Holmes Middle has an instructional coach which provides support to teachers in employing diverse and effective instructional practices. Co-teaching is used as the service delivery model to ensure that differentiation, extension, and enrichment are provided to the gifted students. This model includes the following:
Cluster-grouping of AIG students in classrooms
List of all AIG certified teachers is provided to the principals
Training on co-teaching practices for the instructional coaches, teachers, and administrators
Instructional coach planning time with teachers
Flexible use of four co-teaching approaches
Equitable services for unidentified students from underrepresented populations
Combinations of approaches used during a lesson to meet needs of students
The specific co-teaching approaches that are used include: team teaching, parallel teaching, station teaching, and alternative teaching.
During team teaching, the instructional coach and the classroom teacher share the instruction of all students in the class:
to encourage discussion by the students
to facilitate the use of higher order questioning techniques
to model best practices with gifted students
to bring different viewpoints into the classroom for students
to elicit more student involvement
to meet the needs of a variety of learning styles
assist individual students more quickly and effectively
During parallel teaching, the instructional coach and classroom teacher plan jointly, but each teach the content to half of the class:
to lower student/teacher ratio
to allow for enrichment or extension for students based on formative or summative assessment data
to provide instruction based on the interest, readiness, or learning styles of students
During station teaching, the instructional coach and classroom teacher provide small group instruction at stations:
to provide more focused small-group instruction for students
to accomplish several objectives in a lesson with students moving around to different stations
to differentiate instruction according to:
readiness
interest
process
product
During alternative teaching, the instructional coach or the classroom teacher works with a small group while the other teacher instructs and manages the rest of the class:
to provide more focused, individualized instruction for students when needed
to enrich or extend instruction for small groups of students when needed
to provide AIG students with an opportunity to receive instruction outside of the regular classroom for a limited period of time to do projects or activities requiring a different environment
Grades 6-8 AIG Services
At the middle school level, students are subject-grouped according to their area of identification. The Instructional Coaches collaboratively plan with instructional staff to ensure appropriate services for gifted learners. Coaching cycles are utilized to facilitate teacher growth and improvement in instructional practices. Additional opportunities offered include science and math fairs, after-school clubs, and Battle of the Books.
Through Collaboration Around Student Achievement (CASA) and department meetings, teachers analyze data to form flexible groups, such as for acceleration, enrichment, extension, and remediation. The following assessments are utilized:
Pre-assessments
EOG data
MClass Beginning of Year Data
MClass Middle of Year Data
MClass EOY data
Benchmark data
Rubrics
Checklists
Teacher-created assessments
Students’ self assessments
Instructional coaches support teachers to ensure that instruction is appropriate and differentiated for students through modeling, co-teaching, professional development, informal discussions, and planning sessions.