Developing Classroom Skills managing large and mixed-ability class

Manage the noise: Establish a signal that you want your class to stop what they are doing and listen. This should be done from the first day, so that students become accustomed to it right away. Be careful not to use gestures or sounds that would offend anyone.

• Manage the noise: Establish a signal that you want your class to stop what they are doing and listen. This should be done from the first day, so that students become accustomed to it right away. Be careful not to use gestures or sounds that would offend anyone.
• Reduce marking and preparation time: Design quizzes and tests in a way so that you can reduce the amount of marking. Use peer evaluations when possible. If students submit journals, just read them and leave a short comment and/or suggestion, rather than fixing every grammar mistake. Designate a specific time when the teacher's room is slow to do most of your photocopying for the week. This will save you from feeling guilty for taking up the photocopier for a long time when another teacher only has a few copies to make.
• Enforce a late policy: Notify students of your late policy on the first day and stick to it. For example, don't let students enter your classroom after a warm-up has ended. If students miss class, make it their responsibility to catch up, not yours.

What is a “Large Class”?

• A classrooms that contain many students, sometimes almost filling the room.
• Actually, a large class has no “exact size.” Usually it is measured in terms of the number of students per teacher (student-teacher ratio).
• In some countries, 25-30 students per one teacher is considered large, while in other countries this is seen to be normal or even quite small.
• From a teacher’s perspective, though, a class is “large” whenever it feels large.

MANAGING MIXED-ABILITY CLASS

What is a “Mixed-Ability Class”?

• Mixed ability or ‘heterogeneous’ classes are terms used to describe classes made up of students of different levels of proficiency.
• These terms are misleading as no two learners are really alike and ‘homogeneous’ classes do not actually exist (Ur, 1991). All classes are to some degree made up of learners who differ in many ways.
• They may have different strengths, weaknesses and approaches to learning. They may respond differently to various teaching methods and classroom situations.