Ex 8.-
Questions 1 and 4
First of all, I would like to point out that I work with students of 12 to 14 years (secondary school) and, of course, they are not the same as adult or children. Mixed-ability classes are a reality in our actual educational system. I’m not really sure about what are the main factors that cause such big differences among students. I would say that the first thing to take into account is their previous exposure and their personality. If they have had a bad experience with education they’ll probably have a bad start to the subject. Then aptitude is also important because can make things easier or more difficult to them. Motivation is a great word. Teachers must motivate the students, is our big challenge! But, can anyone tell me how? Where is the magic wand that allow teachers to encourage students to learn and make the subject easy and funny?
Is mixed-ability a great problem? Of course it is when we are talking about classes of about 25 students and one teacher to teach, control and help all of them. It could be easier with smaller classes (10-12 students) because then you can ask them to work together, help each other and the teacher can also be supervising.
Teachers we should plan our lessons with a great diversity of activities to cover all students’ abilities and personalities (and this is a very demanding job) but then it comes the second part. We have to control the class while they are doing all these activities and that’s impossible with big classes.