Teaching 2 levels of English

[loella]

Just about to recommence English classes in our local commune; This year it is clear that we now have 2 levels of capability. I feel the easiest way is to split them up but obviously that takes more time and effort...has anyone conquered this situation and how?

[Dick Smith]

Annie - are you a trained teacher?

[cooperlola]

A friend of mine has just started to take French evening classes at Le Mans university.  There has been a huge take-up for these classes from many different nationaliities at many different levels.  This is proving to be a nightmare for the teacher and the pupils - particularly as new entrants have popped up even in the 4th week.  The prof' just seems to have pitched things at a middle level and carried on but it is proving very frustrating for everybody concerned.  I'm no teacher but I can't see that anybody learns much in this situation - it's too difficult for the beginners so they get disheartened and dull for those who are too advanced.  Only those in the middle are learning anything.

[samdebretagne]

This happens a lot in small schools, three out of four of the schools I worked in last year had combined CM1 and CM2 classes.  It's certainly not an easy situation - be glad you only have English to teach and not all the rest of the subjects!

[YCCMB]

's just the same in Blighty. I  had 42 students in one ESOL class and 35 in another, at the start of this term. We've hired more teachers, as otherwise, even accounting for the fact that the students had been assessed, graded and put into groups appropriate to their level, it still couldn't be teaching - more sort of crowd control. Trouble is, and I don't know how it is in France, when the classes are free, people drift in and out from week to week and month to month, so you never quite know who, how many and when you'll be teaching. Still, as a means of  learning all the possible dives, wheezes, tricks and stunts that you need to employ when teaching, it's nothing short of invaluable.

[Bones]

I love Dick Smith's response -- always super helpful to reply to a question with a question.

My partner is currently teaching two intermediate classes (one just happens to be  slightly  more advanced than the other) and another class that is for lapsed english students -- a refresher course, if you will.

There are also beginners and advanced classes being run by the same institution.

As far as I know, they run off the same core texts (same brand/course - different levels) and respond to the needs of the individual groups - sometimes challenging their comfort zone -  in tandem to the  text material.

So, I suppose,  you will have to play the classes by ear but make sure it's backed up by a decent core text.

As for trained teachers: my school teachers were presumably trained and I found the vast majority of them to be crap: inspiring your students to want to learn and return to your classes will just as likely come from your god given people skills as from any teacher training course (in my humble opinion).

Good Luck.

[Carolski]

Oh dear, I feel hopelessly out of my depth, I'm just someone who responded to a need in our local commume; fairly good at communicating but certainly not a trained teacher. It all went really well at the beginning of the year until May when we 'broke up' for the Summer.They now want to start again for the Autumn/Winter...but as I said, they have developed into 2 clear level groups and I just wanted a bit of advice from all the 'experts' out there! Its also 'free' as it was about putting something back into the community.

By the way, I seem to have 'lost' my original identity. and have been locked out of my 'log in' .I've now had to create another one which is why the name appears to be different!

Annie

[KathyC]

I would've thought that you'd need to be preparing different work for the two levels whether you  have them in at the same time or separately. Therefore having two separate groups would only involve the extra class time and would be compensated for by the greater ease of smaller groups of a similar standard. Mixed ability teaching can be pretty stressful whether you're a trained teacher or not and I'm never convinced that it's a good thing for anybody. Alternately, rope in another Brit to run one of the classes.

[loella]

Oh dear, I feel hopelessly out of my depth, I'm just someone who responded to a need in our local commume; fairly good at communicating but certainly not a trained teacher. It all went really well at the beginning of the year until May when we 'broke up' for the Summer.They now want to start again for the Autumn/Winter...but as I said, they have developed into 2 clear level groups and I just wanted a bit of advice from all the 'experts' out there! Its also 'free' as it was about putting something back into the community.

I've now got my 'original' account back!!!

[Albert the InfoGipsy]

I've been a trainer and my wife is a very experienced (20 years) & qualified (Diplomee) teacher of French to adults. My experience of training mixed level groups is that it's stressful and I know she avoids it wherever possible. However, as she said when I asked her 'That's what teachers do!'

If you are doing it to help the community and not for pay then I'd suggest explaining the situation to the organisers and coming to some sort of arrangement. If you are happy to teach more hours then you can do it that way, otherwise I'd suggest alternating weeks or terms: not ideal, but...

As someone else said, you'll need to spend more time on preparation, but the extra time is in planning how to manage the different levels, rather than extra material.

Mrs IG suggests giving the harder bits of role plays to the more advanced students and getting them to answer questions first, to give the beginners extra time and some more examples of correct (or corrected) responses.

Good luck.

[Kiras_Back]

You don't say how large the class is ...; I've had a similar problem with a group of what I'd term 'intermediate' & 'upper-intermediate' students.  The best way that I found was to pair them, put one side of the group with the other, hence assisting the lesser able students with the more advanced ones.  You don't say if you're qualified or not, a lot of this comes with training & practice.  The worst situation is with 2 students of a different level which I come across from time to time and makes life very difficult.

Give us some more info & maybe we can help or look on the ESL forums!

Kira

[loella]

I did actually say in my last post that I was not a trained teacher just someone who is very 'people' orientated and have a natural ability to communicate! I only have a smallish mixed ability group but I'm not sure how many will turn up on Saturday when we recommence for the winter as one of the 'class' volunteered to put a small 'advert' in our local mag.

My French is not too bad but I now think I've persuaded my somewhat reluctant husband to take the more advanced ones. The main rule will be to insist that only English is spoken (his French is ok but not as strong as mine); I will then concentrate on the beginners.

Would be most grateful for any suggestions though for either level...

Thanks

[Dick Smith]

To respond to Bones - I asked the question so that any response could be suited to Annie's experience. I humbly apologise for offending you by trying to be helpful.

