Who does what, in every segment

Co-Teaching Lesson Plan Template

A co-teaching plan is a general-education plan with three columns added, and the columns change everything: for each segment, which of the six approaches you are using, what the general educator does, what the special educator does, and the specially designed instruction for named students. Universal supports, the data to collect and a debrief box finish it. The special education plan is here for the pull-out side.

Approach, roles, SDI

2 co-teaching templates

Portrait co-teaching plan with standard and student-needs boxes, a five-row segment table with approach, general educator, special educator and SDI columns, and supports, data and debrief boxes

Word Google Docs

Co-Teaching Lesson Plan — Word & Google Docs

For each segment: the co-teaching approach, what the general educator does, what the special educator does, and the specially designed instruction for named students.

Download Word Open in Google Docs

PDF

Co-Teaching Lesson Plan — fillable PDF

One page, portrait. Type into the fields or print it blank and handwrite.

Download fillable PDF

Portrait special education plan with IEP goal and present-levels boxes, four accommodation boxes labelled content, process, product and environment, a six-row instruction table with a prompt-level column, and a four-row data table

Word Google Docs

Special Education Lesson Plan — Word & Google Docs

IEP goal and mastery criteria, present levels, accommodations in four boxes by type, a six-step explicit-instruction table with prompt levels, and a data-collection table per student.

Download Word Open in Google Docs

PDF

Special Education Lesson Plan — fillable PDF

One page, portrait. Type into the fields or print it blank and handwrite.

Download fillable PDF

Specifications: US Letter, 8.5 × 11 inches. Word files are editable .docx that open in Word 2007 through Microsoft 365, including Word for Mac; the Google Docs link makes a copy in your own Drive; the PDF has real form fields and prints as plain hairline boxes when blank. Free to use in as many classes as you like, no account, no watermark.

Why it is laid out this way

About the co-teaching templates

Co-teaching goes wrong in a predictable way: one teacher teaches and the other circulates, every segment, every day. The approach column is the antidote. Naming the approach per segment — one teach one observe, one teach one assist, station, parallel, alternative, team — forces the pair to decide, and the two role columns make the decision concrete. A plan where the special educator column says assist in every row is a plan to rewrite before the lesson, not after.

The SDI column is the other half. Specially designed instruction is what the students with IEPs are owed in the general classroom, and it has to be named for named students, not implied by the special educator's presence. The universal supports box holds what everyone gets; the data box says who is collecting what, because one-teach-one-observe only works if the observer knows what to watch. The debrief box is five minutes after the bell that most co-teaching pairs never get and should.

Questions teachers ask

Co-Teaching lesson plans, answered

What are the six co-teaching approaches?

One teach / one observe, one teach / one assist, station teaching, parallel teaching, alternative teaching and team teaching — Friend and Cook's set, used in nearly every state's co-teaching guidance. The note under the table lists them so the approach column can be filled with a word.

Is this weekly or daily?

Daily by default — one lesson, five segments. Pairs who plan weekly use the weekly periods grid in this section for the week and this sheet for the lessons where roles need to be explicit, which in a new partnership is most of them.

Who fills it in?

Both, ideally in one sitting; the general educator usually drafts the content column and the special educator the SDI and data columns. The two header fields put both names on the plan, which matters when an evaluator asks whose lesson it is. It is both of yours.