BY TALI ISRAELI
Staff Writer
MARLBORO — A team-teaching model that serves general education pupils and special education students in the same classroom was presented to the Board of Education on May 24.
Robert Klein, director of special services, Linda Attanasio, supervisor of special education, and Marlboro Elementary School co-teachers Hope Zigman and Andrea Bloom presented the model and its benefits to the board. Co-teaching, as it was defined in the presentation, is “two or more professionals jointly delivering substantive instruction to a diverse or blended group of students in a single physical space.”
The basics of team teaching is for general education pupils and special education students to be taught in the same classroom for the entire day and for the general education teachers and special education teachers to collaborate full time.
According to the presentation, the special education code allows up to eight special education students in a team teaching classroom. These students would otherwise be receiving instruction
in a pull-out replacement resource room or would receive in-class support or in-class assistance.
At present the program offers two team teaching pairs, four sections, at the kindergarten level and one section of team teaching at each elementary school. According to the presentation, next year the program will place one team teaching pair at the kindergarten level, two team teaching classrooms at the Dugan, Defino and Asher Holmes elementary schools and possibly at Marlboro Elementary School. At each middle school there will be a pilot program implemented “where a special education teacher will be a full member of a quad, enabling that teacher to be fully integrated in the lesson planning and teaching of general education classes that have special education students in them,” according to the presentation.
There are six co-teaching models for instruction, which leads up to the actual team teaching model.
The teach/observe model allows one teacher to have the primary responsibility for instruction while the other teacher observes the students to see who needs extra help.
The lead/assist model allows one teacher to have the primary responsibility for instruction while the other circulates the classroom, providing support and assistance to the students.
The station-teaching model is where the teachers divide both content and students, with each teacher instructing specific content to a specific group of students.
The parallel-teaching model is where both teachers teach the same information to a smaller group of students.
The alternative-teaching model allows one teacher to have the responsibility for the large group of students and the other teacher works with the smaller group of students.
The team-teaching model has both teachers working together to deliver instruction simultaneously.
Zigman, a special education teacher, said she and Bloom plan the whole day together, which allows them to bounce ideas off each other and allows them to come up with creative projects for the class. She said co-teaching is a win-win situation for parents, pupils and teachers.
Board member Andrea Miller said she supports the model and would like to see it implemented wherever possible.
Board President Warren Brumel said his concern was if the general education pupils felt frustrated with not being challenged enough and if the special education students felt frustrated because they were challenged too much.
Zigman said the special education children flourish and blossom in the co-teaching setting. Bloom said the program brought in academic and social support among all of the students. The co-teachers assured the board that they provide an encouraging learning environment for all students, which enables everyone to work at his or her own level while continuously raising the bar.
Klein said that in order for special education pupils to learn social skills, they need to be placed in a setting with general education students, and in turn the process teaches general education students tolerance of the youngsters with special needs.
In other business at the meeting, the board recognized the success of Marlboro Memorial Middle School’s seventh-grade band and seventh-grade chorus and orchestra at the High Note Festival competition, which was held on May 6 at Holmdel High School.
Both the band and the orchestra ensembles achieved the second highest rating score of excellent and the chorus achieved the first-place rating of superior. The board congratulated the faculty and students on their achievements.
The board approved the employment of five teachers: Diane Rodrick, an elementary education teacher at the Robertsville School, will be replacing Shara Goldner, who will be on a leave of absence next year; Elyse Scheiner, a kindergarten teacher at the Marlboro Early Learning Center, will be replacing Marianne Kavaler, who is being transferred to the Robertsville School; Karina Amato, an elementary education teacher at the Asher Holmes School, will be replacing Jessica Accurso, who resigned; Danielle Halleran, a teacher of the handicapped at the Robertsville School; and Andrew Bucci, a social studies teacher at the Marlboro Memorial Middle School.