Co-teaching and UDL: The bricks and the mortar
Co-teaching. Two adults sharing a space. Two people trained in different disciplines bringing together different content. Two people who each come at relationships and interactions in their own unique way now creating a single space together. Two personalities. Two bodies bringing their own mood to the classroom each day. That “two” isn’t just a 2. That “two” is exponentially bigger.
In this week’s podcast, Karen Keener and Jordan Landis share why they think their co-taught classroom is so successful and how they believe Universal Design for Learning has benefitted them to frame their “two” and make it successful for all learners. Below are a few of the themes that I heard and appreciated.
Co-teaching is an expectation in their building – Brick 1
Karen and Jordan’s building administration value co-teaching. They value it to the point that it is in the master schedule. Teachers know that this will be dedicated time together and it is a defined expectation. This is an incredibly important step that administrators need to take. To ask teachers to co-teach is a positive step, but those teachers need support in what co-teaching is, what structures should be in place, and how to plan with other another. There are plenty of quality online articles (more are here) specifically about getting started with co-teaching. These pieces are for both administrators and teachers because that unified knowledge will lead to better outcomes! And then, teachers need designated time for planning. Karen and Jordan designated a specific time each week during the defined planning period and have fallen into a comfortable pattern of what they do during that time and about how much time it will take them to do that planning. They have shifted from planning alone during that slot to planning together. This is another shift each leader will need to support with resources, examples, and guidance.
Co-teaching is a relationship – Brick 2
All relationships need time and trust to grow. Karen and Jordan have worked together for a few years and fully rely on one another to complete whatever tasks they’ve defined. They’ve consciously and subconsciously agreed upon their norms for building relationships with the students. But the most important piece is the equal partnership they have developed and convey to one another and to their students. They recognize the strengths, talents, and gifts they each bring to the space and work collaboratively to share those with the students. In a profession that is still predominantly developed as solo effort, this can be a huge request. Co-teaching becomes a critical time for personal reflection on how to meet the needs of the learners through the benefit of two teachers. There is a great Edutopia article about this topic.
Understanding how co-teaching can elevate UDL implementation in the classroom – The mortar
Karen and Jordan are clear about how UDL has improved their co-teaching. UDL created a mindset shift, but they both experienced it. They shifted from asking why the students wasn’t learning to investigating what they designed that kept a student from learning. As Jordan put it, “…what kind of changes do we need to make so that kid can access the material in our classroom?” But here’s the key to this: they both experienced and owned that mindset shift. Going back up to the former point, co-teaching is a relationship and mindset is a foundational piece of any relationship. There are other resources out there, including great articles and books that bring together co-teaching and UDL that get to this mindset piece as it develops in a co-teaching relationship, but I like the way Karen so bluntly put it when I asked her how UDL had affected the way she designs. Now she asks, “What’s wrong with our lesson that kids are not getting where they need to be?”
UDL places us in a position of investigating our mindset and investigating our design. It’s a framework of checks and balances. We need to have the mindset to design that environment that will truly empower all of our learners to become expert learners.