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Adapting Materials For Mixed Ability Classes

This document provides tips for adapting materials for mixed ability English language classes. It suggests grading texts by rewriting them at different language levels, though this takes a lot of time. Instead, the document recommends using the same materials but supporting weaker students through pre-teaching vocabulary, chunking texts, and giving guidance. For stronger students, it suggests extension activities like rewriting parts of texts in different tenses, writing opinions, or questions. Tips are also given for managing mixed ability groups through grouping, instruction clarity, error correction, and goal setting.

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Sarah Abu Talib
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170 views4 pages

Adapting Materials For Mixed Ability Classes

This document provides tips for adapting materials for mixed ability English language classes. It suggests grading texts by rewriting them at different language levels, though this takes a lot of time. Instead, the document recommends using the same materials but supporting weaker students through pre-teaching vocabulary, chunking texts, and giving guidance. For stronger students, it suggests extension activities like rewriting parts of texts in different tenses, writing opinions, or questions. Tips are also given for managing mixed ability groups through grouping, instruction clarity, error correction, and goal setting.

Uploaded by

Sarah Abu Talib
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Adapting materials for mixed ability classes

Submitted by admin on 20 October, 2011 - 11:17


All classes are mixed ability to one extent or another. Extreme cases, when you have near native level speakers with
beginners, can be very challenging for the teacher.
In these cases its important to remember that all students will get something out of the class, but not necessarily the
same things, and not necessarily what you aim to teach them! For example, the beginners may begin to get a grasp
of your classroom language whilst the stronger students may begin to be able to put a new tense into use.
Adapting materials for mixed ability classes can take different forms.

One way to adapt materials is to rewrite reading texts and grade the language accordingly for different
levels. In an ideal world where a teacher has all the time in the world to prepare their classes this may be the perfect
solution. However, the reality is that this sort of adaptation is extremely time consuming and not many teachers can
actually go to this length to adapt materials for mixed level groups. Another problem that can arise with this sort of
adaptation is that it can be awkward to give out different texts to different students. Theres a danger that they will
instantly realise that they have been labelled as a weak or strong student and, in the case of the weaker students,
this will no doubt effect their motivation.

I would like to offer some ideas of how you can support your weaker students and offer extension activities for your
stronger students whilst using the same materials as the starting point for the class. This way the preparation time
involved for the teacher isnt drastically higher, and the group can still work together for most of the class.
These ideas are taken from a workshop I attended last year on mixed ability classes. Thanks to my colleagues at the
Young Learners Centre in Barcelona and especially to Lucy Mardel who led the workshop.

Extension activities for stronger students

Support for weaker students

Reading Ask early finishers to write new vocab up on


the board with definitions.
Pre-teach difficult vocabulary and leave
it written on the board for students to
Rewrite a part of the text in a different tense / refer to. Use visuals if possible.
person.
If there are gaps, give students the
Write their personal opinion / a short
answers in a jumbled order, with a few
summary of the text.Write questions about the extras.
text.
Draw attention to the title, pictures etc
and set the scene beforehand so their
mind is on track for the topic.
Break the text into chunks and give the

option of only reading some of the text.

Pre-teach vocabulary, use visual


Give out the tape script and nominate a
prompts when appropriate.
vocabulary master to look up tricky words
or expressions in a dictionary to then explain
Give students time to discuss answers
to the group.
before feeding back to the class.
Listenin
Focus on the accents or intonation of the
g
speakers and get students to copy chunks.

Give students the tape script on second


listening.

If its a true/false activity, follow on by asking


If its a gap fill, supply the words with a
why/why not?)
few extras.

Give creative tasks that students can do at


their own level.
Indicate mistakes using correction code to
give students a chance to self-correct. (Sp =
Writing spelling, Gr = grammar etc.)

Correct the draft together before


students copy up in neat.
Reduce the word limit.
Encourage use of dictionaries / vocab
books.

Increase the word limit.

Give and example piece of writing as a


model before they begin writing.

Indicate where they could use more


interesting ways of saying something.

Pair or group weaker students with


stronger students.

Speakin Ask students to justify / defend their opinions.


g
Ban easy words like nice to push their vocab Give students time to rehearse and
to a higher level.
gather their ideas before a role play or
discussion.

Pair weak and strong together.


Let students make notes before the
speaking activity begins. Allow for
thinking time.
Get students to record themselves and selfcorrect.

Grade students on the effort they make


rather than their ability.

With a whole class mingle like a class


Pair students of higher level together so they survey or a find somebody who...
really go for it.
practise the questions as a group
beforehand.
Give weaker students more listening
and thinking time before calling on
them to answer questions.

Tips for good classroom management with mixed ability groups

Grouping
It may seem contradictory to suggest that you group stronger students together and also suggest that you group
weak with strong. However, depending on the task and the class dynamics I think there are usually opportunities for
both types of grouping. Its a good idea to experiment with mixing up the strong and weak students whilst also giving
time for stronger students to work together so they work to their full potential.

Giving Instructions
Giving clear instructions is vital for weaker students to be able to follow the class. Use hand gestures as well as
words to explain the tasks and use stronger students to check back the instructions and even explain the task in their
own language if necessary.

Error correction
Stronger students can probably stand more correction. Dont over correct weak students as it will affect their
confidence. Encourage students to correct one another and demand a higher level of accuracy from the stronger
students.

Setting goals
Setting goals for each class or for the whole term will help to focus the students. The goals can be different for each
student, depending on their level, but realising the goals will give the same sense of achievement to all.

Further reading:
From the English Teaching Professional magazine archive. This is an excellent article with some great ideas for

creating a positive learning environment for mixed ability groups. Well worth a read
- http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/node/2237sites/teacheng/files/mixedability.pdf
From the British Council Teaching English website. Some practical advice for teaching mixed ability groups.
Teaching mixed_ability classes 1
Teaching mixed_ability classes 2

By Jo Budden
First published 2008

Attachment
mixedability.pdf

LA Teaching tips category:


Using materials
LA content type:
teaching tips
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%20%20%20TeachingEnglish%20%20%20British%20Council%20%20%20BBC.htm#sthash.tD5wuYwG.dpuf

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