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| How different are children? |
Describe four children in one of your classes in a similar way to Nino's descriptions above What are the most important ways in which they differ?
Fong Say, a teacher from Malaysia, lists some of the differences she finds among her pupils:
My pupils differ in their...
... perception of the language
... relationship with the teacher
... family background
... types of intelligence
... interests
... gender
... attitude and motivation for learning English
... experience of the world
There are many ways in which a class of pupils differ, quite apart from academic ability. Consider how some of these differences may affect your teaching and children's learning. For example, suppose there are more boys than girls in the class. This may affect girls participation as they may be shy to answer in front of the boys Some children come from poor homes where parents are too busy to support and take an interest in their children's education. This may affect children' s attitudes to schooling in general and to language learning in particular. One child loves art and drama but does not like English. This may affect his/her participation in learning activities and may cause him/her to distract others.
An important question to consider is whether and how to respond to differences. Is it important to take account of children's differences in the way you plan your teaching and the way you teach? If you think it is important, how can you manage to do it in a class of 30 or more?
Managing classes of mixed ability children
As all classes contain children with different abilities and characteristics, you will have had experience of dealing with differences Teachers find different ways to cope, depending on the resources available and the situation m which they teach Fong Say and Nalami, two primary teachers from Malaysia, made these suggestions for managing classes m which there are children of varying ability.
Fong Say says.
Use group teaching - group pupils according to their abilities.
Give differentiated tasks, te activities designed specially to suit particular levels I needs.
Give attention to different groups at different times.
Nalami says:
Vary your teaching/learning methods to include activities like problem solving, games, story, etc.
Have differentiated group activities.
So the three strategies these teachers use are
- Teach children in groups, according to ability.
- Prepare activities to suit the level of the groups.
- Vary teaching methods to cater for a range of different abilities and styles of learning
How do you feel about dividing children into ability groups or designing special tasks for different abilities. Do you feel that this is helpful or do you consider it divisive? Later in next post, we will consider different strategies and their advantages and disadvantages.