Bridging the Skills Gap in Multi-Level and Mixed

Ability Classes

Presenter:

Svetlana Lungu,

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 is to think of the class as a lift (elevator). Everyone needs to get into the lift to start with. Some students will run into the lift, some will have to be dragged in. Some students will travel right to the top of the building, some may stop at the third floor and some may only reach the first floor, but everyone will have travelled somewhere successfully. At the end of a class, every student can leave the room feeling that they have been challenged and that they have achieved something.”

Jim Rose

Thank you !