Co-Teaching

Two Co-Teachers in Action

Co-Teaching is the increasingly common practice of having two teachers, one a general education content teacher, and the other a special education specialist, in the same classroom at the same time teaching the same students. There are several different ways in which co-teaching can be performed, with different roles for each teacher.

This is a Concept Map that talks about Co-Teaching, the different formats for it, what skills it requires, as well as how it benefits students.

PBIS: Applying Positive Behavioral Supports 

For this competency, I used a set of rules I crafted for the PBIS Online Module. These rules I devised for a high school history class, and I wanted to have a set of positive rules that encourage discussion, respect for others and their opinions, and allow students to feel free to ask questions and speak their mind. History is a collaborative and interpretive science, and it thrives on people debating different points of view in order to build the most complete vision of what the past was like. 

I have the idea that this would be handed around the class in the first few days of school, and that each student would 'sign' it like the Constitution of the United States, and then it would be posted. I think that would be a fun little wrinkle on a list of rules, and it has the effect of students agreeing to them and signing a kind of contract. 

Individualizing Instruction

One of the most important things that a teacher can learn to perform is individualizing instruction. On the surface, it seems to make sense. Every student is a different person, I think everyone would agree. Each student learns at a different pace, and each student learns in a different way. However, the idea that a teacher should, for each student, devise a unique approach to that student can seem daunting. In a class of twenty plus students, it does seem difficult to do. 

However, despite this, I think it is absolutely essential that teachers do their best to personalize education for their students. Every single student can benefit from Individualizing Instruction. Think about it. If you have a class, the students' achievement and current ability can be put into a simple bell curve, meaning in a class of twenty, five are likely on the high end, ten in the middle, and five in the low end. If a teacher designs his or her lessons at the abilities of the middle ten students, the bottom five will likely struggle and lose confidence and fall behind. However, the top five will also suffer, as they will not be challenged and instead they will either be bored, less engaged, or at best just not improve. Instead, instruction should be differentiated for these different students. Instead of coming up with an assignment for each student, one strategy is to break the students into small groups. 

There are two different ways in which a teacher could differentiate instruction in by using small groups. The first way is to have 'homogeneous' groups, where students of similar ability are grouped together. In this case, assignments can be tailored so that each group is appropriately challenged in their zone of proximal development. In this case, each group should be engaged and be learning and finding success. The other way is to have 'heterogeneous' groups in which students of different abilities are placed together, and assign roles within the group. The higher level students than can act as peer tutors of sorts, and the students that might struggle on their own will be able to learn from their peers. Lower achieving students also bring their own strengths to the group, so they will often be able to make a positive contribution to the group and enrich the group experience. 

Beyond differentiating assignments, one of the most effective things that teachers can do is use explicit instruction. Explicit instruction is an evidence based practice that is systematic and engaging for the students. In this system, teachers engage in a "I do," "We do," and "You do" model that engages students and gradually places more and more responsibility for the material into the hands of the students. Students are repeatedly given chances to respond and demonstrate their understanding in this system. Using explicit instruction, and monitoring progress as the lesson goes along, is a great way to determine each students level of understanding, and differentiated assignments can be assigned to students based on their results. 

Response to Intervention

Source: University of North Carolina School of Education

One of the most important procedures used in the in the classroom is the Response to Intervention framework. While the RTI, as it is known, framework does not specifically target students with disabilities, these students are included in the mechanics of the system. As shown in the image above, the system works in a pyramid shape, with the majority of students, around 80%, being in the bottom tier, Tier 1. In this tier, there is universal monitoring of the students, where data-based decisions are made to monitor progress. If students are struggling while at Tier 1, they are recommended for a move to Tier 2, or the middle tier.  Tier 2 is more intensive with smaller group sizes, more monitoring, data collection, and different strategies in instruction are attempted to see if students respond more positively to different kinds of instruction. Tier 2 makes up around 15% of students.  Finally, if students continue to struggle at Tier 2, they are referred to the top tier, Tier 3. Here, students have more one on one interaction with teachers and specialists with the most intensive instruction and data collection. This is the rarest of the three tiers, with around 5% of students in this tier. At this tier, instruction is the most specialized to each individual student, as teachers attempt to find methods and accommodations that work for each student.

Students are moved around these tiers based on data collected in assessments and the consensus of their teachers, aides, and specialists. These tiers can be fluid and students can be moved both up from tier 2 and 3 as well as down if improvement is shown with the frequent progress monitoring at the lower two tiers. 

Identification and Remediation of Disabilities

The IEP Process is one of the most important parts of special education process, and it is something that I don't think a lot of people don't understand. This graphic shows the process at its most basic level, and demonstrates how thorough and well thought out the process truly is. At each step of this process, the family and student is included and their acceptance and participation in the plan of action is essential for the creation of a successful IEP that begins to work and put the student on the path to success.

For more information on the IEP process, this website has lots of great information for those interested in the process.

Categories of Disability

New York State Recognizes Thirteen Categories of Disability when diagnosing and administrating exceptional learners. Some of these categories are what are termed low incidence disabilities, meaning that they occur relatively rarely. Others are known as high incidence disabilities, and they are relatively common among the population. In any given inclusive classroom, a teacher is likely to have several students that have been categorized with one of the high incidence disabilities, and in rarer cases might even have one or more students with a low incidence disability. This newsletter will try to cover some of the major categories of disability and how it affects the way in which they are taught.