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This article is a translation of a text first published in Eductive’s French edition.

In October 2022, Edutopia, the George Lucas Educational Foundation website, published the testimony of an American teacher who uses videos to replicate in class what he would do if he had a 2nd teacher with him.

Noah Teachey teaches music to 9th to 12th graders. He realized that his class sizes did not allow him to offer adequate support to each and every student.

As a solution, he had the idea to record his own short instructional videos. He formatted them like the YouTube and Twitch videos his students were watching in-between classes.

“Co-teaching” stations

In his beginner string orchestra classes, Noah Teachey divided his class into 2 groups.

During the 1st half of a 75-minute class, one half of the students would watch videos and learn to perform musical tasks like note-reading, rhythm counting and other music theory fundamentals. The other half of the group would work closely with the teacher to practice the piano, the violin, etc. Since the number of students practicing an instrument is reduced, each one of them can get more personalized support from their teacher. Halfway through the period, the 2 halves of students would rotate.

This practice from Noah Teachey replicates the Station Teaching model, one of the co-teaching approaches.

“Co-teaching” for better individual support

In a music production course, Noah Teachey faced another problem. He had to demonstrate technical procedures to the group before letting them practice. He was thus giving lectures using a projector. However, some students were picking up the procedures quickly and became disengaged or disruptive, while other students needed him to explain once again some of the steps.

He had the idea to replace his lectures with instructional videos students would watch while he walks around the classroom helping the students with disabilities. This way, he can easily keep track of students’ progress. The fast learners could move on to the exercises without having to wait.

This method replicates the One Teach, One Observe model, another co-teaching approach in which one teacher would teach the lesson to the large group while another person (teacher or resource teacher) would circulate providing individual help as needed (whether related to the lesson or during musical creation).

Integrating this practice into your classroom?

Noah Teachey is a music teacher in an American high school, but his practices seem to be easy to integrate into almost any college disciplines. Have you already tested a similar teaching strategy? Share your experience in the comments section!

Ressources

Teachey, N. (2022). Co-teaching With Myself, Edutopia.

About the author

Catherine Rhéaume

Catherine Rhéaume is an editor and writer for Eductive (previously Profweb) since 2013. She also teaches physics at Cégep Limoilou. Her work for Eductive fosters her interest for technopedagogy and encourages her to try innovative teaching practices.

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