Multi-level Teaching By Heather E. Perry

Multi-level Teaching By Heather E. Perry Synopsis Do you feel like you are trapped in a one room school room while operating a three ring circus? This practical workshop is for those teachers (especially in rural settings) who have a variety of English skill levels exhibited by their students in one classroom. The workshop will present ideas of how to incorporate activities for this multi-level setting. Rather than planning several activities for a range of proficiency levels, this workshop aims to present how one activity can be used by all students, regardless of the extent of English competencies. Canada TESL Conference 2014

Taught several multi-level classes in rural Alberta Levels ranged from CLB 1-7 Used video-conferencing technology Have trained teachers in Alberta, Saskatchewan and China Certified language assessor through the Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks Canada TESL Conference 2014

Students could Have differing educational backgrounds Have differing comfort levels with the Roman alphabet Have differing motivations for learning Have differing learning styles and personal situations Canada TESL Conference 2014

differing competency levels in the listening, speaking, reading and writing skills “levels”, referring to the Canadian Language Benchmarks For further information, investigate

Canada TESL Conference 2014 Language learning is a fairly chaotic activity, and language chaos can be very productive (Hess, 113)

“The use of grouping strategies has been found to be an effective management tool in multi-level settings to provide efficient use of teacher and student time. “ (Roberts, “Teaching in the Multilevel Classroom”, 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc) Canada TESL Conference 2014

Sometimes called “like-ability” Students have similar competency levels in the skill area being worked on. For example, if the activity is to practice a dialogue, then pair up two students who have similar abilities in the speaking skill Making the most of time Canada TESL Conference 2014

Competency levels in the skill area are different Place the more demanding language learning upon the higher level students Lower level students can still be in charge of activity Canada TESL Conference 2014

“True group work is designed to make the members of the group interact and communicate with each other” (Bell, p. 96) Canada TESL Conference 2014

Everyone in the group has the same task Each group may have differing requirements of the same task Emphasis of task is on accuracy Canada TESL Conference 2014

Sometimes called cross-ability Most suitable for fluency activities Higher level students are encouraged to explain; to expand their language abilities Lower level students are exposed to richer language structures Canada TESL Conference 2014

Cloze exercise for higher level students The Hockey Song Hello out there, we're on the air, it's __________________ night tonight Tension grows, the _______________blows, and the _____________ goes down the _______ The _____________ jumps and the players bump and the _____________ all go insane Someone roars, "Bobby scores!", at the good ol’ hockey game Oh, the good ol’ __________ game, is the best ________ you can name And the best game you can name, is the good ol’ __________ game. Pick out pictures for lower level students

RedYellowGreenBlue A1234 B5678 C D Canada TESL Conference 2014 Students assemble by letter for groups of equal ability Students assemble by colour for cross-ability

Good for warm-up or wrap-up activities in the class Concrete focus (abstract is difficult for lower level students) Choose activities that act as “levellers” so that everyone is on the same playing field Communicative activities (board games) Vocabulary Pronunciation Canada TESL Conference 2014

Another word for “equal ability” Like-ability Canada TESL Conference 2014

Another word for “mixed ability” Cross- ability Canada TESL Conference 2014

Equal ability group work is focused on accuracy Canada TESL Conference 2014

Cross-ability group work is focused on fluency Canada TESL Conference 2014

Multi-level teaching can be EXCITING!! Canada TESL Conference 2014

The PowerPoint presentation can be accessed on the page marked “Presentations” Canada TESL Conference 2014

Reading Comprehension: higher level student reads the story; lower level student responds to questions with higher level student writing down the answers Written exercises: All have the same task; expectations and requirements will be different for pairs i.e. lower level students may only complete 10 out of the 20 questions; higher level students finish all Canada TESL Conference 2014

Information gap: lower level students have questions written out; higher level students have nothing written Dictation: lower level students dictate the words for the higher level students and then checks for spelling Photo-story: lower level students tell the story using pictures; higher level students write out the story Canada TESL Conference 2014

Collaborative Writing Each group will have the same topic but lower level students will be copying/writing formulaic phrases; higher level students will be creating own sentences Reading All students will have the same topic, but the level of the reading will be different; different comprehension questions Conversation Lower level students have questions written out; higher level students do not have script Canada TESL Conference 2014

Collaborative: one member becomes a scribe, the other the story teller, another the editor Journals Grammar Exercises: lower level students can write one word answers; higher level students can write short answers Canada TESL Conference 2014

Discussion: Allow lower level students to write out their agree/disagree statements Jigsaw reading: Every member is needed in order to answer the questions Canada TESL Conference 2014

Whole Class Working on shared project Whole Class Application of learning Group 1 Group 2 Group 1 Group 2 Teacher monitors whole group Teacher teaches each group individually

Canada TESL Conference 2014 Whole Class Application of learning Group 2 Teacher reviews group work and provides feedback Group 2 Students work in groups on previously taught material Group 1 Students work on activities related to new material presented Group 1 Teacher presents new material Groups rotate throughout the lesson or unit.

Canada TESL Conference 2014 Ann Tigchelaar, webinar “Teaching Multilevel classes” nar/eal-multi1.html This link is no longer available and might be included in the new website Melinda Roberts, article “Teaching in the Multilevel Classroom lted/multilevel_monograph.pdf

Bell, Jill Sinclair. Teaching Multilevel Classes in ESL, Pippin Publishing Corporation, Toronto, Ontario, Hess, Natalie. Teaching Large Multilevel Classes, Cambridge University Press, UK Canada TESL Conference 2014

Excellent resource for multi-level listening: Lesson Plans using the Oxford Picture Dictionary, 2 nd edition Oxford University Press, ISBN Excellent resource for multi-level reading and communicative activities :