Over the past few years, I’ve gotten a lot of co-teaching questions e-mailed to me or direct messaged to me on Instagram. I always answer each question, and I love having conversations about co-teaching, but a lot of the questions (I started to notice) were the same. Not that this bothered me. I just realized I wanted to make my answers/knowledge/experiences about co-teaching more available for everyone. So, a few weeks ago, I asked all of my Instagram followers to leave me any questions they have about co-teaching. I wanted to create a blog post addressing the common questions I’ve received, and any new questions my followers might have.
Now, I’m not saying don’t e-mail/message me anymore with questions – haha, I just thought a blog post would be a great reference tool.
I made the questions into their own little sections. Read them all, or scroll past if it is not a question that applies to you!
DISCLAIMER: Before you read, I don’t know it all (don’t tell my husband that – haha). I have been a special education co-teacher for close to 10 years now. My answers to all of the questions are solely based on my experiences. I have also included links to resources I have created, that have GREATLY helped me in the co-teaching setting.
My Answer: I want to start out by answering that I’ve seen students thrive in a co-taught setting. They’ve gained so much confidence just by having an extra teacher in the room. Some students on my caseload have even transitioned from the co-taught classroom into a regular education classroom.
AND then on the complete other end – I’ve seen students really struggle in the co-taught classroom. You just have to remember that every student is different. Like everyone else, I always try to provide all the supports I possibly can for a student who is struggling. I also document ALL the supports I have tried, and whether they worked or not. I strongly suggest this. There have been certain occasions where a co-taught classroom was not an appropriate placement for a student and I had the documentation and examples to back it up. Ultimately, it is an IEP team decision, but having the evidence and concerns to show why this co-taught placement wasn’t appropriate was extremely beneficial.
Some of the steps I use to support include:
– Seating away from distractions. This seems pretty obvious but a few times I thought I had made a good seating choice for a particular student – up front and close to the board – and I was wrong. Up front and close to the board meant looking out the door when someone walked past or even being next to a window when it was raining. Both were huge distractions. It once took a general education teacher and myself three tries to find the “perfect” seat for a student. Although, I’m not sure the perfect seat exists – haha.
– Further adapting and modifying material. Yes, I’ve had to modify a modified test. More than a dozen times. Not all students need the same modifications. Three answer choices to a multiple choice question might work for some students, while others might need that on their tests PLUS sentence starters for essays. Sometimes matching is difficult or even looking at a word bank. It’s a little more work for the regular education teacher and myself, but it’s incredibly helpful to the student. And no teacher wants to see a student struggle.
– Give a hard copy of notes. A lot of times, students just can’t keep up with the notes/lecture and get behind. I’ve seen students get behind because they can’t write as fast as a teacher talks or writes. I’ve seen students just scribble stuff down so they look like they are keeping up. There have been many times where I think I’m talking slow, and everyone is keeping up with me, but that’s not the case. Honestly, I would much rather have my students paying attention, than trying to keep up with taking notes – and they know this. Do I encourage them to takes notes about what is being said, and what is going on, and what is written on the board? Yes. Do I care if they write word for word, with perfect spelling and grammar, what either I wrote/said or the general education teacher in the room wrote/said? No. My students know that if the other teacher and I see them actively engaged, they will be given a hard copy of notes at the end of class. This way they have something to study from/use on assignments – if they didn’t get everything written down on their own. This actually applies to ALL students in the room. I’m not going to single anyone out.
Sooo… you might be thinking that sometimes students have “bad days” and they won’t be “actively engaged,” and I get that. TOTALLY. I realize that students get sick or have other reasons why they might be struggling on certain days in class. I will still provide these students with a hard copy of notes, but remind them of the class expectations. I don’t want my students, or any students, to think that they can do nothing and still get the notes. This doesn’t help them if they are struggling, or help me with helping them. Also – once the notes are presented in class, they are then added to Google Classroom.
– Having students keep a binder. I actually spent a lot of my time making a binder my students could use in their co-taught classes. It has been a HUGE help to them, myself, and the general education teacher in the room. A lot of my students who struggled in the co-taught class were also not very organized. With this binder students have a place to keep their notes, a place to jot down questions they still might have, a place to keep vocabulary words, assignments … you name it! No more digging through their book bags searching for those 10 questions they worked on the day before. It was truly a world of difference once they became organized. This binder is in my TPT shop and can be found by clicking here.
– Working in small groups. I wish this could happen more often than it does, but it doesn’t always fit in or work out. However, when it does, the general education teacher and I will both work in centers with small groups. Working in smaller groups helped both the general education teacher and myself in the room to see what topic/areas certain students are struggling in. It’s nice to be able to take the time to re-reach those topics/areas of concern, too.
– Resource room/Testing Periods. I know this one probably can’t work for everyone because of scheduling. There are times built into my schedule where I can have students who feel that they are struggling come and meet with me for extra help. I also have students I feel that are struggling come to me. It’s really nice to be able to talk to a student, one-on-one, and ask what’s going on… what are they having difficulties with… what is easy for them… how am I able to help more… etc. I didn’t always have an allotted amount of time for this, so I feel very fortunate now. It’s made a big difference.
