Co-Teaching Models

Module 2 Groups: Team Teach Role Play SPE-506-0 - 11796.202510 March 4, 2025

Round 1

General education teacher:

General education teacher Mr. R: Hello Ms. Chalamar! I am looking forward to working with you next year and co-teaching. I want to take a second to discuss my teaching philosophy, classroom culture, expectations, rules for student success.

You may call me a positivist. For many years, I have seen my students thrive with very well prepared, structured teaching material, clear daily teaching agenda with specific objectives, and I hold them accountable for what they learn to meet the teaching goals. We do weekly quizzes, monthly tests, and what they learn/unlearn are very clear through those thoughtful designed standard-based tests. In my classroom, my students are very clear about the classroom rules, which are respecting the adults, and cherishing the classroom learning opportunities. This is a place for learning knowledge, period. They need to leave social and emotions outside of the classroom. If they act up, there is a Consequence Chart Post on the wall. I mean, they need to be strong, independent, accountable people. The knowledge they are learning in the classroom are research-based materials that are driven by facts and evidence that is proven. I expect my students to always pay attention during my lecturing, and follow my instructions, and practice when they learned in the activities followed by my instructions. You know, students know nothing about the subjects, so the more they pay attention, the more they absorb, and the more they grow.

I think it will be very help for us to set up the clear co-teaching protocols. I would like to your input. It is going to be very challenging to do differentiation unless we set very clear goals for the student with disabilities about the load, pace and the results.

Round 2

Directions: After reading your partner's views, identify what you see as differences and similarities in your beliefs, styles, and preferences. Reflect on what you see as the opportunities and challenges of team teaching together.

General education teacher Mr. R: After reading each other’s views, we can see the differences on our teaching philosophy and styles, which is expected. Me, as a positivist, my preference for clear instructions, learning goals, structured learning material may conflict you’re your constructivist’s preference for flexible, student-driven learning, causing confusions and tension.

As it is hard for me to imagine “how the classroom will be like”, this can be a great learning experience for both of us to provide a dynamic classroom for all our students, in which all the students can benefit from

· When I give clear instructions and demonstrations

· When I set clear goals for daily learning

· When I offer structured learning schedules to students

· When I clarity for confusions

You are very good with

· Identify different learning styles

· Identify the learning challenges for different students, especially the students with learning disabilities

· Designed experience-based learning to deepen/diverse students’ learning

· Share your special education experience/strategies for this inclusive classroom

We can definitely improve students’ engagements and reach our goal by working closely. There will be bumpy road but I think it will all work out.

Our goal is the same: all the students can have a meaningful and successful learning experience in this classroom. Thoughts?

Round 3

Directions: Given your differences and similarities, consider Friend's models of collaboration and discuss the three models you think would work for the two of you and why.

Source: https://ellstudents.com/blogs/the-confianza-way/collaboration-part-two-the-path-to-implementation

General education teacher Mr. R (Litan): What are your thoughts on the co-teaching models such as station teaching, alternative teaching? Or interactive teaching?

“Taking that first step outside of one’s own comfort zone and into a general education classroom can be intimidating” (Wendy W. Murawski & Claire Hughes, 2020, P185) So I give both of us credits especially you. I want to consult your thoughts while I am sharing mine here:

· In the beginning or when needed, we may try “ one teaches, one observes”, which I think it will be a good opportunity for us two and our students to learn who we are and learn from each other, and develop more strategies to complementing each other. “One way to self-advocate is to educate those around you” (Wendy W. Murawski & Claire Hughes, 2020, P186) To avoid confusions, we may spend a lot of time for planning, listening to each other and reflecting. However, I can see our students can benefit from our different ways to support their learning goals.

· I can see us try out station teaching. We divide class into 2-3 groups, and we instruct a station with a specific activity or lesson, and our students can rotate. We can use grouping strategies for different learning activities. We can even have a 3rd group for a student-lead, or peer monitoring learning group while both of are serving other 2 groups.

· If we try alternative teaching, I can see myself leads a reading comprehension exercise, while you work on a hands-on activities or vocabulary development for the students who need additional support, which will be useful for remediation, enrichment, or targeted instruction without disrupting whole-group learning in a lecturing based classroom.

Just my 2 cents. Looking forward to hear your thoughts.

Reflect and Debrief

Instructions: Do not stay "in-character" for this component. Once you have completed the role play, reflect on your connections, insights, and/or questions as you engaged in this exercise. In addition, address what you learned about collaboration from the role play and from working together to create it. What do you think you did well? Where do you see room for improvement? You can debrief together on the video (if you create one) or in text. For full-points on this section, your response should be at least 1 paragraph and incorporate some of the course readings.

This exercise provided a lot of challenges and growing opportunities for me. To prepare this assignment, I need to read, watch videos and reflect all of them and put in a real-life scenario. This helps me develop valuable insights into the complexities of collaboration, particularly when differing educational philosophies come into play, oh my, which happens every day in academic setting, also in real life too. We all need to learn how to work with people who share different philosophies, backgrounds, personal experiences for a fruitful professional result. In this journey, I realize that while a positivist general education teacher and a constructivist special education teacher may initially seem to have opposing approaches, their strengths can complement each other if we take time to “develop relationships, communicate, listen, find commonalities, control emotions, offer expertise, and follow up” (Peggy J.S. Whitby, Teri Marx, Jonathan Mclntire and Wilfred Wienke, 2013, P32)

If we all want our students to succeed, we should remember “it takes a village” and our students benefit from different teaching styles to deepen their intellectually engagement and support their social/emotional wellbeing.

One of my key takeaways from this activity is that effective collaboration requires flexibility, communication, and a shared commitment to student success. According to Friend and Cook (2013), collaboration is an interactive process where educators must actively engage in shared decision-making, mutual respect, and collective problem-solving. This exercise keeps reminding me the importance of recognizing friendly professional disagreements, as the success of the collaboration depended on our teachers' ability to look for common ground in their instructional methods. The more agreements we reach, the happier we will all be.

Moving forward, I would focus on learning more strategies for conflict resolution and ensuring that both perspectives are valued in instructional decision-making.

Once you and your partner have completed this assignment, one of you will need to submit it here, in “Assignments” under “Module 2: Team Teach Role Play.” Please make sure that both names are on the assignment.