Tips for managing a large mixed-level class
Does this ring a bell?
You introduce yourself to the group, then ask them to tell the class their names and a little about themselves. If you are observant, you are already learning something about the students as individuals, something beyond just names and interests. Some of them are eager to answer; they want to show off their skills and are more than ready to add to the skills their already have. Others hesitate, their brains obviously working to come up with an appropriate response; they know they can say something, but don't feel sure about how accurate or comprehensible it will be. Still others look puzzled, distracted or just plain disaffected. They may not understand what's going on, or simply feel too insecure to even attempt to answer your question. They are the ones who have been left behind in other classes and feel that they will never be given a chance to catch up now.
The teacher's job, your job, is to bring the class together into a single unit – not at some later date when you've had time to think and prepare, but right from the beginning of the class. The tone you set in the first few minutes of meeting a class will stay with the students for the rest of your time together. Make it positive, and make it clear: everyone in the class is equal, capable, and a full member of a winning team.
Management of the class
It’s important to be aware that the class is mixed- level all the time, not sometimes and for some tasks.
Some areas to think about:
I know your names, now tell me about your selves
- Find out about the class’ interests and needs: You can’t engage students you know little or nothing about. You should learn about the students’ interests, likes, needs, level of English, and how they feel about learning English in general. We suggest carrying out a needs analysis, playing a game or doing a survey to get to know the class’ interests and needs. Show genuine interest in what students do, listen to, watch, etc. Integrate their interests into your planning. It’s important that the teacher also opens up and reveals her likes and some personal information to take the lead and create a bond with students. (See suggested activity 1)
I’m a teacher, not a therapist, but…
- Observe your class. While students are doing the needs analysis, look at how they interact, who works well together and who seems a bit isolated, how they sit, if they use dictionaries or ask for your help, if they fidget, etc. Make your own map of the class and think about them when planning or adapting materials and tasks. Set pair and group activities which allow you to monitor, walk through the class, interact with students and observe how they work and behave: their gestures, facial expressions, spoken works, the way they sit, etc. provide valuable information for the teacher to manage the class effectively.
If you have the chance to arrive earlier or leave the class a few minutes after the class finishes, some students may approach you and share information they may not share in front of the class. If you use a blog or a virtual learning environment (VLE) with your students, set collaborative tasks so as to see how students work together and how they behave in the virtual world. Allow students to send private messages to ask for help.
Don’t flip channels!
- Start with a different warming up activity every class to get your students’ attention and engage their minds. For example; write a riddle on the board, play part of a song and ask them to add a line/change a word; ask students to choose a photo from their mobile devices and describe it; etc. Put their minds to work as soon as they step into the class.
- Plan the class with enough variety of activities and use a wealth of resources: text, image, video, audio, etc. to make the content clear and engage the students’ brains, bodies and souls. If students can’t follow the class or find it boring, they will ‘flip channels’ and start doing or thinking about something else.
- Read the instructions for activities in the class’ course book or materials and check students work on the same topic using different materials and working on different skills. If activities presented in the class book/material exclusively practice writing and reading, those students who have difficulties with the above mentioned skills will find the class difficult to follow. However; if they can listen to the information, dramatize it, draw, highlight key words, watch a video, create a recording, etc.; students will find more options and choose the ones that work best for them.
Who is the boss?
- Negotiate part of the content with your students; involve them in some decision- making. The teacher is a leader and as a good leader s/he should negotiate and guide. In general, we learn when we are responsible for our actions. We suggest leaving some blanks in the syllabus and filling those blanks together with your students; e.g.: topics for projects, technology to be used, materials, assessment portfolios, etc. The content to negotiate will depend on the students’ age and level of autonomy. In any case, it is important to give them some control over their own learning, so they can reflect later on how their ideas worked and how to improve them.
I know where you are…
- Decide on the best classroom arrangement according to number of students, resources, classroom layout, etc. Create a co-operative and positive atmosphere. Flexible environments work well because the teacher can decide on the classroom arrangement according to the learning objectives and characteristics of the class. However, if you have to stick to one arrangement, choose one that promotes communication like a horseshoe, semicircle, or clusters.
