Bridging the Skills Gap in Multi-Level and Mixed Ability

Classes

Presenter:

Svetlana Lungu,

Access Skype Teacher,

1st Teaching Degree,

PhD student

Moldova

Warm-up“Word Story”

“ On a sunny summer day I woke up in the morning and thought that it would be nice if I became a teacher. So ….”

Task: Make a circle and continue the story by saying only one word.

Think about…

What is the most challenging task that we face as teachers?

What’s the difference between the pictures?

Brainstorming

How are students different from each

other?

Our students have different:

Background

Interests

Age

Gender

Personality

Motivation

Cognitive abilities

Learning styles

Group work:

What challenges can we meet teaching in such classes?

Challenges/Problems:

Choosing the suitable material

What pace to use

What level of difficulty

How to reach individuals with different learning styles

How to reach students’ needs

What language to use while explaining

Discipline

Grouping the students

Pair work:

Task: Choose one of the above mentioned problems, the one you consider to be the most important, and together with your partner think of some solutions that can help you cope with this problem.

Suggestions

Keep students motivated

• Variation / differentiate teaching

• Interest

Reaching the individual

• Collaboration

• Individualization (variation in speed and level)

• Personalization

Example:

Task: You are 7 years old and choose a pet. Use an element from each of the 3 columns below to say what kind of pet you would choose.

• Open Ending

• Oral Activities

• Compulsory + Optional

A big black cat

A small brown dog

A medium - sized white pony

Useful techniques

Magazines/Newspapers

Pictures

Projects

Peer tutoring

Drama

Movies

Card games

Buddy reading

Peer editing

Jigsaw reading

Pair share

Core Repetition

- How was your journey?

- Why? What happened?

- Oh! Come on! I’m sure it wasn’t that bad!

- It was terrible!

- I broke my leg while climbing the mountain!

- ….

Topic: Weather (students will describe current weather conditions)

Task 1: Identify 5-8 common weather conditions in order to respond to the question: “What’s the weather like?”

Task 2: Interpret a weather map in order to ask and answer questions about weather conditions in different locations.

Task 3: Make a short presentation about the weather, summarize and comment on a weather forecast.

Group work

Think of some activities that could be used in a mixed-ability class for each of the 4 skills:

• Reading

• Writing

• Speaking

• Listening

Group Work:

Watch the following video and think of some assignments based on it to use in

multi-level, mixed-ability classes.

“A metaphor of a mixed ability class which works for me isto think of the class as a lift (elevator). Everyone needs to getinto the lift to start with. Some students will run into the lift,some will have to be dragged in. Some students will travelright to the top of the building, some may stop at the thirdfloor and some may only reach the first floor, but everyonewill have travelled somewhere successfully. At the end of aclass, every student can leave the room feeling that theyhave been challenged and that they have achievedsomething.”

Jim Rose

Thank you !