EDL 277

Co-teaching Implementation Plan

Anna Phillips

Identify the Problem

The current issue in our school is, our general education teachers lack the knowledge of

supplementing instruction and identifying students who need interventions but excel in providing

large group instruction in their content area due to their college education. This is an issue

because not all of our students in the large group can be successful without interventions and

extra support. Most of the time, the special education teachers do not know how their students

are performing in the general education classroom and are unable to ensure their

accommodations are enacted and are helping the students. This predicament is due to the

special education teachers’ responsibilities. Throughout a normal day the special education

teacher serves SDI minutes, observes students, contacts parents, completes paperwork, etc.

These various daily responsibilities create an issue when it comes time for a student’s IEP

meeting with the parent and making decisions on the child’s education and the special

education teacher is unable to speak on the student’s performance. Classroom ratios of general

education students to special education students have increased as well. With the number of

special education students in the classroom increasing, we need to have a teacher in the core

classroom that knows how to identify these students’ gaps and how to accommodate the

curriculum to help them achieve learning.

Co-teaching
According to Mackey et. al., (2015) co-teaching is collaborative teaching between two

teachers, usually a general education teacher and a special education teacher. The two

teachers prep, teach and assess together. It is done in a shared space, with shared resources

and joint accountability. “The purpose of co-teaching is to successfully integrate students with

disabilities into the general education classroom” (Hang and Rabren, 2009) while also providing
more support for disabled students, English language learners, and general education students

due to better teacher-to-student ratios, variety of teaching styles, etc.

There are many benefits to co-teaching. The benefits according to Hurd and Ellis (2017)

are,

“The overall shared benefits of co-teaching were reported as: (1) better preparation of

content and increased opportunities for students; (2) a focus on the needs of middle

schoolers with another set of eyes; (3) an increased respect for colleagues; and (4)

extended time.”

The listed benefits above are results of personalized and differentiated teaching within co-taught

classrooms. The research of Mackey, et. al., (2015) found that co-teaching also allows for

grouping students by needs and more than one person to problem solve. Co-teaching promotes

more than one perspective on the curriculum, instructional methods, and problem-solving. The

practice doesn’t only benefit academics, it also leads to fewer referrals, supports from outside

sources, and outbursts in behavior. .

According to Shulman (2004), because of the variety of perspectives and teaching

styles, co-teaching leads to a greater understanding of each student. One of the co-teachers

may have a better understanding of student behaviors and be able to see past the outburst

while the other may not be able to, leading to understanding what the student needs. Not only is

co-teaching beneficial to students, according to Rytivaara, et. al., (2021) this shared

responsibility of students and making up for others’ weaknesses with their colleagues’ strengths

leads to greater joy within the work of teaching.

Karten and Murawski (2020), found that to have a successful co-teaching team the

teachers together need to state their expectations, and attitudes toward co-teaching, what roles

they are comfortable with and procedures that will be followed for grading, assessing,

instruction, etc. Communication is crucial to the success of the co-teaching team and their

students. Planning is also crucial. Hang and Rabren (2009), learned that co-teachers need to
plan together weekly. During the planning time they should discuss instruction, student

behaviors, their roles in the co-teaching team, students’ Individualized Education Plans, etc.

Implementation
The first step of the implementation will be to pair teachers up based on multiple factors.

These factors will help the administration create pairings that will promote student success.

Once teachers are paired based on their personality, strengths, student need, and content area,

the administrator will create teacher schedules based on co-teacher assignments. Within the

schedule, there will be planning times for the co-teachers to meet to plan and discuss their

lessons and student achievement.

Once teacher schedules are made, student schedules will be made so that special education

teachers can have students with IEPs in their co-taught classes within their goal areas.

Before the school year begins, teachers will receive professional development focusing

on defining co-teaching and the 6 methods they can implement. All teachers will receive the

initial professional development as co-teaching assignments may change year to year

depending on student needs and available teachers. This professional development should also

help teachers do cross-curricular instruction if they have the opportunity as they will have the

tools to collaborate with their colleagues.

