Classes of Mixed Ability

Classes of Mixed Ability

Students learning a language in the same class level will most likely still differ in maturity levels, motivation, occupations, cultural backgrounds and personalities. However, in classes of mixed-ability students there is a considerable distinction as students will have varying needs, rates of learning, and abilities. As a result, the teaching method should be specific to this type of class to ensure all students are making progress whilst learning together. 

A mixed-ability class requires the teacher to be highly organized, to thoroughly plan all lessons, and to have a great deal of personal attention to ensure the each student’s needs are being met. It may be necessary to have multiple lesson plans for a single lesson to accommodate the various groups of students. This is clearly a more demanding and challenging role for the teacher compared to dealing with a single-level class. But according to Hubbard, Jones, Thornton & Wheeler, through the teacher’s attitude, their willingness to create ‘a sense of community in class and a genuine desire to help, there can be progress at all levels’ (Hubbard, Jones, Thornton & Wheeler 1983, p.318).

Christopher Corbel states the importance of the teacher getting to know their students in the mixed-ability class as early as possible at the start of the course. The teacher will not only be able to assess the students’ knowledge and abilities, but also get know what they are interested in so that suitable material or topics can be selected for future lessons (corbel 1989, p.2). Corbel goes on to say, ‘It also goes deeper than this. It also means their preferred method of learning, their concept of themselves as learners, their motivation, and their level of commitment. In other words, how they view themselves learning another language. This is a formidable task and yet is essential for successful teaching to take place’ (Corbel 1989, p.2). 

It is also important for the teacher to make the most out of teaching materials so that it can be used accordingly for the various levels as this will save additional preparation. Corbel states, ‘Because the planning and preparation stage is so important and time-consuming, it is best to make materials as versatile as possible. Develop materials that can be used in many different ways and can be offered to a variety of levels’ (Corbel 1989, p.34). By using similar material for various divided groups within a class, the entire group can come together at particular stages and it also allows all students to feel part of the group.

According to Natalie Hess, there are many benefits from the teacher’s perspective in teaching mixed-ability classes. In these types of classes, there are many opportunities for student interaction which creates an interesting, stimulating, and high energy learning environment for students (Hess 2001, p.3). There is also ‘a rich variety of human resources’ as there are many varying opinions, cultural backgrounds, personalities, experiences, and styles of learning (Hess 2001, p.3). By encouraging student involvement in class, the teacher can use the students’ input to create lessons that are exciting, fun, and also challenging. This will help students to be more engaged and motivated throughout their course.

As Hess states, ‘The teacher is not the only pedagogue. Since there are so many levels of language ability, it is only natural that the more able students quickly assume the role of teacher-assistants. In such classes, students can learn as much from one another as they learn from the teacher’ (Hess 2001, p.3). This is another great benefit for teaching multi-level classes, as the single teacher cannot possibly give equal attention to the various groups or individual students throughout the lesson. Students can also benefit in this circumstance. A lower-level student who is confused about a particular language point or idea, may quickly gain an understanding if it is explained or clarified by a higher-level student. The ‘teacher-assistants’ will also benefit as they, too, will learn new things by teaching their fellow students.

As Corbel states, whilst teaching mixed-ability classes the teacher’s ‘professional development occurs naturally. Work in the large multilevel class truly forces us to invent and develop new ways of organizing material. These are the classes that compel us to find better ways of setting up routine tasks. There are the classes that make us think, create, and grow as teacher’ (Corbel 1989, p. 4).

Teaching Classes Of Mixed Ability Students

Teaching students with mixed ability can pose a unique set of challenges. Diversity in language, culture, confidence and ability can all come into play for teachers in the classroom (4). Working with students, sending them down different paths in order to arrive at a similar goal can be one of the most challenging things for teachers of all backgrounds. However with patience, respect and hard work all the seemingly grand problems can be overcome to the benefit of all. As such, it is my intention to present a brief, basic summary of what I believe to be a sound starting methodology for approaching classes with students of mixed abilities. 

As a first step in managing the diversity of student ability in the classroom, there needs to be an analysis of the needs of the students. With this analysis the teacher will gain much ground in the effort to determine and support the needs of every student. This analysis will provide an opportunity for the students to reflect on their ability and style and prepare them for the fact that the class will not be managed in the traditional manner. While this action seems to add work for the instructor on the front end of things I think we can easily liken it to the old adage ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’. 

