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MASARYK UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF EDUCATION
Department of English Language and Literature
Teaching Heterogeneous Classesin Practice
Master´s Theses
Brno 2008
Author: Supervisor:
Regina Pospíšilová PhDr. AlenaKašpárková
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DeclarationI declare that I have written my diploma theses myself and listed all the used sources in the enclosed list of references.
………………………………Regina Pospíšilová
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AcknowledgementsI would like to express my thanks to PhDr. Alena Kašpárková, who kindly assisted my aspiration with this project. Her advice and encouragement while supervising this diploma theses were immensely helpful.
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Table of Contents
Introduction.......................................................................................................................6
Theoretical Part.................................................................................................................81 Mixed-ability/ Heterogenous Classes......................................................................82 Reasons for Differences Between Learners.............................................................93 Motivation..............................................................................................................11
3.1 Definition and Kinds of Motivation............................................................113.2 Psychological Theories Behind Motivation................................................123.2.1 The Reinforcement..................................................................................123.2.2 The Need for an Achievement.................................................................123.2.3 How the Theories Combine.....................................................................13
4 The Teacher............................................................................................................155 Teaching in a Heterogeneous Class.......................................................................17
5.1 The Concept of Individualization................................................................175.2 Types of Activities Used in Class...............................................................195.2.1 Activities According to the Students´ Roles...........................................19
5.2.1.1 Competitive Activities.........................................................................195.2.1.2 Cooperative Activities.........................................................................21
5.2.2 Activities According to the Number of Students Working Together......225.2.2.1 Individual Activities............................................................................225.2.2.2 Pair and Group Activities....................................................................22
5.2.3 Activities According to the Expected Result...........................................235.2.3.1 Closed Activities.................................................................................235.2.3.2 Open-Ended Activities........................................................................23
5.3 Clasroom Management in Heterogeneous Classes......................................245.3.1 Homogeneous Groups Within One Class................................................245.3.2 Differentiated Instructions.......................................................................255.3.3 Setting Tasks According to the Learning Styles of Individual Learners.26
6 Learning Styles......................................................................................................266.1 Definition.....................................................................................................266.2 Multiple Intelligences..................................................................................276.3 Perceptual Styles.........................................................................................296.4 Honey&Mumford Learning Styles..............................................................306.5 Myers-Briggs Type Indicator......................................................................316.6 VAK............................................................................................................32
7 Teaching Styles......................................................................................................35Formal Authority.............................................................................................................35Demonstrator or Personal Model.....................................................................................35Facilitator.........................................................................................................................36Delegator.........................................................................................................................36Summary of the Theoretical Part.....................................................................................38Specification of the Class Where the Lessons Were Taught...........................................41Lesson plans, notes and evaluations................................................................................431 International Deaf People´s Day (September 24)..................................................43
1.1 Lesson plan – 90 min...................................................................................431.2 Lesson notes and evaluation........................................................................46
2 World Food Day (October 16)...............................................................................482.1 Lesson plan – 90 min...................................................................................48Instructions:..............................................................................................................48
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2.2 Lesson notes and evaluation........................................................................523 International Day for Tolerance (November 16)...................................................54
3.1 Lesson plan – 90 min...................................................................................543.2 Lesson notes and evaluation........................................................................58
4 World Water Day (March 22)................................................................................604.1 Lesson plan – 90 min...................................................................................604.2 Lesson notes and evaluation........................................................................63
5 Earth Day (April 22)..............................................................................................655.1 Lesson plan – 90 min...................................................................................655.2 Lesson notes and evaluation........................................................................68
List of Appendices...........................................................................................................771 International Deaf People´s Day...........................................................................772 World Food Day...................................................................................................773 International Day for Tolerance...........................................................................774 World Water Day.................................................................................................775 Earth Day..............................................................................................................77
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Introduction
The field of interest of this work is methodology, specifically teaching mixed ability
classes and creating materials for such classes.
The choice of the field and topic is affected by my practical experience of 6-year´s
period of teaching intensive language courses for young adults after they have finished
their secondary school education.
The students come to the class from different schools. Their mixed level of knowledge
regarding English is among other things a result of two factors. Firstly, English has not
been a compulsory part of the secondary school-leaving exam (maturita) yet, thus the
students who did not choose English as their exam subject had probably been much less
motivated to pay attention to it during the studies. These students tend to show a weaker
performance in the class.
Secondly, the state form of the school-leaving exam which would unite the level of the
knowledge needed for passing this exam is still only a suggestion in the process of
testing. Therefore, even though a part of the students coming to the course have passed
the same exam, they have done so at different schools and consequently the level of
these students´ English varies greatly.
Such class is in methodology call a mixed ability - or more currently ´heterogeneous´ -
class. The ways of teaching that would be the most appropriate and efficient for mixed
ability classes is one of the issues nowadays widely disscussed by the teaching
community.
The thesis will be devided in two parts – a theoretical part and practical part.
The theoretical part deals with the methodology and aspects of the issue – i.e. It
explains what are the causes of the differences between students´ abilities. Motivation
and its role in the process of learning and teaching are discussed. Students´and teachers´
as the members of the process are looked at. Students´needs and ways of trying to meet
them are presented together with several views of learning styles.
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The practical part contains five 90-minutes lesson plans taylored for teaching
heterogeneous classes including activities based on the methodology described in the
theoretical part. All lesson plans are connected with days of international dedication
(e.g. World Day for Water, March 22). The specific days were chosen with two criterias
in mind: firstly I have tried to choose days dedicated to issues which I feel the students´
should be aware of, secondly I have chosen days which come in different months of the
year. The lesson plans are accompanied by either completely original or adjusted
worksheets and materials.
As an important part of m the project was to try all the newly created activities in my
class, comments on how successfully they were realised and if anything should be
handled differently are presented.
I believe the lesson plans might serve as a source of activities or at least inspiration for
other teachers of similar courses.
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Theoretical Part
1 Mixed-ability/ Heterogenous Classes
The concept of so-called mixed-ability classes was not originally connected with
teaching English as a second or foreign language. The term first referred to what was
seen as a contrast to classes where streaming had been performed. As Harlen and
Malcolm (1997) explain in their research, streaming is a term that describes the method
of dividing pupils to classes based on the assessment of their general ability.
Streaming was popular in Britain in the 1960s. Further studies showed that it has
negative effects on the students’ performance in the secondary schools, consequently it
became less and less popular in the primary schools and it eventually disappeared
during the 1970s and 1980s.
Apart from streaming the term setting appears in the same period. Setting means the
regrouping of pupils based on their ability in the particular subject.
Mixed-ability grouping means within the same context randomly chosen students
gathered in one class regardless of their abilities or achievements in the subject
concerned.
However, the intended topic of this paper is mixed-ability classes in connection with
teaching and learning English as a foreign language, particularly in a language school.
The students in language schools are usually placed in courses/classes according to the
results of an entrance test where they have to prove their knowledge of English. From
what has been said so far we would say these classes are rather ´set´ than ´mixed-ability
´ as the students who eventually meet in one classroom have passed their entrance tests
with the same or very similar outcomes. On the other hand, the entrance tests
concentrate on the students´ level of English and as such do not provide the teacher with
the information considering the students´ general abilities to learn new words, to
express themselves, to study or to make progress in learning a language. Their
momentary knowledge of the subject is about the same but some may have spent much
more time or/and may have needed to make a lot more effort to reach that level than
others. What is more, the relevance of the division of the applicants depends on other
factors as well, e.g. on the objectivity of the test (if it is a multiple choice test the
possibility of gaining more points not by showing the particular knowledge but by being
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lucky having chosen the correct answer and reaching a little higher level is always
there) or on the number of courses available at a particular school (if the teacher can
divide 30 students into three classes of ten the range of their knowledge within one class
will be more similar than if there are only two classes with 15 students each as in the
first case the teacher actually has three different levels to choose from while in the
second he/she has only two).
2 Reasons for Differences Between Learners
Beside the facts mentioned above, psychologists specializing in developmental
psychology have proved that a human being is formed partly genetically by inheriting
genes of his/her ancestors and partly through the environment he/she grows up in and
experience.
Psychology offers its explanation for successful or unsuccessful performance of learners
at schools and education generally. The reasons are numerous. Kohoutek (2006)
explains that there are three types of underlying causes: social psychological, bio-
psychological and intra-psychical.
Social psychological causes are connected with the student´s family and school
background. We are speaking about the cultural background, general situation in the
family and the relationships, the position of the student in the family, the parent s´view
of the importance of one´s achieved education, etc.).
Bio-psychological causes are closely linked with the student´s health and mental
conditions. One of the bio-psychological elements of personality is for example
temperament. Temperament itself includes aspects such as the activity level, regularity
of sleeping and eating patterns, initial reaction, adaptability, intensity of emotion,
mood, distractibility, persistence and attention span, and sensory sensitivity. Another
bio-psychological parameter is intelligence.
As examples of intra-psychical causes of poor class performance Kohoutek (2006, p.
24) presents insufficient development of interest, a student´s negativity towards learning
and school generally, intellectual passivity – underachieving (student´s results are lower
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than he/she actually could achieve regarding his capabilities.) As the most important
element of one´s relationship to learning and school Kohoutek sees attitude. The
definition of attitude is presented on Wikipedia as follows:
Attitude :A complex mental state involving beliefs, feelings, values and dispositions to
act in certain ways. Attitude affects a student’s ability to learn, but is unrelated to
aptitude.
To complete the definition of attitude I decided to include the definition of aptitude
from the same source as well:
Aptitude: The rate at which a student can learn a language, based on raw talent.
Aptitude does not seem to be related to attitude; a gifted student can have a poor
attitude.
We can see here that aptitude correlates with the bio-psychological aspects.
All these causes of students´ variant school performance and the extent to which the
performance is satisfactory or not, were listed so that the reader realizes that the
elements affecting students´ outcomes are ample. Clearly, the possibility for the teacher
to influence the individual student´s family background or aptitude and health condition
is negligible. On the other hand the teacher is still left with the large field of the student
´s attitude he/she can work on. This subject will be discussed more in the chapter on
motivation.
To conclude this chapter, people have different ways of thinking, different learning
styles, speed of learning etc. To find two people who are very similar in appearance is
possible but to find two people with the same reactions to various mental stimuli is not.
Taking all this into account we can only come to the conclusion that in this sense
literally all classes are mixed-ability ones, or in more up-to-date jargon heterogeneous,
no matter how little the level of knowledge of the subject in concern varies at the
moment the class meet for the first time.
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3 Motivation
3.1 Definition and Kinds of Motivation
One of the most important aspects, if not the crucial one, that affects the way and speed
people learn in is motivation, typically defined as “the forces that account for the
arousal, selection, direction, and continuation of behavior” (Biehler Snowman, 1997,
p. 399). A student motivated to study is a student who has found his/her reason to study
and the effort the student makes to learn something is in direct proportion with the level
of motivation, the more motivated the student is the harder he/she will work to learn.
