Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Thanks and acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Getting to know our students
- 2 Motivation and activation
- 3 Reviewing while maintaining interest and momentum
- 4 Dealing with written work
- 5 Working well in groups
- 6 Individualizing and personalizing student work
- 7 Making students responsible for their own learning
- 8 Establishing routines and procedures
- Bibliography
- Index
6 - Individualizing and personalizing student work
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Thanks and acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Getting to know our students
- 2 Motivation and activation
- 3 Reviewing while maintaining interest and momentum
- 4 Dealing with written work
- 5 Working well in groups
- 6 Individualizing and personalizing student work
- 7 Making students responsible for their own learning
- 8 Establishing routines and procedures
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In large classes, it is important to create activities that will keep the more advanced students interested and at the same time allow the less advanced students to make progress at their own pace. How do we accomplish this? Sometimes students accomplish the task for us by finding their own level in language progression, and this very much depends on the level of their motivation. All of us have had students who conquered material which we thought was way beyond their present level. I have a very fond memory of a beginning student, Maria Lopez, who insisted, against all advice, on joining my advanced ESL class. The class was reading My Antonya by Willa Cather. Maria must have looked up every word in her bilingual dictionary. Then she went home and wrote her book review in Spanish. An advanced student helped her to translate the review into perfect English. She memorized the review and was able to write it in class. Within six months Maria had learned enough English to enroll in a college course and, five years later, she had a Master's degree and was speaking and writing English like a native speaker with only a bare trace of a charming Latino accent on her speech. Maria is not the only one who has decided on where she stands in her language progress and how far and how fast she is willing and able to go.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Teaching Large Multilevel Classes , pp. 137 - 158Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2001