List 3.

Preparing for Co-Teaching: A Checklist to Review

Getting started in a co-teaching relationship is like starting over again from the beginning with each new partnership and program. You need to be clear about your goals so that you can communicate your desired outcomes with your administrator and your teaching partner. Involving and informing parents and the students are important in this process as well.

Planning Time
Who will take primary responsibility for planning? When planning for a unit over time, is there another time when we can meet for additional planning?
Taken from The Co-Teaching Book of Lists, by Katherine Perez. Copyright 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

When can we meet on a regular basis?

Shared Teaching Responsibilities

Who will determine curriculum focus? Who will plan the lessons? How can we both teach the lessons? Who will determine the unit objectives and important concepts? How will we determine learning strategies and modications necessary for meeting individual students needs? How will we develop support activities? How will the special education placement (IEP scheduling and identication) be maintained? Who will assess and grade assignments? How will we develop this process?

Preparing the Classroom

How will we create a classroom environment that is inclusive of both teachers and all learners? How will we create greater equity in the classroomamong the students and ourselves as a team?

Keys to Classroom Management

What are our rules or expectations in regard to student behavior? How should we acknowledge and reinforce desired and positive behaviors? How will we respond to infractions? What kind of consequences will we use?

Setting
How will we set up the physical classroom space to accommodate a variety of co-teaching approaches? How conducive is the classroom space to support exible grouping of the students?

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 How will we make sure that we each have our own space in the classroom? Is there any exibility of the space needed? Are we able to utilize other space in the building?

Classroom Routines
Meet and agree upon important classroom procedures and routines:

Pencil sharpening Answering questions (hand raising) Use of the restroom Turning in homework Distributing supplies Positive reinforcement system Passing out papers Transitions between activities and groups

Taken from The Co-Teaching Book of Lists, by Katherine Perez. Copyright 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Noise
Talk about different acceptable noise levels for different situations What is your tolerance level for noise in the classroom? Is there a signal when all is quiet and all eyes and ears are focused on teachers?

Discipline
Determine classroom norms or conditions needed to work together (and involve the students in this process) Discuss acceptable limits of behavior with students Establish a clearly dened system of rewards and consequences Discuss who will be responsible for the behavior of certain students on a consistent basis

IEP Issues
How will students goals and objectives be communicated? How should these goals be addressed and monitored in the classroom? How will students progress be monitored, and who will be responsible?

Accommodations and Modications

What specic modications can we agree on for specic students? Who will implement them? How will we monitor this process? To what extent will the modications be used with general education students who are also struggling? Should grades be adjusted because of modications?

Where Do You Start?

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Grading Issues
How will we grade homework? What are the issues about grading in-class assignments? Who is responsible for grading tests and quizzes? What grading system should we use? How will we monitor ongoing student progress? How can we develop rubrics for certain assignments? What district policies regarding grading should we take into account in making our decisions?

Obstacles
What do you perceive as the biggest challenges that we face in this process? What are some ways that we can overcome them? What of our pet peeves should we be aware of in this classroom? What are the students main pet peeves to keep in mind?

Communication
What procedures will help us communicate and maintain a good working relationship? How will we communicate with parents? Students? Administration? How will we handle our communication needs with each other?

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Taken from The Co-Teaching Book of Lists, by Katherine Perez. Copyright 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.