Why I Love Co-Teaching ELLs

Co-teaching is actually my favorite delivery model. It allows me to come in and be in the classroom and be part of the instruction that is going on in the classroom. The teachers that I work with are great to pair with me. At the beginning of the school year, I actually meet with them and we go over what I would like it to look like and I ask them what they would like it to look like because the most effective model for student success is not going to be me just sitting or standing near the English language learner. It's going to be me helping deliver the instruction. That also requires that we plan together as well, which takes a time commitment from the general classroom teacher.  

But if you do it well enough, I feel like, I had a second grader this year who explained it the best way. I saw a student at the grocery store who was not an English language learner. He was in my English language learners’ general classroom, and I passed him in the grocery store and he waved and he said to his grandmother, “That's one of my reading teachers, because we have two reading teachers, but just one math teacher.” So, he didn't even think of me as being the English language teacher. He thought that I was one of his reading teachers because his teacher and I work so well together, delivering content and doing things that all of the students in that classroom need.