Job Discussion Forums

[dyak]

I've just seen an job ad that specified the, 'ability to teach in a multi-level classroom', as a requirement.

Does anyone have this ability?
Does anyone want this ability?
Can a multi-level class actually work?

I can only remember wanting to crawl into a hole and die in (unexpected) 'multi-level' classes.

[Stephen Jones]

Multi-level classrooms can work for some subjects. Foreign languages isn't one of them.

If you get one, either teach to one level, and ignore the other, or spend a third of the time with one level, a third with the other, and the other third running around like a blue-'arsed fly trying to organize it all.

But if they mention it in the advertisement the answer is simple. Get another job.

[moonraven]

I agree. It means that the employer is too cheap to hire the number of teachers needed (and too ignorant of how language learning takes place to be worth your time.)

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

The only time I've ever seen a multi-level class actually work was when it was divided into different groups with a different teacher (volunteers) for each group and a head teacher (paid) who was essentially making all the lesson plans for each group (but each volunteer teacher was given a lot of leeway in how much of the lesson to present).

But then, each group operated as a seperate class (complete with own white board and markers) and the only things that connected them to each other was the head teacher who knew what was going on with each level at any given time (she received reports from each volunteer teacher at the end of the session) and the fact that they were all in the same room (which was very useful, because it was a Board of Education class and if the attendence went below fifteen -total number of students in the room- then the funding would be scrapped). It did mean that the volunteers could go to the head teacher with issues in the middle of a class if absolutely necessary, or hold off on that part until after the break (classes were three hours, for adults and included a fifteen minute break roughly half way through) and talk to the head teacher then.

It was in Canada and it worked well, but again- not really a "multi-level class", more of a series of classes with heavy reliance on volunteers all in the same room because of massive under-funding.

Some beginner classes have false-beginners, so the class very quickly become like a multi-level class (but generally each student is still in the right level- it's just that on a scale of one to ten each level contains three levels- 1-3, 4-6,-7-10- ok, four numbers for the last one).

[Dr.J]

At first I thought that multi-level classes were unworkable. But then, when I was a baby I thought walking was pretty hard too...

OK to be fair you have to take quite a different approach! But in all seriousness this is what public school teachers of any subject do every day, am I not right?

To me the basic principle is to get the students to teach each other. Smarter students often like a teaching role that recognizes their ability, and not-so-smart students get more attention than you could give them as an individual.

To do this you need them to be in very close groups, and often the best way to do this is with projects that have a clear aim rather than unrelated textbook exercises. This is really what I mean by a different approach - getting them to work together.

[spidey]

Hold the boat!!

Dr. J....you can remember when you were learning how to walk?

I'm impressed.

[Roger]

[valley_girl]

If I come across a job ad for a teacher of 'multi-level classes', I will be running, not walking, in the other direction. What a nightmare.

[Sheep-Goats]

[Stephen Jones]

The question is whether what you are teaching depends on what came before. That is true of foreign languages, which is why multi-level teaching doesn't work and why public schools that don't stream have almost zero success in teaching them.

First languages and literature, social sciences, and even to some extent secondary mathematics and the physical sciences can all be taught in multi-level classes with varying degrees of success.

However in Private language schools students are paying to make progress - which is why multi-level teaching is rare.

[Guest]

I have 16 classes per week (of 40 minute duration) and they are ALL multi-level. In each class there are children who simply do not understand what I am saying and children who can have a decent conversation with me (plus ones in between).

They are all about 12 - 14 years of age.

I actually think this is the HARDEST part of teaching here - trying to help the ones who are behind with their oral English while not allowing the others to become bored.

[SueH]

Dear Sheep-goats,

I'd have to disagree - at least with some situations I have found. I teach a bit of Italian part-time to English adolescents and they have differing language abilities - but at least I can communicate with them. (Frankly too much L1 I'm afraid, but that's another issue).

I've also been teaching (up to half-term anyway) ESOL to multi-level groups. Dyak will know what I mean when I say in the worst case I had E1 to L2. In other words (like Rhonda) the blank looks and the reasonably fluent, and it was just impossible. Now I've re-organised the groups the learning experience has improved for all concerned.

Even within levels there are difficulties, and I take your point about spiky profiles. In my E1 (lowest level class) I have a reasonable speaker who doesn't even know the alphabet and is illiterate in L1. Another new Chinese student had the other students in fits of the giggles as no matter how much I simplified my language she still understood hardly anything and the smile on my face became more of a rictus! I just hope her much older English husband speaks Cantonese...

So - avoid the job like the plague I'd say...

[Dr.J]

I didn't mean I actually remembered learning how to walk, just that all things seem like a challenge at first.

Competition is a fact of life, but then so is cooperation, and there is no reason why both can't be utilised. In my original post I mentioned using tasks that will bring the group together - perhaps in competition with other mixed groups thus making the most of both tendencies.

I must admit I didn't know about the Montessori method. I do agree with it in principle, though it's still important to teach children that the world isn't so nice. I also concede that when you have strict 'targets' and deadlines then mixed classes are often unworkable. But in the long term they may still develop as quickly as streamed classes (and turn out to be better people too).

I also mentioned before that ordinary high school teachers in our home countries deal with mixed classes every day as a matter of course. I don't see them running in the opposite direction.

[joshua2004]

I am running my own language school. I adhere to cooperative learning principles and am having great success. Multi-age classrooms work and are the only way to go, in my humble opinion. I am willing to share any of my insights in how to make this possible. That is all.

[Ben Round de Bloc]