- The teacher’s place in the classroom is equally important. You should be able to observe all the students in the class and students should be able to see you. Walk the class and observe how they react to your being close, crouching, sitting next to them for guidance. If students stop working when you are close to them, it may be better to choose a corner in the class and wait for students to ask for your help. However, if a student or group looks lost or distracted, you can approach them and devote some personalized time until they are on task.
Group work = …. collaborative mess!
- Create classroom routines for organizing and delivering the class so as to create a safe learning environment and avoid mess. Use the same sound, gesture or song to signal stages in the class; for example: clapping, singing a line of a song, playing an instrument, waving a flag, etc.
- Establish fixed groups for some time, whether mixed level groups, same level groups, or random grouping. Train students to work cooperatively; give them roles within the group and guide them to share their work as a group (not individually). Set a timeframe for activities and a deadline for project work. When students feel confident about how to work together, you can change the group compositions. Sometimes weaker students prefer to work in same-level groups so as to have the time to think and work at their own pace. Stronger students are not always supportive and weaker students just keep silent. Once you establish the groups, monitor and observe how they work and what can work better for each class.
- Flip the class at times. If you use a blog or VLE like Edmodo, ask students to access materials, read, listen, watch a video or listen to a podcast before the class. Then, each group can discuss the topic face to face and use the class time to discuss, organize and present the information. The product of their work can also be shared online so the other groups in the class can access the presentation and make comments. Doing part of the work online may reduce the chaos in the face-to-face class and make it more profitable.
- Set a time limit considering the different level groups and learning speeds. Even if there are different tasks, all students should finish at about the same time. Integrate technology –if available – to address the different needs in the class: mobile devices, tablets and laptops can be used to provide an additional task to fast finishers who can post their work, make a comment on the blog, listen to a recording, etc.
Management of learning
It’s important to be aware that ‘mixed’ means ‘diverse,’ which should be reflected in the tasks and dynamics of the class.
Is anybody listening?
- Use a focal point (board, whiteboard) and other resources to show and demonstrate tasks. Instructions can be difficult to understand and students, even if listening, may find them confusing. In addition to this, some students may arrive later or may just be absent minded at the time you were delivering instructions. Writing instructions or key information on a focal point is important for students to re-visit it as many times as they need it. If you are using a blog or a VLE, you can write the instructions for activities on a page so students who couldn’t finish or were absent can still do the task and keep up with the rest of the learners.
Good, but now say it in English, please.
- Provide guidance and scaffolds for students to produce language. Grade the tasks and provide options for the different level groups: speaking, listening, reading and writing. Provide different levels of challenge for the same task. Faster students do not normally want to work more; they just need more challenge. (See activity 3)
- Give students enough time to think and work. Remind students 3 to 5 minutes before the time allotted for the task is up so they wrap up and finish. Avoid asking: Are you ready? every two minutes. It makes students anxious and they can’t focus on the task. Monitor the class to provide help and support.
Have you already finished?
- Give meaningful language to interact. Sometimes students finish a task too soon just because they don’t see the purpose in doing it or don’t understand the language they are producing. Make the necessary changes to the task so it becomes relevant to students. Make students think about the situations where they may use that piece of language. Provide the language they need as they ask for it. If you use a blog or a VLE, some students make write or record their exchanges and invite the class to add to one recording. If students don’t understand they will ask questions and use English to communicate.
This is the FOURTH time I’ve asked for the writing task!
- Provide options for students to present their work. If homework is a writing activity, some students may find it better to create an audio recording or make a video. The idea of writing may be overwhelming, but in fact students need to write before recording a video or a podcast. Write the options on the board and also on a virtual platform you are using. Provide websites, models and links in order to trigger students’ ideas. When the task seems too demanding for the class, allow students to work in groups . Once the task is done, display it or publish it online to share it with others and reward students’ efforts.
Well done,… but why?
