Students of different levels in one group???

It's almost an ideal situation for me to have all the students of the same level. Most of the time there are several weak students who need specific attention during the class. Sometimes it really disappoints me because I realize how difficult it is. They should put double efforts to get the same result as the stronger ones.

We as teachers can help them to overcome the difficulties on their way.

There are some strategies we can apply at our lessons.

1. Provide differentiative tasks.

Let say you plan to work with a text at the lesson, you have found some interesting material and then you realize it can be a bit difficult for your weaker students. So you prepare diffirent tasks for weak and strong students. But don't tell them about this trick. Let it be your secret :)) Normally, reading activity consists of pre-reading exercises, the reading itself and after-reading exercises. That means you can crate different tasks for students before and after reading.

Let me give you an example of a lesson plan.

• Warm-up: tongue-twister before reading will do.
• Pre-teach the unfamiliar words (weak students match words with pictures or translation, strong ones match words with definitions). It can be individual or pair work.
• Reading. For mixed class it's better to read aloud, because weak students can lose motivation for reading, if the text is difficult for them. While reading do not translate everything, ask for transtlation of spesific words.
• After-reading exercises. These can be: true/false questions or statements, questions for exact information, questions for personal opinion and questions for discussion. You can divide students into groups and give tasks starting from easy to difficult. Those who coped with easy task can go to the next level

Although it is the best solution, it takes some time to prepare.

2. Pair or group work.

The main trick is in the approach of dividing students so that they can both develop their skills. Dividing people into groups can be perceived as an art. Teacher should take many things into consideration not only the level of English.

I can give you only some piece of advice but nothing can limit your imagination.

• Working in pairs. It is the powerful tool for usage. I like to put strong and weak students in pairs but don't overuse it. It can cause some difficulties in communication, so change pairs more often before they get bored. 
•  Small groups of three. Here you can mix students of all levels that you have and the discussion can appear to be more lively. 
•  Groups of five. Together they can work on a project, prepare the report. It's for you to decide. Hope you have enjoyed.