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Unread Mar 9th, 2010, 04:00 pm
bread_baker bread_baker is offline
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Default Re: Extremely difficult class - stress levels soaring

If the students do not want to study English, do not feel guilty about the situation. The best, most creative and skilled teacher would still have trouble in a class like that. The school has made your situation worse by not grouping students according to their English ability. I hope that before the next term you talk to the administrator and ask that the school not do that again. Grouping by ID number!!!! - my boss would never do that in a million years!!!
Kelly has a good idea. You can survey the students about their interests. Maybe give them a written survey. It would be nice to have written responses you could read privately.
You have a multi-level class, and you should group the students according to ability. I've taught multi-level classes before, and I always designated areas for the students to sit, i.e. "Advanced students sit over there." Advanced students will be bored if you give them something too low, and Beginning students will panic if you give them something too high.
Look at the things you used before, and ask yourself if each one is low/medium/high.
It may be very difficult to find a book that works well in a multi-level class.
If your school has a computer lab, that could be a big help to you. You could put each student on a computer, and give different assignments to different levels.
I don't know how your students feel about games, but maybe some quality ESL games would help. You can look in the games forum. Let us know if you have other questions.
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