Overcoming the challenges of teaching mixed ability children

 

Challenges for English teachers

The months ahead pose many challenges to learners and teachers as they go back to the physical classroom. Teachers’ priorities though will not have changed as they strive to ensure every English language learner makes progress regardless of their current language level.

Understanding learners is key to knowing how they differ from each other. This includes taking into account differences in the areas of ability motivation, interests, personality, parental support and the progress they have made during the global pandemic.

Solid Teaching Strategies

Monica Poulter discussed these challenges with other English teachers at the Cambridge Live Experience, an event organised to help teachers get ready for the unpredictable months ahead. She worked for many years at Cambridge Assessment English and now teaches English online. She shared some practical tips and strategies that English teachers can use to support mixed ability classes as learners make the transition back to the classroom.

Identify the challenges

As English teachers around the world return to teaching either physically or online, they know they will almost certainly come across the challenge of teaching mixed ability classrooms.

Responding to differences between learners is what is known as differentiation and the gap between learners could be wider than ever when we consider the different levels of support students have received during lockdown. For this reason it’s essential that teachers use effective strategies to get the best from their class and ensure that learning continues.

Tips to overcome the challenges in the classroom

Monica emphasised the importance of showing great adaptability and making sure that challenges and tasks are set at appropriate levels and are designed to engage learners. She pointed at how mixed abilities throw up challenges across all four of the key language skills and the importance of setting challenges and tasks at the right level.

For example, teachers can set challenges associated with reading tasks that can be increased or reduced according to their students’ abilities – pointing to the fact that in one class they can have fast readers, slow readers and students who do not like reading.

She demonstrated the use of visuals to engage readers, and stressed the importance of providing extension tasks for ‘fast finishers’. Monica demonstrated how teachers can support writing tasks at different levels by using frames, where students have to fill in the blanks as opposed to writing a whole piece. She also discussed how they can make the best use of contact time through an integrated skills approach at higher levels.

She ended by showing how classroom management techniques and use of teacher language can ensure an inclusive classroom.

Help for teachers

The Cambridge Live Experience was organised by Cambridge Assessment English and Cambridge University Press English Language Teaching. It included a packed programme of talks on a range of themes including advice on transitioning back to the physical classroom, online learning, socially distanced teaching, understanding learners’ levels and providing emotional support.