Korean Job Discussion Forums

[gregmurphy02139]

Does anyone have tips on teaching an English conversation class with students who posses varying degrees of skill. I've been assigned to such a class. Some kids are pretty advanced and can talk at some length about topics such as science and whatnot. Other kids don't know the alphabet. As a result I've found myself teaching two different lessons in one room, pretty difficult. Are there games and or approaches I can take that could employ everyone at once?

[tenchu77491]

I have this problem with one class. Never found a way to deal with it. Thankfully only 2 boys are in the high end and the rest are low to mid. As long as I can keep the 2 high end boys busy the class works decently.

[Hyeon Een]

Put them in small groups, this way the more advanced students teach/help the less advanced students.

However this only works if they're somewhat motivated, so.. BE INSPIRING. If you can't do this then just teach the bright kids and make the rest sit in the corner with their hands in the air while they wear a "DUNCE" cap. This works particularly well with 50 year old businessmen.

[winterfall]

Its really frigging hard. My school has 4 official levels. Realistically there's closer to 15 not counting differences within classes. And the differences are enough to be noticeable.

You'll have to set the "Floor" at the 2nd to lowest level and go out of your way to make it amazing fun to get everyone participating.

I only make one lesson plan a week and make all the necessary adjustments inside the classroom. It annoys the hell out of my co-teachers. But, there's no other way to guarantee participation.

[lifeinkorea]

I have used the higher level students as "captains" you make games and let them pick teams. It helps network them, because part of the rules I use involve letting each team speak for an answer. If another team guesses it while it's not their turn the team whose turn it is gets the point. This makes the higher level student in each group work with the other students to keep them quiet.

[winterfall]

[Juregen]

[Trevor]

This is a very common problem and not really a very difficult one if you have a textbook that enables lots of speaking practice exercises with a partner or in groups.

Explain to the class that there many students who are at different levels and the idea is going to be to learn a little grammar (or whatever the target of the lesson is) and then practice it. Tell them that no matter what their level is, practice, practice, practice is the most important thing, so even if they already know the material it won't hurt them to practice it. To the students who are learning the material for the first time, explain that they can also benefit and tell them not to worry if their skill level is lower than the other class members. The important thing is just to practice.

Also, if you are grading them, tell the students that class participation and effort is more imporant than skill level. This will encourage your less-skilled students.

[bassexpander]

Plan a series of lessons with a group contingency in mind:

[maingman]

The primary purpose of reading is comprehension, or understanding. Unless you comprehend what you read you might as well be reading a different language.
Unfortunately, for many students school reading may actually seem like a different language.
Today, more and more teachers realize that reading is not the sole responsibility of the language arts teacher. However, many teachers struggle to come up with ways to actually increase reading comprehension in the classroom.
The key to increasing reading comprehension is to tap into students� prior knowledge about a topic before actually reading about the topic.
1. Venn diagrams � while Venn diagrams are usually used after reading as a way to compare and contrast something the students just read about, Venn diagrams can also be a great tool to use before reading as a way to increase reading comprehension. For example, students can create a Venn diagram on the similarities and differences between the North and the South at the beginning of the U.S. Civil War.
Once the Venn diagram is completed the students can then read about the topic. After the students complete the reading they should go back and check their Venn diagram, make corrections, and add any new information. By encouraging the students to think about the topic prior to reading the assignment, the students will increase their reading comprehension.
2. Prediction Strategies � another way to tap into students prior knowledge and increase reading comprehension is to have students make predictions about the topic prior to reading. There are many different types of prediction strategies a teacher can use to increase reading comprehension. Here is an example of a simple prediction strategy:
� Create 3-7 statements based on a reading you have selected to use with your class.
� Change a few of those statements to be false statements.
� Have students predict whether or not the statement is true or false before they read.
� After the reading have the students go back and check whether their predictions were correct.


http://www.vark-learn.com/english/index.asp

[maingman]

Here are some reasons which may create havoc in small (or large) group activities:
- the activity set up was flawed and the students are confused
- the group dynamics don�t work well; one student may dominate or be argumentative, etc.
- no motivation to participate has been generated either by the teacher (especially when introducing tasks dictated by the syllabus one has to follow)
- the outcome is not clear to the students
- the teacher is not clear on the procedure of the activity itself and often interrupts to issue fresh instructions, etc.
- teacher monitoring is loud and extremely distracting or intrusive
- the groupings do not work well; too many weaker students together, or other such issue
- the levels of ability in each group are not on an equal or balanced keel

