After I have spoken to teachers about my work, teachers often say to me something like "Thanks for the talk. But you don't understand. Here, we have a lot of mixed ability classes". To which my reply is something like "But I do understand. Which teacher – in any part of the world – doesn't have mixed ability classes? Mixed ability classes are the norm, not the exception. So you are not alone!"
And there is another point, though I must confess that I do not always say this openly. It is this: just as students come with mixed abilities, so do teachers. No one is perfect, or equally good at everything. Students have good days and bad days, and so do teachers. Teachers have things that they like to teach, and things that they don't. In my own case, I like teaching stories, reading, and even pronunciation. But teaching writing scares me to death! Consequently I am not very good at or confident about teaching writing. Therefore I have my own 'teacher mixed ability' to deal with, as well as the mixed ability levels of my students. And like all teachers and students, I find that if I am well, I perform much better than if I have toothache!
To read the rest of the article, click the link below:
http://elt.oup.com/teachers/articles/mixed_abilities?view=Standard&cc=us&selLanguage=en&mode=hub
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