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Tuto Week 6

The document discusses strategies for managing large and mixed-ability classrooms. It suggests that teachers share some responsibility for planning and learning with students to gain time for interacting with individuals and groups. Some strategies mentioned are organizing independent and collaborative learning activities, developing resources to facilitate partnership approaches, and developing monitoring strategies for feedback and assessment.

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Mahaletchumy Subramaniam
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51 views

Tuto Week 6

The document discusses strategies for managing large and mixed-ability classrooms. It suggests that teachers share some responsibility for planning and learning with students to gain time for interacting with individuals and groups. Some strategies mentioned are organizing independent and collaborative learning activities, developing resources to facilitate partnership approaches, and developing monitoring strategies for feedback and assessment.

Uploaded by

Mahaletchumy Subramaniam
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Managing Large and Mixed ability class

In order to be available to meet individual and small group needs, the teacher has to find ways to reduce those aspects of teaching which limit his/her freedom to respond to needs as they arise. This means finding ways of managing the classroom (learners, resources, tasks, relationships, responsibilities) which will facilitate the creation of conditions which free the teacher to work closely with groups or with individual pupils. Some of those facilitating strategies are indicated below: The teacher gains time for interaction with individual pupils and groups by:

Sharing with pupils some of the responsibility for planning and learning Helping pupils to develop and use independent and collaborative learning skills

Organizing tasks and activities in ways compatible with the partnership approach

Developing and organizing resources to facilitate the partnership approach Developing monitoring strategies for ensuring regular feedback for all, assessing & recording, etc

MAKING CHANGES Teachers are understandably afraid of 'throwing out the baby with the bathwater'. How can you know if any change you make is going to work any better than what you were doing before? Here are some ways of reducing the risk: Take small steps Neither you nor the pupils will be comfortable with whole-scale change. Take one step at a time, and prepare the pupils well, so that they are not upset by unexpected changes to usual practice. They need to know if your expectations have changed, and if so, why. Explain that small changes can often make a big difference to how well pupils
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learn, and involve them in evaluating the effectiveness of the new procedures. If they need to learn new skills (e.g. how to work in groups, engage in self- or peerassessment, etc.) make sure that these skills are explicitly taught. Offer choices First, try a range of approaches with your pupils so that you, and they, can find out which method works best for different individuals. Then, begin to offer choices, allowing pupils to choose whichever way seems to work best for them. Again, this begins to involve pupils in thinking about learning and encourages them to take on some of the responsibility. approaches. Start with one unit One tried and tested strategy is to pick out for your experiment a theme or unit of work which seems to be particularly difficult to teach successfully, and to develop just that part of your programme in line with the new ideas that you want to try. Since you selected something which was working unsatisfactorily anyway, you have nothing to lose. Also, if it works, you know that success is due to the change in approach, and that will give you the confidence to experiment further . Vocabulary learning is often chosen as a vehicle for early experimentation, since it is relatively easy to evaluate the effectiveness of different

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Managing Group Work Activities


Be certain that group activities further the course objectives. Learning activities must be framed by considerations of the impact they are intended to have on student learning and how well they achieve the desired results. Explain to students the nature and value of the proposed activities. It is extremely important to explain why group interactions will further immediate course goals and also lead to other desirable outcomes such as acquiring the teamwork skills needed in the modern work place. More importantly, emerging studies suggest that students learn better when they have opportunities for collaboration. Be certain to give clear instructions . Clear instructions always include the time involved . Students cannot manage their time wisely if they cannot plan ahead. Clear instructions also eliminate barriers to learning. Tasks should be structured to make online collaboration both easy and desirable. Provide students with a sense of closure. Allow students to ask a student adviser from a different learning team to offer advice. These objectives can be accomplished online through carefully structured rules, ones that involve student buy-in, perhaps by involving them in the formulation of the rules. Keep the group size small. If a group member fails to log in, the group can continue to function smoothly. All must carry their fair share of the workload.

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Keep groups together long enough to establish positive working relationships. Permanent learning teams should remain together long enough to pass through the forming, storming, norming and performing phases cited in the group dynamics literature. Students need time to become acquainted, to identify one anothers strengths, and to learn to support and coach one another. Allow time for team building. Team-building activities should not be frivolous, off-task exercises that send the wrong signal to students. Structure the online class so that activities build on one another and promote cooperation. A good opener might be to have students share personalbut not too intimateinformation, perhaps through a disciplinerelevant autobiography. Encourage students to practice and reinforce positive social skills. Social skills are important although students may not initially see their connection with academic learning. Students must recognize the importance of cooperative interaction and mutual respect. They should also reinforce these social skills by publicly commenting on ways students use them effectively.

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Effective Questioning Techniques


Plan key questions to provide structure and direction to the lesson. Spontaneous questions that emerge are fine, but the overall direction of the discussion has been largely planned. Example: a "predicting discussion" (Hyman, 1980) 1. What are the essential features and conditions of this situation? 2. Given this situation, what do you think will happen as a result of it? 3. What facts and generalization support your prediction? 4. What other things might happen as a result of this situation? 5. If the predicted situation occurs, what will happen next? 6. Based on the information and predictions before us, what are the probable consequences you now see? 7. What will lead us from the current situation to the one you predicted?

Phrase the questions clearly and specifically. Avoid vague and ambiguous questions.

Adapt questions to the level of the students' abilities Ask questions logically and sequentially Ask questions at various levels Follow up on students' responses
o

Elicit longer, more meaningful and more frequent responses from students after an initial response by

Maintaining a deliberate silence

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Making a declarative statement Making a reflective statement giving a sense of what the students said Declaring perplexity over the response Inviting elaboration Encouraging other students to comment

Give students time to think after they are questioned (Wait Time)

Managing Multiple Classroom Teaching


What can teachers do to cater for the differing ability students that they are bound to meet in their teaching career in a multiple classroom? The problem is not acute when class is of approximately the same language ability. E.g either generally weak or generally proficient. Here the teacher needs to recognize and take into account the characteristics of the group and plan lesson content and strategies accordingly. Remedial and enrichment activities become necessary in mixed ability classes when the normal lesson, pitched at the average class member, needs to be supplemented for those, possibly the majority, who find the lesson too difficult, or those, likely to be the minority, who find the lesson too easy. One way of dealing with this difficulty is to take into account this mixed ability and different level students when preparing and planning each lesson. There are many activities that can be used in this type of classes such as: i. ii. iii.
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Listening activities Pair work Group work

iv. v. vi. vii.


viii.

Language games Communicative activities Using songs, poems, choral speaking, jazz chants, riddles, etc Role play Simulation activities

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