Fluent Essays

The Final Project/Research Paper is a written paper of about 8-10 pages (double-spaced) on an approved topic (research and practical applications) from course content. The documenting and referencing sources must follow APA style. You may select one of the topics we cover in this course that is of your interest. The goal is to conduct in-depth research on a topic in Teaching English Learners (ELs) with Sheltered Content Instruction that you find intriguing and to develop research skills through literature review and case studies.  Approved Topic:Implementation of  CoTeaching in the General Education Classroom and Implications  for ELLs PrePandemic and During the Pandemic70 E d u c a t i o n a l l E a d E r s h i p / F E b r u a r y 2 0 1 6 Anne Beninghof and Mandy Leensvaart T hree years ago, Juan arrived from the streets of Honduras to enroll at Field Elementary School in Little ton, Colorado. He spoke no English, had never attended school, and had no idea how to function in a classroom. Juan had trouble walking in a line of students and sitting still in the classroom, and he could not identify one letter name or sound. However, Juan did bring a wealth of experiences and a rich culture to share with his peers. Andrea Scott, an English language development (ELD) teacher at Field Elementary, remembers how she ini- tially felt about Juan being placed in a regular classroom when he entered his 4th grade year: In the beginning, I balked. I argued about where Juan should be during the 4th grade reading lessons. Juan was reading at a kindergarten level! He couldn’t decode 4th grade texts and did not have enough English to participate in classroom discussions. I wanted to pull him out and rescue him. In the past, students like Juan received language instruction in a pullout model, at times segregated from native-speaking peers. The emphasis was on basic interpersonal communicative skills and foundational reading skill instruction. This method of instruction seemed to serve stu- dents well, but the demographics at Field Elementary School have changed significantly in the last few years. Today, 61 percent of its population is Hispanic, 42 percent of students are English language learners (ELLs), and 81 percent qualify for free and reduced-price lunch. This changing demographic con- tributed to a drop to “Improvement” status on the Colorado State Per- formance Framework. This was disheartening for Field, a school in a district that has been “Accredited with Distinction” for five years in a row. As the only school in the district on “Improvement” status, the Field Elementary community felt defeated and isolated. But we didn’t stay discouraged for long. Instead, we became invested in the idea that by changing what we could control—our instruc- tional practices—we could improve Co-Teaching to Support ELLs A Colorado elementary school brings together teachers with differing areas of expertise to change students’ lives. Beninghof.indd 70 1/6/16 5:55 AM A S C D / w w w . A S C D . o r g 71 outcomes for our ELLs. District and building leadership, including teacher leaders, redesigned the instructional model at Field to include these priorities: n Access to classroom instruction for every ELL 100 percent of the day. n Co-teaching partnerships in which English language development (ELD) teachers and classroom teachers shared equal responsibility for all aspects of the instructional cycle. n Specialized daily language instruction for ELLs integrated into reading and math. With these ends in mind, the leader ship teWINTER 2008 Co-teaching in the ESL Classroom BY ANDREA HONIGSFELD AND MARiA DOVE The authors explore the transferability of co- teaching models and techniques from the field of Special Education to that of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). They review five possible co-teaching configurations and offer suggestions on avoiding potential pitfalls. They conclude that co-teaching can (a) become an effective support for inclusive practices to accommodate the needs of diverse English Language learners; (b) help all students meet national, state, and local standards; (c) establish a vehicle for creative collaboration between English as a Second Language (ESL) and mainstream teachers. ^ ^Creative collaboration flourishes when everyone understands that great ideas generally emerge from a democratic process of throwing all ideas (good and goofy) into a pot where they tumble and merge, collapsing and reforming into something often completely unexpected and new (Snead & Wycoff, n.d.). TeachercoUaboration must have intrigued educators ever since the Little Red School House expanded to include more than one teacher. Even though most schools are still considered to follow the early 20th century model of Cells and Bells (Nair & Fielding, 2005) with most teachers working in isolation in their own classrooms, we ANDREA HONIGSFELD MARIA DOVE believe that for the sake of our students, there is a place and time for creative collaboration among all teachers. Co-teaching is traditionally defined as the collaboralion between general and special education (SPED) teachers for all of the teaching responsibilities of all of the students assigned to a classroom (Gately & Gately, 2001). This definition has frequently been expanded to allow the collaborative partnership between a mainstream teacher and a service provider or specialist other than a SPED teacher, such as a remedial math teacher, a reading specialist, a teacher of the gifted and talented and, more recently, the English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher. The purpose of this article is to explore how co-teaching can (a) become an effective T H E DELTA KAPPA GAMMA BULLETIN support for inclusive practices to accommodate the needs of diverse English Language Learners (ELLs); (b) help all students meet the national, state and local standards; and (c) establish a vehicle for creative collaboration between ESL and mainstream teachers. In addition, we also share practical tips on how to implement an effective co-teaching model to differentiate instruction for ELLs. To date, limited resources are available concerning co-teaching between ESL and mainstream educators. Oflen, educators