- Provide feedback. The teachers’ comments and corrections not only provide guidance, but also ‘set the student’s mood’ for the next piece of homework or class work. If you think you may not have time to provide immediate feedback, inform students when you will check their work or set a new deadline. Feedback should make students reflect on why something was wrong and why something was well done or excellent. Establish a set of codes for correcting language and responding and reacting to students’ work. Once students have read your corrections, ask some of them to share their work in the class or online and invite the class to respond or make comments. If you use a blog, compiling students’ work throughout the year will provide a portfolio that you may want to revisit at times to highlight their achievements.
- Encourage self- correction by giving students the key to activities. Then, you can check if they have actually solved the task themselves by discussing it in class. Having the key is not necessarily having the answer. Encourage peer correction and/or train students to do peer correction. Some students do not like to be corrected by a peer, so they can either choose a peer for corrections or post their work in a blog VLE and any peer can make a comment. In this way, corrections feel more like collaborative work.
- Make individual learning contracts to improve weaker areas of the language and personalize learning. If you use a blog or a VLE, students can create a folder with a schedule and tasks with deadlines to achieve their own personal goals.
Tell the class, please.
- Make cross-checking meaningful for everyone so as to give the class a reason for listening. Students share their work with the teacher because they know she is the most qualified to provide feedback. So, if you want the rest of the class to listen to what their peers are saying, set a listening task; for example; ‘agree or disagree with your classmate’; ‘add one idea’; ‘rank what s/he says in order of your preference’, etc. Setting a listening task while other students are speaking is a way of providing a reason for listening and it brings the class together with a common purpose, especially after individual or group work.
I’m not the director of this orchestra, YOU are!
- Promote students’ autonomy. Provide guidance, not answers, all of the time. Suggest reliable and good quality dictionaries, websites, encyclopedias, and so on for students to research and study on their own. Provide materials which students can understand; i.e., materials should be selected according to the level of English and knowledge the class has on any given topic. Train students how to deal with new language or doubts when the teacher is not available for help. Provide a model for tasks, so they can work on their own. If you are using a VLE, create a forum where students can post their doubts and their peers or the teacher can provide the answers. Train students to work autonomously during your class. Include dictionary games, Internet quick search for a video tutorial, etc.
In a ‘nutmix’
To conclude, large, mixed-level classes are the rule rather than the exception, and any group is ‘mixed’ by nature. No matter how much we teach students about being cooperative, patient and tolerant, differences are often the reasons for conflict. It’s the teacher’ job to be aware of what each mixed class is made up of and to make it work in concert with the students and with the help of the Institution and community.
© 2017 Alicia Artusi and Gregory J Manin
Teaching Remotely
Read the article at: IATEFL Voices Issue 259 Nov 2017
https://www.iatefl.org/about-iatefl/iatefl-voices
https://www.iatefl.org/about-iatefl/iatefl-voices
A remote EFL teacher teaches English synchronously to anywhere in the
world using online materials and a learning management system (LMS) to
communicate with the students. Students use computers, laptops or other mobile
devices to access the LMS and study, post homework and/or clear doubts
asynchronously from anywhere at any time.
Remote teachers (RTs) in the project we work for, Plan Ceibal English (1), deliver lessons to students all over the
world from a teaching centre with teaching points or booths containing video
conference equipment (VCE) and a laptop. Once the call is made and the class starts, the RT and students
communicate via a large screen and LMS, and listen to each other through the
VCE. Remote teaching is like a ‘live’
performance: all the elements and materials should be ready for ‘show time’ to
avoid delays and keep the class engaged.
For teachers new to teaching remotely, we would like to share some tips:
1.
Preparing for the
synchronous class
·
makes sure the presentation, remote control, mike, mini
whiteboard, and props are in place before starting the class.
2.
