One Room Schoolroom for the 21 st Century

1. One Room Schoolroom for the 21st Century Multi-level Teaching By Heather E. Perry

2. Synopsis Do you feel like you are trapped in a one room school room while operating a three ring circus? This practical workshop is for those teachers (especially in rural settings) who have a variety of English skill levels exhibited by their students in one classroom. The workshop will present ideas of how to incorporate activities for this multi-level setting. Rather than planning several activities for a range of proficiency levels, this workshop aims to present how one activity can be used by all students, regardless of the extent of English competencies. One Room Schoolroom for the 21st Century Multi-level Teaching By Heather E. Perry Canada TESL Conference 2014

3. Teaching Experience • Taught several multi-level classes in rural Alberta • Levels ranged from CLB 1-7 • Used video-conferencing technology • Have trained teachers in Alberta, Saskatchewan and China • Certified language assessor through the Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks Canada TESL Conference 2014

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5. What does a multi-level class look like? Students could • Have differing educational backgrounds • Have differing comfort levels with the Roman alphabet • Have differing motivations for learning • Have differing learning styles and personal situations Canada TESL Conference 2014

6. Differing Canadian Language Benchmark Levels Canada TESL Conference 2014 differing competency levels in the listening, speaking, reading and writing skills “levels”, referring to the Canadian Language Benchmarks For further information, investigate www.language.ca

7. Language learning is a fairly chaotic activity, and language chaos can be very productive (Hess, 113) Canada TESL Conference 2014

8. “The use of grouping strategies has been found to be an effective management tool in multi-level settings to provide efficient use of teacher and student time. “ (Roberts, “Teaching in the Multilevel Classroom”, 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc) Canada TESL Conference 2014

9. Equal Ability—Pair Work • Sometimes called “like-ability” • Students have similar competency levels in the skill area being worked on. • For example, if the activity is to practice a dialogue, then pair up two students who have similar abilities in the speaking skill • Making the most of time Canada TESL Conference 2014

10. Mixed Ability—Pair Work • Competency levels in the skill area are different • Place the more demanding language learning upon the higher level students • Lower level students can still be in charge of activity Canada TESL Conference 2014

11. “True group work is designed to make the members of the group interact and communicate with each other” (Bell, p. 96) Canada TESL Conference 2014

12. Equal Ability—Group Work • Everyone in the group has the same task • Each group may have differing requirements of the same task • Emphasis of task is on accuracy Canada TESL Conference 2014

13. Mixed Ability—Group Work • Sometimes called cross-ability • Most suitable for fluency activities • Higher level students are encouraged to explain; to expand their language abilities • Lower level students are exposed to richer language structures Canada TESL Conference 2014

14. Example activity of using the same source Cloze exercise for higher level students Pick out pictures for lower level students The Hockey Song Hello out there, we're on the air, it's __________________ night tonight Tension grows, the _______________blows, and the _____________ goes down the _______The _____________ jumps and the players bump and the _____________ all go insane Someone roars, "Bobby scores!", at the good ol’ hockey game Oh, the good ol’ __________ game, is the best ________ you can nameAnd the best game you can name, is the good ol’ __________ game . Canada TESL Conference 2014

15. Jill Bell’s matrix (p. 98) Students assemble by letter for groups of equal ability Students assemble by colour for cross-ability Canada TESL Conference 2014

16. Whole Class • Good for warm-up or wrap-up activities in the class • Concrete focus (abstract is difficult for lower level students) • Choose activities that act as “levellers” so that everyone is on the same playing field • Communicative activities (board games) • Vocabulary • Pronunciation Canada TESL Conference 2014

17. Pronunciation Canada TESL Conference 2014

18. Another word for “equal ability” Like-ability Canada TESL Conference 2014

19. Another word for “mixed ability” Cross-ability Canada TESL Conference 2014

20. Equal ability group work is focused on accuracy Canada TESL Conference 2014

21. Cross-ability group work is focused on fluency Canada TESL Conference 2014

22. Multi-level teaching can be EXCITING!! Canada TESL Conference 2014

23. GREAT JOB!

24. http://heperry.wikispaces.com/ • The PowerPoint presentation can be accessed on the page marked “Presentations” Canada TESL Conference 2014

25. Example activities of pair work • Reading Comprehension: • higher level student reads the story; lower level student responds to questions with higher level student writing down the answers • Written exercises: • All have the same task; expectations and requirements will be different for pairs i.e. lower level students may only complete 10 out of the 20 questions; higher level students finish all Canada TESL Conference 2014

26. Example activities of pair work • Information gap: • lower level students have questions written out; higher level students have nothing written • Dictation: • lower level students dictate the words for the higher level students and then checks for spelling • Photo-story: • lower level students tell the story using pictures; higher level students write out the story Canada TESL Conference 2014

27. Examples for Equal Ability Groups • Collaborative Writing • Each group will have the same topic but lower level students will be copying/writing formulaic phrases; higher level students will be creating own sentences • Reading • All students will have the same topic, but the level of the reading will be different; different comprehension questions • Conversation • Lower level students have questions written out; higher level students do not have script Canada TESL Conference 2014

28. Examples for mixed ability group work • Collaborative: • one member becomes a scribe, the other the story teller, another the editor • Journals • Grammar Exercises: • lower level students can write one word answers; higher level students can write short answers Canada TESL Conference 2014

29. Examples for mixed ability group work • Discussion: • Allow lower level students to write out their agree/disagree statements • Jigsaw reading: • Every member is needed in order to answer the questions Canada TESL Conference 2014

30. Class Structure—option #1 Whole Class Group 1 Group 2 Teacher monitors whole group Whole Class Working on shared project Group 1 Teacher teaches each group individually Group 2 Whole Class Application of learning Canada TESL Conference 2014

31. Class Structure—option #2 Whole Class Group 2 Students work in groups on previously taught material Group 1 Teacher presents new material Groups rotate throughout the lesson or unit. Group 2 Teacher reviews group work and provides feedback Group 1 Students work on activities related to new material presented Whole Class Application of learning Canada TESL Conference 2014

32. Bibliography Canada TESL Conference 2014 Ann Tigchelaar, webinar “Teaching Multilevel classes” http://www2.immigratemanitoba.com/browse/webinar/eal-multi1.html This link is no longer available and might be included in the new website www.tutela.ca Melinda Roberts, article “Teaching in the Multilevel Classroom http://www.pearsonlongman.com/ae/download/adulted/multilevel_monograph.pdf

33. Bibliography Bell, Jill Sinclair. Teaching Multilevel Classes in ESL, Pippin Publishing Corporation, Toronto, Ontario, 2004. Hess, Natalie. Teaching Large Multilevel Classes, Cambridge University Press, UK. 2001 Canada TESL Conference 2014

34. Bibliography Excellent resource for multi-level listening: Lesson Plans using the Oxford Picture Dictionary, 2nd edition Oxford University Press, 2009. ISBN978-0-19-474022-7 Excellent resource for multi-level reading and communicative activities : www.esljigsaws.com Canada TESL Conference 2014