If you work in an international primary school, students in your class probably have very different levels of English. Some may speak it at home, while others might only speak it when they come to school. And yet, your job as an English teacher is to teach these learners in the same room/Zoom. How do you manage?
We’ve put together a simple infographic and blog to help you differentiate in the language classroom. And if you’re looking for more ideas, you can take a look at Global English author, Annie Altamirano’s, 16 top tips for differentiated instruction.
Click image to download infographic
1. Group
If you choose to differentiate by group, it is essential that learners know and understand what you expect of them and that their contribution to the group is essential. You can group students even if you are working online – just use the breakout room function.
Pair
- Pair students of different abilities, this way students can help each other
- The advanced student will help the beginner and the advanced student will learn more by explaining to the beginner
- You’ll be able to introduce more challenging work than if learners were working alone
Mixed-ability groups
- Place students into small groups – four or five per group
- Make sure each group has a mix of abilities – some more fluent than others
- Students will work together and help solve problems as a group, which is a time saver if you have a large class!
Same-ability groups
- Group students into same-ability groups – four or five per group
- Same-ability groups help you differentiate by other means – you can give different worksheets or ask the groups to respond in different ways (written, spoken, etc.)
- Also a time saver in a large class
2. Levels of each activity
Even if you’re teaching from a specific coursebook or workbook, there are always ways to expand an assignment to challenge the students who need it.
Beginner
- Always start at the lowest level and build up – advanced students might need refreshing on the basics
- Don’t miss out beginner activities for the more advanced students, instead expand activities to be more challenging
- If you are using the Cambridge Global English workbooks, start on the ‘Focus’ activities
Intermediate
- Make activities more challenging for those students who are ready to move on from beginner
- Introduce the activity to the whole class, but explain that learners can progress when they feel ready. This way, beginners do no feel left out.
- If you are using the Cambridge Global English workbooks, progress to the ‘Practice’ activities
Advanced
- Make sure you plan and prepare activities for advanced students who finish class activities quickly
- If you have two or more advanced students, you could ask them to work together at this point
- If you are using the Cambridge Global English workbooks, progress to the ‘Challenge’ activities or set them as homework
3. Delivery
If you are teaching a subject in a different language, it is important to think about what you ask of your students. For example, when giving instructions, should you read them out or write them down? Providing both is a good idea.
Tell
- Students of all abilities will benefit from hearing you pronounce words – eventually they will be able to pick out words and understand sentences
- Make sure to speak very slowly and repeat important terms, like command words (‘describe’, ‘write’, ‘tell’, ‘analyse’, etc.) and subject-specific vocabulary they will use in the lesson
- Point to things you are describing, such as ‘worksheet’ or ‘groups’, so that beginners can make connections
Write
- Even if you tell students, it is also helpful to give them written instructions. They can refer to these later if they get stuck.
- Writing helps students to understand spellings, which in English are not always as they seem!
- Some students might be confident speaking and listening in English because they use it at home. However, they might be less confident with written English.
Show
- You can use visual aids or even act out what you are describing
- You could even make this into a game and have students guess what you are acting out
4. Monitor
You have assigned groups and work, now is time to go around the classroom or virtual classroom to see if anyone needs help.
Support beginners
- These students will need the most help, so make them a priority
- If several beginners are finding an activity difficult, model a few exercises for them. This will help them to understand what they need to do.
Challenge advanced students
- Once you are confident that your beginners understand, you can visit the more advanced students and challenge them further
- You can ask them some harder questions or ask them why they chose a specific answer or give them another scenario to try
Give next steps
- You can only cover so much in one lesson. If you feel that some learners still do not understand or that you haven’t challenged some learners enough, you can always differentiate with homework.
When researching for our Cambridge Primary and Lower Secondary series, we interviewed teachers around the world about their needs. Over 90% of respondents said that they spend time searching for differentiation ideas for their class.
Which is why we built differentiated activities into our series. If you would like more help with differentiation when teaching Primary or Lower Secondary Global English, take a look at our resources.