Making the learning
environment class-friendly
·
upload digital materials, start discussion
threads, give feedback to students, correct and encourage peer correction and interaction
among the students
To continue reading log in IATEFL Voices Issue 259 Nov 2017
https://www.iatefl.org/about-iatefl/iatefl-voices One Classroom Many Worlds 1
Read the article at:
Language learning often seems to happen in a closed universe. Goals are limited to completing homework assignments, passing tests and possibly gaining some kind of certificate or diploma down the line. Use of and exposure to the target language is largely limited to the classroom itself or the language lab (if there is one). It is true that most modern coursebooks attempt to offer a degree of real-world engagement by incorporating newsworthy topics, ‘crosscurricular’ texts and references to popular youth culture. However, because of the way the topics are handled in the classroom, their relevance to students’ everyday lives is minimised if not entirely erased. No matter how interesting or relevant the topic is, the sole focus in the classroom becomes the acquisition and consolidation of grammar and vocabulary, with the content reduced to a mere backdrop to the mechanics of the language. Rather than engaging the students’ interests, pre-existing knowledge and active learning skills, the act of language learning becomes divorced from the real world that exists just outside the classroom walls. By bringing that world into the classroom, teachers can give their students the chance to develop real knowledge and real skills along with the acquisition of the more abstract details of the target language. The more invested students are in the learning process, the more they will learn – and ‘making it real’ is the best way to do this. Language is only one of the ways in which we learn about the world around us. We also use our senses and a variety of instincts that come into play without our knowledge or choosing. But as we mature, language becomes one of the basic tools for acquiring knowledge of the world – and there is no rule that says that only your first language can be that tool. In fact, English can offer access to multiple worlds, which can be described as follows......
Read the article at:
Fighting the Boredom Factor
Read the article at: https://www.etprofessional.com/fighting_the_boredom_factor_581.aspx
Young teenagers are deeply interested in a wide variety of topics. Unfortunately, school subjects aren’t usually among them. Their minds and bodies are developing at a bewildering rate, and their social lives are taking so many new turns that even they have little hope of keeping up with them. This is also the time of their lives when they have the greatest academic opportunities and are faced with some of the most challenging academic demands. Let’s look at some of the ways we can prevent boredom and draw these students into the learning process by giving them real reasons to become engaged in language acquisition.
1. Engaging teenagers
It is important to get the environment ready for students to invest in learning.
Boredom Factor 1:
What for?
English is just one of the subjects that students fail to see a real reason for studying. We need to help them find motivation, direction and interest. Here are some suggestions:
a) Involve students in the syllabus by discussing their expectations for the school year during the first two classes.
TIP
You can collect input by using a form like the one here. Hand it out and give the students part of a class to complete it. They’ll have a chance to consider their personal goals and to deliver anonymous opinions.
Read the article at: https://www.etprofessional.com/fighting_the_boredom_factor_581.aspxThe Wonder of Warmers
Reat this article at ETP Issue 78In theory, always starting out your lessons with a fast, fun, groupbuilding,
attention-getting warmup activity is a great idea. In practice, there is homework to be checked, several pages of the coursebook to get through, new homework to assign, projects to be discussed. In other words, the everyday demands of the class make doing any kind of extra activity look either impossible or simply a waste of valuable time. But is it really an impossible goal, or could spending a few minutes of each lesson on this kind of ‘irrelevant’ activity make a big difference to how your classes function and progress? We certainly think so.
The reasons for doing a short warmup activity at the beginning of a language class are simple:
● to get students with limited language exposure to think in, or at least think
about, the target language;
● to focus the attention of the students;
● to encourage group cohesion among
students who have just come from a
variety of pursuits and places;
● to set a welcoming, positive and
productive tone for the lesson.
Here are some points to keep in mind
when choosing a warm-up:
● Keep it short (5–10 minutes).
● Keep it simple.
● Make it relevant.
● Make it enjoyable.
Warm-ups can easily be related to the coursebook or other material you are
using: focus on a grammar point or vocabulary area dealt with in a previous
lesson. So, for example, if you are studying past tenses, you could ask
‘What did you do on Saturday?’ or ‘What were you doing at six o’clock
yesterday?’ Then have the students ask each other questions and report the
answers and/or get them to guess the answers you would give...
Read ideas for warm-up activities in ETP Issue 78 https://www.etprofessional.com/the_wonder_of_warmers_81968.aspx
No comments:
Post a Comment