One of the most difficult situations for the language teacher is a group which includes students of different levels, of varying learning ability, or even both. The class has to be organized so that no one needs to feel they re wasting time waiting for the others or alternatively, that they are out of their depth in comparison to other members of the group. How do you design a lesson to meet all the varying needs?
One way of coping with this situation is to abandon lockstep teaching (all of the students working on the same activity at the same time) for at least part of the lesson, so that the teacher can work intensively with one sub group while the others work independently. This, of course, means that you need to have suitable materials for autonomous study on hand. These could be in any format, but if you have computers available in the classroom, the easiest solution is to use on line materials.
It would be possible, of course, to make these materials the sole basis of the lessons. Each student works through a course at his/her own level while the teacher circulates, monitors and gives help , explanation and practice as necessary. In groups where the students are of widely differing levels, this could well be the best solution. But with others, where the difference is less extreme, it s also possible to integrate the autonomous work into more traditional full class lessons.
As an example, let s look at a mixed level EFL group including students from upper elementary to mid intermediate levels. The next area to be covered in the course they are following is the present perfect for past to present events for example, He s worked here for the last five months. For the upper elementary students this is a completely new structure, and they re going to need a systematic presentation as well as a lot of controlled practice before they can go on to freer activities using the structure. But for the mid intermediate students, the lesson is only revision and consolidation.
Here is a possible outline for the lesson:
1) The first activity is a warm up consolidating the simple past, which all students have met before.
2) The class then splits into two groups. The elementary and weaker intermediate students remain with the teacher for a systematic presentation of the new structure, while the other, stronger students work independently at the computer on a second simple past consolidation activity this might be a short listening or reading activity.
3) When the teacher has finished the presentation, the class comes back together to do a receptive practice activity which asks them to distinguish between the two verb forms.
4) The class then divides into two groups again. The stronger students return to the computer and work on activities which consolidate the present perfect at their own level. These activities could be grammar practice, a listening consolidation, or whatever the teacher thinks is right for those students at that point. Meanwhile the lower level students stay with the teacher to complete some controlled practice work.
5) The groups then change over. The stronger students work with the teacher on some semi controlled or freer practice, while the others work independently at their own level which may or may not mean completing the same activities done by the stronger students at stage four.
6) Finally the group comes back into lockstep and works on an activity organized in one of the following ways:
•Students are grouped in mixed high/low level pairs with the stronger student having a more challenging role
•Again, students are paired high/low and complete an activity in which the strong students help the weaker ones
•Students are paired or grouped with others of the same ability high/high, low/low and work on an activity at their own level.
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