April Journal Article TCM

Treahy, D.L. and Gurganus, S.P. (2010). Models for special needs students. Teaching Children Mathematics (16)8, 484-490.

Co-teaching is a specific type of teaching where a special education teacher and a classroom teacher work collaboratively in order to develop a more cohesive progam for planning, teaching, and assessing/evaluating. By using collaborative efforts such as co-teaching, the classroom becomes unified and represented as a whole unit. In one specific classroom, a classroom teacher and special education teacher taught mathematics together. The classroom teacher would teach her mathematic concepts or lesson while the special education teacher would ask her to clarify specific points or to repeat important concepts that may need to be heard again. By doing this, the two teachers incorporate a strategy similar to the reading strategy, think-alouds. These two teachers also take turns teaching important concepts and share the role of instructing in the classroom such as a team-teaching role would present. By doing this, students are gaining a deeper understanding of difficult concepts. By repeating difficult material and clarifying it in different ways, students get to see different aspects of the problem. The article lists a number of different models for teaching a classroom of integrated learners; these include:

Team: shared role between the two teachers

Alternative:

• one teacher works with small groups for re-teaching, enrichment, pre-teaching, etc. while the other teacher works with the rest of the class
• teachers use think-alouds to clarify and to help train special needs students to work through the problems rather than applying a random formula or idea that they have learned; (lack of metacognitive skills)
• great for hands-on learning
• great for working one-on-on or in small groups to clarify concepts for struggling learners

One teach, one assist:

• allows one teacher to teach while the other teacher walks around and observes and helps students who need it
• can beneift students with behavior issues
• helps to focus more on special needs students; gifted learners, special needs, ELL
• allows individual assistance for students
• great way to monitor progress

Stations:

• content is divided into different stations and each teacher teaches a specific station
• great way to incorporate the NCTM standards
• teachers can focus on an area of their strength to benefit deeper understanding for students
• stations often incorporate real-life integration
• allows for monitoring and reinforcement
• can help prevent math anxieties early on

Parallel:

• the teachers plan cohesively but then each teacher teaches a half of the entire class
• teachers must plan for all areas of learners
• teachers must think about how all students learn and how to relate to all students

As a teacher, co-teaching would be something that would be benefical in the classroom. It provides rich learning experiences for all areas of learners. During these types of instruction mentioned in the article, teachers use models and clarification so that all students have the ability to understand concepts. Co-teaching helps create a common instructional language that all areas of learners can understand. This helps to unify the classroom and help students become more engaged in the materia. C0-teaching provides a rich learning opportunity for a wide-variety of students. The talents and energies of two teachers can be effective in a class of different types and styled learners.