TeachingEnglish
dealing with a growing groups with various levels
Submitted by Thijs on 4 February, 2010 - 10:52
Dear readers,
I'm currently a trainee at vocational education in the Netherlands, where I teach a group of students that quit their course but are still in compulsory education.
The group constantly grows and all the members have different levels. Does anyone know an effective method to teach these pupils?
Thank you,
Thijs
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At my Montessori school this is practically the order of the day!
it largely depends on the year they are in. An exam class is more or less motivated to work on the skills needed for the final exam. A bit part of is it the time-consuming question of having enough material available that will allow them to work on their own-is there room or enough good will for them to work and help each other?
can the more advanced students work on individual projects?
Christine
Oh I'm sorry, I expected to receive an email if any reply had been posted. Thank you for your reply.
There is enough room to work and their motivation is obviously effected by the level of the lessons and the succes that they gain.
I try to keep the group together so that they will learn from each other. I've experienced it to be challenging to engage everyone's interest in the content I offer.
Do you have any ideas for the individual projects?
thank you,
Thijs
Oh I'm sorry, I expected to receive an email if any reply had been posted. Thank you for your reply.
There is enough room to work and their motivation is obviously effected by the level of the lessons and the success that they gain.
I try to keep the group together so that they will learn from each other. I've experienced it to be challenging to engage everyone's interest in the content I offer.
Do you have any ideas for the individual projects?
Thank you,
Thijs
Maybe it would motivate them if they could work on something that they will later be able to use practically. For example applying for jobs? They can work in groups, at different levels, etc, as you see best to divide them.
I did it with my class: I got them into small groups who "invent" a company, and write a job description/ad for a position within their "company": All of these ads are 'published' and each student chooses one to apply for. They have to write a CV and letter of app and then (once it's been drafted and corrected/edited) 'send' these off to the companies. The companies decide on 2 candidates to interview, and then individual students are interviewed by the groups. Once a group had decided on who to employ, they had to write a letter to each of the candidates explaining why he/she had been accepted or not.
The whole project can take as long as it needs to / depending on how fast your students can do each of the tasks. It was a lot of fun, and of course gets them discussing within groups, as well as writing texts that will be useful to them in future.
It's just one idea, but it might be worth a try!
Otherwise, I'd say get them talking about topics that are really relevant and where they all have their own experiences / something to say: With teenagers/young adults I usually find topics such as internet, dating/cheating, buying things, reforming the education system, etc work well.
CMF