Overview: A small group of students receives intensive instruction by one teacher, while the rest of the students are instructed by the other teacher.

Frequency: Up to 30% of the time (with varied groups of students) (K. Sussman, personal communication, January 8, 2015).

When to Use This Model: Alternative Teaching is used when a handful of students may have different needs than the rest of the class, whether it be that they need more intensive remediation to support them, or an extension of the lesson to push beyond what is expected. Friend and Burrello (2005) note that it is important that the group of students receiving this support is not the same every time, or even the same ability level, so as not to single out specific students who are performing at the lowest levels.

You Might Use This Model For…

• Re-teaching a lesson
• Pre-teaching a lesson or vocabulary
• Skills assessment
• Skills remediation
• Extension beyond the expected level of mastery

My Implementation Example: 

In this video you will see all of the students learn about how clementines and/or tomatoes get from the farms where they are grown to the students’ own plates and then represent this food journey on a poster. The students in the alternative group will additionally practice handwriting and sentence writing to support their developing abilities to write more fluently. This practice will serve to lessen the working memory demands of spelling, capitalization, and punctuation in their daily writing. To learn more about this writing program, click here. 

In this example, you will see the general education teacher leading the small, alternate group, rather than the special education teacher. In our classroom, both teachers take turns leading the alternate groups so that neither one teacher stands out in that role to the students. This also provides both teachers the opportunity to know all of the students well and to provide updates on each child’s individual goals.

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Click on the picture below to see a detailed table of how co-teachers share responsibilities in the Alternative Teaching Model of ICT:

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Watch the Alternative Teaching Model in Action:

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Work samples from the lesson:

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Conclusions:

• Pros + 
  • Works for remediation or extension.
  • Students benefit from education tailored to their individual needs, whether it be remediation or extension.
  • Either teacher is able to provide this alternate support.

• Cons – 
  • Stereotyped as pulling students out and teaching them in a separate room.
  • Stereotyped as always pulling the lower students or students with IEPs.
  • Need to have procedure practiced of how to pull certain students without disturbing the rest of the class.
  • Prior communication with co-teacher is key to ensure all students are getting the same level of education and/or access to the general education curriculum.
  • Prior communication of who will be pulled and who will organize which materials.

• Considerations for Using This Model
  • Here I have shown how you can ensure that your students are getting accommodations that will support their learning, but simultaneously engaging in the same lesson as their peers. Many times, students resent being pulled out of the classroom or having to engage in a separate lesson from their peers. This example shows how to include all students in the same lesson, even though some students are getting more support in a different part of the room. 

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