Job Discussion Forums

[kev7161]

So, this year I'm teaching at a new school, primary school, 1st graders. 24 little "darlings". I'm not only teaching English, but Math, Science, etc. A whole curriculum. 1st day and I already see a vast difference in levels. Three of my students are Chinese but were born and raised in other countries (2 in Australia and 1 in USA). Not only are their English speaking skills excellent (better than my TA's), but one of these kids today asked me for harder math lessons! What I was teaching was too easy for him!

This is going to be a major bugaboo for me as I only have 40 minutes per subject, sometimes only a couple days a week (not Math and Language Arts though, thankfully. Those will be every day.). I can create some extensions for this kid and any other "gifted" child, but I certainly can't teach two different lessons in the time I have. And this is a typical "Chinese" young children group, where almost all the kids are hyper and have very short attention spans. So, it's next to impossible to pull a special small group aside while the others are doing their work.

What kind of gets my goat is that when I signed on for this job, nobody had a clue as to what levels they'd be signing up. Again, I'm sure it's the parents with the most money that put their kids in this program, regardless of abilities. There will be a Chinese Math teacher who will teach (in Chinese) 2X a week (and I'll teach Math 5X a week - 7 math lessons altogether). She was worried about the level of Math I'll be teaching. I was told by the international office to get Grade 2 Math books because the Chinese children are so "advanced" over American children. And some of them are! But some of them seem not to be. Of course, it's only the first day, so I may be jumping the gun by being worried. I have 10 whole months to smooth things out!

[dajiang]

Hey Kevin,
There was a thread on teaching mixed abilities a long time ago, and so I've just copy pasted what I said back then. Here goes.

It's a familiar problem, but I think it's possible to cope with it.

Think about primary education.
There too all pupils sit together in one class, and thought they're mostly the same age, there are also lots of differences in level. Still, primary school teachers somehow deal with it.

To teach these groups effectively you need to apply some differentiation in your lesson, otherwise it will be hell (with 2/3rd of the class being bored because it's too simple or difficult). I've only started to look into this recently, but there are some things you could try.

First of all, you need materials and lots of them:
easy ones (e.g. yellow colour) and middle ones (red) and harder ones (blue). Have the students work in pairs or groups most of the time. Then ss work through each colour level, putting all their exercises in a binder (the exercises are numbered so you can keep track of who did what)
You need to check the binders to correct and keep track of their levels. They can go on to the next colour if you think theyre ready and by giving them a small test.

Obviously the 'smarter' ones go through it faster, and can go to higher levels. The lower levels will take more time for the same exercises but might never even reach 'blue level'. So, at the same time you'll have people working on different things.

I'm a Dutch teacher and here in Holland we use basic, repetition and extension material. Once people have trouble with basic, they will do repetition exercises: basically the same topics, grammar, level, but different exercises.
The ones that have no problems in 'basic' will do extension exercises to keep busy. These exercise are on a higher level and can be very varied, and so the students are able to choose according to interest as well.

Now, this takes lots and lots of materials, but fortunately you can find them. Try bogglesworld, and I've put lots of links on my website to use: http://eslmaniac.web-log.nl/

materials are not the only thing, also your class setup will have to adapt.
Because frontal teaching wont be effective this way, there IS no frontal teaching except perhaps at the beginning or end of the lesson when you have to explain some common things, rules, games, whatever.

For the most part ss sit in groups and work either in groups of 3/4 or in pairs (the levels will most often look each other up, but you can have two 'blue' students sitting with two 'yellow' students no problem)

If the students have any problems in their exercises, they will first ask their group mates, if they dont know either, they can signal you by putting a 'red' card on their table. You can circulate through the classroom offering help to pair's groups etc. No frontal teaching, stop by at the tables where groups are working. (islands in your classroom, no more 2 by 2 tables towards the front)

Now you could start with dividing the classroom in three groups: (1) speaking, (2) writing and (3) reading for instance.
Or (1) 'poems/stories', (2) creative exercises, (3) puzzles.

Students can work on their exercises that will be on the tables. After 15 minutes they stop, circulate to the next group, etc etc.
Do this 3 times and all students will have gone over all parts. This is good for their attention span too (15 minutes for a certain topic is okay, they could do multiple exercises too), and they can change partners in their groups too.

If this works, you can introduce 4/6 groups.
It depends on the class size and how much lessontime you've got.

I realise it's a big step to change your whole teaching style from frontal to differentiated, but you can start easier too. Just try it out with 3 groups, or just with those exercise cards.

You don't have to do 'circulation' all the time. You could also try to have your creative exercises done in a 'group setting'. Then, you'll already differentiate a bit. Put levels together but make sure the faster students know they should help their mates and not dominate, the slower ones can learn from them.

When some ss have done something faster than others, always have some puzzles ready for them to pick up and they can do.
In the end, stop five minutes in advance, do a game, and say goodbye.

If you use a book, it's more troublesome, cuz most books arent suited for differentiated lessons. However, additional materials/puzzles for people who are faster is a must.
Try to determine what the basic material in the book is, then you could make/get repetition and extension materials.

I hope I have given you some help here in dealing with this problem. I am teaching a high school class in Holland myself, where I also have to deal with teaching different levels in one class.
This development in teaching is not very accepted yet by the older generations of teachers in high school, because it's hard to let go of the frontal/classical teaching style, but it's gaining territory. Primary schools have been using this system for ages.

Oh and another thing: when you've got all the materials together on a topic in, say, three levels of difficulty, you could have a test to determine which student can start with which level.

So, for example you have a topic on 'animals'.
You already have materials on 'animals' in beginner (blue), intermediate (red) and advanced levels (yellow).
You could start with a question like: name 5 animals that start with the letter 'M'.
Tell the students/write above the questions:
If you can think of more than five: take the yellow exercises.
If you can think of 4 or 5, take the red exercises.
If you know less than 4, take the blue exercises.
This way students sift themselves out.

Oh, yeah, another thing, you could give some higher level students a task to teach something to the class.
Something they like or are interested in, or something else like a hobby. Then they should of course mind the lower levels.

Any questions/comments are welcome,
regards,
Dajiang

[kev7161]

Thanks for the time and energy you put into this thoughtful response. Some of your ideas I'm already using or will start to use in the next couple of weeks. Some I like and will try to instill where I can.

Yes, I too like the 3 levels of lessons . . . IF I can find enough materials to implement this. The first month will be a lot of organization and I think (hope!) the following months will be much smoother. Also, as this is an immersion program, I don't want my TA to be translating for me all the time. Actually, I'm probably going to start chasing her out of the room just as soon as I can.

I'll look up some of your ideas as well - - thanks again.

[cj750]

I also teach in this kind of situation...now, to young learners...and find the lack of resorces..such a puzzles and enough books to go around the whole class..or quality copies that encourage reading...to be the greatest wall to cross...classroom behavior of a nation of spoiled children makes for a hard medium to work with...my first solution was to seperate everyone to little islands of one desk..my classroom allows this ...which gives me control over the chatter often associated with chinese classes...also it allows me the ability to quickly spot potential problems with social interchanges that may get in the way of instruction...
I use a standard reading book at a apporate level for the grade but suplement it with additonal readers from the same company that are either a step up or a step down and try and include the parents in the learning process...I find that a parent that is willing to work with the child's reading ability can do wonders in additonal instruction that will make classroom abilities achieve a level playing field...