WHAT IF STUDENTS ARE AT DIFFERENT LEVELS IN THE CLASSROOM?
3rd year student of English philology
faculty, Karshi State University
SHOSURA KHUSENOVA TOSHTEMIR QIZI
ABSTRACT
This article discusses the problem of pupils having varying levels and some useful approaches to use in the classroom. Differentiated, according to the author, is a strategy that “tailors instruction to meet the individual needs, strengths, and interests of all learners.” The article also offers numerous methods for putting diversified education into practice, including flexible grouping, giving students a choice, and using materials effectively.
Keywords:
Mixed-level students, formative assessment, multi-sensory instruction, peer-tutoring, set different academic expectations, ESL multilevel activities.
INTRODUCTION
Before you’ve even had a chance to finish passing the worksheet around to the entire class, you have a student, let’s call him Billy, who has finished it. Another student, Lily, is seated in the back and has no idea how to approach the situation at all. Not the best scenario, would you say? Unfortunately, it does occasionally occur, and it can worry TEFL instructors of all experience levels. What do you do then? Do you move on and leave poor old student Lily to keep their fingers crossed and hope for the best, or do you leave student Billy to sit there and fidget while the rest of the class catches up? Neither seems seem good, don’t they?
Despite being in the same class, students may not all be at the same academic level. This is evident in all classes, but it can be particularly obvious in a class intended to teach a language to non-native speakers. It is the responsibility of the teacher to recognize these variations in students’ skill levels and adjust their lesson plans accordingly. Like any other teacher, all of the above-mentioned situations happened to me in my classroom when I started my teaching career.
WHAT HAPPENED IN THIS CASE?
Students in the class were at various levels, and a number of issues occurred that affected both my performance as a teacher as well as the students’ performances.
1. Boredom: When the topic seemed too simple for advanced students, they felt bored and disengaged.
2. Frustration and low self-esteem: Struggling students could not keep up with the class’s pace because they did not comprehend the topic, they grew frustrated and disappointed. While advanced students became overconfident and underestimated the difficulty of upcoming obstacles, struggling students had low self-esteem and believed they were not smart enough.
3. Burnout and stress: I also suffered from having to accommodate students with varying levels of ability in the same lesson. I always had to try to make sure everyone in a heterogeneous classroom was being challenged and learning the material.
WHAT APPROACHES TAKEN?
Regardless of the students’ individual ability levels, I searched for numerous techniques to create a challenging and supportive learning atmosphere where all students would be encouraged to realize their maximum potential. When trying to solve the issues, I started with diagnostic testing. The exam comprised questions that gauged whether or not students would possess the expected abilities required to grasp the new ideas in the course. Test results identified students’ particular needs and gaps in their knowledge, enabling me to classify them based on their developmental stage. I made a chart with the student’s name, grade, and any special requirements. To simply erase as fresh information was needed to track the pupils’ development, I used a pencil. After starting the class off with a warm-up exercise for the entire group, I moved on to a pairwork activity (cross-ability) and a small-group activity (like-ability), assisted students by moving from group to group, and finished with an activity or game for the entire class.
Formative assessment: Throughout the learning process, students were continuously evaluated to help them understand their strengths and flaws. Formative assessment data was used to modify lessons and offer specialized support to all students.
Selecting materials: Because there were a lot of students with comparable English proficiency levels, finding a core textbook for the class became helpful. The same textbook series needed to be used on more than one level. The use of a theme-based strategy was the best decision. One excellent strategy to keep the classroom environment feeling like a class in a multilevel setting is to keep all of your kids working on activities and lessons that are centered on the same theme. Thus, I used this strategy. It did not only make the pupils feel that they were all a part of the same group, but it also saved my time and helped me feel more organized. The theme was then used as the basis for further activities like games and debates.
