In quest of “perpetum mobile”- how to deal with mixed ability classes?

by Andrew Osobka

What is a mixed ability class? In short, every class out there, but to expand on it, it is a class that consists of learners (in public education system rather “learning convicts”) who display a number of differences in their learning abilities, motivation, previous exposure to learning, learning style, personality, attitude, and hundred thousand other features that anyone can think of. A more sophisticated and confusing term very often used as a synonym is a “heterogeneous” class (consisting of elements that are not of the same kind or nature – a dictionary definition so as to make sure that it has nothing to do with sex education).  So, what can you as a teacher do in a mixed ability class? Every book on methodology will tell you that you should personalize each lesson to cater to each individual so that everyone will have the same head start. If you decide to go this route, start testing yourself for allergies since you don’t exactly know yet which psychotropic medicine is most suitable for you. Of course, you can go to some pains and design some tasks that will allow for some individual differences, for example, you can always ask more difficult questions to more advanced students, or prepare exercises that involve different senses. You may also allow your students to choose from an array of tasks which you have available (giving them an option and setting a required minimum – you know, like in a restaurant, they can come and ask you for a menu). Another useful tip is to keep the students interested. Oops! Johnny the Brainer whose attitude toward the foreign language is nothing short of electrocuting you at the right moment will require some ingenuity on your part, but as a brave and energized teacher you can surely provide him with some interesting material that can shut him up for 45 minutes (perhaps an educational edition of Hustler will do). You can always introduce a variety of topics or texts or perhaps encourage some collaborative activities.

The point is that you should treat every class as a mixed ability class. On the more serious note, this is what you can do:

• Use group work, pair work, and individual work,
• Provide texts suitable for the age of the group,
• Follow your course book, which contains a variety of task, but also find some supplemental materials,
• Let students interview one another, talk to each other and to you,
• Let students prepare some topics of their own,
• Ask open-ended questions and encourage creativity without limiting the students to single no or yes answer,
• Play interesting games,
• And most of all, forget this heterogeneous stuff and concentrate on variety of interesting tasks.