ASCD Collaboration Webinar

Check out this ASCD  Webinar with great ideas.

5 Collaboration Situations

Ideas from this article:
"Co-teaching in the ESL Classroom" by Andrea Honigsfeld and Maria Dove
provided by Dr. Rios (click on title to read the entire article).

Collaboration Models:
1) 1 group: One lead teacher and One teacher "Teaching on Purpose" (mini-lessons)

• The mainsteam teacher and the ESL teacher take turns assuming the lead role, while the other teacher "teaches on purpose." This approach provides the teachers an opportunity to give short (1-5 min) mini lessons to individual students, pairs of students, or even a small group of students. Teaching on purpose may focus on a unique language need or take the opportunity to pre-teach or re-teach a concept or a skill.

2) Two groups: Two Teachers Teach Same Content

• The students in the class are placed in 2 heterogeneous groups; each teacher works with one of the groups. By learning in smaller groups, ELLs experience additional opportunities to interact with each other, listen to their peer models, volunteer responses, or receive feedback from the teacher.

3) Two groups: One Teacher Re-teaches or Assesses; One Teacher Teaches Alternative Information

• Teachers assign students to one of two groups, based on their language proficiency levels, knowledge, or skills for target content. During this type of flexible grouping arrangement, students are assigned to their groups on a temporary basis. As the topic and skills that are addressed change, so does the group composition. (Good for test review or re-teaching.)
  

4) Multiple Groups: Two Teachers Monitor / Teach

• Creating multiple groups allows teachers to facilitate and monitor student work simultaneously as they work on a designated skill or topic. As the same time, selected students can receive instruction targeting their unique needs. Learning centers, learning stations, and guided reading groups also can be incorporated into this model of co-teaching. (Good to use during labs in science or project in history.)
  

5) One Group: Two Teachers Teach the Same Content (Parallel teaching)

• Two teachers are directing a whole class of students, and both teachers are working cooperatively and teaching the same lesson at the same time. For example, a mainstream teacher presents a lesson, and the ESL teacher interjects with examples, explanations, and extensions of the key ideas. The ESL teacher can provide strategies to assist the students in better remembering and organizing the information that was presented. (For a working example of this check out Jan and Jenny's classrooms.)
  

Ideas for Collaboration

PLAN: Ideas for Collaboration in PLANNING instruction & assessment:

1. Map the school curriculum, including the curric for ELL, onto the WIDA standards.
2. Cross-reference, integrate or link WIDA standards with state academic content standards.
3. Create strands of MPIs to match or augment curriculum or target instruction.
   
4. Co-develop thematic units of instruction and model lessons.
5. Formulate language objectives from the ELL standards and content objectives from the state standards.
6. Plan common formative assessments at grade levels or grade level clusters. Take formative assessments created by LA and differentiate for ELL levels.
7. Differentiate language instructions using MAP data and WIDA levels.
8. Plan family involvement and community outreach about ELL services and needs.

DO: Ideas for Collaboration in INSTRUCTION and ASSESSMENT:

1. Co-teach activities, tasks, and projects
2. Collect exemplars of student work and interpret the samples with common rubrics
3. Develop a common grading scheme based on students ELL proficiency and academic performance

STUDY: Ideas for Collaboration in EVALUATING student results:

1. Create standards-based reporting forms
2. Interpret results from ACCESS for ELLs, MAP, PAWS, and district assessments
3. Create and use a common set of criteria for grading ELLs. What modifications are standardized. How do grades reflect these modifications?
4. Use information to develop and coordinate the language education program for ELLs.
   

Quick Understanding

What are the 5 different types of coteaching? Consider when each is appropriate.

Another view:

Co-Teaching Models Reference Sheet
One Teaching/One Observing This model allows one teacher to teach the lesson, and the other teacher to conduct careful student observations and systematic documentation of those observations. This allows both teachers to gain a very sophisticated understanding of their students’ academic, behavioral, and social functioning, relative to the lesson and the dynamics of the classroom community.	One Lead Teach/One Support Teach This model encourages one teacher to assume the lead role in the teaching while the other teacher supports individual students (or small groups) in the classroom during instruction. Teachers can even trade off this role at different points in the same lesson in order for students (and teachers!) to avoid seeing one of you as the “real” teacher and one of you as the “aide.”
Station Teaching This model encourages the teachers to each take responsibility for planning and teaching a portion of the instructional content. Students move from one station to another for work with each teacher. Stations can also include independent work, peer tutoring, or parent-led activities. Each station constitutes its own lesson with unique goals and objectives, even if all of the stations are working together under a Big Idea (an overall learning goal that ties together all of the station lessons).	Parallel Teaching In this model teachers plan and teach the same exact lesson at the same time, but to two different groups of children. This can be helpful in reducing the teacher-student ratio for lessons where you want to strengthen your ability to assess each student’s understanding, for example.
Alternative Teaching This model recognizes that at times some children require different instruction than the larger group. Sometimes this may mean that small(er) group instruction is used to “pre-teach” a concept, to “re-teach” a concept, to provide enrichment, or to conduct an authentic assessment. Sometimes this can look like parallel teaching, but is not considered as such since all of the children are not engaged in the same lesson.	Team Teaching This is a more generic term that describes teachers who plan collaboratively and share in the instruction of all students. It can incorporate multiple forms of co-teaching. Advice from Field Advisors: Try to avoid identifying your co-teaching in your lesson plans as “team teaching” unless it truly does not reflect the other models. In this course we are looking for you to demonstrate experimenting with as many forms of co-teaching as possible that demonstrate your ability to effectively respond to the needs of your students, so go for it!

