by | Dec 24, 2018 | Co Teaching

2018 Co-Teaching Reflection

We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience. – John Dewey

It has been about five months since I started Co-Teaching with elementary teachers. Even though I’ve only been Co-Teaching for a few months, I’m already seeing the huge benefits of this model on language learners and teachers. Teachers have become more collaborative in their day to day practice, and students have benefited from having content and language instruction interwoven throughout lesson activities. My experience this year with starting a Co-Teaching model has led me to present locally at conferences and participate in a multitude of professional development opportunities that have provided me the tools to continue to build on my practice.

Another colleague pointed out how having me be present in her classroom has helped her learn unique ELL strategies that she has never thought of before. Too often are we left in our classrooms to our own devices with our doors shut. As we know, teaching is a highly collaborative profession; new methods and research are constantly developing every year, and it can be difficult to keep up to date with all of the modern jargon. Collaborating with colleagues eases this load as research and methods are shared and practiced together instead of individually.

As the calendar year winds down, I’m taking this opportunity to reflect on my experience so far and take stock on not only my wins, but also areas of growth for me to focus on before the school year is out.

Transformative Teacher Practice

The biggest transformation I have seen so far with Co-Teaching has been a huge shift with teachers. The vast majority of the elementary school has welcome me into both their classrooms and planning periods. One colleague of mine noted how this has helped hold him accountable in their practice as it’s easy for energy to falter when alone in the classroom. While this was certainly not my intention, being present consistently in the classroom has helped this particular teacher be on his A-game. I’ve also noticed that teachers are using more and more language learning strategies in their classrooms without my help. Co-Planning and Co-Teaching has helped teachers look at their units through an ELL lens. It’s as if each planning meeting is on the spot ELL professional development session, and teachers are beginning to realize more and more the importance of this frequent collaboration.

Another changed I’ve noticed with teachers is their willingness to reach out to me for insight on ELL best practice. The relationships I have with teachers are the result of meticulous planning and the establishment of mutual understandings and boundaries. I made sure to articulate the purpose of my role, but also what my role isn’t. These defined lines helped me target areas of need in teachers’ classrooms.

I made sure to articulate the purpose of my role, but also what my role isn’t.

Increased Student Achievement

What’s difficult about being the only ELD teacher across the school is that I have to pick and choose where to focus my energies based off of student need. My focus on most classrooms is in reading and writing instruction since those are the most flexible and consistent academic subjects for teachers. Since focusing on reading and writing, we have seen great gains the development of language in students, particularly across writing and speaking. Measuring these language gains in conjunction with academic learning has been a huge challenge, but I developed a WIDA assessment tracking tool that I’m currently testing out as a means to accurately gather this data.

I designed this assessment tool to formatively assess students language development as prescribed on their initial WIDA score. Criteria is included for their current WIDA score as well as one above and below. After scheduling a time to come in to classrooms with teachers, I observe students complete tasks related to each language domain and highlight the WIDA criteria that students are demonstrating. While doing this, I take specific notes on student behaviors and scaffold as needed if students need language assistance (and document the scaffolds being used). Afterwards, I send transfer this tool to a running electronic document and send it to teachers with notes and next steps for instruction.

What has been helpful about this tool is that it helps track student progress over time in a natural context, and it helps guide myself and classroom teachers on what to work on with students so they can be successful in the mainstream classroom setting. I’ve only just started using this tracking tool in October, so It’ll be interesting to see if it helps guide classroom instruction.

The Need for Collaborative Assessment

Now that I have an “in” with teachers, I can focus more on collaborative assessment in the coming months. This is probably my biggest challenge so far in Co-Teaching as assessment practice is partially systemic, so if procedures aren’t put in place then each classroom conducts assessment differently. 

Click on the image to access my WIDA data collection template
However, now that I have an established presence with teachers, working with them to create and analyze assessments will become easier. I’ve started meeting with teachers at the start of each unit to add language components to rubrics and other assessment criteria so that students have language targets that they also need to meet. At the end of units, I helped myself and teachers analyze and gather data from assessments to help guide our instruction for future instruction.

I follow these simple steps when Co-Assessing with my colleagues

Content vs. Language

Probably my biggest realization over the past few months is the shift in focus from content teaching to language teaching. It’s not possible for ELL Co-Teachers to be effective content experts when working with multiple grade levels. It’s taken time for me to transition my thought process to focus solely on the language objectives and how they can help students access the content. Since this transition, my instruction has been much more focused and intentional. Coming from a classroom teacher background, it was easy for me to get caught up in the content standards, but it took a lot for me to let go and trust all of that to the classroom teacher.

Moving Forward

As we move into next semester, I’ve dedicated myself to apply various Co-Assessment strategies in classrooms. Assessment will also expand to the upper grades (6-12) as well, so I’m interesting in seeing how the assessment practice that I’ve developed will work in middle and high school. While I haven’t worked in the upper grades, I’m excited to learn more about assessment practice and language development as it applies to older students!

I also want to continue hone in on integrating language with content more fluidly. It’s taken a considerable amount of practice to meld language into teachers’ lesson plans, and as I continue to read more about the most effective language teaching strategies, I’m excited to incorporate more into future lessons (especially in the high school!).

And that ends posting for 2018. I wish everyone a happy holidays, and I’ll post again once school starts next year!