since each group will do them in different order).

Model 5: Parallel Teaching
If two teachers are teaching simultaneously, and covering the same material, they are essentially parallel teaching.  These teachers may be using slightly different lesson plans, but they are teaching the same lesson overall.  This is best used when interaction with students needs to be at a maximum and therefore the student to teacher ratio should be lowest.  I imagine this could be quite distracting depending on how the physical space in the classroom is divided, but I still think it has its place.  For example, there have been schools who have experienced a lot of success in dividing students into gender-separated classrooms.  With parallel teaching, one teacher could focus on instructing the boys in a way that is appropriate for them, and the other teacher could pull aside the girls.  Or, depending on the standard, the class could be divided into high/low groups and although the teachers go over the same content, they could tailor their questioning to the level of their group.

Model 6: Teaming
This is by far the most challenging way to co-teach.  It must involve two adults who know each other well and work very well together.  In this approach, the teachers essentially divide the instruction and add to, clarify and rephrase each other's thoughts.  So, one teacher may begin the lesson and then the next teacher might jump in with an example she thinks makes the point more comprehensible.  Obviously this approach would need careful planning and communication of expectations, but I could see this model being one of my favorites if I had the right teammate.

  

Not only are these six expectations that Grace has for its student teachers as they learn from their supervisors, but these methods would also be practical in any classrooms with teaching assistants, paraprofessionals, or two teachers of any kind.  I'm sad to say that I can't imagine many school corporations paying for two teachers to a classroom, and I haven't seen this in action in any foreign language classrooms to date.  However, in my former school there was a growing trend of getting the special needs teachers into the language arts and math classrooms to co-teach with the content area teachers.  Plus, our corporation also had math and language arts coaches at the district level and I could see them coming alongside some classroom teachers in these instances.  Even the history teachers down the hall from me were including some of these practices on their own by occasionally combining their classrooms and teaming up or dividing their joint students into levels and then each taking one half for a more focused lesson.  This could work for teachers who exchange their prep period to help their coworker and then switch the following day....the possibilities are endless if you are willing to get a little creative.

I am excited to see these models in practice as I observe my two student teachers this fall.  And I sincerely hope more veteran and experienced teachers start implementing more of these practices as well...they are ALL designed to benefit students more than one teacher alone.

Estacion Estudiantil

One adjustment I made my second year of teaching that I NEVER regretted was creating an "Estación Estudiantil."

From the poor picture quality it is hard to tell, but this small table was located directly next to the door to my classroom and also next to the turn in tray that my students used when it was time to submit their assignments.  My goal was to keep students away from my desk and to avoid constantly getting office supplies from my desk for them.  This way, students could find what they needed, when the needed it and leave me out of the picture!

I purchased...

• Two 3-ring hole punchers
• Two tape dispensers
• Two staplers
• Two large pairs of scissors
• One package of sharpened pencils 

Then, I labeled them all in the target language.

• Perforadora
• Cinta
• Grapadora
• Tijeras
• Lápiz

I lined them up on the table so the students could see everything and so that multiple students could use the table at once.  The pencils went in a pencil jar.  The scissors went in a jar as well. If I found random rubberbands, paperclips or other supplies on the floor throughout the year, I threw them in the jar.  

I printed out a label for my table as well by finding a font I liked, cutting and pasting it on bright construction paper and then laminating the whole thing and hanging it up with magnets. Underneath the table, I had a crate labeled "pizarritas" for white boards.  I normally had another crate (not pictured here) labeled "premios" full of random prizes for class competitions.  

My policy was that students could use anything on the table at any time without asking me.  By the end of class, everything had to be returned to the table.  If something went missing, I never replaced it.  Of course, we mysteriously lost all our pencils by the end of the year, but that just meant the students didn't have any "grace" pencils and they had to remember their own!

I would encourage ANYONE to do something similar, even if it is not in Spanish.  You could customize this station with whatever students need in your class most commonly.  It never became a distraction or a problem in my room; the students who needed to use these items frequently came in a minute earlier to get them done before turning in their assignments.  All in all, it was a way for me to streamline the process of getting assignments organized and completed without ME having to do anything during class time.

