Co-teaching Models

Written by Cayden Betzig | cayden.betzig@uamaker.nyc

Problem

...

Hypothesis

This year was my first year teaching ICT in many years. My past experiences teaching ICT have been challenging- not because of the students but because of my relationships with my co-teacher. I was determined to make this experience better, so it made sense for this to be the focus of my inquiry this year- especially since my co-teacher was a first-year teaching fellow. We taught 3 sections of ICT together (my entire program), each of which was maxed out at 34 students. Given all of that, it was clear that effective co-teaching would need to be a priority for our classroom.

Target group

All three ICT Algebra 2 sections

Planning & resources

Meeting with Pri to discuss co-teaching strategies
My amazing co-teacher - Amber Puglisi

six-co-teaching-strategies1.pdf

Data collection

In-Class diagnostic results
Projects-in-process
Exit Tickets
Regents Scores

Overall findings & impact

Our classroom had a successful year! Hard data we have to support this is that 97% of our students improved their Algebra 1 Regents scores. At the start of the year, 87% of our students had met the Regents requirement for graduation, by the end of the year that was up to 98%. At the start of the year, 36 % of our students had met the Regents requirement for graduation, by the end of the year that was up to 57%. Antidotally, we saw all of our students learning and growing as mathematicians. This includes our advanced students, who have sometimes been left without enough challenges in years past. I think that challenging advanced students will be my inquiry focus for next year- I already dipped my toe in this year by supporting them in deepening their writing. Having two teachers in the room makes this differentiation way more possible, because I’m not having to use all my time on student misconceptions.

Actionable steps

If you want to use this strategy in your classroom, see examples of what each of these strategies looked like in our classroom in the slides ➡️

We broke down different models you can use for different activies in your classroom below.

2023 PoL Coteaching

Reteaching: Use when ...

there are prerequisite skills students need to have competency in before they can access grade-level standards.

The how: Give students a diagnostic exam on the prerequisite skills. Then, teach a series of lessons- one+ on each skill. Each coteacher teaches a differ#f47c34ent version on the lesson- one on skill remediation and the other on skill extension. Students are placed in either group based on their diagnostic mastery. Groups change for each skill/lesson.

Project Day 2+: Use ...

during multi-day projects

The how: Collect student work at the end of each day, beginning on the first day of the project. Sort student work by common misconceptions. On the next day, one teacher focuses on address the identified misconceptions while the other teacher supports the rest of the class in continuing the project.

Catch up page (1e): Use ...

during multi-day, multi-skill project

The how: Some rich projects require multiple skills, or multiple parts. When most of the class has moved beyond the first skill/part it can be challenging for other students to catchup. At this point in the project, create a catch-up page that provides the students with the information from the first part of the project that they need to engage with the rest of the class. This enables teachers and students to focus on specific learning objectives, rather than work completion and avoids students getting stuck at the beginning of a project and never getting to the rich learning at the end

Circulate with a purpose (3b): Use ... during project work time

The how: Ahead of a project work day, coteachers meet to each plan their look-fors for work-time. Usually, one teacher focuses on addressing misconceptions while the other teacher focuses on asking higher-level questions to deepen student thinking.

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