DAY 7

Day : 7 - 16 October 2014

A. Consolidating Learning & Differentiation; Including Mixed Ability Groups

Session Aims:

• define mixed ability and different degrees of it. 
• share information and strategies in dealing with mixed ability groups
• experience / review concrete examples of activities for mixed- ability groups. 

This particular session was conducted by Bill.  He started off the session by relating to us his personal experience in learning Spanish.  Initially he didn’t learn much because his wife translated the language for him.  Then through persistence and frequent practise he finally gained enough confidence to speak the language on his own.  This form of repeated practise was what he meant by consolidation. 

Definition of Mixed Ability Group: 

A mixed ability group basically refers to a class of learners with different levels of language or ability.  

In other words, we have a class of learners who are: 

• linguistically weak, contribute less and are usually late finishers
• of average linguistic ability, contribute reasonably well and usually finish on time 
• linguistically strong, contribute a lot and usually early finishers

Next, two types of abilities were mentioned.  One was mild mixed ability and the other was extreme mixed ability.  We focussed on extreme mixed ability learners who were described as learners with different profiles, different interests and different abilities.

Then Bill taught us how to deal with level diversity.  He introduced us to the “Toolkit Approach” whereby a teacher selects the appropriate tools (materials) to bring to the class. 

Two ways of dealing with a “mixed ability class” were given as examples:

1. Setting or Streaming 
2. Differentiated Instruction

DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION
Types of Student	Able / Strong Students	Less able / Weak Students
Task	More challenging Open-ended activities	More doable Open-ended activities with scaffolding
Outcome	Longer and more complex language	Shorter and simpler language
Support	Teacher / materials / peers	Teacher / materials / peers
Correction	More exacting	More tolerant

Examples of Multi-level Activities were mentioned during the session. Below are the examples. 

1. Tiered task activities  - different tasks, same text, similar results
2. Bias task activities - different tasks, same text, complementary results
3. Bias text activities - same task, different texts, similar results
4. Tiered text activities - same task, different texts, similar results

Later, we were briefed on “Material Coverage” and “Differentiated Homework”. 

Material Coverage 

First the core materials should be covered. Then consolidation should be carried out to enable the learners to fully understand the subject.  For the more able-learners, extension task should be given for further or extended practice of the target language.

Materials Coverage

Differentiated Homework 

Differentiated homework can be given to meet the needs of the mixed ability class.  For example, the less able students can do basic revision activities; the average students can work on slightly more demanding consolidation practise of vocabulary, grammar & language structure while the more able students can work on the extension activities that go beyond the core language areas that were covered in class

Impact / Reflection 

The session gives us some insight into the needs of the mixed-ability class.  It teaches us the ways to cater to different levels of students in our classroom.

The strategies that we can apply are such as Differentiated Materials coverage and Homework.  We should not ignore the fact that we have mixed-ability students in our classroom.  It is necessary to prepare materials and homework appropriate to their levels as well as different abilities. 

We could conduct a workshop for English language teachers whereby tasks are assigned to different teachers to design suitable materials for different levels / abilities of students.

Written by 

Lee Ming Fong   

Politeknik Port Dickson

Choo Mei Cheng 

Politeknik Melaka