Co-Teaching- A Tool for Collaboration in International Schools

By Holly Bowen Reardon- Elementary and Middle School Principal International School Eastern Seaboard

“A learning-focused school accepts the responsibility to do everything possible to support children’s learning. Nothing is left to chance (Teachingtimes.com, 2019).” If learning is the primary focus of schools, then everyone in schools must be a learner. This includes teachers, parents, administrators and support staff as well as students. Sometimes, unfortunately, in international schools, teachers prefer to bring their experiences, personal perspectives, lessons and curriculum with them; a practice that makes it hard for our diverse population of teachers to collaborate. Usually our students also have vastly different experiences both in and out of school and addressing learning needs from such diversity as isolated teachers simply doesn’t work. At the International School of Eastern Seaboard (ISE), we wanted to shift this narrative and harness the gift of our diverse perspectives to learn from and with each other because in learning-focused schools, teachers take collective responsibility for student learning and wellbeing (Stuart et al., 2016).

In larger international schools, collaborative teams are often formed with groups of teachers who teach the same grade level. This allows for teachers to work together to think about the content and approaches to teaching. When teachers are working in small international schools with only one classroom per grade level, they can feel extremely isolated and often long for others to collaborate with. In these situations, collaboration usually only happens on a shallow, thematic level with singlesubject teachers (eg Grade 5 is studying bird migration and the visual arts teacher agrees to make birdhouses) whose courses, unfortunately, have few overlaps with what is happening in the homeroom. While there are benefits to these approaches, we were looking for a more deliberate way for our teachers to intimately know our students and to be able to plan for and impact their learning in a very personalized way.

One way that the schools in Reggio Emilia, Italy have been able to make a deliberate break from more traditional and isolated approaches to teaching is by working in co-teaching pairs. The teacher researchers in Reggio have found that co-teaching produces tremendous advantages both educationally and psychologically for the educators and the children. Co-teachers in Reggio feel a commitment to both their students and their colleagues to continually grow and develop as teachers. As teachers make predictions and try things out, they work together with co-teachers to analyze what happened and what might be the best next step for a particular child or group of children. (Edwards et al., 2012). This act alone encourages a deep level of reflection and requires teachers to position themselves as learners within the organization as well.

At ISE, we believe that the work of teaching is too complex and too important to do in isolation. When teachers don’t collaborate to plan and review student progress, then the success of a student can depend upon the efficacy of a single teacher (Stuart et al., 2016). Co-teaching also alleviates the traditional model of what to teach and how to teach being determined exclusively by an individual teacher. We know that the effects of both effective teachers and ineffective teachers can be felt for years (Garmston & Wellman, 2016.) At worst, a bad teacher can damage a student’s confidence and self-esteem. On the other hand, students who are placed with highly effective teachers for three years in a row significantly outperform average students. We believe that we have a moral imperative to do better than to leave this to chance.

We also understand that having conversations with colleagues that focus on understanding and knowing our students better impacts student learning but also impacts teacher growth and evolution. According to Stuart (2016, pg. 2) “the opportunity to learn from and with the teacher next door is huge. For teachers in international schools, the single biggest benefit of Professional Learning Communities is the unmatched professional growth that come with becoming vulnerable enough with colleagues and being willing to challenge every teaching, assessment and intervention method to better serve students.”

Longing for deep and meaningful professional collaboration, we, in the Elementary School at ISE, decided to try a co-teaching approach to deprivatizing our classrooms. Teaching teams formed PODS of 2 grade levels (eg Grade 2 and Grade 3). In this model the teachers in both grade levels would get to know the students and would be able to support the planning for groups as well as individual student needs.

PODS combine classes for their morning meetings and other times throughout the day when they are working on building community or addressing community issues. During these times all teachers and TAs are present and involved with students. During literacy and math times, groups are formed across the two grade levels and teachers work with different groups on targeted goals. Sometimes these flexible groups are formed to address specific grade level content, other times they may be based on interest (kids interested in the same topics for writing or reading, for example) or because we want to harness the expertise of students as they teach and learn from each other.

For our social studies and science units, we created a rotating schedule. This means that we designated one set of units (what might have traditionally been the grade 2 units) as year A and the other set of units (what might have traditionally been the grade 3 units) as year B, rotating this schedule every year. This allows us to work together on planning the units and allows for greater flexibility for learning engagements

and assessment strategies. We also have a learning support and EAL teacher who co-plans and co-teaches with each POD.This model allows all teachers to genuinely understand the academic and social-emotional needs of each student and helps us to avoid making superficial recommendations solely related to content. Rather, because each of knows every student deeply, we can make specific plans to enhance learning for everyone.

