This document discusses collaboration and co-teaching between ESL and classroom teachers. It defines co-teaching as two or more teachers sharing responsibility for a classroom. Key benefits of co-teaching include greater continuity of instruction for ELL students, more differentiated instruction, and increased academic and linguistic support. Effective co-teaching requires coordination, shared beliefs, distributed leadership, cooperation, and accountability between teachers. Both ESL and classroom teachers gain valuable insights and support from collaboration.

1. Collaboration & Co-teaching for
ESL Professionals
What it is, what is it not & benefits…

2. What is co-teaching?
• Co-teaching is two or more people sharing
responsibility for teaching some or all of the
students assigned to a room.
– Distribution of responsibility
– Connect and support
– Trust
– communication

3. What co-teaching is not
• One person teaching one subject followed
by another who teaches a different subject
• One person teaching one subject while
another person prepares instructional
materials or corrects papers etc…
• Occurring when one teacher conducts a
lesson and others stand or sit by and watch
• When the ideas of one person prevail for
what is to be taught or how it will be taught
• Simply the assignment of someone to act as
a tutor

4. Elements of co-teaching
1. Coordinate their work to achieve at least one common, publicly
agreed-on goal.
2. Share a belief system that supports the idea that each of the co-
teaching team members has unique and needed expertise.
3. Demonstrate parity by alternatively engaging in the dual roles of
teacher and learner, expert and novice, giver and recipient of
knowledge or skills.
4. Use a distributed functions theory of leadership in which the task
and relationship functions of the traditional lone teacher are
distributed among all co-teaching team members.
5. Use a cooperative process that includes face-to-face interaction,
positive interdependence, interpersonal skills, monitoring co-
teacher progress, and individual accountability.

5. Benefits for ELLs when teachers
collaborate. ELLs receive…
• Greater continuity of instruction: fewer interruptions in their
school day
• More carefully aligned curriculum that yields adaptations
• More differentiated instruction due to collaborative teacher
planning
• Effectively coordinated interventions for students at risk through
RTI (Response to Intervention) programs
• More focus on their linguistic needs: instruction at their level of
language proficiency
• More focus on their academic needs: preteaching necessary skills
for understanding
• Greater understanding of their school behaviors and sociocultural
needs
• More empathy from all teachers

6. When two teachers work together to provide
instruction in a co-taught setting, ELLs will experience
the following…
• Greater stability at the elementary level by receiving more
instruction in their regular classrooms
• More individualized attention due to reduced teacher-student ratio
in all K-12 settings
• Increased exposure to their English-speaking peers
• Enhanced social and emotional development due to diverse peer
interaction
• More exposure to adult linguistic models, including an additional
teaching professional
• More experience with grade-appropriate content
• Greater opportunities for acculturation by staying integrated in
their regular classes
• Increased confidence in their ability to learn grade-level work

7. When ESL professionals collaborate with
classroom teachers they will be able to…
• Appreciate the challenges that gen ed teachers
face being in charge of classes of 20-30 students
of varied needs all day long
• Understand national, state, and local content
standards better
• Enhance their knowledge of grade-appropriate
content curriculum and related assessments
• Have the opportunity to offer insight into making
grade-appropriate content accessible to ELLs
• Experience increased camaraderie and a stronger
sense of belonging within the school

8. ESL teachers benefit by co-teaching
by…
• Having the opportunity to work with an entire class of students,
rather than only with small groups
• Take on the role of educating their colleagues about the needs of
ELLs
• Help ensure that general-education content becomes accessible to
ELLs
• Combine content and language development in a single lesson
• Develop more complex classroom management skills
• Understand the demands placed on classroom teachers and
students regarding standardized test preparation

9. What do we offer each other?

10. What do we offer each other?