O’zbekiston respublikasi oliy ta’lim, fan va innovatsiyalar vazirligi andijon davlat chet tillari instituti ingliz tili o’qitishning integrallashgan kursi kafedrasi chet tillarni o’qitishning integrallashgan kursi

Suggested answers:
1. 1) Jahongir – c; Rushana – b 2) Nargiza - a
2. Jahongir’s teacher mainly focused on weaker students, she made stronger ones help weaker ones by evaluating not only individual but group performance as well.
Rushana’s teacher paid more attention to stronger students and it resulted in ignoring weaker ones.
Nargiza’s teacher addressed mixed-ability classes by giving extra tasks to stronger students and having additional classes for weaker ones.
3. 1) Jahongir – b; 2) Rushana – c; 3) Nargiza - d

• 
  ☺(1 min) Establish that a teacher’s attitude towards mixed ability groups has an impact on learners. If a teacher focuses only on stronger students, weaker ones might feel ignored. On the other hand if a teacher tries to work mainly with weaker students, stronger students might stop making progress. Providing equal opportunities for everybody promotes not only learning at the learners’ optimumspeed, and in her/his preferred style, but also helps to build trust and friendship in the classroom.
  

Activity 2 Teachers’ attitudes
Objective: to give participants an opportunity to explore different attitudes of teachers towards working in a mixed ability class and strategies they employ
Time: 40 min
Materials: DVD, DVD player, handout 2 per participant
Procedure:

• 
  ☺ (5 min) Ask participants the following question:
  

1. 
   Are mixed-ability classes always a problem?
   
2. 
   Are there any advantages of teaching mixed-ability classes? If there are, what are they?
   
3. 
   How can a teacher turn the problem of teaching mixed-ability class into an advantage?
   

Possible answers: Yes/no/sometimes. Yes/no/sometimes. In mixed-ability classes stronger students might help weaker ones. Teacher can use group and pair work, project work, give extra tasks to stronger students, etc.

• 
  ☺ (5 min) Tell participants that now they will watch a video in which teachers say how they feel about working with a mixed ability class. Distribute handout 2 and ask participants to look through the tasks.
  
• 
  (5 min) Play the video.
  

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  ☺☺☺ (15 min) Put participants in groups of 4-5 and ask them to discuss their answers.
  

Suggested answers: Alex complains of teaching a mixed ability class. He teaches only strong students without paying attention to weaker ones. Natasha enjoys working with her mixed ability class. She is trying to focus on every student in the class. 3. Strategies Advantages Disadvantages Grouping stronger students with weaker ones Stronger students help weaker ones Too much noise Project work Each student can play a roleaccording to his/her abilities/aptitudes Difficult to assess Assigning tasks of different complexity Every student can do a task according to his/her level, ability, needs etc. In this case weaker students will not feel frustrated, whilestronger ones will not be bored. Too much preparation 4. Answers may vary.

• 
  ☺ (10 min) Elicit random answers and establish that there are different attitudes towards working with mixed-ability classes. Some teachers believe that they should focus only on stronger students, while others take advantage of the opportunities presented by this situation. The advantages of working with mixed-ability classes are diversity of opinion, and the possibility for students to learn from each other. There are different strategies for working with mixed-ability classes.