Analysis Of The Article Differentiating Instruction In Co-Taught Classrooms

Co-teaching is important, especially in the school I did my special education field experience at because they are full inclusion. This school district did co-teaching for math and reading. Students receive their assistance with in the classroom while the teacher is instructing class. It takes a lot of planning and collaboration with the classroom teacher, I believe this is not the most beneficial way to teach students that have learning needs. it can become very distracting for the student because what is going on around them. Learning with their peers is important, the instructions their receiving in the classroom are above their level. I wonder how this is providing the best education possible?

Differentiated instruction in a type of teaching approach in which the teacher makes changes to lesson plans or unit curriculum so that students of all levels achieve the same level of learning. The whole lesson might not have to be changed, usually they just will make changes to the content, process or product of a given lesson.

In the past, I have been somewhat successful with differentiating instruction. I can’t say I have been 100% successful.

In this paper you will find several strategies the classroom teachers can use and implement in the classroom with their students who suffer from emotional and behavioral disorders. Selected interventions will provide information with the activities and assessments that will be used to help the teacher implement these procedures to help the students to become stronger socially, with cognitive and behavioral and emotional needs for our EBD students.

One factor that plays a huge role in successful implementation of integrated co-teaching and has better outcomes for students is when the co-teachers are trained and work together. Magiera and Zigmond (2005) preformed a study at four middle schools in New York that focused on the instructional practices for students with and without disabilities; with teachers who were not trained in integrated co-teaching

IPTS 8G: understands the various models of co-teaching and the procedures for implementing them across the curriculum

This article is one that is very educational and very helpful in the education field. Knowing that Paraeducators are increasing in school districts. This means that special education teachers and general education teachers need to know how to train and supervise Paraeducators in what needs to be done by them and how to do their job. Knowing that there are a lot of Paraeducators that don’t have prior experience with exceptional students and their responsibilities of a Paraeducator lets future teachers know how to prepare themselves for learning the information needed to help the Paraeducators. This article gives future educators the insight of what to prepare for along with learning the extra information to help the Paraeducators. The article tells about how the collaborative classroom support plan. The article gives detailed information along with diagrams and example forms that are used in the collaborative classroom support plan. The article tells about how collaboration is important not just to have a healthy and effective relationship between educators (the general ed. Teacher, the special ed. Teacher, and the Paraeducator) for themselves but for the students too. This article tells how collaboration is the best way to educate students and to cover a lot of ground. This article goes over the challenges of training Paraeducators.

There are several reasons why cooperative learning works well. The idea that students learn more by doing something active than by simply watching and listening has long been known to both cognitive psychologists and effective teachers (Bransford, et. al., 2000) and cooperative learning is by its nature an active method. Beyond that, cooperation enhances learning in several ways. Weak students working individually are likely to give up when they get stuck; working cooperatively, they keep going. Strong students faced with the task of explaining and clarifying material to weaker students often find gaps in their own understanding and fill them in. Students working alone may tend to delay completing assignments or skip them altogether, but when they know that others are counting on them, they are motivated to do the work in a timely manner.

Shaffer & Thomas-Brown found five structures to co-teaching that are beneficial to all students in the inclusive setting. The five structures are one teach, one assist, station teaching, parallel teaching, alternative teaching and team teaching. In the one teach, one assist structure the general education teacher would lead the instruction while the special education teacher watches and assists the students as needed. The station teacher structure is designed so that each teacher is responsible for certain content and divide the teaching based on the components they will teach. In the parallel teaching model, both the general and special education teacher teacher plan collaboratively, but work separately with a small group of students to present

With this collaboration whole classes began to be taught by both general education and special education teachers. The problem many co-teachers face is the general education teacher tends to have a majority of the power inside the classroom and work with a majority of students. This leads to the special education teacher playing a subordinate role and only working with small groups of children with exceptionalities. Co-teaching is not an intervention for learning, but rather a framework so the imbalance of power limits the effectiveness of the model. Also, many times there is a belief special educators do not know the content matter. This can cause general educators to protect their lessons from people they feel do not know what

A study performed over Co-teaching professional development, or CoPD shows that co-teaching can have great benefits to both the students and the teacher. The co-teaching model allows for more inclusion of special education recipients into the general education classroom. While the CoPD framework is not always met with open arms, it has been examined and shown to be useful and productive. Two teams of teachers, one including a veteran and the other involving a novice teacher, were selected to participate.

According to Hourcade & Bauwens “Co-teaching allows teachers to respond effectively to diverse needs of students, lower the teacher ratio, and expand the professional expertise that can be applied to the student needs.” Co-teaching allows a better opportunity for children to get the information needed in the classroom, this concept minimizes the risk of “children being left behind in education.” That is because, there are two teachers present in the classroom to tend to every child’s need. Co-teaching also can allow each child to have more “one on one” time with the teacher for the teacher to make sure each students understands the content completely.

Research has shown that students who participate in cooperative learning strategies outperform those students who are subjected to a more lecture based class (Mohammadjani, F., & Tonkaboni, F. (2015). Notwithstanding, I think that in this particular case direct instruction is the better way to go. With students at such different levels it is easier and more efficient for the teacher to have the students do independent work, and then to give lectures on the same topic to the whole class at one time. One thing that Mrs. Woodward did that I thought was value-added was to plan a lecture topic on something that the majority of students missed on their practice

Effective educators alternate instructional strategies in consideration of the most appropriate pedagogical methods for a specific subject or task. Instructional strategies that are used in academic environments include student-centered, indirect instruction and teacher-centered, direct instruction. Student-centered instruction relies on two common elements: social interaction and problem solving. These strategies require students to critically think about subject matter, discuss their ideas with their peers, collaborate, and compare and contrast their thought processes. The strategy relies on the perspective that students obtain knowledge through active learning and self-discovery, which is more useful and enduring than rote memorization or other forms of traditional learning.

The rationale of this case study was to determine whether educators with a cooperative-learning classroom focus on students’ mathematical thinking. The intention of the researchers was to provide educators with insights for instruction and professional development utilizing cooperative-learning in mathematics. Answers to the following questions were to be determined: 1) What is the frequency, type, and length of teacher’s interventions? 2) What is the quality of teachers’ interventions?