Diverse Classroom Settings

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?

Moreover, despite all those well documented benefits of cooperative learning, many teachers still do not prefer to use this pedagogical practice in class, stated by Baines, Blatchford, and Kutnik (2003). The fact is that the cooperative learning requires teachers to have high awareness of students’ learning, good control of students challenging behaviors.

Interviewing the special education supervisor has made me aware of how important my role is as a regular education teacher to special students who need additional support in my classroom. The goal of the teacher is to ensure that the IEP is followed to ensure the academic success of all students. IEP stands for Individual Education Plan and the plan is usually developed when students have several deficiencies in certain key subject areas such as: reading comprehension, basic reading, reading fluency, written expressions, math calculation, and math reasoning. Students are referred to the special education department usually in elementary school, additionally; according to the high school special education supervisor there are very few referrals

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

The agency is committed to the education and enrichment of Middle School students’ ranging from 11-14 years of age. The counseling department in the school is committed to working with kids with special education needs and providing them service that is outlined in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 2004. Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) or Individualized Education program (IEP) plans are created to ensure that schools are in compliance with IDEA. These plans are derived through the collaboration with the IEP team, which consist of General Education teachers, the school Social worker, School Counselor, Special Education Educator and parents/guardians of the student. During these meetings,

Co teaching and collaboration support inquiry based learning by providing an opportunity for LIMS and teachers to work as partners. The partnership provides learning opportunities for students to become engaged, and immersed in what they are learning. By each person assisting one another they are able to offset one another's weaknesses and strengths while instructing lessons together. This helps everyone involved to be successful. According to Harada and Coatney (2014) "When we make connections beyond the walls of the library to connect our work with classroom teachers and specialist and content'area standards we have the opportunity to become full members of our schools literacy teams. " (p.64)

I was also wondering why there was a shortage of special education teachers as well, I ultimately think it’s because many people believe the teacher pay is not high enough and special education requires a lot additional work such as filling out IEP forms, maintaining a caseload of students, attending IEP meetings and conducting behavior interventions. Coming from someone who loves special education I believe becoming a special education teacher is actually a rewarding job because you get to teach a diverse group of learners. There are a variety of classroom co-teaching methods. Supportive co-teaching often seems to work well in classrooms. When teachers are supportive co-teaching one member of the team is the leader and often teaches the class

If I have the opportunity to work for The School District to provide support for the inclusion support to children with disabilities ages 3- 5.I will support to that every classroom where children with disabilities are coming to have a professionals co teaching support, the co teaching will help the head teacher in the classroom, she will provide help and support to child that may be assigned to work with, This inclusion support is fundamental, especial on children who’s need a constant help.

I chose to focus on the classroom demographic of the represented special needs in the classroom. Every student in the classroom has an IEP and many different disabilities are represented. Since every student has individual needs, modifications, accommodations, and goals, a cooperative learning instructional strategy is very beneficial in the classroom. Students with similar goals work together in groups on activities to meet their IEP goals. For example, students whose IEPs contain organizational goals, work together on a weekly bag check checklist to ensure they are staying organized and working to meet their goal. By using a cooperative learning style students are able to help and encourage one another in meeting their goals. Since all students

Co-teaching can benefit the students in many ways, it gives students with disabilities the opportunity to be in an

Bessette (2008) considers co-teaching to be “one of the most popular service delivery models for increasing instructional equity for students with disabilities in heterogeneous classrooms” (p. 1376). Dieker explains that students’ needs are better understood in the inclusive setting because the teacher-student ratio is reduced and teachers have more time to pay attention to individual needs. One of the benefits of co-teaching is the unique perspectives and strengths of general educators and special educators teaching approaches and instructional strategies (Friend, Reising, & Cook, 1993). In the collaborative setting, co-teachers work together to develop personal classroom arrangements which best suits their instructional needs. Magiera and Zigmond (2005) point out that the student-teacher ratio is lower, which leads to more positive behavior management as well as two professionals supporting one another. Additionally, this method of inclusion often allows teachers to learn from each other in an environment that is most often highly beneficial for all students (p.79).

The classroom I am in hosts a diverse group of learners. To give a background of the classroom dynamics we have five students with IEP’s, six struggling readers, some students with RTI’s leading to IEP’s, problematic student behavior, and gifted students. With a variety of student needs, it seems like the class would be a chaotic and imbalanced environment, but it is not. My cooperating teacher, Mrs. Spitz, has created an environment where students receive the utmost curriculum and support. Since my cooperating teacher operates in a co-teaching environment, she only teaches language arts. Her homeroom is her first half of the day, and she switches with Mrs. Shaffer’s homeroom. While I am in the classroom, Mrs. Shaffer’s homeroom is in Mrs.

Cooperative learning is defined in Tran’s article (2013) as “the instructional use of small groups so that students work together to maximize their own and one another’s learning” (as cited in Johnson & Johnson, 1990c). So, in this learning method, the instructors rely heavily on students’ efforts within their groups. Johnson and Johnson (2002) believes that students are given two responsibilities in cooperative learning groups, one of which being to learn the assigned material and the other being to make sure that all other members of their group do likewise. When it comes to the importance of this method, it is obvious that it stems from the number of teachers using

Lauren Dursky and I decided that we would implement different forms of co-teaching for different subjects. It did not seem efficient to use the same method for each subject, so we decided to vary the instruction. For math, we decided to use station teaching. This allows students to discover a true understanding of each concept through different activities. This style of co-teaching also allows each teacher to incorporate his or her own unique perspective into the classroom. This style could be challenging for math because it requires extra planning and you have to make sure both teachers are teaching similar methods at the same time so movement from one station to the next is smooth.

Cooperative learning is more than just letting students sit next to each other and complete an assignment together. If implemented the wrong way cooperative learning can become ineffective for the students, therefor stunting their ability to grow as learners. A cooperative learning environment will exist if groups are structured in a way that group member’s co-ordinate activities to facilitate one another’s learning (Van Dat, 2013). In order to achieve this kind of environment there are five elements that must be present in a cooperative learning classroom: positive interdependence, face-to-face interaction, individual accountability, interpersonal & social skills, and group processing. Let’s look further into these give elements to have a better understanding of cooperative learning. In order for cooperative learning to be successful students need to be able to reflect on what they learned as a group to ensure all members have an