TILS C-aa

Reteach Concepts/Special Education

Activity: All of my teaching career, I have had the privilege of working with special education
students and a co-teacher. With that in mind, I have had to reteach concepts quite frequently. I
have also been recently involved with the new implementation of RTI2 or Response to
Intervention which is a program put in place to help bridge the educational gap with all students.
Description: The main focus is how my co-teacher and I have to work together daily to help our
students who are struggling and help prevent students from struggling. She and I have worked
together the past two and a half years with special education students and low-achieving
students.
a. What went well?
The co-teacher and I would work together to decided what groups needed to be formed and
who needed to work with whom to maximize learning. However, after any assignment or
quiz/test and students did not perform to the level they needed to, then we would always
separate those kids. She would take one group and I would take the other; one of us having
the group that needed to be remediated. The other group would move forward, but they
would work more on something like a pre-assignment for the next lesson. I definitely did not
want the other group to fall further behind, but at the same time, we cannot simply do
nothing with the group who did succeed. She and I would alternate working with different
groups, and the students saw us both a co-teachers.

b. What did not?

The part about re-teaching concepts that did not go well was when the responsibility fell to
just one person. The co-teacher and I this past year were not on the same page so to speak.

All of a sudden, she was always absent, late, or leaving early. She would just sit at the desk
and play on her phone or read, and when it came to re-teaching concepts to students, I was
the one. That sounds fine; however, when there are two teachers for that reason, it is difficult
to be successful trying to complete two jobs. I would still get one group working on an
assignment in my room and take the other group who needed additional help to the room next
door, and I would split my time between the two. It was really frustrating having to do two
jobs while the other person just sat and did whatever she wanted.
c. Given the chance to do it again, how would you do it better?
If this happened again, I would be more assertive with that teacher and be more specific
about what needed to be done to help our students. Because even typing this reflection,
this issue is not as much about re-teaching concepts as much as it is about the personnel
affecting the ability to re-teach concepts.
I would also invest, if I had to with my own money, ways to divide my room into more
effective grouping stations for ways to re-teach concepts. The idea of re-teaching
concepts is not just for lower-level students or special education students. I have learned
that all kids will need to be re-taught concepts and areas of weaknesses.