MIXED-ABILITY

CLASS
How to teach
heterogeneous
groups

HETEROGENEOUS/MIXEDABILITY CLASS:
It is a group in which children of
varied abilities are taught together
rather than being set apart in groups
according to level.

ADAPTING MATERIALS FOR

MIXED-ABILITY CLASSES CAN
TAKE DIFFERENT FORMS:
Rewrite reading texts and grade the language
accordingly for different levels.
However it is extremely time consuming and
not many teachers can actually go to this lenght
to adapt materials.
A danger that children will instantly realise
that they have been labelled as a weak or
strong student.

READING
Stronger students:

Weaker students:

in a different
tense/person
- write their personal
opinion/a summary of
the text
- write question about the
text
- write new vocabulary up
on the board with
definitions

students the answers in

a jumbled order
- break the text into
chunks and give the
opinion of only reading
some of the texts
- pre-teach difficult
vocabulary and leave it
written on the board for
students to refer to

- rewrite a part of the text

- if there are gaps, give

LISTENING
Stronger:

- focus on the accents or of

the speakers and get
students to copy chunks
- if its a true/false
activity, follow on by
asking why/why not?
- give out the tape script
and look up tricky
words/expressions in a
dictionary to then
explain to the group

Weaker:

- pre-teach vocabulary, use

visual if possible
- give them time to discuss
answers before feeding
back to the class
- give them the tape script
on second listening
- if its a gap fill, supply
the words with a few
extras

WRITING

Stronger:
- give creative tasks that

students can do at their

own level
- increase the word limit
- indicate where they could
use more interesting ways
of saying something
- indicate mistakes using
correction code to give
students a chance to self
correct

Weaker:
- reduce the word limit

- encourage use of
dictionaries
- correct the draft together
before students copy up it
- pair or group weaker
students with stronger
students

SPEAKING
Stronger:

Weaker:

- give them time to

rehearse their ideas
justify/defend their
before a role play or
opinions
discussion
- ban easy words like nice to
- pair weak and strong
push their vocabulary to a
together
higher level
- let them make notes
- get students to record
before the speaking
themselves and self-correct - give them more listening
- pair students of higher level and thinking time before
calling on them to
together so they really go
answer questions
for it

- ask students to

TIPS FOR GOOD

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
WITH
M-A GROUPS:
GROUPING:
- depending on the task and the class dynamics
- there are usually opportunities for both types of
grouping
- to experiment with mixing up the strong and
weak students

GIVING INSTRUCTIONS:

- giving clear instructions

- use hand gestures as well as words to explain the tasks
- use stronger students to check back the instructions

ERROR CORRECTION:

- dont over correct weak students

- encourage students to correct one another

 SETTING

GOALS:

- it will help to focus the students

- the goals can be different for each student and
depending on their level

SOME STRATEGIES:

DISCUSSION AND NEEDS ANALYSIS:

have an open class discussion about the classroom
situation
to ensure the best for everyone
to agree how to deal with it
it is the best to stage and structure the discussion
to prompt the students to reflect upon their
learning style, learning strategies, language
needs, enjoyment, motivation, language strenght
and weaknesses

QUESTIONS:
What kinds of class activities do you enjoy/benefit
from?
Which language skills do you most wish to
develop?
Do you prefer working individually or with a
partner?
Would you rather sit and listen to the teacher all
lesson or participate in group work?

STUDENT SELF-AWARENESS:

- encourage students to develop an awareness of their

own language abilities and learning needs

RANGE OF TASKS:

- this involves creating or providing tasks for different

levels

EXTRA WORK/HOMEWORK:
give different students different homework
for weaker students HW which really does consolidate
the class work
for stronger students work that will widen their
knowledge or put it to the test a little more they need
the feedback
writing tasks are great for HW

ERROR CORRECTION:
have different expectation of the language the different
students produce
it can push stronger students if you correct them
heavily, although be sensitive about it!
for weaker students, be more selective in your error
correction

WORK GROUPINGS:

You may consider dividing your class

into groups by level for the whole
lesson, enabling you to give a
different level or number of tasks to
each group

PAIR WORK: strong with strong, weak with weak or

strong with weak variety in the pairings is the key
GROUP WORK: groups could be of mixed levels or
similar ones
WHOLE CLASS-MINGLES: is a favoured
strategy. Involves students talking/interacting with
many different members of the class in a short period
of time in order to achieve a task -> this supports the
weaker students and provides opportunities for
the stronger ones

THANK YOU FOR YOUR

ATTENTION