Note to users: This protocol was originally designed to be used with pre-service teachers who are completing their field
Co-Teaching
I.
Co-teaching Protocol
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Observation Form
Note to users: This protocol was originally designed to be used with pre-service teachers who are completing their field practicum (i.e. student teaching). However, the activities described here could easily be adapted for use with in-service teachers in professional learning communities. The term “TCs” is used repeatedly in these documents and refers to teacher candidates, or student teachers.
Learning Outcomes What type of thinking or reflection is this protocol designed to get teacher candidates to do?
This protocol is designed to help teacher candidates develop operational understandings of the six major co-teaching strategies. Steps What is the procedure for completing this protocol?
Reflection What will teacher candidates be prompted to think about upon the completion of the protocol? What questions will they consider?
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How well did this co-teaching strategy maximize the use of both teachers? How did students respond to this lesson? What did they learn? What were the teachers able to do using this approach that they would not have been able to do alone? What is the purpose of using this co-teaching strategy (as opposed to some of the others)? What are the pros and cons of this approach? What considerations must the co-teachers take into account when using this strategy? Setting Students Up for Success
What challenges does this protocol present? How could it go wrong? What can the instructor do to address possible obstacles before implementation?
A potentially problematic outcome would be if some teacher candidates concluded that a particular co-teaching strategy was “easy” to implement, and could be used without careful planning and forethought. It is thus extremely important for the teacher candidates to get a window into the process by which the co-teachers planned the lesson and how they defined their respective roles. Implementation How should the protocol be implemented within the structure of the class?
An ideal implementation would be for the co-taught lesson to be observed during the ASU class, followed immediately by a debrief of the observation. Rather than providing up-front instruction on the given co-teaching strategy before the lesson, the instructor may instead choose to give the TCs some guiding questions for the observation, and then use the subsequent debrief session to help the teacher candidates construct their understanding of the strategy. Additional Resources Access these to learn more about this protocol.
See Co-Teaching Observation Guide References Villa, R.A. (2013). A Guide to Co-Teaching: New Lessons and Strategies to Facilitate Student Learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.