Doing different tasks with the same material/technology and setting different expectations according to their abilities:
Where teachers use the same material with the whole class, differentiation can still take place. We can encourage students to do different tasks depending on their abilities. For instance, a reading text may contain sets of questions at three distinct levels. The better pupils will accomplish the first two sets easily, but they will have to put in a lot of effort on the third, the teacher instructs the class. The least capable kids might not make it past the first set. In a language learning activity, the teacher can request basic repetition from certain pupils while requesting more complicated statements from others. When asking students for answers or opinions, the teacher can make it clear that some students will only need to say one word, while others will be expected to provide longer, more in-depth responses. She can make sure that students are given roles or responsibilities that are appropriate for their level in role-plays and other speaking or group exercises. This technique was also one that I enjoyed most using because it helped to create a friendly atmosphere and meet every student’s academic needs. As a result, boredom among advanced students and low self-esteem among struggling students started to lessen.
Multi-sensory instruction: This method involves teaching English language skills utilizing all five senses (sight, sound, touch, and taste) and creating multiple ways to learn and understand the same concept, taking into account different learning styles, abilities, and interests. To engage students with different learning styles, teachers might use a variety of teaching materials such visual aids, audio recordings, and hands-on exercises. According to this, the lessons were held using different teaching styles integratedly. For example, when teaching topic vocabularies about transport, sheets with pictures and their translations were distributed at first. This was important to differentiate the spelling and pronunciation by seeing them on paper and pronouncing them. Listening tasks, word puzzles, and making up sentences were the next stages of the teaching process of new words. At the end of the lesson, the results were as expected.
Peer tutoring: In this approach, students of various skill levels are paired up so they can benefit from one another’s knowledge. For instance, in a writing class, an advanced student might be partnered with a struggling student so that the advanced student can mentor and help the struggling student. Remind students that teaching is the best way to learn, and encourage them to volunteer as peer tutors. Think about getting a volunteer. The students were so eager to teach each other because, in my opinion, working in groups, teamwork, and other activities were the reasons for having strong relationships in the classroom like a family.
Personalized Learning Plans: Students can go at their own speed and receive focused training in areas where they require more assistance or challenge by having individual learning plans made for them based on their strengths and limitations. In their workbooks, there were main tasks and optional tasks, and students were given tasks based on their abilities. Fast learners did optional tasks besides the main ones while their partners were accomplishing the main, compulsory task of the book.
Play games: Games are a great way to involve all levels of English learners. Even a game geared towards beginners can give advanced students a chance to practice speaking and listening. Plus, all students are more likely to learn when they’re having fun!
Pick teams: Choose teams strategically, make sure that no team contains only advanced students and no team contains primarily beginning students. The teams will be diverse, which will make everyone feel included and challenged. By choosing team captains and allowing them to alternately choose teammates, you might also allow students to choose their teams. Because advanced students are likely to be chosen first and then beginners, the teams will likely contain a mix of students from each level.
Active participation: Due to the active participation required, games aid in learning. Even better, give the victors a prize like an extra credit point. Everyone will be compelled to join since this will promote competition. The participation is what helps English language learners at all levels. In order to give pupils practice speaking, choose a game that involves speaking, such as “I Spy” if you are teaching colors. Choose games that can be played in pairs or small groups, like “Twenty Questions,” to increase participation because every student will have a chance to participate.
Having fun: Even if the game isn’t the most difficult for your advanced pupils, your students will still have fun and practice their English if you pick one they like. A strong learning incentive is enjoyment! Your kids will be more motivated to practice their English if they have the opportunity to engage in something silly or competitive. This repetition will help learners at all levels feel more at ease with unfamiliar terminology and grammatical structures. As a matter of fact, the majority of the teaching process consisted of playing games. Games not only helped learn the language in an easy manner, but they also gave a chance to put the knowledge obtained into practice.
The following activities were the most used ones to teach in a balanced way.
ESL MULTILEVEL ACTIVITIES
ESL Multilevel Activity 1 – Buddy Reading
This exercise is open to classes of any size. For instance, pupils pair up for buddy reading. In this mixed-ability activity, one student reads while their “buddy” corrects the reader’s pronunciation. With adults, it is frequently simple because it is akin to studying with others outside of class. Do demonstrate this for the group first, though. It is advantageous for all sides when higher-level students keep an eye on lower-level students. Interesting though it may seem, having lower-level students observe higher-level students frequently aids the latter in being aware of the mistakes they do.
