How to teach heterogeneous groups
What is mixed ability?
— Jim Rose, teacher,
says “Students who used to be split according to their abilities into
‘streams’. And now they are mixed together in one class. There are good students,
average students, and bad students”.
— Penny Ur (2006) says
is a group in which children of varied abilities are taught together rather
than being set apart in groups according to level.
Some Problems of Mixed Ability Classes
— Effective Learning: “I can’t make sure they’re all learning
effectively: Is the tasks I provide are either too difficult or too easy for
the student?”
— Participation: “I can’t activate them all: only a few students –
the more proficient and confident ones – seem to respond actively to my
questions.”
— Materials: “I can’t find suitable material;the textbooks are
homogenous aimed at one kind of learner, with no options or flexibility.”
— Discipline: “I have discipline problems in these classes; I find
them difficult to control.”
— Interest: “They get bored; I can’t find topics and
activities that keep them all interested.”
— Individual awareness: “I can’t get to know and follow the
progress of all the individuals in my class;there are too many of them, and
they’re all very different!”
— Error Correction: “I can’t keep up with the marking load.”
Some teaching solutions
• Vary your topics, methods, texts.
• Make activities interesting.
• Encourage collaboration (maintain students’ engagement to do
collaborative activities).
• Individualize (by doing individualize activities, learners learn at
their own pace and choose their tasks or materials)
• Personalize (involving students’ own ideas and experiences to add
interest).
Adapting Materials for Mixed Ability
Classes
There are some questions to consider when
preparing your lesson:
— Is the activity approriate for the age group?
— If not, how will I bridge the gap?
— What’s the point of the activity?
— What will students be learning?
— Should I explain to the students why we’re doing the activity?
Textbook materials are very often need
to be adapted and suplemented for heterogeneous classes in order to add
variation and interest, in order to get more collaboration and participation.
Variation for Teaching
— Topic
— Skill
(reading / writing / listening / speaking)
— Active /
reflective
— Organization
(teacher-led, individual, group/pair)
— Level of
difficulty
— Speed
— Material
(board, improvised, course-book, visual materials)
To Get Learners’ Interest
— Topic
— Meaningfulness
— Personalization
— Task-based
— Game-like
— Visual
materials
— Aesthetic
aspect
— Entertainment:
humor, drama
— Music /
rhythm
— Open-ended
cues
Encourage Collaboration
Learners work together in order to get
better joint results than they could on their own.
Advantages:
Peer-teaching
Educational implications
Feeling of teamwork
But:
What about those who prefer working on
their own?
Does it hold up the faster ones?
Designing own activities – “Say Things
About a Picture”
“How many things can you think of that
are...?”
bicycle
because people
Read More
- Brief Overview of Education in the Khilafah State
- Language assessment
- Kelebihan dan kelemahan metode Student Facilitator and Explaining
- Tugas Ketua, Puket, Kabag. Akademik, Kabag Perlengkapan dan Keuangan, Kabag Kemahasiswaan dan Alumni, Ketua Jurusan, Sekretaris Prodi, Korrdinator Lab, dan Masing Masing Kasubag.
chocolate pencil
friend money
girl walk
English
Not all tasks work as collaborative
activities.
Some tips:
• Pair work
usually works better than group work.
• Make sure
the task is such that it is likely to be better done by the group / pair than
by an individual (e.g. peer editing)
• Allow
individuals to work on their own if they prefer.
Doing Your own Thing – “Metaphors”
What is the best metaphor for an English
lesson?
A variety show A conversation
A menu Consulting the doctor
Eating a meal Doing the shopping
A football game A symphony
A wedding Climbing a mountain
‘All Children are born with potential and we
cannot be sure of of the learning limits of any child’
(Robert Fisher, 2001:1)
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