PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ON CO-TEACHING

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Professional Development on Co-Teaching

Daniel I. Snchez

SURVEY SAYS
When the district I worked in started to promote inclusive practices last
summer, my initial thought was: How do I do this given logistical variables and why
should I? I quickly reasoned the latter by considering the number of times I felt my
exceptional learners were experiencing a sense of discombobulation during their
school day, as they abruptly transitioned back and forth between the general
education classroom setting and my resource room. In an ideal scenario, as I saw it,
this transition would be seamless due to high congruency between instruction the
learner was receiving within the classroom and the intensive support extending and
connecting the learner to said content, process or product under my tutelage. Thus,
integrating my services into their classroom learning environment aligned with this
ideal scenario. The challenges in doing so stemmed from logistical constraints. Chief
among them were time and scale of this type of service delivery. In order to avoid
being a glorified paraprofessional or in class tutor for one or two students
(Spencer, p. 297) I consulted my district assistant director of exceptional education
to seek guidance and additional resources. I was presented with power points and
articles on co-teaching that referenced additional online resources. I was also given
sage advice: start small. In addition, I conferred with my sites exceptional
education team to gauge their strengths and needs. In ascertaining our needs, it
became evident that the lack of experience with inclusive practices was mutual,

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though not unique to our school. As we reached out and informally surveyed known
colleagues at nearby schools, a common need emerged that would become the
catalyst to this Professional Development (PD), along with the formation of a
regional resource Professional Learning Community (PLC) linking multiple sites.
FROM ABSTRACT TO ACTION
Given the guidance of our district leadership, along with the identified need
to learn more about inclusive practice models and logistical considerations, I
collaborated with one of the other resource teachers at my site to develop a PD
presentation based on the materials provided to me by my assistant director. This
PD would serve as the unofficial theme around which our multi-site resource PLC
would collaborate. The PD goal was to determine a level of support for co-teaching.
The presentations of explanatory and exploratory, the most commonly accepted
forms of co-teaching described and group discussion held around presenters and
participants prior experiences with the topic, along with concerns and questions. In
my case, I shared with the group candidly about the early successes and challenges
in co-teaching with one of my general education peers.
At the onset of the school year, equipped with novice-level knowledge, a
more sophisticated collaborative skillset and great ambition, I reviewed my
caseload, looking for a cluster of students and their designated classroom teacher.
Admittedly, when my director had encouraged me to start small, she had also
suggested I look closely at students who would likely flourish under this service
model. However, sensing the pressure of time to organize this service, I opted
instead to look for a teacher with whom I perceived I could successfully co-teach. I
approached this teacher before the first school day for students, asked her if she
would be open to trying this with me, and setting a schedule for teaching and
planning, which was crammed in once per week during our lunch time. I provided
her with information on co-teaching models, and we selected a strategy to start
with- one teach, one observe- that would ease us into this new arrangement. We
then spent every week planning- mostly outlining- lessons, and trying multiple coteaching arrangements. The schedule for co-teaching we developed would go on to
change once, at the mid-year point, primarily due to my increasing caseload and
the subsequent constraints on my time and availability. The challenges I was
experiencing with relation to our shared exceptional learners were evident from the
onset- I was struggling with teaching and helping them within the context of the
classroom.
I had grown accustomed to sitting with exceptional learners in small group
and individual settings and monitoring their work closely while providing prompt
constructive feedback. Thus, early co-teaching quickly turned into parallel or station
(center) teaching models. Space within the classroom also proved to be an obstacle,
as the classroom size quickly swelled to 32 students. We ended up locating another
nearby, vacant classroom for splitting the class in half, with our exceptional learners

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rotating between our groups. As the year continued, and the scale of our endeavor
became more overt to us, I opted to change the delivery service method for 2 of the
3 learners with IEPs, whereby they would each also be pulled twice per week with
small groups. This hybrid service model has continued to this day, with unknown
impact on the students, other than progress data specific to their respective IEPs.
This data yielded little to no significant progress. Part of the reason for this was the
needs for these students to receive direct and intensive instruction to help them
acquire foundational academic skills. In response to this detection, we started to
spend a little more of our meager planning time considering, assigning and taking
actions to modify and accommodate these learners in more and more facets of their
general education instruction. Though much of this and more would be shared over
time with my PLC, at the time of the PD, only the early challenges were apparent,
framing the PD discussion from this challenged perspective.

