CHAPTER 10

Dealing with different learning speeds

One of the problems that mixed-ability classes present for the teacher is that the
students do not work at the same speed. Some take longer to understand and
learn a new language point, or to do a practice activity or task, than others. If
you work at the speed of the faster learners, the slower ones get left behind; if,
on the other hand, you slow down to the pace of the slower learners, the
stronger ones get bored and demotivated. If you go for the middle ground, you
may end up catering for nobody! It is important to find a balance and clear
strategies for ensuring that stronger students are not held back or challenged
insufficiently, and that weaker students have enough time to do the essential
work. In other words, you have to try and cater simultaneously for different
learning speeds in the class.

1 Course content As with any class, it is essential to plan work ahead. To begin with, you should
have an overview of the year’s objectives and the work to be covered. This
information should be evident from the syllabus or, if you have no clearly defined
syllabus, you will need to agree objectives and content with colleagues who are
teaching the same level(s).
This then needs to be broken down into termly and perhaps half-termly
objectives and content to enable you to plan ahead in manageable chunks.

Identify your syllabus

Depending on how your syllabus is organised, you need to identify how you will
meet the objectives through, e.g.
CORE LANGUAGE input, new structures and vocabulary
core topics and tasks
core skills work, e.g. subskills of the four skills to be covered
core extensive reading
core learning behaviours.
‘Core’ refers to what is essential to achieving the objectives, i.e. work that needs
to be done by everybody. Bear in mind, too, the obligatory assessment
procedures used; if there are written tests at the end of the term, you will need
to spend some time preparing students for these, although they shouldn’t
influence you so much so that you end up only doing exam preparation.
If you look at your coursebook, you will no doubt find that it contains more than
enough work for the hours you have available. You may also find that not all of
the language input and tasks are essential because they do not relate to the core
input you have identified. Next to each core item on your syllabus write down
the coursebook reference. Thus you will have selected the essential objectives
and material for the term or half term.

Identify remedial work necessary

The next step is to consider what is essential previous knowledge for these
objectives to be met. If your students are complete beginners – or assumed to be
– this is not a problem. If, however, they are going into their second or third year
of English, you need to identify any language items or skills that are essential

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background to the new core objectives for this year. You also need to note any
materials references; perhaps there are activities in your coursebook or workbook
which are suitable for this remedial work, or you may have to go to other
supplementary sources.

Identify extra work

Thirdly, you need to think about extra work that can complement the core
syllabus. It is essential that optional areas for extra study do not eat into the next
block of core course work. If stronger students are allowed to race ahead with
core course content, the problem of mixed ability just gets worse from term to
term. So make sure the stronger students learn ‘extra’ things, not future core
coursework. Again, note references to materials from the coursebook, workbook,
supplementary materials and readers.

Assess the students

By now you have a three-part work plan: remedial, core and extra work. You will
need to find out if your students – and which ones – actually need to do the
remedial work. You can find this out by a test, or a number of MINI CHECKTESTS at
the beginning of the year, or by setting tasks in class or for homework, or by a
combination of these. SEE CHAPTER 11

As a general principle, it is probably not a good idea to begin the year with a lot
of revision (especially if you don’t even know if all the students need it) because
it can bore the stronger students and further demotivate weaker students who
see it as more of the same!

Inform the students

Give the students a copy or a simplified version of the document you have
produced. Give them the remedial work list before the core work list for this year.
This can provide a basis for:
… self assessment and a first individual counselling session
… choosing work for the first self-access sessions
… choosing homework.
The core work list can be used on an ongoing basis throughout the block of
work: students can tick off areas as they cover them, evaluate their progress and
refer back to the list for ongoing revision purposes.
The list of extra work will be most useful for the stronger students but should be
given to everybody to avoid students feeling labelled as weak. You should make
it clear that once the students are confident that they have learned what is listed
on the remedial and core work lists, they can do work on this for homework, or
in self-access sessions.
Students will obviously need training in using these checklists. Explaining the
rationale, allocating class time to learner training generally and individual
counselling sessions will help students take on this responsibility. Initially you may
need to intervene if you see that students are seriously over- or underestimating
their abilities.
Opposite is an example of a low-level remedial work checklist which focuses on
areas of language knowledge and particular tasks that the students need to be
able to do in the four skills.

