Chapter 5: Mistakes Made, Lessons Learned

During my first year co-teaching, I made a great many mistakes, as you can imagine. My biggest mistake was that I tried to co-teach in the exact same way in different classes. This chapter includes an examination of a few of the mistakes I made in the hopes that others might benefit from the lessons I learned and improve their co-teaching practices. The following action research occurred at a rural elementary school in Salisbury, NC. The school has approximately 650 students and almost 30% of them are English learners (ELs). This school prides itself on having the highest EL population of all of the elementary schools within the district. As such, each classroom has a large number of ELs and almost 50% of the student population speak an additional language at home, primarily Spanish.