[stanley]

I think it's important to vary the way you group the children. It largely depends on the activity. I don't think it would be fair to the higher level students to always pair them with lower level ones (I wouldn't like it in my Chinese classes - I much prefer to work with someone of a similar level) On the other hand, there are some situations where mixed ability groups work well, for example in a role play where the higher level student is given a more complex role. Today I did the True False activity, where students have to make up some true/false facts about themselves, get into groups, take turns to read their sentences to the group who vote on whether they think they're true or false. When modelling the activity, I first wrote out some simple sentences(about me!) and then explained how I'd expect more able students to expand these using more complex language. They worked in mixed ability groups and it was a success - everyone speaking at their own level and everyone listening to other group members.

[Mr. E English]

Good point Stanley and good example of how having a slight variation of level within a group can actually be to an advantage.

But would this work at elementary level with most students unable to produce complex language an sentence level?

[Mr. E English]

I agree with LivinginKorea. The only real way to get around the problem of ability / knowledge difference at elementary level is to have a huge amount of resources readily available. But then a school which doesn't stream its students properly in the first place isn't likely to have a large bank of teaching materials - I guess.

[livinginkorea]

I've seen both sides. My first job was in a private school where resources were lacking and thus I had to photocopy a lot of materials or buy them myself. I had to use the board and classroom a lot to interact with the students. My second job was similar but my third job was in a public elementary school, which had a seemingly endless supply of cash!

Seriously they spent about 60,000 euro on the classroom and materials but as usual when they have too much money they bought things to show off. They bought 7 computers which sat at the back of the classroom, collecting dust. I would use them for my advanced classes which had a small number of students compared to my normal classes (14 to 40). Also they bought two air conditioners which none of the homerooms had (but I was delighted in summer) and a touch screen and project which cost about 10,000 euro. There were many things like that. They had a huge amount of books too, which I picked out for them and evenyually presuaded them to place them in the library, not in the English classroom.

Anyway, having said all that it was interesting to see the differences between the haves and have nots. The students don't have to pay for public education yet there is a huge amount of money spent on it here in Korea. Money that is going nowhere. They should spend the money on getting new teachers and buying better English books not on equipment to make the classroom look like a television studio but that is another topic of discussion here in Korea