Www.nmu.edu



The Power of Two…Co-Teaching in Writer’s WorkshopRenee HaysPresented by Lory Thayer, Gretchen Highfield, Shannon Odette, and Erin Schmuhl- this session focused on the successful implementation of co-teaching in the elementary classroom, particularly in the area of the Writer’s Workshop. Gretchen is the Special Education teacher at Doyle Knight Elementary School who assists in Shannon’s 1st grade and Erin’s 2nd grade classes. Lory is the principal and Special Ed Coordinator for the Durand Area Schools; she works closely with all of the teachers in the area. Gretchen’s schedule is extremely hectic because she not only runs the Resource Room, but she assists all the teachers in the classrooms during Writer’s Workshop. Writer’s Workshop is “an interdisciplinary writing technique which can build students' fluency in writing through continuous, repeated exposure to the process of writing.”To display the main point of successful co-teaching, the presentation was broken up into parts giving the audience a view of each classroom being taught with the assistance of Gretchen as well as the various types of co-teaching. At Doyle Knight Elementary School, team teaching is the most common way of co-teaching and it has been working magnificently for the past six years. In the 1st grade with Shannon Odette, complementary teaching is used as well as team teaching. It works in this classroom because there was a great working relationship and friendship before their co-teaching began. They have been co-teaching for two years and use the idea that “ALL students are OUR students.” The 2nd grade with Erin Schmuhl focuses on 4 writing units: touchstone text, letter writing, launching, and poetry. Team teaching works in this classroom because Erin and Gretchen have open communication during their lessons and they both have knowledge of what they are teaching. The team of educators had an extraordinary amount of energy that is required to teach in an elementary classroom. I was drawn to the relationship between the four women because they all worked together so closely and effectively. I could sense the friendship between the ladies, a friendship that is based on more than merely being co-workers. Because of the positive attitude of them I was able and more willing to learn as much as I could from their session. As a freshman going to the conference, it meant a lot to see such amazing teachers working together. I learned the importance of having a willingness to work together and the necessities of having a successful classroom. As part of their presentation, examples of the Writer’s Workshop were handed out. These examples showed assignments that were done as well as some that they were working on but had not finished yet. My favorite part about their process of the Writer’s Workshop is the reflection at the end of the unit and Erin’s class party to celebrate everyone’s writing. If you wish to contact any of these ladies, please visit . ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download