My Answer: When I was first asked this, I thought, “eh – I’m sure I’m difficult sometimes, ” haha. I mean, we all can have our moments! But honestly, in almost ten years of co-teaching, there was only one occasion that a teacher I was co-teaching with had different expectations than I had for the students on my caseload. This teacher was by no means a bad teacher or person, and we got a long great, we just felt differently about different things. It was this teacher’s first year. This teacher thought that all of the students should be working on the same level in the classroom. It was hard for a while – if my caseload students weren’t able to keep up, this teacher didn’t understand why they were allowed to be in this classroom. Plus, on some days, I was seen more as an “aid” by this teacher. I understood how this teacher was new and it was their first classroom, but I also was hired for a job to do in this classroom, too. I went to my administration about it. I didn’t go to tattle, I just went for advice. I didn’t want to be going against any IEPs. An administrator sat down with the both of us and we all just talked. It helped a lot.
Over the years, I feel that creating a great co-teaching experience takes being with the same general education teacher for several years. The first year co-teaching with someone new is always weird. I mean… I don’t know how this teacher teaches. I don’t know what this teacher expects. I don’t want this teacher to think I’m doing too much or that I’m doing too little. And the general education teacher is thinking the same thing about me coming into their room. Just like any great relationship you have with a person, it takes time.
My Answer: My special education students have, on multiple occasions, refused to complete work in the co-taught classroom. Reasons varied. The students just might be having an off day. They might think the work is too hard. They “might not feel like working today,” – so I’ve been told more times than I can count on two hands. Whatever reason a student used to complete work I wrote it down in my personal co-teacher binder. I’d include the reason the student refused and the assistance I offered the student to try to get them to work. If the student still refused, depending upon their IEP, we would give them another day to complete the work, a smaller setting to work in, points would be taken off, or the school’s discipline policy would be followed. If this was a constant issue, parents/guardians were notified. Sometimes, meetings even needed to take place.
I do have students that test in a smaller, quieter area – as per their IEP. For these students, I keep the adapted test in my classroom and these specific students know to report to my classroom that day, rather than the co-taught classroom. There have been a few times the regular education students ask how they can come to my room for help and tests. I don’t turn any student away if they need help, there’s always homeroom I can help these students in. I simply explain that taking a test in my room requires a long process. I’m honestly not sure I’ve ever been asked what the process was – haha.
My Answer: It is a COMPLETELY overwhelming feeling sometimes not being in your classroom, but only for your lunch and prep. I know what it’s like – desperately needing something you forgot on my desk, and having to figure something else out because you can’t just up and leave the classroom to go get it. A few years ago I created a special education co-teacher binder for myself. Do I like carrying around a binder all day? Not really – BUT it’s made my co-teaching life easier… and my biceps a little bigger. There’s another special education co-teacher in my building that keeps her binder in her computer bag. She carries her binder around that way. I’ll do whatever it takes to feel organized, and not like I’m losing my mind not having something I need. Everything I would have at my desk is kept in it. I even have a pouch where I keep my favorite pens and post-its. I do have an iPad and I could easily keep some of what I need on it digitally, but I still have papers for/from students I need to keep organized. I keep my binder on/behind the general education teacher’s desk when I am in the room. I always, ALWAYS remember confidentiality.
This binder (and other co-teaching binder themes) can be found in my TPT shop by clicking here. I also did a blog post about how I organized using my co-teacher binder. You can read about it by clicking here.
My Answer: In an ideal world, I would have a planning period with the general education teachers that I co-teach with. That doesn’t happen though because of all of our schedules. However, I do meet with the general education teacher I co-teach with (and other science teachers) once a week in our PLC meeting. This isn’t “ideal,” but it’s better than nothing. Fortunately, our PLC meeting is every Monday so we are able to all talk about our plans for the upcoming week. I know – this isn’t exactly enough planning time though. This year, and in years past, the general education teacher and I would take any free chance we had in class to talk about lessons/topics/ideas that we had for things coming up. We even kept in touch through e-mails. I luckily have access to see the general education teacher’s plans if we don’t have planning together. We didn’t have any planning time together. Those of you who do have planning times together, I’m envious.
I do take notes and keep track of plans we discuss using my co-teaching lesson planning templates. This has been a HUGE help – not only with planning, but keeping track of what we do together as a team. These templates would also work great if uploaded as a Google Doc. Then, both the special education teacher and the general education teacher can share ideas/plans on the same exact form. My co-teaching planning templates can be found by click here.
This is the MOST popular question. It’s something I struggled with at first, too, so I completely understand why it’s asked so often.
I have recently posted a three part blog post about how I collect progress monitoring in the co-taught classroom. I talked about the data I collected for reading comprehension, writing, and math. This three part blog post can be found by clicking here.
That’s it!
I felt as if these seven questions summed up all of the questions I’ve been asked over the years. I hope my answers to these commonly asked co-teaching questions were helpful. Please feel free to ALWAYS reach out to me, if you should have any additional questions. If you have any different ways you tackle these common questions, leave them in the comments below for us all to read!