MIXED-ABILITY MIXED-ABILITY CLASSCLASS

How to teach How to teach heterogeneous heterogeneous groupsgroups

HETEROGENEOUS/MIXED-ABILITY CLASS:

It is a group in which children of varied abilities are taught together rather than being set apart in groups according to level.

ADAPTING MATERIALS FOR MIXED-ABILITY CLASSES CAN TAKE DIFFERENT FORMS:

Rewrite reading texts and grade the language accordingly for different levels.

However it is extremely time consuming and not many teachers can actually go to this lenght to adapt materials.

A danger that children will instantly realise that they have been labelled as a weak or strong student.

READINGStronger students: - rewrite a part of the

text in a different tense/person

- write their personal opinion/a summary of the text

- write question about the text

- write new vocabulary up on the board with definitions

Weaker students:- if there are gaps, give

students the answers in a jumbled order

- break the text into chunks and give the opinion of only reading some of the texts

- pre-teach difficult vocabulary and leave it written on the board for students to refer to

LISTENINGStronger:- focus on the accents or

of the speakers and get students to copy chunks

- if it´s a true/false activity, follow on by asking why/why not?

- give out the tape script and look up tricky words/expressions in a dictionary to then explain to the group

Weaker:- pre-teach vocabulary,

use visual if possible

- give them time to discuss answers before feeding back to the class

- give them the tape script on second listening

- if it´s a gap fill, supply the words with a few extras

WRITINGStronger:- give creative tasks that

students can do at their own level

- increase the word limit

- indicate where they could use more interesting ways of saying something

- indicate mistakes using correction code to give students a chance to self correct

Weaker:- reduce the word limit

- encourage use of dictionaries

- correct the draft together before students copy up it

- pair or group weaker students with stronger students

SPEAKINGStronger:- ask students to

justify/defend their opinions

- ban easy words like „nice“ to push their vocabulary to a higher level

- get students to record themselves and self-correct

- pair students of higher level together so they really go for it

Weaker:- give them time to

rehearse their ideas before a role play or discussion

- pair weak and strong together

- let them make notes before the speaking

- give them more listening and thinking time before calling on them to answer questions

TIPS FOR GOOD CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT WITH M-A GROUPS: GROUPING:

- depending on the task and the class dynamics

- there are usually opportunities for both types of grouping

- to experiment with mixing up the strong and weak students

GIVING INSTRUCTIONS:

- giving clear instructions- use hand gestures as well as words to explain the

tasks- use stronger students to check back the

instructions

ERROR CORRECTION:

- don´t over correct weak students- encourage students to correct one another

SETTING GOALS:

- it will help to focus the students- the goals can be different for each student and

depending on their level

SOME STRATEGIES: DISCUSSION AND NEEDS ANALYSIS:

- have an open class discussion about the classroom situation

- to ensure the best for everyone- to agree how to deal with it- it is the best to stage and structure the

discussion- to prompt the students to reflect upon their

learning style, learning strategies, language needs, enjoyment, motivation, language strenght and weaknesses

QUESTIONS: What kinds of class activities do you

enjoy/benefit from? Which language skills do you most wish to

develop? Do you prefer working individually or with a

partner? Would you rather sit and listen to the teacher

all lesson or participate in group work?

STUDENT SELF-AWARENESS:

- encourage students to develop an awareness of their own language abilities and learning needs

RANGE OF TASKS:

- this involves creating or providing tasks for different levels

EXTRA WORK/HOMEWORK:

- give different students different homework- for weaker students HW which really does

consolidate the class work- for stronger students work that will widen their

knowledge or put it to the test a little more – they need the feedback

- writing tasks are great for HW

ERROR CORRECTION:

- have different expectation of the language the different students produce

- it can push stronger students if you correct them heavily, although be sensitive about it!

- for weaker students, be more selective in your error correction

WORK GROUPINGS:

You may consider dividing your

class into groups by level for the whole lesson, enabling you to give a different level or number of tasks to each group

- PAIR WORK: strong with strong, weak with weak or strong with weak – variety in the pairings is the key

- GROUP WORK: groups could be of mixed levels or similar ones

- WHOLE CLASS-MINGLES: is a favoured strategy. Involves students talking/interacting with many different members of the class in a short period of time in order to achieve a task -> this supports the weaker students and provides opportunities for the stronger ones

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION