EMSTAC
Elementary & Middle Schools
Technical Assistance Center
USING CO-TEACHING AND
TEAMING STRATEGIES TO
FACILITATE INCLUSION FOR
STUDENTS WITH
DISABILITIES
THE ELEMENTARY AND MIDDLE SCHOOLS
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE CENTER
EXPERT ONLINE CHAT EVENT
WITH MS. DIANNE TRACEY
Frederick County, Maryland
July 26, 2001 - 3:00 - 4:00 p.m.
EMSTAC
1000 Thomas Jefferson St., Suite 400
Washington, DC 20007-3835
Emstac@air.org
Using Co-teaching and Teaming Strategies to
Facilitate Inclusion for Students with Disabilities
07/26/01 - 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., EST
Facilitators:
Ms. Dianne Tracey, EMSTAC Linking Agents from Frederick
County, MD
Chat Event Description
Ms. Diane Tracey has been a Special Education Facilitator/Linking Agent in
Frederick County, Maryland for the past three years. Prior to her work with
EMSTAC, she spent 26 years as a special education teacher in Frederick
County. As a Linking Agent Ms. Tracey is able to support special education in
her district by providing information and opportunities in collaboration,
improving writing skills for students and training for special education
assistants. As a special educator she worked with children with learning
disabilities, developmental delays, physical disabilities, and emotional
disturbance. The services provided for these children were both inclusive
services in the regular education classroom and resource room services.
**As we continuously improve our chat events, we occasionally experience
technical glitches. This was the case on July 26th at the beginning of this
event. We apologize if this prevented anyone from joining our chat regarding
inclusion. We were able to fix the problem quickly and continue the chat
after the slight delay. Unfortunately, we lost some time and therefore were
not able to ask all the questions of our expert that we had planned. We
started to discuss issues related to co-teaching and teaming strategies, but
there is still much more to explore. We will have future chat events to focus
on the inclusion topic but in the meantime, we hope you will continue this
discussion on our Bulletin Board.
THE FOLLOWING IS THE UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT FROM THE CHAT EVENT:
diannetracey
Hi everyone! I finally found a way to get on line. I did go through a modem.
jshanley
yea!
diannetracey
Is the chat still going on?
jshanley
well -- I think people left -- but we still have 1/2 hour..so more people may get on.
diannetracey
Ok
diannetracey
This has been experience just getting on line. I think it was a firewall issue.
jshanley
Diane -- please tell us a little about what you have found to be the important attributes of a
successful inclusive setting.
diannetracey
Inclusion is the product of collaboration and commitment. We have found that it is important to
start with people who are committed to the idea and are willing to be a part of a team to make it
work.
charitywelch
How easy or how difficult is it to create the collaborative teams?
diannetracey
The team process allows for all parties involved to be a part of the plan for the student. We found
that sometimes modifications made for a particular student, such as a particular strategy, was
beneficial to many other students as well.
charitywelch
Schedule conflicts is often viewed as a barrier to collaboration between general and special
education teachers. What strategies do you employ to overcome this barrier?
lydiakillos
Hi Dianne! Glad you made it on! What were some of the roadblocks to bringing teams together,
and how did you overcome those when creating teaming structures?
diannetracey
The teams were formed at first by people sharing students included in their classrooms. As we
worked together it became clear that it was helpful and people were sharing what the team was
able to accomplish.
diannetracey (ID=13) (26-Jul-01 3:44:34 PM)
The roadblocks often were time for collaboration. In one school, we chose to meet for one hour
after school once a week. We were very organized so we could make the most of our time.
lydiakillos
We've talked recently about the importance of "specials" teachers (i.e. Art, Music, Phys. Ed) in
creating inclusive teaming. Can you say more about why this is so important?
diannetracey
By using an agenda for our meetings we were able to stay on task, address everyone's concerns
or needs and create learning opportunities for the students.
amanda_schwartz
Hello, Diane. I am entering the conversation late. I was wondering how you are able to schedule
your day to facilitate time to collaborate or whether you only meet once a week after school.
diannetracey
We chose to include the "specials" teachers because we felt that they were the group of teachers
in the building who worked with all the students with disabilities and were often overlooked
when it came to training.
charitywelch
I have heard of schools and/or districts that have used 10-year implementation plans for training,
consensus building, paradigm shifts, etc. In other words, creating inclusive models is a process.
What did initial implementation look like in your district?
diannetracey
Our meeting times were after school because we could not create a common planning time
during the day. Another school I worked in had a staff development time built into the school's
schedule and our time could access that time once a month.
jshanley
Do you evaluate the impact of the collaboration upon student achievement or any other student
measures? Also, what impact does the collaboration have upon the professionalism of your
educators?
diannetracey
It has probably been about 10 years since we began the inclusive model here in Frederick
County. We began by implementing the Neighborhood Inclusion Project through the Maryland
Coalition for Inclusive Education.
lydiakillos
What was the most influential factor in terms of encouraging teachers to become involved with
teaming and collaboration?
diannetracey (ID=13) (26-Jul-01 3:52:46 PM)
We conducted an action research project based on collaboration and the results indicated the
targeted students made great progress in achieving their IEP goals and also were doing well with
the demands of the classroom.
amanda_schwartz
Are schools fully-inclusive or are there self-contained or mainstreaming placements as well?
diannetracey
the most influential factor was letting them know what was in it for them. We shared lots of
written information, personal contacts, etc. to let them know that support was available at that
time and after the collaboration began.
diannetracey
Frederick county provides a continuum of services that range from some self-contained classes,
resource room, and co-teaching.
amanda_schwartz
How has teaming eased the transition of children with special needs in the classroom?
diannetracey
the team soon finds that each member has something to offer and is able to support the others on
the team. As a result, the student is able to have more opportunities in the general Ed classroom.
the focus of the team is to provide supports for the student that will enable learning and/ or social
interactions.
amanda_schwartz
I may have missed this, but who are the members on the team and how were they selected?
diannetracey
the team was made up of : Reg. Ed teacher, spec Ed teacher, art teacher, assistant, and Linking
Agent. The team was chosen because we had a couple of students with special needs entering
their classrooms with a one on one assistant. To enable the transition, the team was formed.
LNishi
In classrooms where there are both a general education and special education teacher available,
who is the "lead"? Are both teachers viewed as lead teachers? Has this dynamic influenced any
outcomes?
diannetracey
As the team worked together, another team was interested and joined us. we met concurrently
with myself facilitating one team and the special education teacher facilitating the other team. It
turned out to be a great transition from the Linking Agent facilitating to the school taking the
responsibility.
Jess
Thanks everyone for participating in the chat! It's 4:00 and time to wrap it up. I know there are
many more questions that we have for Dianne that we didn't get a chance to ask, so I hope we
can continue this discussion on the Bulletin Board. Dianne--thanks so much for facilitating this
chat, and I'm glad we were finally able to connect with you!
diannetracey
Co-teaching is a natural outcome of collaboration but can take many different forms. Through
the collaborative effort, it is determined who will be the lead. It seems the most effective is the
shared lead.
amanda_schwartz
If co-teaching is used, what models are used (One-Teaching, One-Drifting; One-Teaching, OneObserving; Station Teaching; Parallel Teaching, Alternative Teaching; Team Teaching)? A great
reference for all those who may be learning about teaming is Marilyn Friend and Lynn Coook's
book, "Interactions"
diannetracey
I'm glad I was able to be here. thank you for inviting me and thanks to all who dropped by to
chat.
lydiakillos
Thanks, Dianne!
amanda_schwartz
Thanks Dianne for all of the information!