teaching different levels in one class

amother

Fri, Nov 16 2012, 8:05 am

I started to teach a foreign language this year in highschool. Because there are so few pupils interested in learning this language, they decided to put 3 different classes in one group. Now I have a class with four different levels to teach at the same time.( 2 of my students are native speaker).
Any ideas how to best work this out? How can I split myself into 3 ore more pieces? Confused

Thanks

amother

Fri, Nov 16 2012, 8:25 am

First of all, good luck! differentiated instruction within one classroom is difficult, but doable.
I once had to teach 3 levels of chumash in one class in a small school, and it was a challenge.
What is the set up of the classroom? I found that I had to be very organized, prepare curricula and goals for the three different levels, as well as some for everyone together. The main thing was having chavrusa time- or learning in groups/pairs, where each level had different kinds of work and I would go around helping and facilitating each group on their own level.
we would then sometimes come all together to discuss what we had done together, having different girls present aspects of the material that would benefit everyone. the tests and assignments were different, with each group having their own criteria for grades...
Also, sometimes I would teach the 2 lower groups/review material with them while the higher group was in a different section of the room working on new/different material.
hope this helps..

TieDye

Sun, Nov 18 2012, 8:39 am

A great way to manage this is by station teaching. You create stations around the room where the students complete activities on different levels. These could be worksheets, mini projects, watching a video or listening to a recording and answering a question, or a writing activity. Use flexible grouping based on a pre-assessment to determine which station a student will go to.

I have the same problem in my classes every year. I teach NYSAA for students with severe disabilities. This means I have students who can read chapter books in the same class as students who don't know the alphabet. I like to start the class by teaching a concept, and then divide the class for the bulk of the period, when finally we come back together at the end for a wrap up.

For example. I may be teaching about the Long A and short A sounds. I will provide direct instruction to the whole class. Then my lowest level will practice locating the all the letter A's within a group of letters or words (very very low functioning). The second level will sort words written on cards into two piles (long or short sounds). The highest level will mark the pronunciation symbols for all of the letter A's in a reading passage.
For a wrap up we could create two lists of words that have long A and short A sounds.

You can differentiate by content (what the students are learning), process (how they learn it), and product (what evidence is produced of learning).

Feel free to PM me for help.