A teacher upon his arrival to the classroom faces a group of students who are highly or
mildly motivated or unmotivated to participate in the activities he/she has prepared for
them depending on whether the students have or do not have their reasons to learn the
particular subject, here English. Such a statement is rather simplified though.
Various researches and works published on this issue describe two different kinds of
motivation: extrinsic motivation – the reasons for one´s behaviour and effort to be
made come from the outside, the drivers of such motivation being rewards or pressures
or intrinsic motivation with the driver being one´s belief that this is the right thing to
do from his/her own point of view or in other words the student wants to satisfy his/her
own needs.
In the explanation of the extrinsic motivation the word ´pressures´ and ´rewards´
appeared. One can be motivated positively (i.e. ´If I do something – succeed in
completing a task - I will get a reward´) or negatively (i.e. ´If I do not do something –
fail completing a task – I will be punished´). Within the frame of school environment a
reward might mean teacher´s praise or a good mark; pressures and punishment might
mean negative evaluation, bad marks and parents´ disappointment.
Snowman and Biehler (1997) declare that to describe a student as unmotivated is not
accurate since anybody who chooses a goal (even if it is avoiding participation in a task)
and uses a certain amount of effort to achieve it must be, according to the definition
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above, motivated. The problem a teacher faces therefore is the fact that students are
motivated to behave in a way dissonant with his/her plan or desire. Thus the teacher´s
task is to change the students´ motivation direction.
To be able to ride out the change it is helpful for the teacher to know the basis of the
psychology behind motivation. Here I would like to present shortly two psychological
theories which have been already applied to teaching.
3.2 Psychological Theories Behind Motivation
3.2.1 The Reinforcement Shortly said, through experiments focused on methods animals and men use to learn
scientists (esp. B. F. Skinner) developed and proved a theory that learning is increased
by reinforcement – if certain behaviour is rewarded than the rewarded individual tends
to repeat the behavior maybe even more willingly and with more enthusiasm next time.
On the contrary, if certain behavior is punished then the individual would try to avoid
such behavior in future. The individual´s behavior is being shaped through a system of
reinforcement – a reward or punishment - and the individual is motivated to behave in a
certain way.
The connection between this proved theory and teaching is logical; a teacher wants to
direct students´ motivation towards learning thus learning (a correct answer produced,
participation, effort etc.) should be rewarded – the simplest reward being praise.
3.2.2 The Need for an Achievement
The need for an achievement is another aspect Snowman and Biehler (1997) include in
the chapter on motivation. They explain the thought of John W. Atkinson who explored
this area in the early 1960s.
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John W. Atkinson tried to answer the question why some people are willing to tackle
more complex or difficult problems than others. He came to the conclusion that people
have “generalized desire to attain goals that require some degree of competence” ( 1964,
cited in Biehler Snowman, 1997). However each individual has a different level of
the need for an achievement.
The difficulty of a task an individual is prepared to fulfill depends on his/her
expectation of success. People with a high need for an achievement are willing to deal
with harder tasks as their expectations of success are strong and they are not afraid of
failure. Obviously, individuals afraid of not being able to solve what seems to them as a
difficult problem successfully would choose not to take the risk and they would try to
avoid such situation by choosing a less challenging work or avoiding the situation
completely (you can for example imagine a student who tries to escape an expected test
by not coming to school on the day when the test is supposed to take place). Yet another
way they might opt for is choosing a problem that is so difficult that a failure would not
be surprising even for generally more successful individuals with a higher need for an
achievement.
3.2.3 How the Theories Combine
We have already looked into the theory of reinforcement and it has been mentioned that
reinforcement might be positive – a reward – to support certain behavior or negative – a
punishment – to suppress certain behavior. By reinforcement a person´s behavior is
being shaped.
A reward is something that brings to a person positive feelings (e.g. praise, appreciation,
positive feedback) and one of the positive emotions that accompanies a reward is the
feeling of being successful.
Imagine a student experiencing success on numerous occasions in a subject – the
student´s behavior brings him/her the reward of feeling positively about him/herself
thus the student´s self-esteem grows and simultaneously grows the need for
achievement. The student seeks more difficult tasks because he/she believes in his/her
abilities and the fear of failure diminishes. The student´s expectations are positive, so is
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the attitude towards the subject and consequently escalates the motivation to work hard
and learn because the student wants to be rewarded again. The whole procedure repeats
itself – although I would rather say ´in a spiral´ than ´a circle´ because hopefully the
student´s positive attitude and motivation are increasing eventually and so is the
difficulty of tasks the student is willing to try to complete.
Obviously, the same situation might be observed in the other – negative – direction. The
student tries to fulfill a task but fails and as the feeling a failure carries is negative we
might consider this a negative reinforcement – punishment. Next time the student will
be more careful with his/her enthusiasm and he/she might opt for a simpler task if the
possibility exists or, if the feeling of not being satisfactorily successful comes on more
occasions, the student might give up trying. The negative reinforcement would bring its
results.
For both negative and positive reinforcement in the sense discussed in the previous
paragraphs we are of course talking not about a single or exceptional situation as
clearly, the behavior is shaped after a number of similar situations which occur in a row
and have in the student´s point of view the same outcome.
It is important to realize that a students´s attitude towards a subject is related to
experience, therefore an individual who has experienced failure in lessons of one
subject several times without feeling successful in-between will tend to see the subject
as an area where he/she will never feel comfortable. Learning while uneasiness occupies
one´s mind is extremely difficult and requires much more mental energy than it would if
the same student felt safe and easy – in other words confident about his/her possible
achievement in the subject.
To sum up what has been written on motivation so far, the more positively a student
feels about his/her performance in the subject being taught the more enthusiastic and the
more motivated to work hard he/she is. The harder the student works the more he/she
learns. It sounds very simple and what is important for a teacher, it is possible to affect
the process by supporting the students in their effort with praise and a positive and
encouraging feedback.
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We have said that to learn more easily and with a less struggle a student needs to feel
reasonably confident about his/her knowledge of the subject. As Helus (Helus, Hrabal
ml., Kulič, Mareš 1979, p. 56) highlights the confidence might be to a great extent
enhanced by the teacher´s belief in the particular student´s progress.
This is true especially if the teacher is viewed as a person the students identify with and
respect.
4 The Teacher
What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches. ~Karl
Menninger
If motivation plays a crucial role in the quality and speed of student´s learning and a
teacher is the person whose task is to motivate and who should be competent to fulfil
the task then we can easily come to the conclusion that it is the teacher what makes the
difference.
A number of researches have been carried out to find out what makes a good teacher
and the results of some of them are accessible on the Internet or are presented in
literature.
The specialist on mixed ability classes Luke Prodromou (1996) offers his own research
showing what 40 English language students stated to be the qualities of a good teacher. I
would like to name at least some of them here (Prodromou uses transcriptions which
have been corrected only so that they do not prevent understanding):
friendly/ explained things/ gave a good notes/ let the students do it by themselves in groups/ We did the lesson together/ got out of us things we know/ talked about her life/ told jokes/ She was one of us./ did´t push weak learners/ She got close to the students/I wanted him to be proud of me/ They tried to communicate/ She gave advice/ He had a personality of his own/ She made sure everyone understood/ He talked about personal problems/ She was more like a comedian/asked student opinions, there was a dialogue… Prodromou (1996, pp. 31, 32,)
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The Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence in their Student Evaluation of
Educational Quality research asks students to mark the teachers (instructors) on the
scale from 1 to 5 (1 = Very Poor, 5 = Very Good). The fields the students are asked
about are following:
Learning environment Enthusiasm of the instructor
Organization of the instructor Group interaction of the instructor
Individual rapport of the instructor Breadth of the course
Examinations in the course Assignments in the course
Overall evaluation of the course
Some of the criteria considering the instructor are:
Instructor is enthusiastic about teaching the course.
Instructor is dynamic and energetic in conducting the course.
Instructor enhances presentations with the use of humor.
Instructor´s style of presentation holds your interest during the class.
Instructor gives lectures that facilitate taking notes.
Students are encouraged to participate in class discussions.
Students are invited to share their ideas and knowledge.
Students are encouraged to express their own ideas and/or question the instructor.
Instructor is friendly towards individual students.
Instructor makes students feel welcome in seeking help/advice in or outside of class.
Instructor has a genuine interest in individual students.
When we compare the ideas and suggestions of the students from the Prodromou´s book
and criteria given by the Schreyer Institute we can see that both the lists are very similar
– they both stress, of course beside the teacher´s knowledge of his/her subject, dialogue
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and discussion, friendliness and humor, availability of the teacher to help, genuine
interest in individual students.
Friendliness, humor and respect to the students are vital as the teacher is the one who is
responsible for the atmosphere in the class. The teacher´s personality and his/her own
attitude to work and people he/she works with are what the quality of the teaching and
learning processes depends on. Generally, the teacher makes the difference between
lessons where the students feel safe and comfortable, thus enjoying themselves and
learning, and the lessons which the students fear, dislike or find boring and useless.
5 Teaching in a Heterogeneous Class
The interest in individual students is the key to a heterogeneous class satisfaction. We
already know that each student is a mosaic of a number of various personal qualities and
abilities which are influenced by many factors coming from the student´s life and
environment. It has also been said that most of the elements of this mosaic are
impossible to be influenced by the teacher, but on the other hand, a teacher who tries
and works hard is not without chances completely as he/she can always motivate
students to learn.
Students come from different backgrounds with different ideas, expectations and needs.
They are individuals, therefore they should be looked at as individuals and not as a
whole class. Trying to satisfy the class´ needs actually means trying to satisfy the needs
of each person present in the class – individualization is the cornerstone.
5.1 The Concept of Individualization
According to Logan (cited in Sarwar,1990, p.202) there are certain underlying basic
assumptions regarding learning when we talk of ´individualization´:
People learn – even the same material – in different ways (this implies accepting
different learning styles).
People can learn from a variety of sources, even if the final goals are the same
(it means that the instructional materials can vary)
Direct teaching by a teacher is not essential for learning, it is only one of many
possible experiences (which means that a teacher can be a facilitator)
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A variety of learning activities can take place simultaneously
People may have a variety of goals of objectives for learning a second language.
Most of the Logan´s assumptions are actually further explained and dealt with in more
detail in this work.
Sarwar (1990) also mentions the ´three Rs of individualization´: Reeducation,
Responsibility, Relevance. The person who originally came with this concept is H. B.
Altman. He brought this thought in his book Individualizing The Foreign Language
Classroom (Newbury House, 1972).
Here is a brief explanation of what the Rs mean:
Reeducation – the re-establishment of the roles of the teacher and learner is in
question. It should be understood that in the process of teaching and learning the
teacher needs to take up the role of a facilitator and the learner should play the
part of the active agent.
Responsibility – this ´R´ implies that it is the learner him/herself who is in
charge of the learning. The teacher should help the students by setting clearly
stated tasks and make necessary materials available.
Relevance – the context and materials should be meaningful and in terms of
context understandable to the learners.
Sarwar adds one more ´R´to this trio – Rapport.
