Professional Development
Co-Teaching: Improving Access to the General Curriculum for Students with Disabilities
As result of changed legislative priorities and evolving reform movements, there has been a focus on increasing the inclusive nature of schools and educational settings. This trend has led to many school systems rethinking how services are delivered to all students and the implementation of alternative service delivery options. In turn, this has often resulted in schools and school systems wanting to increase the level of collaboration between general and special education. Co-teaching is becoming one of the fastest growing inclusive school practices, yet co-teaching remains one of the most commonly misunderstood practices in education.
One of the most widely accepted definitions of co-teaching reads: "Co-teaching occurs when two or more professionals jointly deliver substantive instruction to a diverse, or blended, group of students in a single physical space." This workshop, designed for general and special education teachers, will explore each component of this definition, the look of co-teaching in the classroom, scheduling and planning issues, and the challenge of supervising and evaluating a co-teaching team. Opportunities for questions and case discussion will also be included.