This document discusses strategies for managing mixed-ability classes and large classes. For mixed-ability classes, the document recommends using different materials at different levels of complexity, having advanced students help slower students, and assigning different but not demeaning tasks. For large classes, it suggests moving around to check on students, ensuring all can hear, and switching seating. It also includes examples of homework assignments and a sample language learning contract between teachers and students.

1. García, Naomi
Hartfiel, Mariano Félix
Practical 13: Classroom Management
What if?
A) 1- Mixed-ability classes may present the teacher with some problems or with some
advantages.
With a mixed-ability class you can not only ignore the problem but also use different
materials or tasks, or use the students themselves as ways of dealing with it, e.g. the
‘advanced ‘ students can help the slower ones.
We also believe all classes are mixed-ability classes, as students may share the same level
of English but they will for sure have their own strong points within that same level; some
of them may be better at writing, other are speaking and not listening or very good at
reading.
2- a. We can prepare different exercise for the different students using the same
interview; more complex ones for the advanced group and easier yet not stupid ones for
those who have a lower level of English.
b. We can ask all of the students to produce a ghost story but expecting different results
from them. We do not believe, in this case, we should ask some students, for instance, to
produce a whole story and other some sentences, as some of them may surprise us, and
those we believed could not do it may come up with a great story, showing a skill we did
not think they had. We, as teachers, can make some presuppositions about our students
but we think we should never underestimate their abilities.
c. We can put the students in separate groups, considering their speaking skills, or we can
group them not according to their language level, but mixing those we know will speak
with those that probably will not. Those who love speaking may encourage their partners
to participate by helping them or doing most of the talk, letting the ones who do not love
the activity have some interaction and thus, learning as well.
d. We can prepare some activities in common with the whole class so as not to frustrate
the students who will get other activities when working alone. Here again, instead of
preparing different activities, we can use pair work and put together students who can
help other students, making sure they are helping not doing all for them.
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2. García, Naomi
Hartfiel, Mariano Félix
e. We can prepare more difficult tasks for those students who are finding our classes too
easy, using the same materials we use with everybody else. Sometimes we assign them
the role of helpers, having them giving some help to their partners or organizing the class
(giving away papers or activities).
f. We could prepare different ways of feedback, for example, going from the simplest
mistakes to those which are more complex, all of the students paying attention and
learning from the other faults, always ‘protecting’ the kids’ identities as we do not want
them to lose face. We can also prepare an activity and call students one by one and giving
special and direct feedback on each of their productions; we could also group the students
according to their mistakes similarities and give instances of feedback group per group.
B) 1-
2
Small classes Big classes
We can:
• give more specific and detailed feedback;
• listen all of the students reading passages or
repeating the new vocabulary individually;
• give all the students the chance to talk and
focus on their particular problems;
• read aloud the productions of every student,
if they want to, making feel them proud of
their work and recognizing their efforts;
• Correct papers/ activities quicker;
• Have sometimes more relaxed activities such
computer games in a more relaxed
atmosphere, without losing the control of the
class;
• Organizing activities outdoors knowing that a
small group may be easier to cope with than
a bigger one.
We can:
• Have/ listen to more perspectives or
opinions;
• Play games that involve lots of people or
interaction with different partners;
• Vary the choosing of students when we
want someone to answer a question;
• Carry on bigger projects that involve
variety of productions and lots of work
(as we can assign different roles);
• Produce groups with different students
each time, fostering them knowing each
other and not gathering always with the
same people;
• Prepare plays using English that contain
many characters, having all of the
students speaking it in this way but at
the same time not overwhelming them
with the amount of lines each one gets.

3. García, Naomi
Hartfiel, Mariano Félix
2. When having a big class we learnt we have to make sure everyone is listening to what
we are saying. We should never shout, as students may lose the respect they have for us
and we may lose authority; we think we need to use our voice range at a high level. If not,
we can always move around the classroom and repeating the activities or the explanations
some times more. Moving around the classroom is also important in checking constantly
that the students are working and in offering help when needed, being both a monitor and
a facilitator.
As regards the teacher’s board work, we think it is important to keep a clean and tidy
board, always telling students what they have to write down and what they have not, as
they might find it otherwise troublesome.
When using the tape recorder, we think that probably students at the back could hear
less, so switching places every now and then would not be wrong, having the students that
always sit at the back sitting at the front and vice versa. We should always make sure
everyone is listening to the audio and try to have the classroom as quiet as possible.
C) 1. We think we can start letting the students know that even though it is not forbidden at
all, it is extremely important for them to practice English as much as possible, and that it is
better for them to do it in a safe place like the classroom, where we can give them
feedback and correct them when necessary.
If they continue using it we can start asking reasons, maybe they do not feel comfortable
or they are too shy. If this is the case, we can set some rules altogether that may
encourage them to really feel the classroom as a safe place in which mistakes are allowed
and very important in the process of learning.