working with special-needs chiidren, at-risk youth, ELLs, or gifted students look to borrow possible program models and ideas from a related field. Vaughn, Schumm, & Arguelles (1997) outlined five possible co-teaching models for the inclusive classroom to illustrate ways special educators and their mainstBY LISA UWTER Countdown to Co-Teaching: ARE YOU READY? Many new teachers accept positions that include co-teaching assignments. What does it mean to co-teach? What does co-teaching look like? How do teachers begin to co-teach? Co-teaching is defined as the partnering of a general education teacher and a special education teacher or another specialist for the purpose of jointly delivering instruction to a diverse group of students, including those with disabilities or other special needs, in a general education setting and in a way that flexibly and deliberately meets their learning needs (Friend, 2008). Friend, Cook, Hurley- Chamberlain, and Shamberger (2010) offer six approaches to co-teaching. Models of Co-Teaching 1. One teach, one observe. In this approach, one teacher leads instruction while the other observes the students in the class. 2. One t e a c h , one assist. One teacher is the active teacher while the other circulates and assists students. The co-teacher answers questions, directs attention, and provides additional explanations. 3. Station teaching. Students rotate among several different learning stations. Each co- teacher leads a station, while the other stations are completed individually by students. 4. Parallel teaching. The class is divided into two 10 • New Teacher Advocate • Summer 2013 www.kdp.org heterogeneous groups. Each teacher provides the same instruction to one of the groups. 5. A l t e r n a t i v e teaching. Pre-teaching, re- teaching, review, and accelerated instruction are provided by a co-teacher to a small group while the other teacher leads the remaining large group. 6. Team teaching. Both teachers equally share the instructional delivery because they know the curriculum and they are at ease with each others teaching style and management techniques. This model takes longer for teachers to feel comfortable implementing. Choosing the Model to Implement The model implemented depends on many factors. First, the co-teachers strengths should be considered. If a teacher has a passion for a topic or a unique strategy, the co-teachers can implement the one teach, one assist model. If there have been many students absent in the class, the alternative teaching model allows one teacher to re-teach those students. Benefits of Co-Teaching Co-teaching benefits everyone. Students benefit from having two teachers support their learning. If a student does not understand the directions given by one teacher, the co-teacher can explain it again. Students receive more one-on- one feedback and instruction. Co-teachers benefit from joint planning. More elaborate lessons can be presented. Each teacher can take responsibility for planning and assessing student growth. Co- teaching provides support for each teacher as well. Getting Started For co-teaching to be successful, pre-planning is essential. Conversations about each teachers expectations allow teachers to get acquainted, understand unique characteristicMaking Virtual Co-Teaching Work in a Covid-19 Environment142 Issues in Teacher Education Making Virtual Co-Teaching Work in a Covid-19 Environment Estella W. Chizhik Regina R. Brandon San Diego State University Issues in Teacher Education, Fall 2020 Abstract Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, teachers must rely on technology to reach and teach their students who no longer sit in school classrooms. In so doing, chasms in the quality of engagement have become evident based on students’ ability, ethnicity, and home language. We propose that co-teaching between a mentor teacher and a teacher candidate could mediate opportunities for two adults to equitably instruct all students in structured and productive ways within virtual educational environments. This article describes implementation of co-teaching experiences between teacher candidates and mentor teachers through virtual instruction by using video-based conferencing tools (e.g., Zoom). We describe six co-teaching models and explain how they can support the needs of diverse learners in virtual educational environments. Disquisition In the fall semester of 2019, our teacher-education programs (Special Education Department and School of Teacher Education) held our an- Estella W. Chizhik is a professor in the School of Teacher Education and Regina R. Brandon is an associate professor in the Special Edu- cation Department, both in the College of Education at San Diego State University, San Diego, California. Their email addresses are: [email protected] & [email protected] © 2020 by Caddo Gap Press Estella W. Chizhik & Regina R. Brandon 143 Volume 29, Numbers 1 & 2, Fall 2020 nual mentor-teacher workshop to share information about our programs’ expectations for our teacher candidates and to provide relevant coaching tips. For the first time, our workshop focused on promoting co-teaching between teacher candidates and their mentor teachers, as we attempted to foster the notion that classroom spaces can be places where two or more teachers can coordinate their efforts to engage all students in rig- orous instruction (Cook & Friend, 1995). We also shared that educators at St. Cloud University (Bacharach et al., 2010) advocate that co-teach- ing between mentor teachers and teacher candidates would not only engage more students in the classroom, but also provide opportunities for coordinated teaching and planning between teacher candidates and their mentor teachers. To conclude the workshop, we asked participants whether they wanted more information about co-teaching. Nearly all of the 35 mentor teachers indicated little desire to learn more about the topic. “Well,” we thought, “either we did a bang-up job (they learned ev- erything that they needed) or most were not interested in co-teaching.” We suspected that our mentor teachers felt that they “did not need to fix something that is not broken” because they were already providing quality instruction to their stu