Managing the Mixed-Level Class

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We teachers end up with mixed, or multi-level classes for many reasons: sometimes due to low enrollment requiring combined classes, sometimes because of newly-arrived students, sometimes just because of varying aptitudes within a given class. But whatever the reason, whenever there are large gaps between the proficiency of some students and others in a single class, the teacher is faced with the following dilemma: "If I teach what the lower students need, I'll bore the higher ones, but if I teach mainly to the higher students, I'll overwhelm and fail to teach the lower students. And yet if I just teach to the middle, I'll only reach the middle ones, and I'll still overwhelm the lows and bore the highs."

So, the question is how to:

  • Teach different things to different groups (i.e., different levels)
  • Keep everyone usefully busy
  • Not neglect some while teaching others
  • Successfully teach everyone what they need to know

These things are essential for carrying, this out, borrowed from the repertoire of the elementary school teacher,  inherited from the one-room schoolhouses of our great-grandparents: "grouping" and "seat-work,” both of which are tools that allow us to differentiate between levels when we teach. 

Grouping simply means having two or more groups of students, each proceeding at a different pace, taking less or more time to progress through the requisite skills, requiring disparate amounts of direct instruction, review and re-teaching. The several groups are summoned at different times to be taught and to practice what they’ve learned.

Successful grouping and teaching of mixed-level adults or adolescents in an ESL class requires the teacher to determine which students are more proficient and which less. Of course,  in an unabashedly "split class," it's easy enough to say and write on the board, "Level 2 students, write sentences with all thirty of these words. Level 1, write sentences only with words 1 - 20. Level zero, come over here with me. We're going to work on ___."

On the other hand, when it's simply a generic group of "Beginners," some with a fair smattering of English and some that are very, very low, they can be called Group X and Group Y, or the Red Group and the Green Group, or simply, "Nora, Ahmad, and Omar, come over here with me. The rest of the class, write sentences with these 30 (or 20, or 15) words." 

Seat-work: This is the work part of the class is doing independently at their seats while the rest of the students are working directly with the teacher. Good seat work should have the following characteristics: It should be:

(1) Easy enough and self-explanatory enough not to require a teacher in constant attendance

(2) Difficult enough to be useful to the students, and

(3) Time-consuming enough to keep them busy long enough for the teacher to finish direct-teaching the other group.

In this essay, for simplicity's sake, I shall assume two groups. It is, of course, the same principle when there are more than two groups.

What sort of work makes good seat work? Well, the most obvious would seem to be exercises in the textbook that reinforce something that has been taught. However, some book exercises exercises require much explanation and hand-holding by the teacher, taking time away from the group. Conversely, other textbook exercises are so short and simple that the students finish them too fast and are left dangling and off-task while the teacher is still working with the other group.

 Thus, good seat work may certainly include book exercises, but my favorite standby is "Write sentences with these words." Why is the writing of sentences such a good choice for seat work?

  1. It is simple: It requires little or no time-consuming explanation from the teacher about "how to do it.” Once students have been taught what it means to "write a sentence with these words," the exercise requires almost no explanation, so the teacher then has more time for the group that is receiving the direct instruction.
     
  2. It is useful practice in generating English utterances. Writing sentences is output; it is communication; it is using the target language; it is practice.  Additionally, as the students rack their brains to use the words in meaningful sentences, they (a) endeavor to think in English, which is excellent brain exercise, and (b) they will inevitably make errors!  This is a good thing, because the errors show the teacher what structures need to be reviewed, re-taught, or discussed individually with the students who made them.
     
  3. It is useful for reinforcing previously-taught vocabulary. To achieve this, it is self evident that when making sentence the students are practicing using the vocabulary in meaningful sentences. This is one more aid to memory and to ultimately imprinting the new words into the students' personal lexicons.
     
  4. It is useful for reinforcing verb forms and other grammar points. One technique toward this end is the use of pre-conjugated verbs in the list of words to use in sentences. What are pre-conjugated verbs? These are verbs with and without the third-person-singular -s (e.g., eat, eats, come, comes), verbs with and without -ing (work, working) or –ed (work, worked), as well as the different forms of "be": is, are, am, etc. Note: It should be explained and modeled for the students beforehand that they are not allowed to either add or subtract a verb-ending. Thus, if the word is eats, they cannot write "I eats chocolate." They must write "My brother eats chocolate," or "He eats chocolate," or "Maria eats chocolate." If the word is studying, they must not write "I studying English." They must write "I am studying English." (Of course, they will make these mistakes, but that is where the teacher feedback, correction, and later re-teaching come in.)
     
  5. It lends itself to spot-checking for immediate feedback. Before picking up the sentences, the teacher can circulate and spot-check, making corrections and giving quick explanations: inserting or deleting a form of “be,” inserting or deleting a third-person –s, and the like.

Two important notes about sentence writing for grammar reinforcement:

(1) Obviously, the use of pre-conjugated verbs would come as review and reinforcement, only after those grammar points (third-person -s, present continuous, etc.) have been taught

(2) It may be quite a while before the very lowest beginners are ready to be held to the mark of correctly using pre-conjugated verbs. The blankest-slate beginners will be doing well to make intelligible, even if highly incorrect, sentences with the vocabulary. However, when they become high beginners, they should be expected at least to make a stab at grammatical correctness, within the limits of what we have taught them. And we teachers should not be afraid to correct them as needed.

In short, successful teaching of mixed-level classes boils down to:

  • Figuring out how many groups to use and which students should be in which group
  • Developing a repertoire of appropriate seat work for whichever group is working independently
  • Developing a rhythm of setting up one group to work independently while directly teaching another group, and then switching.

When there are mixed levels with no differentiation of instruction, to overwhelm the low students and/or bore the high ones is pretty much the order of the day. But a well-worked out routine of grouping, seat work, and some switching between groups on the part of the teacher will make the students feel attended to, cared for, and taught – which, of course, is the whole point of our chosen vocation.