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YOU SHOULD ALREADY BE ABLE TO DO THE FOLLOWING:

Speaking
count from 1 to 20
identify colours
name ten classroom objects
give some basic personal information about yourself
identify members of your family
say the letters of the alphabet

Listening
understand simple questions about yourself and your family
write words as they are spelt out to you
follow instructions to colour a simple picture

Reading
match simple sentences to a picture of a classroom
identify true and false sentences about colours in a picture of a classroom
read a simple description of a family and match it to a picture

Writing
complete a form in English giving personal information
write a few sentences about yourself and your family
spell numbers 1-20, colours, classroom objects, family members correctly

Depending on the age and level of your students, the core work checklists can
be more or less detailed. Whatever the level, it is a good idea to have them
written in English, although you will need to check that all students understand
what the terms refer to. Here is an example of a simple core work checklist.

BY THE END OF THIS TERM

YOU SHOULD KNOW: YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO:

Structures Speaking/listening
to be ask and answer questions about a family
have got describe a person
present simple identify people on a photograph of a family from
listening to a description
draw a picture of a person as you listen to
a description
ask and answer questions about your daily
routine
listen to someone talking about their daily
routine and fill in a chart
ask and say what time it is

Vocabulary Reading/writing
classroom objects read a description of a family and match it to a
jobs family tree
illnesses read short descriptions of people and match them
physical descriptions of people to pictures
family write short descriptions of people in a picture
daily routines write a short paragraph about you and your family
the time read a short description of someone’s routine and
identify their job
write a description of your daily routine
write a description of the daily routine of another
person in your family

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Here is another more detailed checklist designed to help students evaluate their
progress and identify any areas they need to work on.

Level:
Term:

Here is a list of this term’s work. At the end of the term, tick off the areas we have
covered and make a comment about your progress. You can say ‘good’ or
‘satisfactory’ or ‘needs more work’.

We did it Comment

Language areas/speaking
Talk about health and illness:
parts of the body vocabulary
illnesses and injuries vocabulary
have got
Make suggestions (1):
Why don’t you ...? + infinitive
Say where things are:
prepositions: on, in front of, next to,
beside, in, under, on
Talk about sports:
different sports
sports equipment
Talk about clothes:
clothes vocabulary
to be wearing
Describe actions happening now:
present continuous
Make and respond to suggestions (2):
Let’s + infinitive
That’s a good idea.
Talk about entertainment:
entertainments vocabulary
musicians and musical instruments

Listening
understand the main points of a
conversation
understand specific details of a
conversation

Reading
predict the topic of a text from the title
and picture
understand the main points of a text
reorder a jumbled text
guess the meaning of new words

Writing
write up the results of a class survey
about sport
make a poster about a concert
write a short article about a pop group

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We did it Comment
Pronunciation
recognise and say wh- questions with
falling intonation
link words ending in a consonant to
those followed by a word beginning
with a vowel
recognise and say the sounds /I/
and /e/
recognise and say the sounds /I/
and /i:/

Learning skills
speak in English in front of the class
speak in English in a small group
use classroom language
copy correctly from the board
keep well organised notes
use a bilingual dictionary to check the
meaning of new English words

General
Write a comment here about:
your level of English
the progress you have made this term
your behaviour in class

This task is best done with other colleagues teaching the same level. Follow
T A S K the procedure outlined above for designing the checklists for remedial, core
and extra work for the next half term’s work.

2 Whole-class stages Although we have seen that individual work, pair and groupwork are very useful
of the lesson in the mixed-ability class, there will be some points at which the class will be
working together with the teacher at the front, e.g.
… a teacher-led presentation of a new language point
… checking an exercise
… creating interest and brainstorming ideas prior to a skills-work activity.
The main aim here is to involve the stronger students as much as possible and
make sure they do not get bored and to give the weaker students enough time
and opportunities to understand and not get left behind.

What do you do to make sure everyone is involved as much as possible in

T A S K whole-class stages of the lesson? Compare your ideas with those below.