IMPLEMENTATION DREAD
Our PD participants presented their skepticism, which was fueled more so by
veteran teachers who had been practicing a certain way for several years and may
or may not have experienced co-teaching previously. They expressed doubts that
their general education colleagues would buy into this service arrangement, and
recounted some negative experiences involving teachers all too eager to send
exceptional learners out of the classroom to the resource room. My colleague and I
made sure everyone had an opportunity to contribute, validated their concerns and
questions, and we guided the discussion by focusing on procedural knowledge
centered on awareness of the logistical barriers. Namely, we advocated for strong
administrative support that honored, protected and supported the time necessary
for co-planning. Per the expectations of our field, we also stressed the importance of
properly setting up this form of service via IEP amendment meetings. Guiding
discussion questions were also presented to keep dialogue constructive.
CHECKING OUR OWN PROGRESS
Our PLC scheduled specific dates based on the districts PD schedule, and
determined to continue this discussion to check in with each other regarding our
continued successes and challenges with implementing inclusive practices. We also
agreed to utilize email as a forum for sharing questions, comments and resources,
which we did throughout the year. Some shared successes, while many shared other
challenges, such as varying buy in from teachers, administration, parents or
students. Indeed, the benefits to the students I co-taught have only recently
become less covert.
Though I cannot quantify the positive impact of providing the majority of
exceptional education services within the classroom setting while adapting

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instruction and striving for equity in learning opportunities for all, there has been
observed evidence of it contextually. Of all my IEP teams, I was the most unified and
collaborative, from the school perspective, with those teams that included my coteacher. In the case of one of our exceptional learners, this strengthened bond
extended to the parent, and new progress was made this year in support of that
learner. I also observed and had a part in greater implementation of instructional
accommodations. I also had numerous opportunities to guide small groups that
paired our learners with IEPs with their general education peers and watched the
classroom community culture build from that work.
TAKE TWO
If I had the opportunity to present this PD again, I would make it more engaging by
role playing the co-teaching models, and I would have more tools available for
successfully co-planning. I would also plan for intentional follow-up and proactively
support implementation by initiating email conversations by asking how co-teaching
is going. I would also practice what we teach by having our participants reflect and
record SMART goals, such as By May of this school year, given one co-teaching
arrangement using a commonly accepted model, we will plan for and provide
differentiated instruction that includes and accommodates our exceptional learners
9 out of every 10 lessons, based on our lesson plans and co-planning notes. Also, I
would share and guide the group in synthesizing key points from Wendy Murawski
and Lisa Diekers concise and comprehensive article on co teaching, 50 Ways to
keep your co-teacher: Strategies for Before, During and After Co-Teaching, as it
contains a plethora of creatively presented tips, including key questions for coteachers to reflect upon and discuss as they continue to implement collaboratively:
Are the roles of each teacher meaningful? Are co-teachers using strategies to
promote success with all students in the classroom? Does evidence indicate that
successful learning is occurring in the class (Murawski & Dieker, p. 47). I would
certainly welcome the opportunity to present on this critical educational topic in
support of our continual improvement of practices and services to all our young
learners.

REFERENCES
Spencer, S. A. (2005). An interview with Dr. Lynne Cook and Dr. June Downing: The
practicalities of collaboration in special education service delivery. Invervention in
School and Clinic, 40, 296-300
Murawksi, W. and Dieker, L. 50 Ways to keep your co-teacher: Strategies for Before,
During and After Co-Teaching. Teaching Exceptional Children. Mar/April 2008. Pages
40-48. Council for Exceptional Children.