What is co-teaching?

Let's start off with a common understanding of the idea of co-teaching.

My working definition of co-teaching:

Co-teaching is a collaborative teaching method in which a classroom teacher and an EL (English language) teacher work together to plan, deliver instruction, and assess learning, drawing on each others' strengths and areas of expertise to differentiate and provide the most effective instruction possible.  

With that definition in mind, I'd like to talk about a few important features of co-teaching that, in my opinion, make the practice very effective:

• two teachers = two sets of expertise (content and language) = students learn about the new content as well as the specific words/language they will need to be successful with the new content
• two teachers = more opportunities for differentiation = smaller groups of students who will receive more individualized support and attention from teachers
• co-teaching can reduce the time that EL students may need to be pulled-out of their mainstream class by providing English language support within their regular classes
• the enriched content and language instruction provided in a co-taught class is not only good for the EL students...It's good for ALL students!
• co-teaching teaches each co-teacher more about the content area and/or language associated with a given content area, thus enriching and increasing his/her expertise and awareness in that area, which can transfer to that teacher's non-co-taught classes as well

As one of two EL teachers at my school, I currently work with third, fourth and sixth grades, and I co-teach with all of them.  I also have a few pull-out groups for students who need extra language support. One of the biggest challenges to co-teaching I face on a daily basis is....

...Time!  Especially when I am co-teaching with several teachers, it can be challenging to find the time to meet with all of them to plan.  Luckily, we have found ways to connect electronically so that we can co-plan, even if we're not in the same room (or city, etc.).

• PlanbookEDU.com = an online lesson planning website with an option to share and collaborate on a planbook with a colleague; saves your plans from previous years for you to reference later

• Google Docs (now Google Drive) = create collaborative documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and forms, then share them and edit simultaneously with colleagues; saves/stores your documents on the cloud

• Blogger = create a blog with your co-teaching partner to document plans for future lessons, units and assessments; organizes your plans by month - you can easily track down a post using dates or tags (labels)

• Google Calendar = create a calendar for your collaborative plans, share the calendar, then post plans - can include Google Docs, and/or links to activities, etc.; can refer back to any date's plans

And these are just a few ways to help combat the challenge of co-planning time (I forgot to mention emailing, texting and talking on the phone -- all of which are also great options!)...

Share your comments and experiences below:

• Do you co-teach?  What do you like about co-teaching?  

• What is challenging?  What do you do to overcome the challenges?