Upon determination of the individual student needs the teacher can strive to coordinate the students into functional learning groups based on their skills and learning pace. The construction of focus groups allows the instructor to proactively increase the effectiveness of the lesson plan and provide realistic and achievable assignments to the students. The groups can work together based on their skill level or at time the instructor can intermingle the weaker with the advanced, which will also contribute to creating variety in the class (1,4). This method allows for all students to advance toward a mutual goal at an appropriate pace for their capacity and avoids putting them off with material that is outside of their aptitude. 

Provided the instructor has established focus groups based on ability or learning pace the next step is to consider the curriculum to be utilized. The instructor should amass a collection of authentic and prepared materials that can be used with varying requirements for the class. These materials can be utilized in the classroom to provide different tasks for the unique skill levels so as to achieve conformity in the exercise, while utilizing realistic expectations of what can be accomplished based on individual groups. To this end the instructor can include several different versions of the same homework task in order to align with achievement levels and maximize the benefit to all the students. 

Ultimately in this very limited summary I feel that we need to consider the psychology of the students, the effects of this methodology on them and how to work to benefit each and every student. If caution is not taken to include all students fully the weaker students will potentially not achieve and consequently experience the natural reaction of avoiding the activities they are not successful in. Because of this reaction the achievement gap will only be widened rather than narrowed. To this end, instructors must make an effort to make the classes inclusive while differentiating in order to ensure student achievement across the board and not just with the better performing students. 

While there are so many different facets to managing a class of students with mixed abilities, by taking some basic measures teachers can manage the challenge effectively for the benefit of all. You can be certain that I have only begun to scratch the surface of the issues faced by teachers of classes with mixed ability students, but I hope I have provided some basic building blocks for individual instructors to start with. As instructors we have the responsibility to show respect and provide reasonable attention to all students and I feel strongly that utilizing the previously stated methodology is a start down a path to achieve such ends. 

The Six Thinking Hats - Classes of mixed ability

Dr. Edward de Bono, a psychologist and medical doctor created the Six Thinking Hats (parallel thinking) method early in the 1980’s. He developed this thinking tool to solve the multitude of arguments happening in corporate meetings that he believed were time wasters. The Six Thinking Hats method is a framework for thinking. It requires participants, to extend their way of thinking about a topic by ´wearing` a range of different ´thinking` hats. However, his hats are not limited to the corporate sector. Much of de Bonos` work, including the Six Thinking Hats, is used in primary, middle, and high schools across the world as well.

Dr. de Bono explains parallel thinking in this example. There is a large and beautiful country house. One person is standing in front of the house. One person is standing behind the house. Two other people are standing on each side of the house. All four have a different view of the house. All four are arguing by intercom that the view each is seeing is the correct view of the house. Using parallel thinking, they all walk around and look at the front. Then they all walk around to the side, then the back and finally the remaining side. At each moment, each person is looking in parallel from the same point of view. 

If they disagree, their views are noted down. Later if only one view can be chosen, a decision is made and if an agreement cannot be reached then the decision has to encompass all views.

De Bono decided that people needed direction labels for thinking so he designed the hats. It is important to remember when you use the six thinking hats that they are categories of thinking behaviour not people.

Each of The Six Thinking Hats has a colour, which describes the hat. The white hat thinking identifies the facts and details of a topic.

The black hat thinking examines the problems associated with a topic.

The yellow hat thinking focuses on the positive aspects of a topic.

The red hat thinking looks at a topic from the point of view of emotions and feelings.

The green hat thinking requires creativeness, imagination, and lateral thinking about a topic. The blue hat thinking focuses on reflection, metacognition (thinking about the thinking that is required), and the need to understand the big picture.

The more any mixed ability class uses the hats the more effective their thinking becomes. A negative opinion can be changed by simply asking the student to think using the yellow hat. Not all hats need to be used at the same time and all hats can be used at the same time if a quick exploration of a subject is required. The order does not matter and usually about four minutes is spent on each hat.

How can these hats be used in a class of mixed ability? From beginning ESL, to students whose native tongue is English and are above grade level in their academic work. Here is an example. No matter what age the students are, they will probably know the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The teacher reads the story and uses the hats to organize the discussion. The beginning ESL group could wear the white hat and answer the questions who, what, why, when and where (the facts). The intermediate ESL group could wear the red hat and look at the point of view of the bears. How did they feel? Or compare Goldilockses feelings versus the bears, she did what she wanted and the bears felt violated (points of view). The remainder of the class would be divided up to focus on the yellow hat, did she learn her lesson, the green hat, what could she have done instead, the black hat, what was the problem with what she (Goldilocks) did? The groups would present their points of view and then finally the whole class could wear the blue hat and have a short discussion on what have they learnt by using the hats to discuss Goldilocks.

Current events are also an excellent topic for using the hats.