Team teaching is modeling the group and partner work we require from our students; it’s probably a good idea that we practice what we preach. Both team teaching and student group work share the same characteristic: although the planning may take longer when more people are involved, the end product is richer. Student group work is not supposed to be divide and conquer, and neither is team teaching.
Team teaching opens more opportunities for teachers to model desirable academic behavior for their students, like a respectful intellectual debate and valuing a colleagues ideas. I like the strategy Anderson and Landy used to grade papers: divide and conquer the strong ones, solicit partner teacher on the rest. Team teaching automatically helps the student/teacher ratio, providing more opportunities for individualized attention.
If a teaching rotation model is used for a course, it’s success would largely depend upon the consistency of assessments. Listening to 5 different teachers is difficult enough, without throwing in different types and amounts of assessments along the way.I can see how team teaching is the most effective type of co-teaching when executed properly. I wonder how mainstream this trend will become.
My first placement was in an alternative middle school in Spokane called Eagle Peak, and my mentor teacher co-taught her class. Because this school is specialized, every student has a 504 and half of them also have an IEP for reading and/or writing. She is the special education teacher and her partner is the English teacher. They do spend a considerable amount of time collaborating and checking in with each other, but the co-teaching method has been working for them for the last couple of years. Because every student struggled with behavior, it was even more important to display respect for the other teacher at all times (which they did beautifully).
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