We can always praise them whenever they use English too, recognizing their good points.
We can help them on their oral use of the language by having them first completing
sentences that we may start using just a word, them moving to some longer stretches and
reaching in the end (hopefully) full sentences.
Finally, although we do not think is the ideal thing to do, we can take some disciplinary
action.
2. We would be not unhappy with students using their own language when:
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4. García, Naomi
Hartfiel, Mariano Félix
- They are talking a very important matter such as birth control; although it would be
wonderful to listen to that debate in English, they may not have the skills required to
defend their positions in a language that is not theirs;
- They are checking an instruction; they are just trying to know whether they got the
instruction right or not. Students are about to solve an activity anyways, so checking that
they have understood it right in a language they know perfectly seems fair and the right
thing to do.
- They are doing a group writing task; we all know how difficult is to agree when doing a
group work, so we think that giving their opinions and debating in Spanish would not be
wrong, as they are producing something in English.
D)
A B Homework Task
5 2 Students do a fill-in exercise, choosing between ‘going to’ and ‘will’.
9 7 Students interview residents/tourists in the street and bring the results to
the next lesson.
4 1 Students learn a list of words by heart to be tested by the teacher in the
next lesson.
5 6 Students prepare a presentation which they will give (individually) in the
next lesson.
9 7 Students prepare roles for next week’s role-play.
6 7 Students read a text and answer multiple-choice questions.
5 2 Students write six sentences using the past continuous.
9 8 Students write a composition about the environment.
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5. García, Naomi
Hartfiel, Mariano Félix
7 6 Students write a publicity leaflet based on something in the course book.
E) 1. A) Rudeness;
B) Blunt refusal to do certain activities or to do what they are told;
C) Disengagement from what’s going on;
D) Constant lateness;
E) Not listening to the teacher;
F) Constant chattering in class.
2.
THE LANGUAGE LEARNING CONTRACT
TEACHER LEARNER
As your teacher I will:
• Correct your papers as soon as
possible;
• Be fair;
• Explain as many times as necessary,
if you were always listening but you
still did not get it;
• Have patience;
• Not give you only grammar
exercises;
• Respect you;
• Listen;
As a learner I will:
• Try to do my best;
• Do my homework;
• Have a good relationship with both
my teacher and my classmates,
treating them with respect;
• Listen to the teacher when she/he
is explaining or whenever it is
necessary;
• Not bother anyone;
• Not lie;
• Not misbehave;
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6. García, Naomi
Hartfiel, Mariano Félix
• Leave my personal problems
outside the classroom.
•
As your teacher I expect:
• You to pay attention in class;
• You to work hard;
• You to have energy to work in class;
• You to treat me with respect;
• You to listen to me when necessary;
•
As a learner I expect:
• The teacher to be kind and
patience;
• The teacher to not yell at me when I
do things wrongly;
• To receive my papers on time;
• To receive feedback on my
productions, both written and oral;
• The teacher to correct me
whenever I am wrong in a good
way;
• To receive a good education;
F)
Action Consequences
- Join in ourselves in order to try to
stimulate discussion.
- Give them rewards or acknowledge
their oral production in front of the
class.
- Pair the reluctant speaker with a
classmate that loves talking.
- Bring to the class some topic we
know those reluctant students will
want to talk about.
- Make some time in our schedules
so as to meet with the reluctant
students/the group of reluctant
students so as to have a more
private speaking session.
- It might relax students; on the other
hand students may end up listening
more than talking.
- Students may feel appreciated and
encouraged to speak; to may also
just speak for the rewards and not
do it for their own good.
- They may feel encouraged by
his/her partner; they may feel
shame of how little they know or
overwhelmed by how much his/her
partner speaks.
- This may make them talk, but it is a
bit difficult to find a topic that suits
all the reluctant students (as there
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7. García, Naomi
Hartfiel, Mariano Félix
- Ask them which the reason is for
them not wanting to speak.
will for sure be more than just one).
- They may feel safe just talking with
us and thus start speaking a little;
there may be no time available in
our schedules or theirs, or maybe
they may be not interested on doing
it. Or they could probably feel
embarrassed of having extra-lessons
with us.
- We could find a solution if we know
what the problem is, but maybe it is
not in our hands. If we fix the
problem maybe the student will
start speaking in English.
G) 1. In general the problems students can have while listening to a track in class are that they
cannot hear quite well because the track quality or just because they class is too big and
the quality gets lost. As we said before, we could move the students from the back to the
front of the classroom every now and then, or make a circle and place the audio right in the
middle. We think also that it would be beneficial to bring to the classroom new audios and
not those old cassettes that usually cannot be heard; that will also help.
Another problem student may have is that as they do not understand what the listening is
about. We think we could set the context, the characters, their relationship and the sort
before the activity begins. In this way we could set them and thus make the listening
easier, as they will know what they will be listening to. We could also write down some
words we consider difficult/that are new on the board and explain them.
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