A second-grade teacher's adaptive teaching during an integrated science-literacy unit

•Adaptive teaching occurs while teaching and also during planning.•Adaptive teachers use ongoing formative assessments to adapt their instruction.•A coding system typifies adaptive teaching across disciplines and grade levels.

This case study explored the nature of one elementary school teacher's adaptive teaching during an integrated science and literacy unit. Data were collected during four consecutive weeks of instruction, weekly interactive planning sessions, 20 classroom observations, and 20 post-lesson interviews. Our analysis suggests that adaptations may be established during planning or emerge while teaching. This study also indicated that an adaptive teacher uses ongoing formative assessment to scaffold students' learning. A coding system that typifies how and why a teacher adapts instruction across disciplines can be used to examine adaptive teaching. Implications for teacher educators and researchers are discussed.