Adaptations for Special Education Students

 

  Gargiulo, Richard M. (2003). Special Education in Contemporary Society, pp. 25-28.  Using cooperative teaching strategies in classroom settings with heterogeneous groups of elementary students.

 

    In the first chapter of Special Education in Contemporary Society, Gargiulo describes five models of cooperative teaching or co-teaching in inclusive classrooms.  These include the one-teach, one support; station teaching; parallel teaching; alternative teaching; and team teaching models.  All seem intriguing upon reading, but I question if these strategies actually work in the everyday general classroom.  I teach in a local elementary school and have students covering the entire spectrum of learning abilities, from gifted/talented and on-level students to learning disabled students and those needing special education services.  My classroom is relatively small and has, depending on the year, between 24 to 30 4^th or 5^th grade students.  Incorporating a co-teaching environment would be idyllic to help all students to learn at their pace or to help increase their learning capabilities, but I don’t think it is feasible given the confined environment of the classroom. 

The one teach, one support and team teaching models are the best cooperative teaching setups given the limited space and large number of students in the classroom I teach.  Having a special education co-instructor present in the general classroom would provide added support and encouragement to those students requiring additional assistance with a lesson.  These two co-teaching models are easier to implement in the general classroom.  Noise level would be at a minimum and two teachers augmenting each other and assisting the students with the lesson are just two advantages to these strategies.

The station teaching, parallel teaching, and alternative teaching strategies are also likely to provide the additional support needed in the inclusive classroom, however the space needed to allow these types of co-teaching is not generally available.  Separating into two stations in a small classroom with large numbers of students is not a favorable learning environment.  Confusion over who the students listen to, loss of instruction time, rearranging classroom setup, and classroom noise would outweigh any positive influences the two teachers would provide and would limit instruction time.

I feel a combination of two models would be ideal for allowing all students to learn at their own pace and provide for cooperative learning by the students.  Using the one teach, one support method in conjunction with a modified station teaching method would provide an improved set-up.  This would entail using one teacher (either the general education teacher or the special education teacher) as the main instructor giving the lesson with the co-teacher walking amongst the students noting any problems.  When oral instruction is over the students can work in multiple small cooperative groups (that both teachers can mingle between and provide assistance where needed.   The cooperative groups (set up in semi-permanent groupings) would be made up of students at multiple levels of ability, making sure that the grouping is put together in a way that promotes participation by everyone (high-level students with mid-high level and mid-level learners, low-level students with mid-low level and mid-level learners).