Once the teachers have learned what co-teaching is and how to implement it, they will

partner with their co-teacher and plan a lesson. The lesson can be over the content they will

teach or a general concept that all teachers have knowledge of. After the lesson is planned

including how they will assess the concept, the plans will be analyzed by the curriculum

instructor. The curriculum instructor will make notes of who is still progressing in the concept of

co-teaching and schedule a time to meet with them to model strong co-teaching and collaborate

with the teachers on their lesson plan. Once students have had the opportunity to co-teach for

at least a quarter of the year, there will be a professional development opportunity to go and
observe another co-teaching team within the building to see their strategies and how they work

together to learn from them.

Throughout the year there will be monthly meetings to allow the co-teachers as a group

to reflect on how co-teaching is going for them, where they can improve, and what co-teaching

models they would like to try in the future, and any other new research on co-teaching that the

team can apply to their practice. Also, the curriculum instructor and principal will observe co-

teaching teams to ensure the effectiveness of co-teaching and provide feedback to continue to

improve. The following rubric will be used.

Co-teaching Observation

1.) Model - one teach, one observe one teach, one assist parallel teaching

station teaching alternative teaching team teaching

2.) Time spent in each model - ________________________________________________

3.) Student engagement - High Normal Low

4.) Student engagement comments - ___________________________________________

5.) Differentiation - Yes No

6.) Differentiation comments - ________________________________________________

7.) Other comments - ______________________________________________________

Administrator Goals and Actions

Goal #1: The administrator will observe all co-taught classrooms within the first quarter.

Actions:

● Create a schedule of observations with the curriculum instructor.

● Use the rubric to evaluate the co-taught instruction.

 ● Give co-teachers feedback on the instruction. Schedule a learning session with a

curriculum instructor if needed.

Goal #2: Monthly professional development for co-teaching staff within the first year. Quarterly

after the first year is complete.

Actions:

● Research co-teaching and collaborate with experts in co-teaching (curriculum instructor,

experienced co-teachers, etc.)

● Plan professional development days in the school calendar

● Create a professional development plan

● Create plus delta chart for after professional development to tailor the learnings to the

teachers’ needs.

Goal #3: 10% student achievement growth in co-taught content areas.

Actions:

● Team meetings will report student growth monthly.

● If growth is not being made, the curriculum instructor will schedule a planning time with

co-teachers to collaborate with them.

● Look at aReading and aMath for growth scores.

Goal #4: Staff school climate improvement from baseline:

Actions:

● Send out a quarterly staff survey on the climate.

● Visit with teachers who rate the climate poorly to see how you can support them.

● Ensure all staff knows that these initiatives are to support them.

● Be present, visible, and accessible.

 Works Cited

Hang, Qi, and Karen Rabren. “An Examination of Co-Teaching.” Remedial and Special
…..Education, vol. 30, no. 5, 2009, pp. 259–268.

Hurd, Ellis, and Gary Weilbacher.(2017) “‘You Want Me to Do What?" The Benefits of
…..Co-Teaching in the Middle Level.” Middle Grades Review, pp. Middle grades review,
…..2017–03, Vol.3 (1).

Jurkowski, S., & Müller, B. (2018). “Co-teaching in inclusive classes: The development of
…..multi-professional cooperation in teaching dyads. Teaching and Teacher Education”, 75,
…..224-231.

Karten, Toby J, and Wendy W Murawski. “Co-Teaching Do's, Don'ts, and Do Betters.
…..Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development”, 2020.

Mackey, J., O'Reilly, N., Jansen, C., & Fletcher, J. (2018). “Leading change to co-teaching
in …..primary schools: A "Down Under" experience.” Educational Review (Birmingham),
70(4), …..465-485.

McCaw, J. (2020). “Special Education Administrative Supervision of Integrated Co-Teaching.

…..Journal for Leadership and Instruction”, 19(2), 24–32.

Rytivaara, A., Pulkkinen, J., & Palmu, I. (n.d.). “Learning about students in co-teaching
…..teams”. International Journal of Inclusive Education, Ahead-of-print(Ahead-of-print), 1-
16.

Rytivaara, A., Pulkkinen, J., & De Bruin, C. (2019). “Committing, engaging and negotiating:
…..Teachers’ stories about creating shared spaces for co-teaching. Teaching and Teacher
…..Education”, 83, 225-235.