Visit biology teacher Kristofer Orre’s fourth-period classroom on a typical day, and here’s what you might see: Orre reviews a lecture on carbohydrates and phospholipids. Meanwhile, special education teacher Brian Elliott looks over the Sweetness Lab that the class will be doing next. Once Orre finishes his recap of the lesson, Elliott takes over and explains the lab purpose and procedure.
Orre and Elliott are one of several teacher pairs working with a new collaborative teaching model this year. This setup, which occurs in classrooms that have several special education students, is intended to maximize contact time between students and teachers by lowering the student-to-teacher ratio.
“It’s great because there’s two teachers, and one teacher is going to bring the content knowledge of the subject that we’re teaching, and another teacher might be able to bring in assistance in addressing all the different kinds of learning needs in the classroom,” said Lisa McCahill, who is collaboratively teaching with biology instructor Kellyann Nicholson this year.
One of the major goals of collaborative teaching is to have special education instructors in the classroom available to help while students are receiving the course content, not just during a single designated period.
“It’s nice to see and have the perspective outside of being in a special education classroom, and it makes special education, too, feel more part of the campus,” Elliott said.
Before the collaborative teaching program, Elliott and other special education teachers had their own classroom that special education students would attend for a designated period.
It had functioned much like a tutorial, except that the teacher would explain concepts in more than one subject, as well as manage the Individualized Education Program (IEP) of special education students. They would also work on the students’ executive functioning skills — checking planners, staying organized, studying for tests.
Under the new model, special education teachers are working directly in the classrooms with students.
Elliott said, “[I]n our special education classes, we [now] know what’s going on in the classes because we’re now part of the class and responsible for teaching.”
At the same time, special education teachers do not limit themselves to only helping special education students.
“It’s helpful when you [can] get two different opinions,” said freshman Maya Gupta, who is in Orre and Elliott’s fourth-period biology class. “There’s more people to help you if you get a question.”
In addition to improving the student-teacher dynamic, collaborative teaching promotes classroom efficiency.
“One [teacher]’s working on the warm-up, and the other’s preparing the lab for us so we get a lot of things done faster,” said sophomore Kurt Bench, who is also in Orre and Elliott’s class.
Collaborative teaching was first implemented at the school last year, with math teacher Kelly Frangieh and special education instructor Danny Wallace. The program is still new to the school, but it looks to be off to a promising start.
“I think it has potential for getting better and better,” said Orre. “Next year, I think we’re going to be even better as we know the format of the class and as we know each other more. [We’re] still getting to know each other’s styles and the content.”
