Benefits of Team Teaching for Upper-Elementary Instructors
- Effective Planning and Instruction
●Teachers can utilize crucial hours before and after school to focus on their subjects, rather than allocating smaller amounts of time for planning additional content. This includes formulating assessments, planning for scope and sequence, acquiring media, organizing materials/manipulatives, differentiating instruction, and organizing a room environment tailored for specific subject matter.
●Teachers acquire more time to spend on analyzing and scoring assessments specific to their subject matter, on which they can provide deeper feedback, and with which they can share with their partner teacher.
●Teachers are able to identify subjects which they both teach so that planning and assessment within those subjects can be done together (this can also provide consistency within grade levels).
●Teachers can provide effective sub plans which are more in-depth and with fewer subjects.
●Overall instructional time spent for a teacher’s subjects are effectively doubled, allowing the teacher more opportunity to practice, fine-tune, and reflect upon their best teaching.
- Grade-Level Cooperation
●Close collaboration between grade-level teachers encourages learning from each other’s unique teaching.
●Teachers can forge a sense of community between classrooms (e.g., combining classes to read grade-level texts together) and find flexibility within daily schedules (e.g., mixing classes on literature circle days).
●Teachers come together to formulate a shared grade-level vocabulary for classroom procedures, rewards, incentives, and various routines.
●Teachers meet daily to hold each other accountable for instructional duties and support one another with short-term and long-term planning.
●Students form unique bonds with more than one primary teacher and benefit from both (or all) teacher’s strengths.
●Teachers form strong teams that can meet together with students, parents, and families to support student progress (i.e., SST teams, pre-intervention meetings, etc.).
●Teachers feel supported and encouraged to perform to the highest potential. Partner teachers provide extended support where needed.
- Teacher Specialization
●Teachers develop strong fine-tuned strategies for teaching and assessing within their preferred subjects.
●Teachers have the opportunity to harness a sense of specialization (i.e., skill) and develop a positive strong reputation.
●Teachers become effective mentors for other teachers, including new educators, within their unique subjects.