UNIT 4: Co-Planning
Return to: Co-Teaching Mini-Course
Unit Objective: By the completion of this mini-course, participants will develop the skills to lead and facilitate a discussion about co-planning when working one-on-one with a Co-teacher for 30 minutes.
The following two units will be shorter units than the past three.. You now use the knowledge you have learned in the previous units to effectively manage your co-teaching relationship throughout your school year. The skills you learn and activities you engage in through these two units should be an ongoing process. You should regularly be having co-planning time with your co-teacher and be frequently reflecting on your co-teaching experiences.
This unit is broken into three segments: (1) before the meeting; (2) during the meeting; (3) after the meeting
Activity 1: Before the Meeting
It is crucial that you individually plan before your co-planning meeting in order to make effective use of your time. As we know, time in schools is EVERYTHING. Time was discussed as one of the biggest challenges of co-teaching in unit 1...so let's not waste it!
- Start by reading through and annotating the following resource. Using Co-Planning Time: Strategies for a Successful Co-Teaching Marriage was published in the TEACHING Exceptional Children Plus in 2009 and suggest several strategies that may be helpful to you when it comes time to Co-Plan.
You may find the resource at the following link: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ967747.pdf
- Secondly, you will need to choose a lesson plan template that will suit the needs of you, your co-teacher, your content, and your classroom. Please see below for a link of pdf's and sites that may be helpful to you in choosing a lesson plan template.
https://education.wm.edu/centers/ttac/documents/newsletters/coplanningforms.pdf
http://www.teacherplanet.com/lesson-plan-templates
- Develop an agenda. This can be done on Google Docs, by hand, or any other application that is useful to you. It is important you create a plan and stick to it in order to avoid getting side tracked or waste time!
Activity 2: During the Meeting
You are ready to conduct your Co-Planning meeting. You have all of the materials you need.
During you meeting, your may want to consider the following:
- Think about why you are here? What content are you trying to teach? If available, you may want to overview previous lessons. How did those go? What would you improve about it? Did you meet your goals?
- Determine the best co-teaching model to use in order effectively teach the content and reach the objectives you have set.
- Begin to fill out your the lesson template you have agreed upon. Listen to one another and each other's expertises.
- Reflect: Do these new ideas align to the objectives we have set?
- Be sure to complete your Co-Planning template in order to outline your lesson plan.
Activity 3: After the Meeting
Congratulations! Now after the meeting, be sure to reflect in some manner that is comfortable to you. If you wish to continue your running Google Doc, please do. Reflect on the success of the meeting: did you stick to your time limit? Did you work together? What challenges did you encounter? What could you improve?