Collaborative Classroom Online

Course Description

The purpose of this course is to provide educators with a strong foundation for planning, implementing and maintaining successful co-teaching programs. Since most of today's classrooms include a diverse student population that has different learning styles, cultural differences and educational needs, it has become important for teachers and administrators to find effective methods to help every student achieve greater success. Starting first with developing a clear definition of co-teaching, then examining critical components of co-teaching models, and finally evaluating current co-teaching programs, the focus of this course will be to explore both the conceptual and operational aspects of this approach to delivering instruction.

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and the Individuals With Disabilities Act (IDEA) have brought increased pressure on all educators. Policy makers and school reformers have set higher standards making teachers and administrators responsible for ensuring students meet these standards on state assessments. All students including those with disabilities are expected to achieve the same success as other students. IDEA requires that students with special needs be educated in the least restrictive environment and whenever possible, in the general education classroom where they are provided with access to the same general education curriculum as all other students. In addition, many educators are finding that an increasing number of students come to school with a variety of other problems putting them at greater risk of failing. In order to successfully address the challenges of meeting the needs of all these different students, co-teaching has received widespread attention and has become an accepted form of delivery of instruction. With the reauthorization of IDEA, state regulations and guidelines have set parameters to address how educators can meet the needs of diverse populations. For example, the New York State Commissioner of Education's Part 200 Regulations now allow school districts to include integrated co-teaching on the continuum of special education services.

This course examines the most commonly accepted co-teaching practices between general and special education teachers on the elementary, middle and high school levels. It is based on current research and experiences of prominent individuals in the field of education including Richard A. Villa, Dr. Marilyn Friend and Carol Ann Tomlinson.

Objectives

• Establish a working definition for co-teaching and distinguish it from collaboration and team teaching.
• Identify the key elements of the cooperative process.
• Establish a rationale for using co-teaching in the general education classroom and as part of students' program services.
• Explore the foundations for co-teaching as they relate to educational law and classroom practices.
• Provide a rationale through philosophy and research for implementing co-teaching.
• Relate co-teaching to current trends toward collaboration in public schools in both general education and special education.
• Review the research findings that support collaborative models and methods as effective ways to generate greater student and teacher success.
• Examine the roles of both the general and special educators in a co-taught classroom.
• Examine and analyze the components of successful co-teaching relationships.
• Identify, discuss and analyze co-teaching models and how they impact student learning.
• Learn and implement key instructional strategies that optimize student learning in co-taught classrooms.
• Examine the elements of differentiated instruction and how they apply to collaborative classrooms.
• Develop and implement effective co-taught lessons that utilize elements of differentiated instruction.
• Analyze and critique Response to Intervention and its impact on teachers and students.
• Outline school factors that impact co-teaching including the roles of paraprofessionals in the co-taught classroom.
• Evaluate school co-teaching programs.

Curriculum Design & Time Requirements

Module assignments are based on specific module lessons, textbook readings and online research. The methodology used in this course provides participants with the necessary tools and practical strategies to work effectively in a co-taught classroom. Participants will apply course curriculum to a school study that will be developed throughout the modules and presented to the instructor as a final project. This is an online sixty-hour, three credit graduate level course that is completed over a thirteen-week period.

Computer Hardware & Skill Requirements

Students may use either a Macintosh computer or a PC with Windows 2000 or higher. Students should possess basic word processing skills and have internet access with an active e-mail account. Students also are expected to have a basic knowledge of how to use a Web browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, Safari, Mozilla Firefox etc.

Course Materials

The required text for this course is A Guide to Co-Teaching: Practical Tips for Facilitating Student Learning by Richard A. Villa, Jacqueline S. Thousand and Ann I. Nevin. The text begins by first examining what co-teaching is and the importance of each of its elements. It also looks at the day-to-day workings of co-teaching teams on each of the different teaching levels and how the effective partnerships can benefit student learning. Each co-teaching model is thoroughly explored and vignettes of each model are provided. The text includes additional resources, references, supplemental aids and a glossary.

