Co-Teaching Strategies: Planning, Communication, and Collaboration

Introduction to Co-Teaching

A co-teaching relationship exists when a mainstream teacher and a special education services provider — such as a special education teacher or a speech pathologist — teach side by side in a diverse classroom that includes both students with special needs and general education students. However, these relationships can frequently be strained and ineffective. In their article 50 Ways to Keep Your Co-Teacher: Strategies for Before, During, and After Co-Teaching, Murawski and Dieker (2008) stress the need for proper planning to make such a relationship work well. Teachers need to be trained to make the relationship functional, as this does not occur intuitively. As the authors note, "seizing opportunities for staff development in-service training and workshops is helpful, as is reading books and articles that focus on the collaborative relationship in inclusive classrooms" (Murawski & Dieker, 2008, p. 41).

Planning and Restructuring the Classroom

A second key idea is that co-teaching requires substantive reorganization of conventional teaching methods. The co-teacher cannot simply be inserted into an existing classroom structure. Often this may mean splitting the regular classroom into smaller groups. Parents should also be informed about the nature of the co-teaching relationship, and teachers should be aware that not all students may necessarily flourish in the co-teaching environment, depending upon their individual needs.

The instructional plan should address diverse learning needs and include components for High-achieving (H), Average-achieving (A), Low-achieving (L), and Other (O) students (Murawski & Dieker, 2008, p. 42). This does not mean that all conventional wisdom about teaching should be discarded — the authors stress the value of repetition and other time-tested strategies — but the team-taught classroom has its own needs and structure that must be acknowledged and planned for accordingly.

The Dynamic Nature of Co-Teaching

Co-teaching is a dynamic process. After the initial implementation, some modifications may be necessary to address the needs of learners. Teachers should discuss how to make changes after the first sessions and come to an agreement about how to grade students more effectively. The authors emphasize the need to keep abreast of current educational literature on differentiated instruction and to evaluate the effectiveness of the processes being used. Online resources offer a wide range of materials useful for educators today. Collecting data on the class periodically is also necessary to ensure that the educational process remains successful over time.