Rapport – Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English defines rapport as
´friendly agreement and understanding between people´. The area of the need of
positive relationship between students and teachers have already been covered in
the chapter on the teachers and it has been touched in the chapter on motivation
as well.
Individualization might be applied in the class through the choice and way of organizing
various activities in the class. Furthermore, individualized teaching may be performed
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by paying attention to learning styles of students and trying to satisfy their needs. These
topics will appear in the following chapters.
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5.2 Types of Activities Used in Class
5.2.1 Activities According to the Students´ Roles
Activities that are happening within a lesson could be divided according to the students´
role:
Competitive – the results are compared and the best one is a winner.
Cooperative – students work together on a task, the results are presented to the rest of
the class when finished, the teacher does not evaluate whose work is better, the teacher
only evaluates if the task was completed or not.
5.2.1.1 Competitive Activities
Activities including the element of competition are often recommended to increase the
interest of students in participating in such activity and to make students work as hard as
possible to win.
Since the competitions are usually connected with the knowledge of the subject in
concern, the problem is that in a class the same group of stronger students tend to be the
ones who end up on the first positions. Therefore the competitions might be interesting
for this group only as all being on a very similar level and having similar abilities they
have roughly equal chances to succeed. Nevertheless, the fact that the winning students
tend to be the same at different occasions means that also the students who are not
successful, in other words who fail, tend to be the same.
The effect of experiencing failure has been described in the part of this work dealing
with motivation. While the stronger students might enjoy competitions, the weaker ones
might become discouraged and give up trying to win as they do not expect they could
succeed.
What is worse, if a competitive atmosphere is supported in the class on a long-term
basis, the students will adopt the esprit of “Either I or you – if you then not me” (Helus,
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Hrabal ml., Kulič, Mareš 1979, p. 20). Basically, a student might succeed only if the
others fail (become second, third etc.but not first) which leads to the situation when the
group of students who do not expect good results become negligent and the group of
students who think they might be successful wish the others are worse, not as strong as
themselves. This might lead to very good results of the stronger students but on the
other hand to a negative atmosphere in the class, and as Helus (Helus, Hrabal ml., Kulič,
Mareš 1979) claims might bring irritation and stress to the group.
We might conclude that competition should be used only in a light-hearted way, as a fun
activity. However, it is not the case completely. Such activities do not necessarily have
to always have these harmful consequences if their concept is altered so that different
students have a chance to become winners. Bearing in mind we want a student who is
not particularly strong in English to win, we have to make the goal of the competition
independent of his/her knowledge of the language. Thus the knowledge of a different
subject might become vital. An example of such ´non-English´ competition in English
might be a knowledge quiz based on geography, music, sport etc.
Weaker students would also enjoy group competitions where each group consists of
both stronger and weaker students so the stronger students might produce the language
needed while the weaker ones might be important for the group by contributing the
knowledge.
Students who are not experts on English but are good at arts would probably appreciate
competitions where drawing is crucial to be successful. The teacher might for example
ask the students to create a poster dealing with a recently taught topic and then let the
students decide which is the winning one. There are of course more possibilities where
acting, singing or free writing is involved.
Another type of competitions not only the strong students might win are those in which
pure luck plays the vital role such as all forms of Bingo (i.e. Bingo using numbers, set
of adjectives, verbs etc.).
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5.2.1.2 Cooperative Activities
Cooperative activities might be done either in groups or in pairs. A group or a pair
might be formed by students with the same knowledge of English (same abilities) or
mixed.
The advantage of the same level students working together is that they feel comfortable
not being confronted by anyone stronger, they can relax and work with their partner/s in
the same speed as they are used to. Why to form groups of mixed ability students then?
According to Harlen and Malcolm (1997) and many others all the students might profit
from such arrangement when carried out appropriately, in a friendly atmosphere. The
weaker students have partners to help them with difficulties (e.g. explain issues on their
own level of thinking and experience which might be more understandable than the
teacher´s explanations) and if given a task they can handle successfully, their work will
be appreciated by stronger students, which is undoubtely highly motivating.
Generally, working side to side with people who have a wider range of knowledge is
inspirational and might lead to the weaker student´s desire to reach the same level as the
stronger partners.
The stronger students are not without benefits in this situation either. Firstly, they
naturally would have the role of coordinators, which would positively influence their
view of themselves. Secondly, by trying to help and explain they consolidate their own
knowledge.
Actually, from the preceding text we have learnt that cooperative activities might be a
part of the competitive ones if the competition is organized for groups or pairs.
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5.2.2 Activities According to the Number of Students Working Together
5.2.2.1 Individual Activities
Individual activities seem the most suitable for students in mixed ability classes for
several reasons: they allow students to work in their own pace, students are not stressed
by better or worse performance of others during the activity and to complete a task the
students have to use their own knowledge, i.e. they have to rely on themselves. The
students should be encouraged not to copy from a neighbour, so that they show effort
and active thinking – thus strengthening what they have learnt.
Inevitably, because the students work in their own speed some will finish sooner than
others. Such students – usually the same group of students – might easily start feeling
they are wasting their time by waiting for the slower ones. To avoid such situation the
teacher should have on hand a contingency plan.
Contingency plan might either mean an extra exercise or a follow up activity connected
with the one the rest of students are working on such as preparing questions or true/false
statements based on a text being read for the rest of the class.
Some teachers let the students work on their homework for next lesson, e.g. exercises in
the workbook. It is convenient for the teacher as he/she does not have to do any extra
preparations in advance, however, I do not think it is a suitable solution as it actually
means that the students then spend less time at home occupying their mind with the
language and consequently do not consolidate what they have learnt at school that day.
5.2.2.2 Pair and Group Activities
Pair and group activities have been actually already touched in the section on
cooperative and competitive activities.
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5.2.3 Activities According to the Expected Result
5.2.3.1 Closed Activities
Shortly put, closed activities are those where the possibilities of outcome are limited
(closed) to one correct answer. An example of such an activity might be cloze tests or
marking statements based on a reading or listening exercise true or false. They are
usually connected with receptive skills, i.e. reading and listening.
5.2.3.2 Open-Ended Activities
Open-ended activities are those where the outcome varies from a student to student,
pair to pair or a group to group. The task might be to discuss a controversial issue and
provide reasons supporting one´s opinions or writing an anecdote, essay, letter etc.
Productive skills, i.e. speaking and writing are usually the skills to be used.
Obviously, the types of activities given above combine. Some exercises might be
carried out as an open-ended group-work with the element of competition and some
might be an open-ended task to be worked on individually.
All types, though, might be used successfully in a heterogeneous class if the teacher is
able to employ all the students, make them participate and succeed.
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5.3 Clasroom Management in Heterogeneous Classes
There are several ways of making reaching satisfactory results possible for students of
all levels present in the class:
5.3.1 Homogeneous Groups Within One Class
The teacher can set the class in groups according to the level of their language
knowledge and then prepare different materials for each group. This would for example
allow the teacher to spend more time with the learners whose level is lower. The more
advanced students could work more independently perhaps faster and do more complex
projects together. Groups of students based on similar level would be more homogenous
and easier to teach. Students would also learn to be more self-sufficient, to rely on
themselves trying to find out whatever they would themselves or seek help within the
group not asking the teacher about everything. However, this situation might be
profitable for all the participants under the condition that the students would not feel
neglected by the teacher so a reasonable level of their independence would have to be
established.
For some teachers difficulties might appear considering the classroom management. All
four skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) being taught to all the groups
would mean that while one group would work on reading or writing, another one might
need to do a listening exercise. It is necessary for the teacher to to be able to concentrate
on all the activities proceeding at the same time. If not handled properly, this situation
might cause serious problems with the students´ concentration. Not everyone is able to
separate mentally from what is happening around and focus completely on his/her task,
e.g. doing a reading comprehension exercise dealing with sports while hearing a radio
programme dealing with the latest films and going to the cinema. Nevertheless, as well
as many other things this is a matter of experience and practice.
Another aspect that should be taken into consideration is the number of students in the
original class. Generally, the smaller the original class the less suitable or the more
limiting this idea would be. Limiting in the sense of variability – e.g. in a class of
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twenty students divided in two different levels groups the students still have 9 potential
partners for pairwork and it is even possible to form groups within one level group, on
the other hand, if there are only 10 students in the original class, dividing them in two
groups would limit further division possibilities.
What is more, the teacher would have to actually prepare as many correlative lesson
plans for each lesson as many groups he/she would set up in the class which would
definitely be very demanding and time-consuming.
5.3.2 Differentiated Instructions
To meet the needs of students with different level of language knowledge differentiated
instructions might be introduced. There are again various ways of making instructions
different according to the students´ abilities. The easiest way of adjusting the tasks in
the same textbook for several levels is to set limits to the amount of work demanded
from the students corresponding with the levels.
To be more specific, if there are 10 questions to be answered referring to a text in the
studentsbook then the weaker students might be asked to find answers only to 7 of
them. They might be also be given the possibility to choose which seven questions they
answer. Not to make the lower level or slower students feel inferior the task might be
announced as ´Find in the text answers to at least 7 of the 10 questions given in the
book´ That way the students would not feel embarrassed or unsucessful if they are not
able to find all the answers and they would also be able to finish the task in time.
Sometimes the students are asked to write sentences using certain expressions – again
the number of expressions might be lowered for some students.
Similarly to setting the minimum of the task to be fulfilled, the teacher can choose parts
of some exercises as optional, e.g. setting as optional only the questions he/she thinks
might be too difficult for some of the students.
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The advantage of these options is that the students can decide for themselves what they
consider an achievable variation and they can also change it anytime they feel it is
suitable or needed without having to let the teacher know.
Disadvantage might be seen in the fact that some students will opt for the easier way
and less demanding choice although their abilities would allow them to choose
differently.
Reasons for such a decision may vary from missing self-confidence or tiredness to
simple laziness. I find it advisable for the teacher to pay attention to the students
´choices and encourage them not to underestimate their abilities or to participate fully in
the lesson. Nevertheless, this should happen only in justifiable cases perhaps when the
situation occurs repeatedly as the students should be led to be able to assess their own
competence and take the responsibility for their own learning.
5.3.3 Setting Tasks According to the Learning Styles of Individual Learners
It has been described and explained within this text why and how each student is a
unique individual with his/her specific needs. People differ in their personal qualities
and abilities, they differ in the way of viewing the world around themselves seeing the
same things from their own point. Given identical set of information different people
might get to different conclusions. All teachers know that students do not learn or
remember the same within one lesson. One of the reasons for this is that students have
varying learning styles.
6 Learning Styles
6.1 DefinitionThe theory of individualized learning styles originated in the 1970s and according to the
information on the Wikipedia over 80 learning style models have been proposed, each
consisting of at least two different styles. I would like to present an overview of several
models.
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This approach to learning emphasizes the fact that individuals perceive and
process information in very different ways. The learning styles theory implies that
how much individuals learn has more to do with whether the educational
experience is suitable and aimed toward their particular style of learning than
whether or not they are "smart." In fact, as the Funderstanding claims in their
definition of Learning styles, educators should not ask, "Is this student smart?" but
rather "How is this student smart?"
6.2 Multiple Intelligences
This idea was conceived by Howard Gardner. A website on learning difficulties, called
LdPride, brings quite complex information on the topic of learning styles and multiple
intelligencies. According to multiple intelligences theory, not only do all individuals
possess numerous mental representations and intellectual languages, but individuals also
differ from one another in the forms of these representations, their strengths, and the
ways in which (and ease with which) these representations can be changed. There are
seven different ways to demonstrate intellectual ability described in Gardner´s book
Frames of Mind. And according to the Highland Schools Virtual Library´s enter on
multiple intelligences Learning and Teaching should take Account of Multiple
Intelligence two more were added later: Naturalistic and Existential Intelligence.
1 Visual/Spatial Intelligence
is the ability to respond to visual stimuli. People who use visual (spatial) learning style
prefer using pictures and images to learn and remember information. Colours are of
great significance.
2 Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence
is the ability to use language and words, to understand written and spoken utterances.
These people are articulate and they like reading and writing.
3 Logical/Mathematical Intelligence is the ability to reason, use logic and numbers.
These students recognize patterns a connections between them. To understand or learn
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information they like to classify and group the information. These students like problem
solving.
4 Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence
is the ability to control body movements and handle objects skillfully. People with this
learning style use their body and sense of touch to learn about the world around. They
like physical exercise and they do not want to sit for a long time. Typical for these
people is gesturing while speaking.
5 Musical/Rhythmic Intelligence
is the ability to produce and appreciate music. These people perceive sounds rhythm and
patterns. Music invokes strong emotions.
6 Interpersonal Intelligence
is the ability to understand others. These people are great communicators. They
prefer learning in groups or classes or with the teacher directly. They like to
discuss the learnt issues. They also enjoy explaining new items to others. Games
that involve communication with other people, board games are welcomed by
such students.
7 Intrapersonal Intelligence
is the ability to self-reflect and be aware of one's inner state of being. These
people are private, introspective and independent. Such students are able to
concentrate very well on their current topic. They also understand their role in
the relationships with other people.They prefer working on their own.
It has been alleged that two more intelligencies have been added eventually:
8 Naturalistic Intelligence
students with this intelligence developed are curious about plants and animals.
They are able to make distinctions and recognize patterns in the natural world.
They are interested in ecology and environment.
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9 Existential Intelligence
these learners reflect on meaning of life, they attend to philosophical topics of
death and purpose of life.
6.3 Perceptual Styles
Perceptual learning styles refer to the means of extracting information from the world
around through the five senses. Seven different perceptual modes of meeting the
information are distinguished (they are described in detail for example on this web site:
http://www.learningstyles.org/) :
1 Print Modality (a print orientated learner)
This is a learner who likes to see things written to be able to learn and remember
them. He/she finds it easy to get the hold of things on the first reading of material.
This person loves reading and often takes notes which for him/her is a process that
help him/her to learn easily. They need written instructions.
2 Aural Modality (an aural learner)
This is a learner who learns well through lectures as he/she remembers ideas
presented verbally. Various tapes and studying CDs are useful particularly for this
type of learners. They also like to talk, enjoy role-plays and dramas. Following
verbal instructions is feasible for them.
3 Interactive Modality (an interactive learner)
Interactive learners learn best through verbalization. He/she does not only need to
listen as the aural learner but more important is to be able to disscus things, talk to
other or even to self. Small groups and discussions are stimulating for such a
learner.
4 Visual Modality (a visual learner)
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Such learners learn by seeing and watching. They benefit from the use of pictures,
graphs, demonstrations and all types of visual arts and media. They often have a
vivid imagination. It is extremely difficult for them to keep concentrated when a
lengthy listening is included in the lesson. Typically, visual learners do not talk
much and they might often stare.
5 Haptic Modality (a haptic learner)
The sense of touch is the crucial one for these learners. They like a ´hands-on´
approach to learning. Artwork and tasks requiring manipulation are what these
students are usually good at. They also like to trace words and pictures.
6 Kinesthetic Modality (a kinesthetic learner)
Kinesthetic learners learn by doing. Their concentration is poor when visual or
auditory presentations take place in the lesson. They gesture a lot and want to move
when learning. Movement helps them to concentrate.
7 Olfactory Modality (an olfactory learner)
These learners learn best through the sense of smell and taste. Smells and tastes
have special significance for them. They associate particular smells with memories.
Smells increase their learning.
6.4 Honey&Mumford Learning Styles
Another division of learning styles, which looks at the problem from a different point of
view is the one of Honey and Mumford (1992)
They identify four kinds of learners:
1 Activists – learners who favor experiencing, i.e. teamwork, games and simulations,
brainstorming, project work, creative situations, problem –based learning and activities
that might be described as extrovert, for example giving presentations.
2 Reflectors – learners who like to think carefully. These learners prefer cerebral
activities, passive situations such as watching video. They like to have time for
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preparation before participative activities. Painstaking research is not a problem for
them.
3 Theorists – experts on generalizing. They enjoy structured situations with a clear
purpose, listening to or reading about well-argued, logical ideas. They want to
understand and participate in highly complex situations and they need to be able to
question and probe assumptions.
4 Pragmatists – the practical students. They want to see the links between theory and
practice and they enjoy learning skills and techniques with obvious practical
advantages. Real problems and realistic case studies are stimulating for them.
Demonstrations, simulations, films etc. with a practical bias are favored by these
learners.
Learning styles are of course influenced by the students´ personalities. Obviously, an
extravert student´s preferences with regard to activity type would differ from those of an
introvert student.
6.5 Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
One of the divisions of students´ learning styles based on personalities was designed by
Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers. Their typology is known
as Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. For more information see Wikipedia. Test is available
for example on www.personalitypathways.com .
Four dimensions (preferred speed of interpersonal response, focus of information,
reasons of action and speed and approach to problem solving) are presented as four
dichotomies:
1 Extraversion (the need to talk things out) – Introversion (the need to think things
through)
2 Intuitive (being able to see the big picture) – Sensing (seeing the details)
3 Feeling (concern for people) – Thinking (concern for logical implications)
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4 Judging (love to come to conclusions) – Perceiving (staying open to suggestions)
These eight characteristics combine and when describing a person the initial letters are
used. A person who embodies Introversion, Sensing, Thinking and Perceiving would be
marked as ISTP. As the words ´introversion´ and ´intuitive´ both start with ´I´,
´iNtuitive´ is abbreviated to ´N´.
Similarly to the learning styles above, there are types of activities favored and resented
by the particular groups of students:
While the Extravert students would rather talk to others about their ideas and do a pair
or a groupwork, the Introvert students might not enjoy such activities at all.
Intuitive students want variety and spontaneity while the Thinking students may not
like spontaneous questions, etc.
We have seen four models of how learning styles are distinguished. We have also come
to understand that the styles might be examined from various points of view such as an
individual´s personality (based on the way we interact with our surroundings), the way
we process information (based on the way we think, solve problems, and remember
information), or perceptual modality (based on the way we use our senses). As it has
been already mentioned in the text, incredible eighty models consisting of at least two
styles exist. We have read brief descriptions of a few of the frequently mentioned
models. Yet the basic and the most commonly used model is to be introduced: the so-
called VAK.
6.6 VAK
VAK model is based on perceptual modality, thus it is very similar to the Perceptual
styles model. More precisely, VAK is its less detailed version. As the principles of
VAK model are referred to in the practical part of this project, there will be more
attention paid to them in the following text. Additionally, tips for teachers collected
from several sources are presented.
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Within the VAK learning style the three main sensory receivers – i.e. Vision, Auditory,
and Kinesthetic - are used to determine the dominating learning style.
All learners combine these three sensory receivers to obtain information, however, one
of them is usually dominant. The dominant style defines the best way of treating new
information. It is important to say that different tasks might be predominantly tackled by
different styles by one learner.
Visual
Students with a visual learning style profit from a lesson which include mainly materials
they can see or watch. These learners remember information transferred into images and
pictures and it is easier for them if the information is already presented in that way.
As a website on VAK learning styles www.sfw.ewb.ca in its handout VAK Learning
Style Inventory suggests, there are two subchannels to visual learners – linguistic and
spatial.
Visual-linguistic learners prefer learning through written language, such as reading and
writing tasks. They are able to remember information from a text they have read
perhaps only once and they like to write down directions.
Visual-spatial learners, on the other hand, find treating written language difficult and
prefer charts, posters, demonstrations, videos and other .
To help these learners teachers could:
use charts, graphs, illustrations, videos, pictures etc.
use the board and flip charts to show what will come and what has been
presented
supplement textual information with illustrations whenever possible
show diagrams (time-lines) and then explain them
allow the student to construct, draw or otherwise create visual representations of
a concept as a substitute for some written assignments
34
use inductive (discovery) techniques as often as possible. This capitalizes on the
visual-spatial learner's pattern-finding strength.
teach the student to visualize words and concepts.
show the students how to create mind maps.
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Auditory
Auditory learners learn best with oral components included in the material being used
within the lesson. Oral components might include taped lectures, listening, videos etc.
When they are supposed to solve a problem they like to talk about it with other learners
or with the teacher. Such students will remember heard and discussed data. They might
find necessary noise disrupting.
To help these learners teachers could:
begin new material with a brief explanation of what is coming and then conclude
with a summary of what has been covered within the lesson
let the students work in groups or pairs to discuss their ideas
teach inductively – elicit as much information from the students as possible
let the students not only read but also listen at the same time
create or simply find suitable tapes and CDs for the students to listen at home
have the students make speeches and presentations
Kinesthetic
The website www.sfw.ewb.ca noted above, again alleges two subchannels: kinesthetic,
connected with movement, and tactile, connected with touch. They tend to lose
concentration if there is little external stimulation or movement. While listening they
like to take notes and when reading they like to scan the material first and only later
concentrate on details.
To help these learners teachers could:
use activities that involve moving
have the students write on the board
give frequent breaks for stretching
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include drama techniques, have the students role-play and do simulations
have the students create and use cards with information (e.g.vocabulary,
questions and answers)
play games
We have had a look at different styles of learning. However, as people generally tend to
proceed with whatever they do in certain ways (affected by their personality, perceptual
modality and information processing), not only students have their styles of work but
teachers do as well.
7 Teaching Styles
Four basic teaching styles are recognized:
Formal authority
Demonstrator or Personal Model
Facilitator
Delegator
This approach to distinguishing different teaching styles is based on the personality of
the individual teacher.
The four teaching styles are on a website of The Pennsylvania State University dealing
with research on teaching, learning and technology
http://tlt.psu.edu/suggestions/research characterized as follows:
Formal Authority
This is a teacher-centered style. The teacher does not make an effort to create a
relationship with the student and he/she does not regard with a great importance
whether the students build relationships with each other. The main concern of this type
of a teacher is providing and controlling the content of what the student learns.
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Obviously, extravert students with high interpersonal intelligence might find this way of
teaching unmotivating and impersonal.
Demonstrator or Personal Model
Also a teacher-centered style but with more attention paid to the students. The teacher
demonstrates and models the skills and process that the students are expected to use/
learn and than assists the students with putting the knowledge in action. This style
encourages all students to participate and it is possible to meet the needs of students
with various learning styles.
Facilitator
This approach is student-centered. The students are to take the initiative to complete
various tasks. The teacher is the one who facilitates the process. Independent, active and
collaborative learners would work well in this environment.
Delegator
Similarly to the latter one, this is a student-centered approach. Much of control and
responsibility for learning is placed on individual students. Students are very often
asked to work in groups or independently.
Dividing teachers in these four groups is probably the most frequent way to characterize
teaching styles. However, I believe that teaching styles also depend on the teachers´
own learning styles.
Qualified teachers themselves have experienced all stages of educational system from
the kindergarten up to university and they apparently have been successful students. In
other words, they probably have discovered the way of learning most suitable for them
– their learning style and corresponding learning strategies.
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Naturally, a teacher whose dominant learning style is the visual one would tend to bring
to the class and make use of various kinds of visual materials. The same would be true
about an auditory teacher or about a teacher whose learning style is Print Modality. Any
teacher, or any person for that matter, might subconsciously conclude that what he/she
feels is the most suitable for him/her would automatically be the best for others. The
potential danger in this situation regarding teaching is that if for example a teacher
strongly favors working with written texts, all the students who do not would be
disadvantaged. The lessons might seem uninteresting, possibly too demanding and
eventually the students may start disliking a subject they would otherwise, with a
different teacher, attend with pleasure.
Therefore it is important for a teacher to be aware of the different preferences regarding
learning styles and to try to satisfy the needs of all of them.
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Summary of the Theoretical Part
At this point I would like to sum up what has been covered in the theoretical part of this
theses.
We have understood that the original meaning of the term ´mixed ability´classes slightly
differs from how it is used in nowadays methodology. The term ´heterogeneous classes´
has been introduced instead.
We have looked at how people differ and what the causes of the fact that each
individual is unique are according to psychologists.
The role of motivation in the process of learning has been emphasized and
psychological theories that back up and explain the importance of motivation have been
presented.
As a teacher is the one who the learning process and motivation of students largely
depends on, one chapter of this work deals with the teacher´s personality and approach
to students and teaching.
Types of activities used in the class divided according to several criteria have been
listed and their suitability or possibility of adjusting them for heterogeneous groups of
students have been discussed.
As I see the way the individual students learn as a significant aspect to be taken into
consideration while teaching, a large part of the theoretical half of the theses has been
devoted to learning styles. Brief descriptions of six models of learning styles have been
introduced. We have been acquainted with the aspects observed when defining learning
styles (personality, information processing, perception). A short chapter on teaching
styles has been included.
In the practical part I would mainly like to present several lesson plans for teaching in a
heterogeneous class. I would like to use the ideas for teaching in such class introduced
in the theoretical part, i.e. differentiated instructions according to the level of
40
knowledge, according to the learning styles (namelyVAK - visual, auditory,
kinesthetic), various kinds of activities described earlier.
41
Practical Part
Introduction
The practical part consists of lesson plans based on international observance and
significant days. The lesson plans are complemented by evaluation of the lessons which
have actually been taught. Each lesson plan includes activities suitable for
heterogeneous classes as they have been described and explained in the theoretical part
of this project: activities with differentiated instructions according to the students´ level
of knowledge of English or the students learning styles, pair/group work and individual
activities, open-ended activities and closed ones.
The choice of the days to pay attention to was made to cover various topics from the
world of the hearing-impaired people to the global problems such as the clean fresh
water scarcity. The argument supporting this choice is the growing importance of
people´s awareness of the global issues such as the enviroment, poverty, human rights
etc. After all, the need to bring the pupils and students to think about these topics is
reflected in the cross-sectional topics listed in the national curriculum.
List of lesson plans:
International Deaf People´s Day (September 24)
World Food Day (October 16)
International Day for Tolerance (November 16)
World Water Day (March 22)
Earth Day (April 22)
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Specification of the Class Where the Lessons Were Taught
Course description:
Place– a private language school
Course – a language course for secondary school graduates
Length – 1 school year (September – June)
Frequency – 4 lessons a day (2 x 90 min.), 8.30 – 11.50 a.m.
Monday to Friday
Number of students – 24
Students – most of them 19-20 years old,
students who passed maturita the previous year,
Optional Exam - level B1 or B2
From a written assignment the students were given as homework at the beginning of the
school year I understood that for most of the people the main reason for attending the
course was that they had tried but were not accepted at university the previous year and
wanted to try again. Another reason the students presented was that they simply wanted
to improve their English, usually to be able to communicate while travelling or to have a
chance to get a better job in future.
Students´ learning styles according VAK test:
Visual: 7 students
Auditory: 9 students
Kinesthetic: 11 students
The test (see Appendix 6) has 16 questions. For several students the differencies
between the number of points reached for the individual styles is so little that it is
impossible to tell which style they prefer. What is more, as it has been said in the
theory, students might have different preferences for different tasks. It is therefore
advisable not to take results of only one test as a dogma. The important fact is that the
results differ from a student to student, which means that the class really is a group of
people with various approaches to information and it is neccessary to use a number of
types of activities.
43
From a questionnaire I gave my students earlier in the school term (see Appendix 7) I
found out that apart from two who feel insecure all the students want to work with a
partner whose English is better or at least the same as theirs. Only one student said it did
not matter to her. They all feel they profit from the co-operation with a more advanced
peer as better students are easier to communicate with and they can also explain to the
weaker students anything that the weaker ones do not understand.
Answers to the question about preferred type of activity regarding the number of
students working together were again very similar. Nobody said he/she liked working
on their own, all the students think it is better to work in pairs. Two students chose
working in groups.
The last but not least important question encquired about the situation when the students
are given the opportunity to choose a task. All the students viewed the choice very
positively. All of them listed very similar reasons for the conclusion: being able to do
what they prefer, being able to choose what they feel good at, not having to fullfil tasks
that seem to be boring or too difficult. One student made an interesting remark where
she explained that when a student can actually choose what he/she wants to do, they do
not spoil the activity for others by being angry or bored.
For the above described reasons I tried to create the lesson plans to include as much
variety as possible. It seems that variety together with a good rapport with the students
are the best conditions for designing lessons where everybody finds something
interesting for him/herself, therefore variety with the teachers´ effort to care for all the
students and their needs is one of the keys to teaching heterogenous classes.
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Lesson plans, notes and evaluations
1 International Deaf People´s Day (September 24)
1.1 Lesson plan – 90 min
1) Brainstorming to introduce the concept of special days(6min.)
Procedure:
1. The students have 2 minutes to write a list of special days (International days) they
can think of.
2. After two minutes I ask individual students what they have written and write some
examples on the board.
2) Brainstorming to introduce the topic: International Deaf People´s Day(3 min)
Procedure:
1. I put the pictogram (see Appendix 1.1) on the board and ask the students what they
think it means (international sign of Deaf/Hard of hearing)
2. I explain that today (24th September) is the International Deaf People´s Day
3) Discussion, writing a list(10 min)
Procedure:
Pairwork/Individual
1. The studentss decide if they want to work in a pair or work on their own,
2.After the studentss have finished I ask them for examples and write some of them
on the board
3. I tell the students:
-Think of examples of things you do every day without any difficulties but that might
be a problem for a person who cannot hear
-write them down.
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4)Pairwork / Personalization (12-15 min)
Procedure:
1. I ask the students to imagine they want to communicate some information to a
deaf person. I ask ´How can you do it?´
(I elicit possible ways e.g. writing, drawing or miming)
2. I ask the students to write three sentences beginning with ´I´
3. The task is to communicate the sentences to the partner miming them. When the
partner thinks s/he knows what the student is trying to say, s/he writes the sentence
down and the miming student checks whether s/he really understood.
5) Groupwork – How do you communicate with deaf people?(15 min)
Procedure:
I divide the students in three groups according to the level of their English – I
prepared the lists of students working in each group beforehand.
The groups work on the same topic but with different instructions.
Instructions:
Group A (the strongest students) – brainstorm, discuss and write down tips for
communication with deaf people – what is important, what you have to bear in mind
when you communicate with a deaf person.
Group B (a little bit weaker students than group A) – look at the pictures I have
given you (see Appendix 1.2) and try to write down the tips for communication with
deaf people illustrated in the pictures.
Group C (the weakest group) – match the pictures and tips. (see Appendices 1.2 and
1.3)
6) Groupwork in mixed groups A+B+C(10 min)
Procedure:
1. The students form new groups with one person from each of the previous groups,
i.e. there are groups of three students: one from group A, one from group B and one
from group C
2. They compare their answers
I tell the students:
-Look at the pictures together
-B starts and says what s/he thinks the picture means
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-C gives the correct answer
-A says if there is the same or a similar tip in his/her list
7) Reading and speaking (15-20min)
Procedure:
Each student gets a short text on a piece of paper. The text includes an interesting
piece of information connected to the topic of the whole lesson (see Appendix 1.4).
Each student reads his/her text and then reports it to other students.
I pre-teach/elicit the meaning of the words lip-reading, manual alphabet, sign
language
I tell the students:-Read your text, look up any words you need to understand the text and ask the
teacher if you are still not sure you understand it
-Read the text again and try to remember the information
-When you finish find another student who has finished as well and tell him/her what
you have read about, listen to his/her interpretation of their text, too
8) Pairwork – speaking (5 min)
Procedure:
As the previous activity was a mingle, the students now go back to their places and
talk to their neighbour
I tell the students to go back to their places and tell their partners what they have
heard from the other students. They should tell their partners what they think was the
most interesting and surprising
9) Fun – end-of-the-lesson activity (if there is still time) – manual alphabet
Procedure:
Students get a copy of the manual alphabet (see Appendix 1.5) and try to learn to
´spell´ their name
10) End of the lesson I say Thank you and good bye in the sign language´
47
1.2 Lesson notes and evaluation
ad 1, 2) In this part I used brainstorming which is actually not very suitable for mixed-
ability classes as it does not usually give the slower students chance to contribute.
However, if used with 2 minutes´time for thinking and writing even the slower students
are able to bring up their ideas, especially if the teacher, after the time limit is over, asks
some of the weaker students first. In this case it worked.
ad 3) Here I let the students decide if they want to work in pairs or they want to work on
their own as each person has different preferences in this regard.
ad 4) I chose to include miming in this lesson plan as it perfectly fits the topic and it
allows even the students who do not for various reasons feel comfortable speaking to
express themselves and to communicate. I let the students work with their neghbours as
the day is very close to the beginning of the school year and the students do not know at
this time each other very well. Their neighbour is probably the one they know the best
so they do not find it difficult to mime in front of him/her.
Although when I was planning this activity I thought any three sentences the students
write would be possible to be expressed through miming, I then decided to limit the
sentences by setting the beginning with ´I´ as it makes the activity more personalized.
ad 5 & 6) This activity was for the students extremely difficult – I unfortunately did not
realize that the topic is not at all familiar for the students. I had to help them a lot as
having spent so much time preparing the lesson and reading through information on the
topic I did not realize that what is apparent to me is not at all apparent to the
students.There was also a problem with the matching of pictures and sentences: some of
the pictures are ambiguous and some are not clear at all, which in combination makes
finding the matches quite difficult.
In conclusion this activity took too long.
ad 7 & 8) I tried to find for this activity as interesting information as possible. It was
probably the most difficult and time-consuming part of the preparation of the lesson.
The stronger students seemed to enjoy this activity, on the other hand, although the texts
48
were really short and I even adapted the vocabulary used in the texts, some of the
weaker students found it extremely challenging.
However, the instructions were to tell other students about the text after one has finished
– it actually gave the weaker students the opportunity to spend as much time reading
and looking up new words as they needed. The students who did not manage to read the
information and pass it on could use the time when the rest of the class conversed for
reading and then simply speak about their text within the following activity.
ad 9) An enjoyable and light-hearted activity to finish the lesson which all students
seemed to enjoy.
49
2 World Food Day (October 16)
2.1 Lesson plan – 90 min
1) Brainstorming based on pictures as a lead-in (5min.)
Procedure:
I give students cut out pictures and magazines with relevant pictures bookmarked
and ask them to tell me what words come to their mind when they see the pictures
and I write some examples on the board
(I expect words like ´poor, terrible, hard …etc.´ will come up)
2) Brainstorming – pairwork to let students think of the possible topic (5 min)
Procedure:
1. The students have the pictures in front of themselves. They discuss possible
answers to my question (↓) and note them down.
2. I ask them for examples and write them on the board next to the words from the
first activity.
Instructions:
- look at the pictures again
- what kind of problems and difficulties do these people have in their lives?
(I expect expressions like ´illnesses, hunger, not enough food…etc.´ will come up)
3) Introducing the topic WORLD FOOD DAY (2 min)
Procedure:
I show the students the logo (see Appendix 2.1) printed on sheets of paper but the
copies are folded so that the students cannot see the written information (1 copy for a
pair or a group of three – so that everybody can see it) and ask them to describe what
they can see in the picture.
Then I let the students unfold the copies to be able to read the signs and tell them that
this is another international day we would talk about in the class.
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4) Associations – writing (30 min)
a)
Procedure:
Individual/ groupwork – I divide the ss in bigger groups (there should be about 7
people in each group).
Each students gets a sheet of paper with the word FOOD written on the top.
They think of a word they associate with the word FOOD and write it underneath.
They fold the paper back so that only their word is visible and pass the sheet on to
the next student in the group. I let them repeat it till their own paper comes back to
them.
instructions:
-look at the word written on your paper
-what does it make you think of?
-write one word under the word FOOD
-fold the paper back so that you can only see your new word and pass the paper to
the person on your right
-look at the new word and do the same thing as before
b)
Procedure:
I write on the board the word FOOD and ask the students to give me examples of
words that appeared as the last ones on their sheets of papers. I put examples on the
board and tell the students to make a list of the last words they have in their group –
i.e. there are about 7 words in each group
I let the students choose words and ask them to write sentences to explain how the
word FOOD and their word is connected. I set a time limit here (approx. 5 min.) not
a number of sentences so that each student can write in their own pace.
After the time limit they read the sentences to the other students in their group to
share ideas.
Instructions:
-within your group make a list of the last words you have on your sheets of paper
-now you have 5 minutes to write sentences to explain how the word FOOD and the
other words are connected
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e.g. food - train We use trains to transport food.
- (after time limit) read your sentences to the other students in your group
5) Reading (10 min)
Procedure:
I ask the ss if they know any organization or event that help people who are in this
difficult situation.
Then handouts with the text Compassion Through Experience (see Appendix 2.2) are
distributed to each student.
I ask if they know what the word ´compassion´means and what they think the title
might mean.
I let the students read the text.
I let the students look up any words they do not understand in dictionaries.
If there are any early finishers I ask them to try to create questions for other students
based on the text. If there are not any early finishers I ask all the students a few
comprehension questions myself.
6) Video (5 min)
Procedure:
The students see a short (4min) clip showing the event Broken Bread they have just
read about and including more information on the topic of world hunger and poverty.
They are asked to watch and listen carefully. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=njgH_TI8ONY&feature=related)
7) Graded individual work (10 min)
Procedure:
1. I tell the students they are going to work on a gap-filling exercise based on the clip
they have just watched and tell them they can choose the level of difficulty
themselves (A being the easist one, B middle difficulty and C the most difficult).
There are 10 gaps to be filled in by one word each.
A – students have for each gap two words, they have to choose the correct one (see
Appendix 2.3)
B – students have a list of the missing words in mixed order, they have to decide
which word goes where (see Appendix 2.4)
52
C – in each of the ten gaps the first letter of the missing word is given (see Appendix
2.5)
2. I distribute the sheets accordingly
Instructions:
-Look at the text – it is a transcription of what you have just heard in the video
-complete the text
8) Groupwork in mixed groups A+B+C (5min)
Procedure:
Students get in mixed groups and compare their answers.
Then they watch the video again and check the answers.
9) Fun – end-of-the-lesson activity
As an important part of the lesson is a clip from the Internet we will spend the lesson
in the computer class. We all try the website www.freerice.com .
53
2.2 Lesson notes and evaluation
As a part of the lesson is based on a clip presented on the YouTube server, the lesson
had to be broken into two parts, one took place in the usual classroom and the other
took place in the IT classroom. This caused some difficulties because the class is small
and it is almost impossible to move around. On the other hand, there are 15 computers
so all the students can easily get an access to one (there are over 20 students in the class)
and use it.
ad 1) & 2) In this part I used brainstorming based on pictures. Similarly to the first
lesson (International Deaf People´s Day) used with 2 minutes´time for thinking and
writing even the slower students are able to bring up their ideas, especially if the
teacher, after the time limit is over, asks some of the weaker students first. In this case it
worked.
Whe I asked the students about possible difficulties these people face they really came
up with the expressions I had hoped for (illnesses, hunger, not enough food…etc.).
ad 4)
a) Although it was a bit difficult to explain and a student who had understood my
instructions was eventually asked to explain the task in Czech, it seemed an enjoyable
activity. It took slightly longer than planned as some students found it difficult to think
of associated items. To prevent the activity from being too long I suggested letting the
students think and simply passing the paper further on as it did not really matter how
many expressions appeared on each paper. This fact together with the fact that it is an
open-ended activity (there is no correct or wrong answer in associating) makes it a
suitable activity for a heterogeneous class.
b) This part of the activity includes free writing and students work on their own with
words they choose themselves so it allows all students to participate and work in their
own pace. It worked well and students produced a number of sentences, some of them
more complex, some short, and even funny so we ended this activity in laugh.
54
ad 5) in the IT classroom
The text for reading was not easy for the students but as we did the reading in the
classroom with computers they could look up the words they did not understand in the
online dictionaries which sped the reading up.
ad 6) It was great that we were able to use the computer room and I could the students
let watch the clip. I think that it was the point where the students got really involved in
the topic and it was one my goals. What is more, it was great for all the visual and audio
learners. I would love to use more videos like this in the class in future, they are a
perfect source of teaching material.
ad 7) Within this activity the students were asked to choose the difficulty of the task
according to their abilities. Unfortunately, although understandably nobody chose C. I
think it is partly because the students are not used to this kind of decision making and
partly, in this case, it was because they found the text accompanying the clip quite
difficult.
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3 International Day for Tolerance (November 16)
3.1 Lesson plan – 90 min
1) Matching words and definitions,( 5 min)
Procedure:
1. I write on the board 3 definitions
unfair treatment of people, or violence against them, because they belong to a
different race from your own.
the practice of treating one person or group of people differently from another in
an unfair way
unwillingness to accept ways of thinking and behaving that are different from
yours. (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, )
2. I elicit the words being defined – i.e. racism, discrimination, intolerance
3. I ask the students to try to list in pairs topics and places these words are connected
with the three terms on the board (e.g. religion, sexual orientation, men and women ,
work, school, sport…)
4.After 2-3 minutes I ask the students for the ideas and write them on the board
2) Short writing to introduce the topic: Tolerance (10 min) Procedure:
1. I ask the students if they can think of a word or words that would be opposite to
racism, discrimination and intolerance. I elicit the word tolerance .
2. I explain that today (16th November) is the International Day for Tolerance.
3. I tell the students to imagine that their little brother or sister want them to explain
what the word ´tolerance´ means.
I ask the students to write down their explanations. After few minutes I ask them to
compare them with their neighbours and I write some of the explanations as
examples on the board.
56
3) Speaking (10 min)
Procedure:
I ask the students if they remember any cases of racism, discrimination or
intolerance from the news.
I put on the board: When ?/ Where ?/ Who?/ What happened? and ask the students to
tell their partner.
4) Ordering a jumbled text (15 min)
Pairwork
1. The students get a cut up version of the text The World and We (The World
AreWe- see Appendix 3.1).
they read the parts and put the text together.
2. They compare their version with another pair to check, I walk around the class,
monitor and help if necessary.
3. I ask the students if/what they found surprising in the text.
5) Video (15 min)
Procedure:
I tell the students we are going to watch two videos, both on the topic of racism. All
the students watch
Emily faces racism http://youtube.com/watch?v=K8GM3YOqFnY (3 min.)
-a story of a girl whose parents threaten to break their contacts with her unless she
stopps seeing her boyfriend who has a different colour of skin,
European racism http://youtube.com/watch?v=jwpO-nnFY9g&feature=related (10
min., but about 4 min. of the clip are enough for the students to understand the topic
and be able to react)- racism in football, includes e.g. Tiery Henry speaking about
being insulted by fans.
After watching each video I ask comprehension questions to make sure the students
understand what is happening.
57
6) The videos follow up activities – activities according to the students´ choice
(25-30 min)
Procedure:
1. The students decide which video was more interesting for them.
2. They watch the chosen video again, together with another student/ other students
who have chosen the same clip. Any vocabulary/ understanding problems are
clarified.
3. The students can choose what they are going to do.
The tasks to choose from:
a) for students watching Emily faces racism:
writing : write a letter to Emily´s parents, tell them what you think and what they
should do.
speaking: ( the students have to be able to find a partner with the same choice)
student A) prepare to tell your parents that you have found a boyfriend/ girlfriend
who is from a different community, your parents are not very happy about the idea
and they are trying to dissuade you. You really want to stay with your partner. Try to
persuade your parents.
student B) you are a parent of A. A comes to tell you he/she has a a boyfriend/
girlfriend who is from a different community. You do not like the idea. List possible
problems to A and try to make him/her to change his/her mind.
b) for students watching European racism:
writing: write a letter to one of the racistic fans, try to explain to
him/her why you think his/ her behaviour is unacceptable
speaking: You were asked to make a research among students about their
awareness of racism. Try to think of the questions you would ask them.
Answer the questions yourself.
7) End of the lesson
According to how much time students have at the end of these activities, they can
either watch reactions and related videos to to the clips they watched before or I give
58
them scrambled quotations on tolerance.(see Appendix 3.2) They unscramble them
and decide which one they like the most.
59
3.2 Lesson notes and evaluation
ad 1)&2) These activities went very easily – the only think I would do differently next
time is that I would have the definitions written in advance on a flip-chart, poster or on a
foil to be put on on the OHP, as it was time-consuming to write them and also I needed
a lot of space on the board for other activities and it would have been useful to be able
not to erase some of the information but keep it somewhere for the whole lesson.
ad 3) It would have been profitable to bring some pictures from the recent newspapers.
However, although most of the students did not remember the cases exactly (they did
not know where the cases happened or the names of the people involved) the speaking
filled the requirement to bring up real examples.
ad 4) I would say the students got really involved in this activity. The text was not
difficult and full of interesting information. Unfortunately, I cannot claim the source as I
got this text as an e-mail in Czech without any copyright information. I translated the
text to English as I found it really suitable to be used in the class. The truth is I did not
check the corectness of the numbers but in my opinion, even if the numbers were not
exact, the text would still serve the purpose of making the students realize that there is
no place for racism, discrimination and intolerance in the world with its diversity. What
I also found positive was the fact, that one of the information they found surprising, was
how little people live in the same conditions as themselves.
ad 5) I have chosen two videos to make all the students interested. I know from the
previous lessons that the boys in the class are all interested in football and some of them
play in their local teams. That is why I thought a clip with football players might raise
their interest in the topic, which actually happened. I also found the topic of
relationships a sensible alternative and it seems that the choice was correct. It also gave
the students more possibilities regarding the follow-up activities. The only drawback of
the Emily faces racism clip that I was afraid of was that it is actually a text accompanied
with music. Fortunately, the text with the music are compiled in a very moving way, so
this was not a problem after all.
60
A bit disappointing element of this lesson plan was that none of the students actually
chose the writing. I am afraid that this is specific for the students in the Czech Republic
– they are not used to writing. They are not used to sorting out thoughts and ideas
through writing and students find it too demanding. Generally, students are not asked to
write about various issues within the primary and secondary education, the written
assignments appear at the university education and very rarely before that. It seems to
me that they vote for speaking rather than writing because it seems to them that they do
not have to make so much effort as for writing.
Positive was that they all seem to appreciate the choice they were given and they kind of
naturally made groups they found comfortable to work with. The groups were made
more on the basis of being friends then being on the same level of English.
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4 World Water Day (March 22)
4.1 Lesson plan – 90 min
1) Listening, brainstorming (12 min)
To introduce the topic and create the atmosphere
Procedure:
1. I ask the students to close their eyes, relax and listen. I let them listen to a relaxing
CD with the sound of rain in the rainforest.
2.After a while (a minute) I ask them to tell me what are all the sounds they hear. I
elicit the word ´water´from them and ask them what do they associate with water. I
write a few of their suggestions on the board.
3. I ask them to work in pairs and try to write down as many forms of water as they
can think of. After 2 or 3 min. I write any interesting vocabulary that comes up on
the board again.
The last step of this introduction for the students is to discuss and write in pairs what
is water used every day for in their lives. (washing, taking a shower, cooking…) and
how much water they think they use daily. I will tell the students after the quiz that
according to the BBC website
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3747588.stm)
it is about 300 l/day in Europe and 600 l/day in USA.
2) Speaking (10 min.)
Procedure:
1. I ask the students to complete these questions so that they are related to water.
How often do you ………………?
How many times a day do you….?
Can you………………………….?
Have you ever……………………?
Do you like………………………?
Do you and your family…………?
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Have you got…………………….?
2. I put some of the suggestions on the board and students ask each other their
questions and try to find out more details.
3) Quiz - pairwork(8 min.)
Procedure:1. Before we start with the actual quiz I put on the board three columns
● agreeing ● disagreeing ● expressing opinion
and we shortly revise appropriate phrases
2. I explain that today (22nd March) is the World Water Day.
3. The students are given one copy of the World Water Day Quiz (see Appendix 4.1)
per pair, they discuss the answers.
The quiz questions and answers are taken from several sources with the aim to raise
awareness about the problem with clean and drinkable water. Some of the facts are
interesting (e.g. A half of the world´s fresh water lies within the boarders of Canada.)
and some are chosen to shock a bit (Every 14 seconds a child under five dies because
of using unsafe water.).
4) Quiz – reading and matching to check the answers (20 min)
Procedure:
There are 15 questions in the quiz. The students are to find the answers for
themselves in a text. To present the facts and figures to the students in a context, i.e.
not simply give out the answers, the answers are hidden in very short texts, about 3
lines each (see Appendix 4.2).
While the ss are working on the quiz I will tack the short texts on slips of paper
around the class.
The answers are marked A-O. The students should walk around the class with their
quizes and their task is to match the answers with the questions 1-15 and write the
letters identifying the correct answers in the boxes and check if they have chosen
correct answers in their quiz.
63
5) Students´ choice task (30 min.)
Individual/Pairwork /Groupwork In this part of the lesson the students will have an opportunity to choose a task they
find the most interesting and they choose if they want to do it individually, in pairs or
in a group.
The options to choose from:
create a World Water Day crossword (start with the crossword, then add the
numbers and clues)
create a mind-map/ poster with vocabulary connected with water
(decide first what categories of words and what words you want to include,
remember you can also draw pictures to illustrate the words)
choose one of the maps (see Appendix 4.3) and with your partner discuss and
answer these questions:
MAPS:
What are three (or more) key ideas being presented in this map or graph?
What are three (or more) pieces of numeric data that you find surprising or
significant?
Make three statements comparing or contrasting two or more
pieces of data from your map.
What do you think can be done to solve, or make progress toward solving,
one of the problems identified on this map?
note: This task is taken from the Do you knowH2o? website.
(Learning About Water Access Through a Service-Learning Fundraising Project)
6) End of the lesson
The posters are displayed and the students look at them, they might comment on
them, too. If there is still enough time I copy the created crosswords and the students
try to do them. The crosswords might also be used in any of the following lessons for
revision by the whole class or as an extra activity for fast-finishers.
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4.2 Lesson notes and evaluation
ad 1) The beginning of the lesson went exactly as I had planned it and the students
within the brainstorming suggested exactly the words I had expected them to.
ad 2) The students were supposed to complete seven questions with their own ideas. I
adjusted the instructions a little when I saw that some of the students are almost finished
while others have difficulties: I asked the students to finish any five questions. That way
all the students finished at about the same time. I asked the students for examples of the
completed questions and, as I had noticed that some of them were discussing the
questions with their neighbours while completing them, I told them to ask the questions
the ´neighbour on the other side´- i.e. the one they had not discussed it with.
ad 3)&4) The students´ reactions to the questions revealed that they really found the
questions interesting and shocking as it had been meant. The only problem I usually in a
situation when the students are really interested in something they start speaking Czech
to be able to express their opinion quickly and precisely. I usually ask them in a ´funny´
deep voice to ´Speak English please´ and then walk around and ask the pairs questions
in English, which makes them answer in English. On the other hand, in this case I was
pleased the quiz had the desired effect.
Originally, I wanted the students to check the answers around the class in pairs as well
but I realized later that a copy of quiz for each student would be better and more
practical. Each of the students had their own copy of the test and walk around the class
reading the short texts. I think this pat of the lesson went very well and what I find
positive here is that the students were actually able to read about two pages of text
without realizing it and without finding it boring or difficult. All the students seemed to
identify the correct answers without difficulties.
ad. 5) The students chose their tasks. Unlike in the lesson on International Day for
Tolerance there were some students for each task. One of the weaker students did not
seem to be doing anything (this student is not very communicative but he chose to do
the task involving reading maps and disscussing the information with a partner) and I
thought the task was too difficult for him. I offered the student a possibility to change
65
the task but he refused. However, he still was not working as his partner he expected to
work with was disscussing the questions with another person. I decided to solve the
situation by offering the student totally different task – to look through the short texts,
highlight all the expressions connected with water, look them up in a dictionary and
make a list of the expressions with their translations. I was very pleased when he
actually really started working on this task and till the end of the lesson managed to
produce a list I could then place on the notice board.
Problem of this part of the lesson was timing as the 30 minutes I had planned for this
activity were not enough for the students to finish their work. I decided to let the
students finish the work the following day.
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5 Earth Day (April 22)
5.1 Lesson plan – 90 min
1) Listening – a song (8 min)
To introduce the topic
song Earth Song by Michael Jackson (see Appendix 5.1).
Procedure:
1. I let the students listen to a short part of the song and ask if they know it.
2. Then I ask the students to listen to the whole song and write down words or parts
of the lyrics they have understood.
3. After the song finishes I write the words the students suggest on the board and ask
the students what the song is about. I tell the students that today (Aprill 22) is the
Earth Day.
2) Speaking ´RRR´(12 min.)
Procedure:
1. I ask the students to think of words starting with ´RE´ and write them down. They
have two minutes to do this.
2. I write the words on the board again and ask the students which of them they think
are connected to environment and its protection. (e.g. repair – if you repair things,
you do not have to buy new, and you do not create waste.)
3. I explain that the three Rs stand for Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
4. I put these questions on the board for the students to discuss and ask each other in
pairs:
What should people reduce to help the environment?
You can reuse clothes. How?
Do you reuse anything else at home? What? How?
Are there bins for recycling near where you live? For what materials?
What do you and your family recycle?
5. I ask individual students for examples of answers to the questions.
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3) Reading (15 min.)
Procedure:
1. Students get copies of Why Do We Recycle text (see Appendix 5.2). They read the
text and answer the questions. (Within the questions they are also asked to remember
several things – I will ask them again later during the lesson.)
2. We check the answers together.
4) Lottery - competition (15 min)
Procedure:
1. There are 10 statesments the students need to complete with correct possibility
chosen from three: a, b, c.(see Appendix 5.3)
Each student needs a pen and paper. At the beginning of the game each student has
imaginary ₤10 for their betting.
2. They write the sum on the top of their paper.
3. The statements can be read by the teacher or written on the board one by one,
however, the best possibility is to have the statements copied on a foil and use OHP.
When the first statement is shown the students decide which possibility they think is
correct, write it down and next to it write a sum they bet according how sure they are
about the answer. The surer they are, the more money they bet.
4. I let the students bet, check if everybody has done so and give out the answer. The
students who have chosen it get twice as much money as they bet. The others lose the
money they have bet. The students have to keep track of their money.
The winner is the student who has the most money at the end of the game.
note: There is a way to see how many students guessed correctly: Each student needs
3 cards, one with an A, one with a B and one with a C written on the card. Before the
correct version is revealed all the students at the same time pick a card with the letter
according to their choice.
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5) Reading and matching (20 min.)
Procedure:1. I put on the board this question: How green are you? and ask the students if they
know what the question means. (How friendly my lifestyle is to the environment.)
2. I tell them there is website called ´Treehugger´ (www.treehugger.com) where I
have found guides to be green in various areas.
3. The students get one handout You Can Be Greener. (see Appendix 5.4)
4. They fold the handout in half so that they can see only the ´How to green your…´
part. I ask the students to think of one way to make their gardening, outdoor sports,
pet etc. green. They can discuss it in pairs.
5. When I see that most of the students have finished I tell all the students to stop and
and not to worry if they have not managed to do all the ten situations. I ask
individual students for their suggestions.
6. The students unfold the handout, read the second half and match the halves of the
suggestions.
7. We check the answers and I ask the students if they still remember the answers
from the Why Do We Recycle text. I ask them to try to write it in pairs.
6) Task according to the students´ choice (20 min)
The students can:
Create a wordsearch with Earth Day and Environment words.
Look at the objects I have brought to the class and think of a way how to reuse
the objects. (the objects include an old CD, a plastic bag, a polystyren dish that
frozen meet is usually sold on, a plastic bottle, a ´credit card´ that I have
received in a commercial letter and never activated, a tin, an old 30 cm ruler,
which is not usable as a ruler anymore)
Write 120-150 words about who you think is the greenest person in the family
and why. Include also information about yourself: do you do anything to help
the environment? What? or Why not?
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5.2 Lesson notes and evaluation
ad 1) Although most of the students knew the song, I am afraid it will be better to use a
song that would be more up-to-date. The positive thing about this paticular
´environment´song is that the students could understand the lyrics very well. The song
is also available on www.youtube.com acompanied by a video suitable for this topic.
ad 2) The students suggested words such as ´reliability´, ´repair´, ´represent´, etc. and
also ´recycle´- this activity actually was made up to elicit this word. I did not expect the
students to know ´reuse´ or to remember ´reduce´ but I thought someone might bring
the ´recycle´ as it is very similar to the Czech expression adn it is closely connected to
the topic.
The whole speaking activity took longer than 12 minutes. It took almost 20 minutes
which I of course appreciated as all the students were speaking in the second part where
questions were given.
ad 3) When I was looking for a text that could be used for reading in this lesson I
wanted to find some about the Czech Republic as I thought it might be more interesting
for the students. Nevertheless, I decided to use this text in the end. The argument for
doing so was that it is not translated by anyone, it is the real language and that the
vocabulary range was within the frame of comprehensible input for the students I teach.
ad 4) We use this kind of game to revise grammar when the students see a sentence
written on the board and should decide if it is correct or not and bet on their answer.
They only have two cards in this particular case, one with a tick and one with a cross.
This game is not my idea, I heard about it from my friend about two years ago.
I decided to use this activity as we always have fun even though the topic usually is
grammar rules. What is more, the knowledge is not what plays the main role here, the
winner must be lucky as well. That way everybody has a chance to be successful. This
time actually one of the weaker students won as he took risks with betting.
More facts would have been even better.
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ad 5) All the students were able to think of some more or less original ideas. The
activity went as expected.
As for the information from the reading, only two pairs of students did not remember
the answers.
ad 5) We unfortunately had only about 12 minutes at the end of the lesson so I decided
to put the students in groups of 3 and divided the objects There were 6 groups and 7
objects so each group got one. The groups had 10 minutes to think of as many ways to
use their object as possible before it is thrown away to the recycling bin. The group who
thought of the most was the winner. I encouraged the students to be creative and
imaginative. All ideas counted if the group could explain them. This activity was
originally meant especially for the kinesthetic students as they could work with real
things, touch them and move them.
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Conclusion
When I was trying to decide about my project I knew I wanted to work on something I
could practically use in my own class. My ambition was to create lesson plans where I
would not use usual textbooks but other materials. Materials that I have created, found
and adjusted to the needs of the students in my class. The goal was to compose lessons
that would be interesting, useful regarding the topics and enjoyable regarding the type
of activities. To make the lessons enjoyable for all the students I applied the
methodology of teaching mixed-ability/ heterogenous classes. The reasons why I chose
to do so are explained in the following paragraphs.
For the past six years I have been teaching at a language school, namely a one year
intensive English course for students who finished their secondary studies the previous
year. It means that there are completely new students every year. There are usually
about twenty students who create a group which for many reasons might be labelled as a
mixed-ability/ heterogenous one.
The students come to the class from different schools, which itself carries the notion of
a mixed group. What is more, although a part of the name of the course is ´after-
maturita´ course, it does not automatically mean that all the students chose English as
their maturita subject as it is not obligatory yet. Therefore, for some of the students
English might have been somewhat of a minor concern in the previous year or years.
Apart from this, the students also have different personal history of learning English, for
some of them started learning the language at the primary school, some at the secondary
school, which makes up to four-years´ difference in the time of their experience with
English.
Additionaly, when I meet them they all have been taught by a number of more or less
successful and qualified teachers, whom the students have had various relationships
with. As it has been explained in the theoretical part, all this together with other aspects
plays a role in the learners approach to the subject in question, here English.
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I think the reasons listed in the preceding paragraphs should be a sufficient justification
of why I view my class as a mixed-ability/heterogeneous one. When we started learning
about the methodology and techniques suitable for heterogeneous classes during our
methodology courses here at the university, I decided that it was exactly what I needed
to make the lessons interesting and more accessible to all the students in the class. To be
able to create such materials I had to find out more about this issue.
Theoretical Part
In the theoretical part the origin of the term ´mixed-ability´ classes is described. It is
followed by the theory behind the uniqueness of individuals by listing and explaining
the reasons why each human being differs in many ways from another one. One chapter
was devoted to motivation as a key factor in teaching and learning. Actually, motivation
and its crucial role in education is the reason why to make an effort to meet the needs of
all the students in the class. To say it in a simple way, a student who feels stressed or
uncomfortable is not motivated and does not learn as much as somenone who is
enjoying him/herself.
The one whose role is to motivate is the teacher, thus a part of the theoretical section
deals with the teacher´s personality.
To meet the students´ needs and to teach to the students´ satisfaction the teacher has to
be aware of students´ preferences in learning.
The term ´students preferences´ generally means types of activities the students find
more pleasurable than others. Preferences might result from the student´s personality
(e.g. a competitive student would enjoy competitive activities, an introvert would
choose individual rather than a group activity) or from the way he/she perceives and
processes information (i.e. learning styles). Thus a part of the theory covers types of
activities used in the class and one extensive chapter contains information about
different learning styles.
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Practical Part
For the practical part I have chosen to create my own materials. I have already pointed
out several times that the course I teach is an intensive one with the number of lessons a
week amounting to twenty, i.e. four lessons (actually two double-periods) a day.
Consequently, there is enough time to be spent not only following the studentsbooks but
also exploring additional topics and activities. Moreover, such activities and materials
are always welcomed by the learners as a kind of animation of the lessons.
At first, I considered creating materials concerning holidays and festivals in English
speaking countries as a somehow logical topic. Having realized how much has been
already created, published and presented not only on the Internet but also in various
books, and how many materials the students must have come across during their studies,
I sensed that it would be advisable to think of something different. Eventually,
international observance and significant days seemed to be the solution.
I made a decision to pay the attention to these days and not to the holidays and festivals
for several reasons. One reason has already been explained above. As another reason I
see the fact that English is not tied only to the culture of the countries where it is spoken
as the first language anymore. Learning English does not necessarily mean learning
about the Anglo-Saxon culture because English has become an international language.
People working in multinational companies all over the world communicate in English,
even though they are not actually working in an English speaking country and even
though for none of them English is their mother tongue. Yet another argument
supporting this choice is the growing importance of people´s awareness of the global
issues such as the enviroment, poverty, human rights etc. After all, the cross-sectional
topics listed in the national curriculum reflect the need to bring the pupils and students
to think about these topics.
The practical part thus consists of lesson plans based on international observance and
significant days. The lesson plans are complemented by evaluation of the lessons which
have actually been taught. Each lesson plan includes activities suitable for
heterogeneous classes as they have been described and explained in the theoretical part
of this project: activities with differentiated instructions according to the students´ level
74
of knowledge of English or the students learning styles, competitive and cooperative
activities, pair/group work and individual activities.
For myself this project brought immense profit in two ways. Firstly, with the support of
the theory I studied to be able to write this work, I applied the methodology in practical
teaching. Although I had aspired to approach each student individually before, giving
students differentiated instructions or a number of tasks to choose from was a new and
inspiring experience rewarded by the students appreciation.
Secondly, to find the materials for the lesson plans I relied on the Internet. Numerous
hours spent searching various websites ment reading websites I would otherwise most
probably never visit and thus my knowledge of the issues investigated for the lesson
plans have widened incredibly.
I also discovered the Youtube server for myself and my students as an invaluable source
of real life English with videos that represent a vast amount of materials suitable for
both visual and auditory learners. What is more it is easily accessible for all and the
students can watch the same clip as many times as they need to understand.
In conclusion, I hope that the whole project and materials that have been created within
this project might be found useful by any teacher teaching at either the same type of
course as the one I teach (i.e. one-year intensive course) or at any secondary school. The
lesson plans do not necessarily have to be taught as 90-minute lessons, it is possible to
choose and adapt only parts or single activities.
75
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List of Appendices
1 International Deaf People´s Day
Appendix 1.1: International symbol of deaf/hard hearing people (a pictogram)
Appendix 1.2: 10 rules when speaking to people with hearing loss (pictures)
Appendix 1.3: Tips for communication with deaf or hard hearing people (a table
of 10 tips)
Appendix 1.4: Short texts (9 short texts to be cut up)
Appendix 1.5: Manual alphabet (pictures of individual letters formed by hands)
2 World Food Day
Appendix 2.1: World Food Day 2007 logo (a picture)
Appendix 2.2: Compassion Through Experience (a text)
Appendix 2.3: Gap-filling – group A (a text with gaps)
Appendix 2.4: Gap-filling – group B (a text with gaps)
Appendix 2.5: Gap-filling – group C (a text with gaps)
3 International Day for Tolerance
Appendix 3.1: The World and We (a text to be cut up)
Appendix 3.2: Quotes about TOLERANCE (mixed up quotes)
4 World Water DayAppendix 4.1: World Water Day Quiz (15 questions with a key)
Appendix 4.2: Quiz answers to be cut up (a text to be cut up)
Appendix 4.3: World Health Organization maps (3 maps)
5 Earth Day
Appendix 5.1: Earth Song lyrics (a text)
Appendix 5.2: Why do we recycle? (a text)
Appendix 5.3: Earth Day Recycling Lottery questions (10 questions with a key)
Top Green Facts (a text)
Appendix 5.4: You Can Be Greener (a handout with a table)
Appendix 6: VAK Questionnaire (questionnaire)
Appendix 7: Students´ Preferences Questionnaire (questionnaire)
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