One Teach, One Assist

One Teach, One Assist is an extension of the above. One teacher has primary instructional responsibility while the other assists students with their work, monitors behaviors, or answers questions, often lending a voice to students or groups who would hesitate to participate or add comments.

Ways that a team may use this strategy:

  • While one teacher has the instructional lead, the person assisting can be the “voice” for the students when they don’t understand or are having difficulties.
  • While one teacher has the lead instructional role, the other teacher may:
    • walk around the classroom making sure everyone is on task and understanding
    • assist with differentiation as needed for students who need support accessing the task/lesson or need an extra challenge
    • distribute materials
    • sit with individual students who need extra support
    • manage technology needs or resources
    • complete assessments
    • document learning through audio/video recording, taking pictures, making illustrations, etc.
  • The assistant provides in-time feedback to the one teaching regarding any desired information. This could include the assistant checking in to see how the students are understanding what is being taught and letting the teacher know if more practice or explanation is needed. For example, in a math lesson the teacher may ask if the students are understanding how to multiply two digit problems and the observer in circulating through the room checking on student work may let the teacher know that students got it and are ready to move on, or that they could use a few more practice problems.
  • Monitor during a lesson for places/ways that students may need more support and provide immediate feedback to teacher.
  • Monitor during the lesson to see what strategies students are using and support teacher in making decisions about who might share in the whole group.
  • Monitor during the lesson to see what strategies students employ (related to taking inventory of culturally-influenced approaches to work/collaboration) so that teachers can be more responsive in planning/instruction
  • Monitor progress during cooperative learning groups to make decisions about when to move on or if more support is needed.
  • Model behavior for students - example, mistakes are opportunities to learn - so that the students see how to respond productively.
  • During whole class brainstorming, one calls on students while other lists ideas on chart (or alternate each). (could also be part of team teaching)