Session Outline

Session 1: Co-Teaching Defined
Contents:

1. Establish a working definition of co-teaching
2. Distinguish co-teaching from collaboration and team teaching
3. Explore the key elements of the cooperative process that are critical to co-teaching
4. Identify the physical places for co-teaching
5. Define inclusion as it applies to co-teaching

Session 2: Establishing a Rationale for Co-Teaching a it Relates to Research and Legislation
Contents:

1. Response to the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA)
2. Co-teaching and the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)
3. Inclusion versus general education
4. Research practices of co-teaching classrooms
5. Benefits for teachers
6. Benefits for students

Session 3: Developing Effective Partnerships
Contents:

1. Defining the roles of the general and special education teachers in a co-teaching classroom
2. Who should co-teach?
3. Individual prerequisites
4. Defining a professional relationship
5. Using a co-teaching rating scale
6. Achieving parity between co-teachers
7. Administrative support for a co-teaching classroom

Session 4: Essential Components of a Co-Teaching Relationship
Contents:

1. Interpersonal communication
2. Physical room arrangement
3. Familiarity with curriculum
4. Curriculum goals and modifications
5. Instructional planning
6. Instructional presentation
7. Classroom management
8. Assessing the relationship

Session 5: Co-Teaching Models
Contents:

1. One teacher/one assist/observe model
2. One teacher/one drift model
3. Parallel teaching
4. Station teaching
5. Alternate teaching
6. Team teaching

Session 6: Working with Support Personnel: Paraprofessionals as Part of the Co-Teaching Team
Contents:

1. Definitions for paraprofessional, teacher aide and teacher assistant
2. Types of teacher aides (i.e.- 1:1 Aide)
3. Roles of paraprofessionals: classroom responsibilities
4. Legal responsibilities of paraprofessionals
5. Teacher supervision of paraprofessionals

Session 7: Response to Intervention (RtI)
Contents:

1. Legal requirements for teachers under IDEA
2. Overview of RtI as an evaluative tool
3. The impact of RtI on general and special education teachers
4. How RtI is used in the classroom
5. Assessment tools and early intervention strategies

Session 8: The Use of Differentiated Instruction in the Co-Teaching Classroom
Contents:

1. Identifying the diverse learners in today's classroom
2. Critical components of differentiated instruction lessons
3. Pre-assessing students' needs and abilities
4. Pre-assessing students' interests
5. Assessing students' learning styles
6. Developing and implementing effective differentiated instruction lessons
7. Using Bloom's Taxonomy in differentiated instruction lessons
8. Evaluating differentiated instruction lessons

Session 9: Assessing Co-Teaching
Contents:

1. Factors that undermine the effectiveness of co-teaching programs
2. Surveying teachers, administrators, students and parents about the effectiveness of their co-teaching program
3. Other strategies for evaluating co-teaching programs

Session 10: Final Projects and Final Exam
Contents:

1. Review
2. Final project reviews
3. Final exam
4. Evaluations

Grading

		Assignment	Points			Grading Scale
		Forum Participation	25			100 – 93	A
		Reflections	45			92 – 85	B
		Final Project	20			84 – 77	C
		Final Exam	10
		Total Points	100

Student Requirements

	1.	Participation: Actively participate in all forum activities.
	2.	Reading assignments: Complete all readings and reflection assignments.
	3.	As a final project, participants will develop a school study that demonstrates the use of ideas and concepts presented in this course.
	4.	Pass a final exam.

Student Academic Integrity

Participants guarantee that all academic class work is original. Any academic dishonesty or plagiarism (to take ideas, writings, etc. from another and offer them as one's own), is a violation of student academic behavior standards as outlined by our partnering colleges and universities and is subject to academic disciplinary action.

Register

To register to take TEI's Collaborative Classroom Online course, go to the Course Registration page.