Special education (SPED) teacher preparation programs are intended to help preservice teachers (PSTs) learn and adopt effective teaching practices to serve students with special needs. To help SPED-PSTs learn needed skills, SPED mentor teachers (MTs) must employ high-leverage practices (HLPs) such as performance feedback, conferencing, and modeling. Although most teacher preparation programs utilize modeling in preparing PSTs, little is known about how SPED-MTs use this mentoring tool. An interpretative phenomenological analysis was conducted to explore how SPED-MTs engaged PSTs in modeling practices during a practicum experience. Data from semi-structured interviews were analyzed to describe SPED-PST and SPED-MT attitudes, experiences, and use of modeling over the course of a special education practicum, focusing on MTs' modeling strategies and PSTs' subsequent behaviors. The relative impacts of simple and cognitive modeling on the PST-MT relationship were compared. SPED-MTs' modeling foci were compared to recommended HLPs. This preliminary study provides recommendations for SPED-MTs' use of modeling with SPED-PSTs.