Co- Teaching

Co-teaching is the practice of pairing teachers together In a classroom to share responsibilities of planning, instructing, and assessing students.

The models of co-teaching

One teaches One observes

One teacher is instructing students while the other observes students learn, the teacher determines what instruction takes place next, also see to students that need additional help

One teaches One assist

One teacher gives instructions directly to students while the other assists individual students as needed

Parallel teaching

This is dividing the class into two groups simultaneously and each teacher teaches the same information at the same time

Station teaching

In this type of co-teaching teachers divide content and students. The class is divided into three or more groups and the classroom has multiple learning centers. As the students rotate through the stations, the teachers teach the same material in different ways to each group

Alternate teaching

One teacher instructs most of the class and the other teacher teaches an alternate version of the lesson to a smaller group of students. Alternate teaching is also sometimes described as big group/small group teaching

Team teaching

Both teachers are in the room at the same time but take turns teaching the whole class. Both teachers are a bit like co-presenters at a conference

Benefits of co-teaching

It introduces students to complementary teaching styles and personalities
It models students for a successful collaborative working relationship
It lowers the student-teacher ratio and reduces the load of teaching a large class
It provides additional support to struggling students without specifically singling them out
It provides increased classroom management, which can be helpful if the class makeup is particularly challenging