#Teach2Teach Q3: Troubling Times

What has been your most troubling experience with teaching and how have you handled it?

My first year of teaching was a troubling experience. Period.  Not in your typical "first year of teaching" type of way, necessarily. 

I was the second teacher in two years to teach a Heritage Spanish class.  This program was pitched to me as an opportunity for a large percentage of our population who are native Spanish speakers to take a higher level language class that would help them perfect their mother tongue.  The miscommunication among the other teachers in my department seemed to be that the program was also an appropriate spot to place students who had Spanish-sounding last names and who appeared to know enough of the language to become a behavior problem in a level I course.  You can imagine the difficulties that ensued.

Enter me:  5 foot 2 inches of white skin, freckles and red, curly hair.  "Newbie" written all over my lesson plans and shaking hands.  Even worse:  Spanish Spanish instead of Mexican Spanish came from my lips.  Oops.

They ate me alive, to say the least.  Class sizes of 6 and 10 students didn't ease the pain.  It was them vs. me immediately.  My attempts to get to know them, to interest them in learning and to maintain any semblance of order were mere fantasies.  Let alone my hopes of  challenging them in Spanish. HA!  What did I know, anyway? Not much, from their perspectives. They did everything in their power to trip me up, embarrass me and catch me in errors (which I had plenty of, let's be honest).  I think I walked out to my car nearly every evening with hot tears dripping down my face.

Now, don't feel too bad for me.  I am not even a little proud of how I handled the majority of the situations I came across my first year.  I tried to be more "tough" like I saw some of my colleagues being in their classes.  I embarrassed those high schoolers right back to "put them in their place."  I sank to their level of arguments many times.  And, at a certain point, I stopped making rigorous education any sort of a priority and just tried to survive until the end of sixth period. It was a nightmare. Repeat 179 times.

Add to all of this a lack of any sort of administrative support.  Add to this a "mentor" teacher who could not have cared less if I succeeded or failed.  Add to this no written curriculum.  Add to this students who did not have a high enough level of Spanish to succeed.  Add to this students who had a higher level in Spanish than I did.  Add to this the fact that I was simultaneously writing curriculum for a new course in a separate building, traveling there during my prep period and teaching 3 different courses.

I have blocked much of this year from my memory, to be honest.  But I recall a distinct moment around Christmas time when I came home with tears and told my husband, "They honestly hate me.  We are getting nothing done, I have no idea what to do to make it better and they hate me."
Cue dramatic music change.  One key conversation happened about that same time with a student that I would consider one of my biggest disruptions and one of the most natural leaders I have ever seen.  He said something quite rude to me in front of the whole class...to the point that everyone turned to look at me and see what my reaction would be.  I simply stopped what I was doing, maintained eye contact with him for a few seconds and then took a deep breath and began again, right where I had left off.  He interrupted me again, trying to rile me up.  And I stopped.  And I breathed.  And I started over.  We must have done this three or four times before he gave up.  As the bell rang, I asked him to stay after class. He immediately said:  "Oh great, you're mad at me, aren't you?"  Instead, I told him that I thought he was funny.  Genuinely funny. I told him I like him as a person.  And I told him that I could tell that others looked to him and followed his lead.  I told him he singlehandedly had the power to change the culture of our class. I don't know what I said that time that was so different than other conversations we had before, but he looked up at me and said, "You know what, you're actually a nice person.  You're really nice."  And he walked away.

That may sound like nothing.  But to me, it was everything.  And from that day forward, I kid you not, he stood up for me.  When another student smarted off, this student intervened.  He was still rambunctious and crazy, but he never directly defied me again.  He talked to me about his life from time to time and he even listened sometimes when I spoke.  We had some sort of agreement that I didn't mean to make, but it worked.