- Introduce training in collaborative learning strategies early on and continue to revise and reinforce good collaborative learning habits throughout the year
- Introduce good group dynamics by using a series of team building activities from the beginning of a course and do regular maintenance work throughout the year (an excellent source of activities and great inspiration for such activities is Jill Hadfield�s �Classroom Dynamics�, OUP)
- Group and regroup students frequently so that they learn to collaborate with a variety of people, not just their friends
- Teach them the necessary communication strategies which enable us to maintain effective communication, e.g. how to initiate a point, how to disagree without making others feel offended, how to negotiate and compromise.

Solutions on planning and implementing individual tasks
- Micro-plan each group activity or task by having three clear stages: preparation (public), collaboration (closed group) and evaluation (public).
- Have a strong introduction/briefing stage in which the task is introduced, instructions are made clear and double-checked in a variety of ways.
- Make this lead in stage also the point where if any difficult concepts are necessary or background knowledge needed are introduced; if possible, involve learners in some way (each one can be a �local expert� on something!)
- Create a reason which will motivate students strongly to participate in the activity; this may be a real reason or it may be part of a make-believe scenario which will temporarily allow them to participate in an activity using another identity or be themselves in a different context.
- Explain the format /layout and target audience of the outcome of their work
- Group the students carefully so that there is a variety of abilities and roles within each group. A group with five leaders is unlikely to do well. A group with five ideas people and no one to actually do some of the work is not likely to succeed either.
- Allow each group preparation time. This may be brainstorming, taking notes, absorbing the informational input. If this informational input presents
If this informational input presents itself in textual form, do not neglect to check your learners� comprehension through questioning.
- Set clear time limits and monitor actively but discreetly. Allow groups to ask you for help. You can even allow groups to have liaison �officers� or �research officers� whose role is to go and check up with the teacher or a reference source.
- At the end of time, create a motivating reason for groups to listen to each other�s presentations. Create a rewards system which is clear and has lots of different categories, even a category for �effort� and one more for the group which �collaborated best�.
- Find a reason to offer praise as well as discuss strategies which will help groups achieve higher results next time around.
- Create a point where groups can display their work and answer questions on how they came to do it this way rather than the other way.

[tigershark]

You could try and tier your lessons. Meaning teach to the entire class the topic or lesson for the day... then the first tier (advanced students) can work or practice with each other... while you work individually with the 2nd/3rd tiers in a smaller group and then let the 2nds go and just focus on the third tier. It's all the rage in teacher's college Canadian edition. SOme other good ideas from the previous posts include grouping your students so that the more advanced students can help the lower students... only works if they are into that kind of thing.

Holler

[D.D.]

This is why I teach with mind maps. I show a video and ask them to write down all the things in one mind map- this occupies the basic students. The second mind map if to describe the things- this occupies some of the students. The third task is to write 5 sentences about the video. I then correct the sentences for the students that could write them.

This gives everyone a task they can do and I go around talking to them while they are doing the tasks. None of the students lose face and they grow from week to week.

At first the low level kids can just write a few things that they saw in the video and after a few weeks they start to describe things.

Students also start to see the structure of how we think and it sets them up to start making their own conversation.

I used to just do conversation until I noticed they couldnt make basic sentences. I also noticed some students couldn't even write basic words.

So this goes from things to describing to making sentences.

1. rabbit
2. long arms. grey, whiskers, long ears, ect
3. The rabbit is grey and has long arms.

This basic structure works from elementary all the way through middle school.

The students find it much easier to talk after the have structured it on paper.

[iggyb]

http://books.google.com.pe/books?id=kEyHZ_DiVVkC&lpg=PA13&lr=&hl=en&pg=PA17#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Google Books is a TESOLer's friend.

That book is TESOL for Large, Multilevel Classes --- a Korea public school TESOLer's dream book...

Search for books in the past 10 years that are limited previewed in Google Books. You'll find material on all levels and ages and situations.

If you play around with the cache in Internet Explorer - You can read the bulk of pretty much any book that has a preview and pretty much 100% of the first 200 or so pages.....

[valkerie]

D D's idea is great.