Video examples of the different types of coteaching:

*from BYU!

*Complete with a little quiz - check for understanding!

This rubric helps to determine how well coteaching is working.

Articles

New Harvard Article - 5 Conditions High performing Teacher Teams Share

Article recommended by Francisco Rios. "Co-Teaching in the ESL Classroom"

A quick article ("Tips and Strategies for Co-Teaching at the Secondary Level" - SpEd slant) to explain the roles that different positions play in creating a quality coteaching program. A followup chart to compliment the article.

A more comprehensive article, Coteaching: Principles, Practices, and Pragmatics. Highly recommended that participants read and discuss.

This power point has some interesting slides about what helps/hurts coteaching efforts.

What gets in the way?
5 Dysfunctions of a Team:

1. Inattention to RESULTS - The team relies on their guts or what they think is happening vs true data (not always test scores, but data none the less). This is a problem because the team doesn't know what the true issues or goals are. If the team groups kids based on last name for a reading lesson instead of MAP results, this is an inattention to results.
2. Avoidance of ACCOUNTABILITY - The team doesn't hold each other accountable or don't/can't rely on each other. If one teacher doesn't show up and the other just gets resentful, that is an avoidance of accountability.
3. Lack of COMMITMENT - If the team has no buy-in or uneven buy-in or teachers feel like their work/opinion doesn't matter this is a lack of commitment. If the ELL teacher is always taking his/her students into the hallway, she may feel a lack of commitment to the team.
4. Fear of CONFLICT - If team members are scared to engage in passionate dialogue OR disagree and/or challenge one another, there is a fear of conflict. If one teacher disagrees with the other teacher about how a student is achieving but won't speak up, this is a fear of conflict.
5. Absence of TRUST - If team members are not comfortable being vulnerable or honest with one another, this shows an absence of trust. If one team members asks why the lesson didn't work and the other just says it was fine even though s/he has plenty of suggestions, this shows an absence of trust.

TWO IMPORTANT QUESTIONS:
1. Are we really a team? (A team is a small number of people committed to the same goal. Team members readily set aside their individual or personl needs for the greater good of the group. This is different than a small group of people with the same boss OR working in the same grade level.)
2. Are we ready for heavy lifting? (Being on a team takes a lot of time and emotional energy. It is important to go into the process of teaming or co-teaching with your eyes wide open and with no illusions about what is required. Reading articles and building a professional relationship is important and hard work.)

Search Sites - for more information

This is a great site with a lot of information about Coteaching. (A lot of the information presented in this blog came from this site.)

Harvard Article about Collaboration - 5 conditions do Great Teacher Teams share?

Tips for Success

* Interesting article/blog about one teacher's success story. She gives a lot of tips for doing it right.

* This is a list of very specific tips for success.

* Reflection seems to be a key component to Coteaching effectively.

Steps in Developing Reflective Frameworks

1. These frameworks should typically consist of questions that a teacher could address in 5-10 minutes.

2. These frameworks should focus on issues that teachers want to address versus areas they are told to address.

3. The questions within the framework should be developed utilizing collaboration with a peer.

4. These frameworks could change as teachers' needs, students' needs, and the dynamics of the classroom change.

5. Once a teacher feels he/she has mastered the questions within the framework, new questions should be developed, or as new issues arise additional questions should be added.

6. Similar frameworks can be developed for reflective teams to use to evaluate their interactions.
(Dieker, 2002)


Helpful questions to ask when creating a reflective framework:

1. Do we both feel comfortable with our roles in the classroom today?

2. What were the successes of today's lesson?

3. Who will be responsible for implementing these changes?

4. Was consensus reached with regard to the final decision?

5. Are there any issues that we should address to improve our collaborative relationship (e.g., time, grading, role clarification, parental contact, assessment, etc.)?