First Day Activities
 

Hello,

Does anyone have any good ideas for first day activities for an ESL class that is completely mixed in terms of level? Most semesters I have separate classes for beginners and advanced students. This semester coming up I have one class where they are all together. Thanks!

Re: First Day Activities
 

Wow, this is difficult. Isn't this a really bad idea? Mixing all levels? Anyway, the only thing I can think of is starting the class with introductions (like having each one state something about themselves) so your students can also distinguish the difference among themselves. Then you can pair up a beginner with an advance-level student and have them interact. Maybe the more advanced can help the beginner learn the lessons faster.

I'd be interested to know other ideas.

Re: First Day Activities
 

Hi alawton,
Well, I taught some adult classes with 5 levels. I settled into a pattern of teaching the class as a 3-level class (low group, middle group and high group). Of course that made lesson planning complex, but that's what I did. Most students enjoyed the class.
I'd suggest that you plan to teach your class as 2 or 3 levels (depending on how big the differential is betweeen the skills of the lowest and the skills of the highest). Plan activities that last at least 30 minutes each. That way you don't go crazy trying to manage the class. If the lowest students can barely speak at all, or are not literate in their native languages, ask the school to give you an assistant. At my school, teachers of the 2 bottom levels get (and need) assistants. Hands-on activities are excellent for beginners. Matching and scrambled sentence activities are excellent. To keep the high-end students busy while you work with the low-end students, what about small group discussions (for which you assign the questions or topics)?
Marie

Re: First Day Activities
 

I'm in a similar situation now. The local Chamber of Commerce hired me to teach anyone who wants to study. So we got all kinds. I started with a "Find someone who..." handout so they could mingle right away. If you put the questions under the line, the lower students won't sweat as much.

1. Find someone who has a cat.________________
(Do you have a cat?)
2. Find someone who can skateboard______________
(Can you skateboard?)

...something like that.