Team teaching collaborative education by tutor John Toker

Five advantages and Issues with collaborative class settings:

1. Students with special needs benefit from mainstream students by experiencing curriculum that is maintained at a competitive level. Albeit, there may be cases when the curriculum does not need to be modified in its explanation, rather it may be too difficult for some with special needs (Vaughn, & Bos 2007).

2. Educators gain greater skills in balancing the learning needs of those who do and do not need accommodations. Effectiveness may not be consistent, so result data must be analyzed by both teachers (Vaughn, & Bos 2007).

3.  Learners with special needs may feel more included in a general classroom setting. Co-teachers have more issues to resolve, and therefore must have greater communication in order to resolve them (Vaughn, & Bos 2007).

4. If  both collaborative teachers know course curriculum well, then they can fill in the gaps of subject matter by explaining given material in different ways. Albeit, if special education teachers are only prepared to refine explanations of the general education teachers, then mainstream lesson material may not be taught when general education teachers are unavailable (Ripley, 1997).

5. Student answers that are evaluated by both teachers allow for feedback about what students are learning, and whether the rubrics reflect the intended lessons. If only one teacher in each class analyzes student answers, then the other teacher will not be contributing to how best to teach students on given subject matters; one teacher may well have an informed opinion on how to adjust the class lessons, while another may be insistent on presenting lessons as they have been in the past (Dunne 2000).

Current skills in co-teaching;

I tend to be flexible, and a good listener if put in team teaching situations. Given that I do not team teach at current, I would need to build back my skills in doing so.

My present day collaborative skills area for improvement:

Co-teaching planning periods need to be used to analyze student answers; this would offer better feedback to both of us as to how we may better approach teaching subjects. We should look closely at the types of answers students are providing, and assess whether lesson material needs to be taught differently, or if rubrics should be adjusted for courses (Dunne 2000).

Five Collaborative teaching techniques:

1. Model A involves two distinct roles between teachers; one is leading as the lecturer, while the other is assessing what people do not understand and clarifying how best to understand curriculum concepts. If the lead teacher explains in lecture form, for example, that their are neutrons and protons in the nucleus of the atom, and that electrons fly around them, the other teacher can clarify to those who have questions about them (Vaughn, & Bos 2007).

2. Model B classes have full classes split into smaller groups, while both teachers lecture, and elucidate subject matter; this in effect makes for smaller class sizes. For example, calculating degrees of interior angles for geometry would be taught as a general concept, specific steps to do so, and clarifications would be run side by side by the two teachers at the same time; each of them would speak to a smaller group than the whole class (Vaughn, & Bos 2007).

3. Model C teachers have different groups in which the learners are taught aspects of curriculum. For example, those who struggle with the meaning of a pronoun will receive added instruction about them. Albeit, others in the same class who understand what pronouns are, albeit need reinforcement of the concept, would write examples of them (Vaughn, & Bos 2007).

4. Model D of co-teaching: Class leaders vary from one teacher to the other, while students lead in some cases. Other lessons include independent work being completed by the students. Teaching stations reflect different portions of course curriculum; various students work on different parts depending on what they find challenging and how they learn. Some students may need manipulatives or alternative forms of explanation, while others may not need added accommodations to their exercises (Vaughn, & Bos 2007).

5. Model E includes collaborative teachers who are both responsible for equally lecturing, illustrating, and modeling the taking notes on what the other instructor is presenting for a given lesson. For example, mind maps may be taught by one teacher, while the other instructor completes it with the students; this could be done for writing a fiction story with an omniscient narrator (Vaughn, & Bos 2007).

References

Ripley, S. (1997) The art of teaching: Collaboration between general and special education teachers. ERIC EC Digest

Dunne, D. W. (2000). Teachers learn from looking together at student work.

Vaughn, S., & Bos, C. (2007). Response to Intervention: Developing Success for All Learners. In Teaching students who are exceptional, diverse, and at risk in the general education classroom (4th ed., p. 71 to 81). Boston: Pearson Allyn & Bacon.

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