All that to say, I dealt with this difficult situation by still trying my darnedest to matter to my students.  It was not easy.  And it did not happen daily.  But I tried to show them that I saw them as people even when they did not return the favor.  They weren't really listening to me in regards to Spanish, but they listened to life lessons from time to time.  I gave them more privileges than other teachers I knew because I wanted to show them I respected and trusted them.  I journaled to them.  I talked to them about the work force. I got them involved in our community.  I apologized to them when I messed up.  I freaking hip-hop danced with them in front of the school.  If that humiliation doesn't bond you together, I don't know what will!  To be honest, I think I failed at my job description my first year.  But I think I found a way to still make some sort of an impact on these students.  I pray I did, at least.

And the next year, I promptly reduced my contract willingly to be part of a different program I truly believed in instead of 3 programs I felt under-qualified for.  And that has made all the difference.

Make every minute count!

I NEVER get to everything I have planned for the class period.  Anybody with me?  When I'm trying to refresh topics from yesterday, conference individually with students, practice listening/speaking/writing/reading, have the students moving around, use authentic resources AND assess students along the way...I just don't know where the time goes!

Some people use "exit tickets" to double check that their students got that one main thought from the day.  But, if you're like me, you have come to the conclusion that you are incapable of stopping class in enough time for the students to successfully complete their exit ticket. So, I decided to do the exact opposite...come up with a super quick assessment that is their ticket IN the door.

If we have just introduced new vocabulary, for example, the following day I meet the students in the hallway before they get a chance to walk in the door.  I have a stack of pictures in my hand, along with my gradebook.  I show the students a picture, one at a time, and have them recite the word to me in Spanish.  If they can do it on the first try, they earn 3 points and they can enter the classroom.  They then can begin their "Para Empezar" on the board.   If they cannot answer the first question, they go to the back of the line and wait to try again, but now they can only earn 2 points...and so on, until they are out of points to earn.  Those students enter the classroom after repeating after me and receive a 0 for the day.

I have noticed that this practice takes care of 4 objectives:

1. Students are held immediately responsible for information they learned the day before.  It is not a test next week, nor a homework assignment they can look up information for, but rather a quick "got it or don't got it" type of wake up call.
2. This has all but eliminated my tardy issue.  If you are late to class, chances are you are still waiting in line to enter and you are already mentally rehearsing your vocab.  If you are so late that we are already finished, you have earned a 0 until you have made up your word.
3. It feels fair. It's straight forward.  No tricks.  No test taking strategies.  If you mess up, you get 2 more chances.  If you bomb a whole day, it was only 3 points.  But, after you consistently do well at this for a week, you have a 15 point assessment in the gradebook to be proud of.
4. It helps me conference one-on-one with my students.  I get a brief moment with each individual to hear them pronounce a word or two.  I can see how long they have to think before they respond.  I no longer have to wait until a paper quiz to see how students are doing...I know before they enter my classroom.  And, oftentimes, I base my instruction on that!

As the week progresses, I typically stray from rote memorization to more complex things.  Sometimes they have to translate a sentence.  Sometimes they have to answer a question.  Sometimes they have to simply pronounce a word.  It varies.  This idea could work for all content areas, too!  It is a great way to assess students in a non threatening way, with very little prep for the teacher.  Plus, it gives me a few minutes of classtime back...and I need every minute I can get!

Hall Passes

Many teachers I know have difficulty deciding how to monitor how often students are permitted to leave their classroom to retrieve forgotten homework, find their ID card, run to the bathroom or get a drink from the drinking fountain.  I have come up with a system that works well for me:  Boletos Gratuitos.  At the beginning of each semester, I give each student three boletos printed on neon colored paper.  They are to keep them in their classroom binder and have them in their possession each day.  If they forget a pencil or need to leave the classroom for any reason (including if they are tardy for any reason) they quietly put their name and the date on the back of the boleto and turn it in to their class period's tray.  If they run out of boletos they are no longer permitted to leave the classroom or if they must, then they are assigned a lunch detention.  If they keep boletos all semester without needing to use them they can turn them in for one point of extra credit at the end!

I have been using these for the past two years, and it has really cut down on unnecessary running in and out of the classroom.  What system do you use that holds students accountable for their classtime and yet still allows for mistakes?