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Ideas for motivating Mixed Ability Classes

Every class in the world is of mixed ability. There are two ways of managing mixed
ability classes :
forming learners into cooperative learning groups and modifying
learning tasks and materials.

1. Cooperative learning:
This is not just putting students into groups and giving them something to do.
It seems to provide other benefits such as:
• activates learning
• can be very effective for correcting errors
• provides opportunities for more varied/authentic learner talk
• is more motivating and creates a more relaxed, fun working environment

2. Modifying learning tasks and materials
• A tiered task: get students to work on the same text but at
different levels of difficulty
* Weaker students: Ask them to match the questions with the given answers
* Average students: Ask them to do task with multiple choice comprehension
*Stronger students: Ask them to answer the questions about the text
• Choral drilling: effective way of involving weaker/shy students. It can give excellent practice in
rhythm and intonation as well as reinforcing WO and grammatical structures
• Open-ended activities: E.g. All students write at least 5 sentences about a monster from a picture
prompt. These activities will allow students to respond at their own level of ability

3. Other related issues
• Teachers should avoid putting weaker students ‘on the spot’
• Teachers should encourage culture attentive listening in the classroom

Many thanks to Mr Andrew Wright and Ms Thuy - ELT Specialist, Nghe An for these wonderful ideas

MAC
How to motivate?

Tiered Tasks
These were demonstrated at the workshop by
Mrs Ngoc Tu and Ms Thuy Hang from Nghe An.

When guiding students to practices passive
form with modal verbs “ must, can/ can’t”, they
used different activities for different groups of
students.

1. Ask weaker students to do matching verbs and nouns, then write passive sentences with those

2a. Give average students a list of things relating to Vinh City and ask them to tick the things that they think are not good enough for the tourism year 2005.

2b. Ask them to work in pairs to exchange their ideas and why they have ticked the things and what must or can be done about those things.

3. For stronger students, give them a picture of a teenager’s messy room and then ask them to work in pairs or groups to help her/him make it tidy by using the structures they have learnt.

Riddle
Thanks Laura for the idea and Ms
Kim Hanh - a trainer from Yen Bai
for varying it for different level of students

1. I ______ not a bird, but I ______ fly.
2. I _______ insects and fruit.
3. I ______ dark.
4. I am usually as big as a mouse.
5. I sleep upside down.
(Answer: I am a bat.)

1. I ______ yellow and round.
2. I ______ the same size _____ an apple.
3. You ______ not eat me.
4. I ___ played between two or four people.
5. You hit ______ with a racquet.
(Answer: I am a tennis ball.)

1. I am often done in the bedroom.
2. I am done in the evening.
3. I am hated by many people.
4. I usually take about three hours.
5. I am checked by teachers.
(Answer: I am homework.)

1. I have a nice smell.
2. I am grown in hot countries.
3. I am always roasted and ground.
4. I am black.
5. I am drunk by many people.
(Answer: I am coffee.)

1. I am usually ______ of paper.
2. In Australia (and Vietnam now) I ____ plastic.
3. I ______ lots of colours.
4. I ______ pictures and numbers on me.
5. I am used _____ buy things.
(Answer: I am bank-notes)

1. Everyone has me.
2. I have four parts.3. If I don’t beat regularly, you’ll have trouble.
4. I beat faster when I see my girlfriend/boyfriend.
5. I am emotional.
(Answer: I am your heart.)

1. I am owned by everybody.
2. I am not owned by the (British) Queen.
3. Bush’s is shorter than Washington’s.
4. A husband’s is used by his wife.
5. I am used to address a person.
(Answer: I am a surname)

1. Give students some riddles and ask them to work in groups to write their own riddles
2. The strongest groups have to write everything
3. The less strong groups complete the gapped clues made by the teacher
4. The weakest groups just have to read the thing the teacher has produced
( Ms Hanh said these were very interesting, especially the one about HEART above and that these can be used for verb revision, or passive form practice)

Integrating skills to motivate - why and how?

Day two focused on why we should integrate
skills in our classroom lessons and participantsdiscussed ways of using
more thanone skill in a lesson

How to Integrate Skills?
Two main ways of integration

One way is choosing one skill as a basis which later leads to practise in another. For example, students can concentrate on reading as a major skill. Then they can write or discuss on the basis of the information they take from the reading text. Or they can interview their classmates and then write about them, using the information from the interview.

The other way is the input-output sequence. A lesson can begin with some kind of information as input, and continues with an exchange of information or discussion among students, followed by some kind of language output. The sequence can be:
Listen/Read
l Converse/Discuss
l Speak/Write

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