REPORT ON THE CO-TEACHING ACTIVITY
"OUR BODY" CO-TEACHING ACTIVITY
In our co-teaching activity we used the strategy described by Friend and Cook (1996) called Station teaching. We designed 3 English workshops and divided the twenty four students into 3 groups. In one of the schools these groups encompassed 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade students while in the second one first graders were the group-class chosen for the implementation. The main topic of our co-teaching workshops was the Body parts, as it was a content already worked in both centers and it was appropriate for our students’ English level and age.
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The first workshop consisted in drawing some missing parts of a human face (eyes, mouth, chin, etc.) following the oral instructions of one of the instructors. Following to this, the teacher gave instructions on how to colour each of the parts of the face. The workshop number 2 was aimed at developing some reading skills. Students had to throw two dices, a body-actions dice and a body-parts dice, and perform the given action with the given body part (e.g.: wiggle your arms). In addition to this, students also played a cards game with the main vocabulary. They had to take two secret cards and try to touch the body part appearing in the first card with the body part appearing in the second one (e.g.: touch your tummy with your nose). The emphasis here was on the correct use of grammar structures while trying to perform some “crazy” actions. Lastly, the third workshop worked the body as a whole. It consisted of a game in which the teacher said the sentence “Doctor doctor my ____ hurts” and students, per groups, had to run to a board with a picture of a sick boy/girl and place a sticker according to the teacher’s instruction. At the end of the session, a body-parts song called Chu chu wa was used to enclosure the main activity.
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ITS RESULTS
With regards to the results of the co-teaching, we obtained very positive results. In both schools, learners were very participative and motivated during all the activities. They were willing to develop all workshops and were engaged in all cases. We observed that when singing the song at the end, pupils had interiorized the main concepts of the session which made us very proud and happy of our work.
Besides, we believe the concepts worked were appropriate to the learners’ level. Students had previously had some contact with body parts, so this activity gave us the opportunity to review main concepts, widen the vocabulary range and emphasise the grammar structures as well. The learnings were as well meaningful, since the vocabulary related to body parts is a basic knowledge to be acquired, an useful for many situations (e.g.: when going to the doctor’s, one of the situations introduced).
In addition, the the good organisation among teachers had a positive impact on the development of the activities. Each teacher knew how to develop her workshop in depth, but had only a general knowledge about the other workshops and knew perfectly the organization of the session as a whole. There was constant communication among the teachers, and when designing the implementation we all were very participative and dynamic. All teachers had a role during the session, not only in the workshops but each of us spoke during the introduction and performed actively the closing song.
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CO-TEACHING AND INDIVIDUAL TEACHING DIFFERENCES
Co-teaching presents several differences regarding individual teaching, which have to be considered before its implementation. One of the main features is, as previously mentioned, the good communication among the teachers. If there is no coordination and no communication among the teachers before and during the development of the lesson, it is difficult that the activity works well. Undoubtedly, difficulties may arise due to diverse viewpoints and ways of teaching, but rather than facing them as obstacles, it has to be seen as constructively: diverse ideas may be enriching and provide us with new perspectives for our future teaching practices.
This technique allows us to develop as well activities that with one teacher only would be highly difficult to develop, such in the case of station teaching, where a teacher was required for each workshop. In addition, more individualized attention and a better management of the activities and of the group can be provided, because each teacher is in charge of less students.