Clearly a trained teacher (and whatever you think Boney, training does help a great deal - would you like a doctor to operate according to 'god-given good sense'?) will have more resource to call upon compared to an untrained volunteer, a position which I think is pretty no-win.

Annie - I think Kathy C answered sensibly (which is why I didn't, Bonesy). You will need to set up two different tiers, which will mean some form of assessment and then prepare materials accordingly.

[loella]

Ok, well thats really spurred me on then!

Just as well I'm pretty confident in that I did make a small difference back in the winter/spring with my small group. Must have done as they seem to want to return!

So perhaps we'll call it a 'medium gain' as opposed to a 'no-win' then?

[Dick Smith]

In teaching, medium gains are good!

[KathyC]

[quote user="Dick Smith"]In teaching, medium gains are good![/quote]

In teaching, any gain is good (and sometimes miraculous!)

[loella]

Thanks Kathy, good to have the encouragement!

[The Riff-Raff Element]

I "teach" three classes - CE2, CM1 and CM2 as one group. This took a

bit of getting used to (being male I am frequently reminded that it is

simply impossible for me to multi-task, so I can't be doing that); it's

a little like spinning plates on sticks, à la Generation Game.

I finally got my meeting with the collège teacher who will handle my

victims when they get to 6eme and was delighted to learn that she does

not think I have done any lasting harm. Indeed, she will be taking them

for half of their classes after the break, so my rôle will be relagated

to that of restating what she does with them and working on

pronouncation. I think I can do that.

I'm trained to do a number of things, but not teaching. Annie - if you

are doing this gig free, gratis & for nothing then anything you are

able to impart is of value. Good luck.

[Dick Smith]

I assume that Kathy gets thanks and I don't because I said you have been put in a no-win position. Let me explain a bit.

It is one thing to do some work with a small group of kids/humans in your native and their target language. That is quite do-able and they will make good progress, if the group is small and fairly homogeneous. After all, that is what language assistants do everywhere.

What is no-win is if you are then expected to assess a group of students (which wll be getting bigger in a mysterious way) and then plan and deliver work to them which is differentiated according to their individual abilities. Most experienced teachers find that hard work, and without some training it is very difficult to do well. The best (?) answer might be to take a number of groups with different levels of competence rather than a larger group with differentiated work, but that will start to bind if you are volunteering your time. So your success means that your original comfortable arrangement is lost.

I also agree with Jon 100%.

[KathyC]

I agree completely with both Jon and Dick and have to confess that my last comment was meant to be humourous rather than encouraging. However, I do think that you must be doing a good job as people want to come back and bring their friends. Don't let yourself be dragged into too difficult a situation; drafting in your husband sounds like a good idea.

[loella]

Dear oh dear, I almost wish I hadn't started this post.....I feel its been hijacked a little by a few of professionals defending their position...I promise that I'm no threat...really! As I stated very clearly in my 2nd post, I'm not a teacher although I think I could have been had I trained...

However, my motives for posting my initial question was for encouragement and a bit of advice.....even you Kathy seem to have taken a bit of that away in your last post...what a shame...or maybe I'm being a bit too sensitive....It is after all only 7 in the morning!

[YCCMB]

"Sensitive" isn't a good emotion for a teacher, Annie, paid or otherwise!! You can be sensitive to the feelings of others, in fact it's essential, but I'd advise developing the skin of a rhino as far as your own feelings are concerned. [;-)]

[Dick Smith]

Perhaps, as I said, we feel you have been put in a no-win situation which you may find difficult. I hope you don't. Would you have preferred that we lie to you?

 

We aren't being defensive, by the way, we are saying that teaching a broad mixed ability group in languages isn't  easy, even with training and experience.

[KathyC]

[quote user="annie"]Dear oh dear, I almost wish I hadn't started this post.....I feel its been hijacked a little by a few of professionals defending their position...I promise that I'm no threat...really! As I stated very clearly in my 2nd post, I'm not a teacher although I think I could have been had I trained... However, my motives for posting my initial question was for encouragement and a bit of advice.....even you Kathy seem to have taken a bit of that away in your last post...what a shame...or maybe I'm being a bit too sensitive....It is after all only 7 in the morning![/quote]

I did mean to be encouraging in general but I wanted to be honest about what I meant regarding my "any gain is good" post. It's true but was meant as a humourous reply to one of Dick's posts. I think both trained and untrained are saying the same thing; you're doing well but mixed ability teaching is tricky and best avoided if possible.

By the way, it was Bones' snide comments about  Dick and teachers that sent this thread off at a bit of a tangent.

[Bones]

Dick,

I don't agree with your medical analogy, no.

If you read back to my (one) post you might just find I detailed a course where the groups have been split relative to their ability, they then work off core texts. You don't need to be a trained teacher to identify differing levels of ability, in fact adults will let you know themselves and the original poster already had this problem identified. Do you disagree with any of this?

Kathy, I have made no snide comments whatsoever about trained teachers: I made a CLEAR comment - in my experience most teachers have been egomaniacal tosspots more interested in how they come across than anything else. Sorry!

I was trying to see off any potential mocking of the original poster -- something I've seen happen on here far too many times. There's a pathetic guild protection mentality coming from most professions, I think it comes from a feeling of inadequacy and jealousy.

I'll say this: Dick was right in a way that if a layman came on here with a similar post pertaining to the medical profession the first question should rightly be "Are you trained??". Given that we are discussing the teaching of a few adults a bit of english, well come on - get over yourselves....

Dick could have answered the query with some sound advice from the off, anybody could, in fact the original question (looking back) was a bit lame in the first place.

I hope, considering I've been labeled snide and obtuse anyway, that I've properly offended everyone now?