The Instructional Role

In Chapter 3: The Instructional Role Bean describes the school culture as its norms or ways of being. In my school the principal sets up all schedules pertaining to duty, preps and teaching schedules. When we meet to discuss materials and resources is our choice. Though we do not have a reading specialist in the school we do have our personal Literacy coach in the building. Teachers are to meet with her once a month to discuss new materials, resources or instructional plans. Administrators are always aware of meetings with the Literacy Coach and join when possible. When the Literacy coach comes into a classroom for a collaboration, an administrators usually accompany her as a way of familiarizing themselves with what is to be expected. Cook and Friend (1995) identified 9 different topics that should be discussed by teachers and Reading Specialist:

1. Instructional Beliefs- the teacher and the specialist need to come to a common ground with their    
                                      own beliefs
2. When and How to plan- Agreeing on the time for meetings plays a big part due to a lot of  
                                         conflicting schedules like missed preps, other meetings, and conferences.
3. Parity Issues- Students must see the Reading Specialist as another teacher in the room.
4. Confidentially Issues- Discussing the what to share and what to keep private it vital to keep a good
                                        relationship between one another.
5. Noise level- This can be hard due to the fact that some teachers can tolerate more noise than
                        others.
6. Classroom Routines- When co-teaching, the reading specialist needs to be familiar with the
                                       teachers routines.
7. Discipline- Reading Specialist needs to also be familiar with acceptable and unacceptable
                       behaviors from students.
8. Feedback- Discussing how to give feedback.
9. Pet Peeves- Identifying pet peeves before co-teaching can help make a better partnership.

Discussing these points prior to co-teaching can help make an effective collaboration.