ESL Multilevel Activity 2 – Peer Editing
Similar to this, peer editing enables students to assess each other’s work and provide feedback that is appropriate for their skill levels. Independently, students can write rough drafts. More complicated and lengthy writings can be written by advanced ESL students than by their peers. The final step before drafting the final draft is peer editing. Along with grammar and punctuation, students can talk about the text’s content. Of course, playing games is the ultimate multilayer ESL activity. The beauty of games is that, despite students having widely varying English proficiency levels, they are typically excellent at fostering meaningful connection between them. So that all pupils may take part in the games together, teach the required grammatical rules and new vocabularies beforehand.
ESL Multilevel Activity 3– How it’s Made
“How it is made” requires directions on assembling something.
Instructions on how to assemble something are needed for the activity How It’s Made. Making peanut butter sandwiches or other straightforward meals is enjoyable, despite the fact that it involves some preparation. Every student must select where they fit in after discussing their task with the other students that have the same stage in the process. Use this technique with Lego, puzzles, or blocks. Give the more knowledgeable students longer instructions or more complicated processes. Putting the wheels on the Lego car is an easy task for beginners. The model’s instructions can be made slightly larger by photocopying them. Then, divide them up and assign one or two paragraphs to each student. To ensure sufficient instruction, it’s ideal to have one model for every three or four students. For maximum participation and speaking practice, it is recommended to have one model for every three or four pupils.
How It is Made Variant
If you do not have any instructions on hand, another strategy is to explain that no pupil may move a piece without first speaking. A pupil MUST speak in English if they wish to pick up some material to see if it fits the model. For example, using a crossword with some red flowers: Advanced pupils describe their actions in real time, saying things like, “I’m just going to test if this small red piece fits on here… it looks like that it might be a part of a flower. Oh no, that’s wrong. Instead of saying, “I think this is a flower,” or “It fits/it does not fit,” a lower level student would say, “I think this is.” Students may also repeat any line; it is not necessary for it to be associated in any way with the model’s or puzzle’s theme. So a beginner student could say, “I like pears.” They are now qualified to attempt a component on the puzzle or model thanks to their input. Working in multiple groups, they can compete against one another to determine who finishes first.
ESL Multilevel Activity 4 – Jigsaw Reading
Jigsaw reading takes little time to set up. Choose a reading text to start with, then use activities to introduce the vocabulary and grammar. Next, divide the text into sections, giving more difficult passages to advanced students and shorter, easier passages to lower-level students. The article or tale is then read silently by each student. After reading, students can either write or present an oral summary of the article or story. As an alternative, students might recreate the article in the proper order and compare it to the original text together. Give each student three or four images that are similar but not identical and instruct them to work in pairs. So, for instance, put four images of cars that are similar on the board or table. One student responds to the questions posed by the other pupils while holding a duplicate image of one of the cars. These pupils use questions to whittle down their options and identify the corresponding image. Because asking questions is harder than answering them, the more advanced students should do so.
RESULT: At the end of the term, a huge difference was witnessed. Precisely, a strong relationship between students, a strong desire to help each other and study together, improvement in slow learners’ language capability, and consolidated knowledge because of games and practices are just a few examples of the approach taken.
CONCLUSION
However, multi-level-class problems have advantages. Yes, advantages!
Everyone’s social abilities, but notably those of high achievers, are enhanced in heterogeneous teams. High achievers by definition have no issues with academic material. Their need for improvement in interpersonal connections is frequently greater. High achievers gain coaching, encouragement, praise, tutoring, and patient waiting skills in mixed teams. Our high achievers develop their leadership abilities by putting them to use in their teams.
In short, multi-level classes are not easy to teach, but are certainly an excellent opportunity to develop one’s teaching skills. This is a vast topic.
Enjoy your vocations !
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10. Teaching English to Multi-Level Classes | Teaching Tips | English Club