Mixed Ability

Dealing With Different Language Levels

After the first weeks getting to know the students, it was evident that there were different language levels among the students. We have weekly meetings in the English department with all the teachers to talk about various topics revolving around the students. 

One of the main concerns of the teachers was bridging the language gap between the most advanced students, and the lowest performing students. Our main goal was to make sure that all the students were speaking in class. 

The teachers and I collaborated on creating a list of students that were considered the lower performing students. During my classes with them, I would make sure to call on them at least once during the class so to make sure they had a chance to speak. 

Sometimes it would be easy to forget to call on them because the more advanced students would be eager to answer the questions first. This method I felt, made sure that we could focus on the quieter students, but also see what areas they need to improve on so we could help their language learning improve. 

I also felt with some students that their confidence began to increase in their speaking, because they were growing more accustomed to answering questions and speaking more. 

Stacey McKendry
Language Assistant at IES Fleming

December 2014

To start with

The teachers and Language Assistant at IES Doctor Fleming have a weekly coordination meeting to disccus best practices and classroom experiences  of the Program specifically:

·       Decide the activities the Language Assistant is going to carry out with the groups the following weeks, keeping in mind that our aim is to promote US culture as well as make our students interact with a native speaker in English.

·       Get feedback from the Language Assistant and share and evaluate previous sessions.

·       Deal with problems that arose and overcome our weaknesses.

·       Organize fieldtrips, where the Language Assistant is always invited to join in.

…and other stuff we’ll be more than willing to share with everyone here in future posts…

Translation into Spanish: 
Todas las semanas los profesores del Programa Bilingüe y la Auxiliar de Conversación llevamos a cabo una reunión de Coordinación para tratar cuando atañe al programa:

• Organizamos las sesiones de la Auxiliar con los distintos grupos en las semanas siguientes. Nuestro objetivo es acercar a los alumnos a la cultura estadounidense en general y la de Texas en particular, además de fomentar la interacción oral de nuestros alumnos con una persona nativa.

• Recibimos feedback de la Auxiliar y ponemos en común y evaluamos el resultado de las sesiones anteriores con los distintos grupos.

• Decidimos qué medidas podemos tomar para mejorar los resultados y abordar los problemas que van surgiendo.

• Organizamos las actividades complementarias o extraescolares, a las que siempre invitamos la Auxiliar a participar.

…Y algunas cosas más que iremos compartiendo aquí….