Section 1: A Nod to the Literature
What is Co-Teaching?
According to The Academy for Co-Teaching and Collaboration, co-teaching is when two or more professionals work together as they plan for, instruct, and assess a shared group of students in a common space.
To more fully understand co-teaching, it may be easier to consider what it is not. Co-teaching is NOT...
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One instructor teaching, one instructor grading.
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One instructor teaching, one instructor tutoring.
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One instructor teaching in one classroom and another teaching in a separate space.
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One instructor teaching literacy and the other teaching math.
Co-Planning and Co-Teaching
The Academy for Co-Teaching and Collaboration identifies myriad benefits for co-teaching as a mentoring structure. These include increased opportunities for 1) using flexible grouping 2) collaborating with colleagues and 3) trying new strategies. Co-teaching can reduce the student/teacher ratio, which in turn creates opportunities for greater student engagement and participation.
Co-teaching is common practice in PK-12 classrooms, yet new teachers are not often prepared with a deep understanding of the models of co-teaching and/or how to plan to put the models into practice. Mentors of new teachers may need to provide support for developing an understanding of co-planning and co-teaching with new teachers.

"Co-teaching is when two or more professionals work together as they plan for, instruct, and assess a shared group of students in a common space."
Incorporating coteaching during field experiences and internship provides teacher candidates with an introduction to and scaffolded practice with this important teaching approach. Research suggests effective implementation of co-teaching during internship positively impacted student learning (Bacharach, et al., 2010).
Pause & Reflect

Directions: Pause and reflect on what you learned. Use the questions below to guide your thinking and record your thoughts in a private place you can reference later, such as a journal.
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What role might co-planning and co-teaching play in your mentoring of a teacher candidate or new teacher?
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What potential challenges do you anticipate?