Presenting new language

Elicit as much as you can from the stronger students to involve them and let
them model the new language rather than doing it all the time yourself.
Encourage peer correction.
Insist on good pronunciation, particularly from the stronger students.

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Keep the presentation lively, fun and well-paced.

Split the class if it becomes evident that the weaker students need a bit more
oral practice; let the other students get on with a practice task individually or
in pairs while you spend a little more time with part of the class.
If it is evident that some students are not grasping the language, don’t go on
and on. Feeling embarrassed or stupid only creates further learning blocks.
Move on to the practice activity where things may suddenly fall into place.

Checking an exercise
It is not always productive to check through every classwork/homework
exercise orally in class as this can slow the pace of your class and be a real
waste of time for the students. Instead, they can check in mixed-level pairs or
use a written key while you monitor to answer any specific questions or
problems from students who had difficulties.
If you do sometimes check through an exercise with the whole class:
… nominate weaker students to answer easier questions
… involve stronger students in explaining rather than doing it yourself
… don’t let it go on too long: if some students have more questions,
answer them later when the rest of the class is working on something else.

Creating interest and brainstorming ideas

Allow thinking time: once you have established the theme and elicited a few
ideas from the whole class, give the students time to think of more ideas
individually or in pairs. Then elicit further ideas from the class, nominating the
weaker students first.
If stronger students say things which you think the weaker ones may not
understand, get them to explain or paraphrase.

3 Fast finishers Within any class and particularly a very mixed-level class it is inevitable that
learners will take different amounts of time to complete the work set in class.
Students who finish first may become restless or even disruptive if they are left
doing nothing. This is also a waste of valuable learning time. It is therefore very
important that you have a range of strategies to deal with fast finishers.
If you are using some of the options we have looked at such as graded tasks, self
access, different responses or open-ended activities, then you should have fewer
problems with fast finishers. However, when the whole class is doing the same
activity (which at some point they will need to), there is likely to be a greater
problem with students completing tasks at different times.
Also, bear in mind that it may not always be the stronger students who finish first.

Before reading on, think of how you deal with the problem of fast finishers in
T A S K your classes. Make a list of different ideas. Then read on and compare.

Checking work
This is the first thing fast finishers should be encouraged to do.
Fast finishers should be encouraged to check their own work. They may have
error checklists to help them to do this. SEE PAGE 31

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Look at their work and tell them how many mistakes there are, without telling
them what they are or where they are. They have to then try and find them.
They can check their work with another student who has also finished. If the
task is one in which there are right and wrong answers, and there are
differences, they can try and work out who is right. If the task is a freer
exercise they can look for any errors in each other’s work.

Helping other students

You can ask fast finishers to go and help students who have not finished or who
are finding the task difficult. This promotes co-operation between learners. It is
important that right from the beginning you foster a sense of support and co-
operation among learners rather than competition or resentment. SEE CHAPTER 2

Extension activities
It may be possible to extend some activities. Here are some ideas.
Reading comprehension
If students have been answering questions about a text, they could:
… write some more questions
… do another task which asks them to react to the text in some way, e.g.
say if they liked the story and why
… draw a picture to go with it
… supply a different ending
… imagine the conversation between two people in the text
… say what they think happened next
… choose some words from the text to look up in their dictionaries
… write definitions for some of the words in the text and test other fast finishers.
Grammar exercises
If they have been doing an exercise to practise a specific structure, they could:
… write some more simple examples
… practise saying the sentences to another fast finisher (to practise pronunciation).
Writing
If they have written a paragraph about something, they could:
… write a little bit more
… write another one.
Vocabulary
If they have been doing some work on vocabulary on a particular topic, they could:
… think of more words associated with the topic in L1, then find out what they
are in English (in a bilingual/picture dictionary)
… practise saying the words to another fast finisher to practise pronunciation
… do a specific pronunciation activity, e.g. group the words according to the
number of syllables or where the stress is, or identify which words contain a
particular sound.
Speaking
If they have been doing a pairwork speaking activity, they could:
… do it again (e.g. if it’s a dialogue) in a different mood, sounding happy, angry,
sad, bored, etc.
… write it down
… do it again, giving different answers to the questions (if it is a question and
answer activity).

