Coteaching Part I

Name: Sarah Emmott

Date: March 9, 2015
How does this project contribute to your understanding of coteaching?
This project contributed to my understanding of coteaching in many different
ways. First, this project showed me the advantages and disadvantages to the many
different types of coteaching as well as the barriers we may face as teachers in a
professional setting. This project also showed me the importance of communication while
coteaching. Ive not only learned about but also experienced these advantages and
disadvantages first hand. Although there are many barriers Ive learned how to effectively
communicate my ideas and thoughts in a professional setting.
On my honor, as an Aggie, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on
this academic work.

Signature____________________________________

Coteaching Part I
Entry
Upon entering Mrs. Sommers classroom, I arrived 15 minutes before the students
did and I introduced myself to my mentor teacher. We made small talk about ourselves, as
well as what we expected to come from the semester. Mrs. Sommer, my mentor, also
thought of the brilliant idea to go through her student roster with school pictures to
quickly introduce me to each student with key information about each of them. These key
facts included things like learning disabilities and reoccurring behavioral issues. Soon
enough, my new students started to line up at the door while Mrs. Sommer stood to shake
everyones hands. I quickly stood behind her and started to shake the puzzled students
hands after she did. After all of the students were seated Mrs. Sommers first objective
was to introduce me. She told them I was the student teacher she had discussed earlier in
the week and then turned the floor to me. I introduced myself as a Texas A&M University
student who was studying to be a teacher. To relate this situation to the students life I
informed them that I was also going to be learning from Mrs. Sommer, but I was going to
be learning how to be a teacher. After my introduction to the twenty intrigued, excited,
and jittery students Mrs. Sommer went along with her day. Before the kids came in Mrs.
Sommer graciously gave me her desk. She let me know that she wanted me to feel
comfortable (like a real teacher) so she knew I was going to need a place to work. She
had moved all of her teaching essentials to the teacher resource desk before I arrived. On
the first day our coteaching approach included mostly Teacher/Observe. Mrs. Sommer
taught her students like usual while I took a lot of notes and occasionally assisted in

passing out papers and assisting students. My first day at Bowen Elementary contributed
a lot to my overall knowledge of coteaching. A couple of the barriers in coteaching
include time and communication. I realized from first hand experience that time was
limited in the classroom, which doesnt give two teachers much time to collaborate
throughout the day. Another barrier in coteaching is space. Although I was lucky enough
to get my own desk in my mentor teachers classroom, sometimes space is limited. I
could easily see a situation where students and two teachers may not get the space they
would like.

Communication
Mrs. Sommer and I communicate in many ways throughout the school day, as
well as outside of school. While in the school setting Mrs. Sommer and I communicate in
both professional ways and on personal levels. I believe that we get along and work so
well together because we communicate very well. Mrs. Sommer and I usually use our
conference hour to discuss most of our ideas for the day; furthermore, the other ways
Mrs. Sommer and I communicate are thorough e-mail and text messaging. The main
barrier inhibiting our communication is time. My mentor and I have so much to discuss in
only a one-hour conference period. This is where tools such as email and texting come in
handy. If Mrs. Sommer or I fail to discuss something during school, we can collaborate
outside of the classroom. This allows us to choose a time and setting that will let our
minds work without being distracted. I have started to notice that when I communicate
with Mrs. Sommer, or other teachers at Bowen, I feel more comfortable asking questions

than I did at the beginning of the year. I believe this is me becoming more comfortable
talking in an effective collaborative tone.
Types of Coteaching
There are six different approaches to coteaching: Teach/observe, Teach/support,
Station Teaching, Parallel Teaching, Alternative teaching, and Team teaching. The first
approach is Teach/Observe. This consists of one person teaching and the other teacher
solely observing for one of two reasons: either to gain information or to provide
feedback. Teach/observe is most commonly used in the early stages of coteaching. Some
advantages to Teach/observe include giving one teacher time to see the other teacher in
action. Another advantage is it gives one teacher time to critique the other and provide
tips to improve teaching skills.
The second approach is Teach/support, which is also known as Teach/drift. It is
implemented when one person teaches while the other teacher is helping students and/or
providing students who need additional instruction with support. There are plenty of
advantages to this approach of coteaching. These include things such as allowing the
person teaching to focus on giving instruction while the other can address any student in
need or any behavioral issues. This approach usually eliminates any wasted time a
teacher may spend working with one specific individual. This approach is also helpful
when working to discover how to best help a student in need of one on one instruction. A
disadvantage to this approach is that it can make the room quite busy. If one teacher is
giving instruction to the class while the other is giving instruction to an individual, the
room tends to get quite loud.

The third approach is Station teaching. Station teaching is when the two teachers
divide the instructional content. Usually the students will rotate to the two different
teachers during stations to receive two types of specific instruction. This approach is very
helpful when you are trying to decrease the student to teacher ratio, allowing you to work
more one on one with a small group. During Station teaching it is important that the
status of the two teachers and of the groups is equalized. One major downfall of this
helpful approach is how time consuming this is. The teachers must collaborate to ensure
the instruction is provided in an effective way. However, time is very limited when
working in schools making this approach difficult to implement.
The fourth method is Parallel teaching. During Parallel teaching instruction is
jointly planned between the two teachers, but delivered at the same time to two different
groups within the class. This approach is highly effective during drills and practice, tests
reviews, or projects. However, this approach is not effective when providing students
with initial instruction. When providing students with initial instruction equal proficiency
of instructors in teaching material is required.
The fifth approach to coteaching is Alternative teaching. Alternative teaching is
most effective when you are trying to meet the needs of specific students, preteaching,
reteaching, teaching with a particular sensory focus, and/or providing specific
foundational knowledge might be required. This is very effective when trying to save
time in the classroom, because while one teacher does something specific, the other
teacher can provide a general activity to the larger group. A negative side of Alternative
teaching is that it requires very clear coordination and timing between teachers. With the
overall hectic tone of a classroom, coordination can be difficult.

The last approach discussed in coteaching is Team Teaching. During Team

Teaching both teachers are responsible for planning and sharing the full instruction
together. This approach can be implemented in many ways, such as alternating the role in
discussion (one might speak while the other models) or they may demonstrate concepts
with each other. This specific approach requires many factors such as a very high level of
trust and commitment, the ability to be flexible while teaching and planning, the ability to
read each others and the classs signs, and the ability to change in order to meet
specific conditions.

Type of Coteaching that Will Be Used

During this assignment the type of coteaching I will be using is a mix between
Teach/observe and Teach/support. While Im delivering the instructions over
environmental changes Mrs. Sommer will be observing me. She will provide me with
specific feedback and offer tips on how to make my lesson run more smoothly. She will
also be assisting another students who need support or she will be putting a foot down on
behavioral issues that may be going on. Mrs. Sommer and I decided this would be the
most effect approach to this specific lesson since Dr. Ogden will be in the classroom
during this time to observe me. The main barrier we faced when developing this lesson
was time. The collaboration process of this lesson plan included not only me and my
mentor teacher, but also the other two third grade teachers too. It was very difficult to
find time for me and the other three teachers to meet and discuss our plans for that weeks
lesson. From this project I have dealt with these barriers and I think this process will
make me a better coteacher after effectively collaborating and coteaching.