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2.3: Collaboration with Paraprofessionals

  • Page ID
    178794

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    Teachers and clinicians regularly collaborate with paraprofessionals, who are sometimes referred to as paraeducators, aides, or education support professionals. Paraprofessionals provide specific classroom or student support and are supervised by teachers. For example, a paraprofessional assigned to a classroom might tutor students or assist the teacher with classroom management and instructional material organization. When a paraprofessional is hired to support an individual student, they will accompany that student to their classes and school-related activities to provide assistance and instructional support. It’s important for teachers, clinicians, and paraprofessionals to build positive, trusting relationships to best support students. Administrators should provide a time for teachers and paraprofessionals to plan and train together (Smiley et al., 2022).

    Activity \(\PageIndex{1}\): Teacher and Paraprofessional Collaboration

    Directions: Read Working With Paraeducators: Tools and Strategies for Planning, Performance Feedback, and Evaluation. How can teachers incorporate paraprofessionals into instructional planning and delivery effectively?


     Smiley, L. R., Richards, S.B., & Taylor, R. (2022). Exceptional students: Preparing teachers for the 21st century (4th ed.). McGraw Hill.


    This page titled 2.3: Collaboration with Paraprofessionals is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Diana Zaleski (Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI)) .

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