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Listening comprehension
If they have been completing a task after a listening activity, they could:
… read through the tapescript
… write down any new words from the tapescript
… read the tapescript aloud in pairs.

Additional exercises
Most courses have more than enough work to get through in a year. Fast
finishers can therefore do exercises that you have not had time to do with the
whole class, especially those exercises from the part of the book you have
already covered and know you won’t want to use with the class. It is ideal if the
book has a key so that students can check their own work. If it doesn’t, they can
check with another student. If they have any specific questions, they can ask you
or make a note of them to ask later. It is important that you spend more time
monitoring the work that the other students are still doing.
Some coursebooks nowadays have a special section of extra tasks for fast
finishers and these are clearly ideal.
You can also of course make use of the extra work checklist (SEE PAGE 64) and ask
students to select something from this to do.

Workcards/sheets
Have a collection of laminated workcards/sheets or photocopies of different
exercises with you in your lessons. These could be taken from the self-access
centre. Fast finishers can be given an activity, e.g. a crossword or other word
puzzle to do while the other students are finishing off.

Readers
Fast finishers can get on with their reader. If you are doing one reader with the
whole class, encourage stronger students to choose an additional reader from
the self-access centre which they can read on their own at times like these.

4 Homework Homework is important in any class but particularly so in mixed-ability classes. It

is an ideal opportunity for slower students to catch up and an opportunity for
stronger students who work quickly to do extra tasks.
The usual homework procedure used by teachers is to set the same task for
everyone. In fact, the idea of the whole class doing the same homework is based
on the assumption of a LOCKSTEP system of teaching or assessment (which
assumes that everyone is learning the same things at the same rate). It is also
easier for the teacher, in terms of selecting tasks to set and in terms of marking
or giving feedback.
However, from the point of view of making the most of homework with a
mixed-ability class, certain problems arise. It may:
… be too difficult for some students and too easy for others
… take some students a long time to do and others no time at all
… not be the most useful thing for everybody.

Cover the ideas on page 71. How can you or do you solve these problems?
T A S K Compare your ideas with those below.

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Tie homework in with core work and plan ahead

Homework tasks that everybody has to do should tie in with the core work
you have outlined for the term.
Try to ensure that homework tasks are fair, i.e. don’t set tasks that you know
all but the strongest students will do badly. You need to make sure you have
done some learner training activities for homework tasks so that all learners are
aware of suitable strategies to use. SEE CHAPTER 4 This means that it is
important to plan what you will set for homework ahead of time.
If some homework tasks are tied in with CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT, it might be a
good idea to set these tasks ahead of time and allow the students to complete
them when they – and you – think they are ready to do so. This can be
discussed in individual counselling sessions. SEE CHAPTER 11

Have some homework tasks that students can work on together

You can encourage students to work on some homework tasks together: there is
no reason why homework should always be done individually.

Set time limits

You should set a minimum amount of time per week that should be spent on
English homework. This could be agreed in a class contract at the beginning of
the year. SEE PAGE 18 Students should be encouraged to keep a section of their
notebook as a homework record in which they note down how much time they
have spent on their homework and what they did.
You will need to look at the students’ homework records. Students who are
completing tasks quickly and well need to be encouraged to do more. You can
use your ‘extra work’ checklist to direct students to additional tasks.
Sometimes students may be doing the work quickly but not very well: in that
case you need to advise them on how to check their work carefully.
Students who are spending too long on the homework need to be made aware
of this too. Try to find out why they are taking so long; it could be that they do
not have a quiet place to work at home, for example.

Give the students a choice sometimes

In the same way that it is a good idea to allocate some class time to individual
needs via self-access sessions, it is a good idea to allocate some homework time
to this, too. Everyone should be told to refer to their lesson summary sheets and
to the core work checklists to ensure they are up to date with what they are
supposed to know. Stronger students can then choose to do work from their
extra work checklists while weaker students can spend it on remedial work or
revision of core work. Make sure they keep records of what they have done.

Look back at this chapter and select the three most important things that will
T A S K help you deal with your mixed-ability class. If you can, compare and discuss
your choice with a colleague.

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