Co-Planning Resources and Tools

Before your Planning Session

• Decide what lesson(s) you will use your planning time for.

• Who will lead the planning time or will parts be shared? Usually the cooperating teacher will lead in the beginning of the semester and the teacher candidate will take over as the semester progresses.

• Decide the materials that you will need and don’t take on too much.

• Bring ideas for modifications and accommodations.

• Bring ideas for enrichment activities.

• When the teacher candidate is ready to take over a subject/or period, let him/her know ahead of time that they will be leading the planning time for that lesson. They should preview what they will be teaching and come to the planning time prepared with ideas and lessons where co-teaching could occur.

During Co-planning

• Spend a few minutes communicating about questions or issues (may use planning sheet).

• Share what will be co-taught and ideas from curriculum.

• When will you co-teach? When will each of you lead?

• What co-teaching strategies will best meet the needs of the students?

• Eventually, try to incorporate all of the co-teaching strategies.

• Outline questions to be used for parallel, station, etc.

• Discuss a variety of assessment strategies.

• What do each of you need to do when you leave the planning session (tasks, gathering resources, copying, etc)?

• What, if any, changes do you need to make to the layout or organization of the classroom.

After Co-planning

• Teacher candidate writes up lesson plans for each lesson where they have a teaching role.

Important points to Remember

• The goal is to have the cooperating teacher and teacher candidate actively engaged with students as much as possible. However, EVERY teacher candidate DOES need time to manage the classroom on their own.

• Full time responsibility means the teacher candidate leads all aspect of the classroom, including how the cooperating teacher and other adults will be involved.

• University Supervisors ARE prepared in co-teaching, and can observe co-taught lessons. When they do, they will be observing and evaluating only the teacher candidate.