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Collaboration and Co-Teaching: Strategies for English Learners
Help ELLs achieve success with an integrated, collaborative program! This resource provides a practical guide to collaboration and co-teaching between general education teachers and ESL specialists to better serve the needs of ELLs. Offering classroom vignettes, step-by-step guidelines, ready-to-use resources, and in-depth case studies, the authors help
248 pages, Paperback
First published August 10, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 7, 2017
Ultimately a useful, but very limited, book.
While the foundations and strategies outlined in this book are strong, I found it less than useful for my own teaching practice. The authors seem to only consider co-teaching and collaboration methods for teachers who aren't spread across multiple buildings. I teach middle school/junior high, and looked eagerly at the potential scheduling examples, because we are currently looking to build a more collaborative model. However, not only did the teaching schedule outlined assume that the teacher in question was in the building full-time (I spend an hour per day in a different building), they assumed that the teacher in question was able to devote him/herself fully to ONE GRADE LEVEL. With that kind of time on my hands, figuring out my co-teaching schedule wouldn't be something I'd need a book to help with.
I realize that my situation isn't ideal for collaboration and co-teaching... but neither is it unique. There are pockets of ELLs at schools across the country large enough to qualify for ESL staffing, but not large enough to implement the grand-scale schedules outlined in the book.
I'm left with a lot of questions. What *IS* best practice for collaboration and co-teaching in more staff-limited situations? If I can only co-teach in one content area per grade, which should I choose? How do I organize students so that their needs are best met in the classes taught by teachers with whom I am unable to directly collaborate on a regularly scheduled basis?
The book guided me to a comprehensive understanding of the "best-case scenario," but ultimately no closer to more effectively collaborating in my (yes, challenging) teaching situation. A section titled "So, Yeah, You Don't Have The Staffing To Do the Whole Shebang" (or, you know, the same idea written more professionally) would have been a useful addition.
While the foundations and strategies outlined in this book are strong, I found it less than useful for my own teaching practice. The authors seem to only consider co-teaching and collaboration methods for teachers who aren't spread across multiple buildings. I teach middle school/junior high, and looked eagerly at the potential scheduling examples, because we are currently looking to build a more collaborative model. However, not only did the teaching schedule outlined assume that the teacher in question was in the building full-time (I spend an hour per day in a different building), they assumed that the teacher in question was able to devote him/herself fully to ONE GRADE LEVEL. With that kind of time on my hands, figuring out my co-teaching schedule wouldn't be something I'd need a book to help with.
I realize that my situation isn't ideal for collaboration and co-teaching... but neither is it unique. There are pockets of ELLs at schools across the country large enough to qualify for ESL staffing, but not large enough to implement the grand-scale schedules outlined in the book.
I'm left with a lot of questions. What *IS* best practice for collaboration and co-teaching in more staff-limited situations? If I can only co-teach in one content area per grade, which should I choose? How do I organize students so that their needs are best met in the classes taught by teachers with whom I am unable to directly collaborate on a regularly scheduled basis?
The book guided me to a comprehensive understanding of the "best-case scenario," but ultimately no closer to more effectively collaborating in my (yes, challenging) teaching situation. A section titled "So, Yeah, You Don't Have The Staffing To Do the Whole Shebang" (or, you know, the same idea written more professionally) would have been a useful addition.
October 21, 2018
I read this one over the summer to prepare for a workshop/visit from the author. It contained a lot of great insight and some strategies for helping EL students to feel more confident and successful in the classroom.
July 18, 2017
Some good info but I already knew most.
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April 10, 2012Subject, Co teaching
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews