Teaching two levels of instruction

Abstract

This case study presents the challenge of teaching two levels of instruction within the same class and examines how grouping for cooperative learning tasks might be handled. A school principal informed the teacher of English that he would have to teach a combined class of English II (15 students) and English III (5 students) in the same room. Although the teacher tried to convince the principal to establish two separate classes, using every pedagogically sound argument he could think of, the principal could not change the situation, except by not offering English at all. The teacher rejected the choice. Now, as he ponders the class list, he is thinking about how he will handle the two- ability levels of the class, especially in speaking tasks. The teacher regularly assigns his students short speaking tasks that can be completed in pairs or small groups- sometimes as many as four tasks during a class period. “How, he asks himself, “will an English III student be able to talk with an English II student?” Then as he recalls the performance of the students on the class list in last year’s English classes, he realizes that more than two levels are presented in the class anyway. For speaking tasks, he decides to organize the students into groups of four to five for carrying out speaking tasks and activities such as games, role playing, and problem- solving.