My Adventure with Beginners

Last week I started teaching a class of beginners, initially for two weeks, covering for their beloved teacher Mihaela (quite tough to fill in her boots!). I have to admit that I was quite worried how I’d get on as I hadn’t taught beginners for ages . It turned out to be a challenge indeed but how rewarding and absorbing!

A little bit about the class:

• there are 10 students
• ages vary from 22 to 66
• there are 7 Arabic and 3 Spanish speakers in class
• 2 of the Arabic speakers are complete beginners, who struggle with the alphabet
• one of the Arabic speakers has been in the class since February and still isn’t ready to move up
• 2 of the weakest students keep missing classes
• 2 Spanish speakers are very strong (they might have been misplaced)
• they work very well together, offer each other a lot of support
• they’re eager to learn and take risks

There you go, such a good example of a mixed abilitiy class and therefore teaching them is quite a challenge.

I have tried a few techniques so far:

• I tried to vary groupings so that for some activities I group them with the same level students and for some stronger work with the weaker, I found this very effective
• I often divided them into 2 groups in which I’d have at least 2 stronger students and 1 or 2 weaker ones (depending on how many show up); this works well as they get a chance to work as a team,  they take turns supporting the weaker students but also get a chance to interact with the stronger ones
• I allow L1 use for support (not chatting!)
• I always have extra activities for early finishers – crucial

I found that I usually overplan and that they take more time to complete activities than expected. The weaker students also need more time for note-taking. Sometimes I feel that I should perhaps put a bit more time pressure on them but at the same time I don’t want to deprive them of the time they need to finish.

Techniques I would like to try out:

• I though about having two workstations with activities for the early finishers: one with a set of vocabulary activities and the other with some conversation prompts; I’ve decided on two to allow them to make choices for themselves
• I’d like to try same L1 groups and see how that would work (why not make use of their L1)
• I’ve set up a group on edmodo.com for them to encourage extra practice outside of class (haven’t set them up yet as I’m out sick today)

Check this blog post out for more tips on teaching mixed ability classes.

 

Feedback

As mentioned in my last post, I decided to get some feedback from my beginners. I though the best way would be to get them to fill out a quick questionnaire and therefore I put together some statements (see below) which students had to award one/ two happy or one/ two sad faces.

• My teacher is friendly.
• I understand my teacher.
• My teacher helps me improve my English.
• I can ask my teacher questions.
• I learn something new every day.
• My teacher helps me speak and listen in English.
• Classes are interesting.
• I like grammar activities.
• I like speaking activities.
• I like listening activities.
• I like reading activities.
• I like writing activities.
• I like walking around the classroom.
• i like talking to different students in class.

Despite the fact that all the faces I got were smiley (most of them x2) I feel slightly disappointed as the comments sections were left blank, probably because students didn’t know how to express themselves in English. It got me thinking about alternative ways and then suddenly the penny dropped! Next week I’m going put them in the same L1 groups and use the Three Againt One activity that I’ve described before (see my previous blog post). Why on earth shouldn’t I make use of their mother tongues and appoint the strongest students as scribes! There we go, that’s the power of reflection!