how to prepare a lesson - 2 levels in one classroom

Hello everyone,

I need some help with organizing/preparing a lesson.
The problem is that I was given a group of teenagers (11 students) that are preparing for a state exam - some of them need to take the exam at A2/B1 level and some of them at B2 level. The lower level group needs only some vocabulary, reading, listening and speaking tasks while the higher level group needs also word formation, key transformations and quite advanced grammar besides the other skills.
Since I'm a newbie in the teaching world..I find it difficult to deliver a lesson where the level of student's knowledge is extremely varied.

I would really appreciate if some could give me any tips on how to deliver such lessons. Any suggestions would be great.


:-|

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pocochocoloco

Hello everyone,

I need some help with organizing/preparing a lesson.
The problem is that I was given a group of teenagers (11 students) that are preparing for a state exam - some of them need to take the exam at A2/B1 level and some of them at B2 level. The lower level group needs only some vocabulary, reading, listening and speaking tasks while the higher level group needs also word formation, key transformations and quite advanced grammar besides the other skills.
Since I'm a newbie in the teaching world..I find it difficult to deliver a lesson where the level of student's knowledge is extremely varied.

I would really appreciate if some could give me any tips on how to deliver such lessons. Any suggestions would be great.


:-|

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I am familiar with and have experienced the situation you have described. For me, there was/is no simple solution. What made it more difficult for me was the organization's "open enrollment" policy that permitted new student entry at any time during the course cycle. So that there were several levels of proficiency represented in the class.

My approach was simply to first, acknowledge the reality of the situation and then, based on the results of each student's entry test , prepare a curriculum for the levels represented and devote an equitable "time share" for each level. After some initial adjustments for both the students and me, it became rather routine. Of course, the number of students is another consideration. In that environment I usually had an average of 10-12 students. I'm sorry that I don't have an easy solution for you. :cry:

thank you for your answer

what I really find difficult is the listening tasks.. it is impossible to have some students do eg reading while the others are doing listening to some recordings because it distracts the ones who are reading://

I'm lost :-|

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pocochocoloco

thank you for your answer

what I really find difficult is the listening tasks.. it is impossible to have some students do eg reading while the others are doing listening to some recordings because it distracts the ones who are reading://

I'm lost :-|

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In that case I use listening exercises on the web or w/cd's, but with headsets so as not to distract the other students who are "on a different page".

Well, the trick is to vary the units. I'd suggest 8 units of 25 minutes, every week, some of which happen more than once, which means you would create 10 to 12 mini-periods within your schedule.

Dynamics -- free conversation in small groups or the larger group, self-expression with passion but no corrections; cover topics likely to be relevant to both groups. Example: is homework useful? Is democracy a myth? Is traditional culture obsolete? should medical care be private or public, or mixed?

Laboratory -- structured speaking, such as along with a recording, or a poetic text, or a prepared speech; differentiate materials slightly between the 2 groups;p

Reading & Vocabulary -- differentiate here between the groups; read and commentate, read and summarize, read and discuss, read and interpret in small groups and/ or the class group. Use the news media here.

Phonetics & Pronunciation -- study of sounds, careful enunciation, listening to radio news and other samples from different geolects;

Writing --- compositions, essays, summaries, tailored to each of the 2 groups.

Grammar -- topics that aren't easily absorbed by osmosis, and which reflect skills required for the exams.

Games -- wheel of fortune, jeopardy, scrabble, boggle, other word games.

Literature -- another approach to reading, for appreciation and for the interpretation of longer texts.

If you dissect your week into such units, it becomes easier to differentiate with written English; differentiation is less necessary with spoken English -- just force the younger group to sink or swim with the older group.

Hope this helps.