When planning for our co-teaching model, we anticipated that this approach would allow us to:

• Personalize learning-with plans and flexibility for students who perform at different levels throughout a grade • Offer multiple mentors for all learners (big and small) • Minimize the “risk” of a not so perfect ‘teacher/ student match” • Continue to grow and develop our craft from each other

Throughout the year we have been amazed by the impact that our coteaching has had in our classrooms. We have been able to:

• Personalize learning. With more adults in the room we were able to offer more support and individualized options for inquiry.

“They are getting double value. My co-teacher and I have very different backgrounds and styles of delivery so I feel we are able to cover more together.”- Reuben Bathgate, Co-

Teacher

• Evolve as teachers-harnessing our strengths and supporting the areas we each wanted to grow. • Adjust groups in the moment, based on student need, teacher need, interest and emotional support. For example, when we got a new student from China with no english, one of the teachers had just moved from China and was instantly able to connect with that student, easing his transition and supporting him as he joined the classroom community.

“Co-teaching allows teachers to make adjustments to learning during the lesson, not just after the fact.” -Christina

Szyman, Co-Teacher

There were also some very unexpected but deeply meaningful results as well: • As the group began working together and they saw teachers explicitly learning how to navigate and work closely together, they too learned these skills and the group developed into a profoundly caring community. • Students gained perspective about their own strengths and expertise while also discovering their areas for growth. This happened organically and naturally, just like it does in a family, just from working together and supporting each other. “While working with students and discovering their expertise we were able to use them in different ways in the classroom as well .” -Christina Szyman, Co-Teacher • Students also developed a respect for others with different learning needs and began to explore ideas about equality vs equity. “Within this model all students have the chance to shine as leaders and experts. They can all learn from each other and they also can all be teachers of each other. This grows their confidence and helps promote a growth mindset in the classroom” -Nada Werner, Student Support Teacher • All learners, big and small, grew as collaborators, intentionally honing their craft with every meeting or interaction. “I learn so much from my teaching partner. I learn from the way she asks questions and talks to the students. I learn from the activities she plans and the way she delivers content.”- Reuben Bathgate, Co-Teacher

• On the practical side, it was extremely helpful for continuity when teachers are sick, or move on to another school. • We have held each other accountable. Both as teachers and as students, as we work together every day, we bring our best to the table, not wanting to offer less than that to our partners.

“Your co-teachers are your cheelearders. They bring out the best in you and support the areas where you need that as well.” - Nada Werner, Student Support Teacher

Moving from a more isolated to a co-teaching model wasn’t an easy task. But we didn’t really think it would be! Teachers who are used to working in isolation are sometimes resistant to opening their doors and sharing their practice with each other. Even though it was scary, we believed in the possibilities and as a team we decided to trust the process, share our vulnerabilities, and give co-teaching a try. Our model isn’t perfect. Continued support as we hone our skills and techniques as collaborators will be important as we push for deeper connections with our students and each other as co-teaching partners. We want to include more parent partnerships in our classrooms and parents initially didn’t understand this model. They simply thought students were functioning in a combined classroom (which traditionally means 1 teacher with two grade levels of children). While we have shared information with parents this year, this will continue to be a focal point of parent education and communication over the next few years. As we started this journey, our collaborative focus was on homeroom partnerships, however we are also considering the role that our single subject teachers (for example visual arts, physical education) might play in this model in the future. Over the year, it has become clear to us that this model is more effective as a support for both student and teacher learning than traditional approaches. The question for us now is ‘why would you NOT choose to work this way?’.

“Be open-minded. Remember that your teaching partner is probably as nervous as you are, so talk about that! Break the ice. Try some ‘out of the classroom’ team building activities to build trust and your relationship. Have fun and laugh together. Expect to make lots of mistakes and don’t forget to celebrate all the successes you have along the way! “- Reuben Bathgate, Co-Teacher

Resources

Edwards, Carolyn P., et al. The Hundred Languages of Children: the Reggio Emilia Experience in Transformation. Praeger, 2012.

Garmston, Robert J., and Bruce M. Wellman. The Adaptive School: a Sourcebook for Developing Collaborative Groups. Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.

Ritchhart, Ron. Creating Cultures of Thinking: The 8 Forces We Must Master to Truly Transform Our Schools. Jossey-Bass, 2015.

Teachingtimes.com. (2019). Creating a learning-focused school. [online] Available at: https://www.teachingtimes.com/articles/learning-focusedschool.htm [Accessed 20 Feb. 2019].

Stuart, Timothy S. Global Perspectives: Professional Learning Communities in International Schools. Solution Tree Press, 2016.