Assessment in a mixed

ability classroom
Supervised by
Dr. Ibtisam Al Dredi
Written BY . Amani Wali
Post graduate studies
21/5/2023
Testing
TABLE OF CONTENTS
01 02 03
Challenges Know your
What is a
What is the importance learner
mixed ability when working with mixed
in a class ability classes

04 05 06
Advantages of
Strategies Assessments
How to design activities
mixed ability Tips to follow as a teacher
classroom
Lou Holtz
It is a fine thing to have ability , but
the ability to discover ability in others
is the true test
What is a mixed
ability in a calss

The so-called ‘mixed ability’ class is made up of

students who are mixed in more than
just ability: they may differ in all kinds of ways:
level of English;
learning style;
age/maturity;
attitudes and motivation;
interests;
expectations;
previous experiences of learning English;
cultural and linguistic background
socio-economic background
All teachers have to face the challenge of mixed-
ability classes
 2-Linguistic ability motivation
Some students are better
language learners than
06 01 interests and needs/
Why did the students
others, join the class in the
first place?

Age/
anxiety
3-General educational
The key areas background
one ever too old to learn?
Lack of confidence
05 included in term
mixed ability
02 Was it a positive or
negative experience?

External pressures and time

available to study 4-Learning style
how can we cope with a group which
includes some students who do nothing 04 03 Students learn in
different ways.
outside lesson time and some who spend
two to three hours a day studying?
 Challenges
❑ the teacher’s unawareness of the
need for a new approach to deal with
the mixed-ability class.
❑ the teacher feel inadequate and
unable to cope with the class
❑ students have their own way of
learning
❑ so many different ability levels that
provides the biggest challenge
❑ in mixed-ability classes it can be
difficult to keep the attention of all
students.
❑ Their motivation can be poor
❑ A mixed-ability class can seem
uncooperative, the students can
get bored easily
the advantage of mixed ability
classroom

01 02 03 04
Developing the Motivation and
Creating a good student’s Giving clear differentiation
atmosphere responsibility for instructions
learning Differentiation plays a big
One of the most important
part in solving how to
ways to deal with mixed-ability motive the students,
It is important to let the
classes is to always give clear according to Tomlinson
students be part of
It is important for assessment by letting them information and instructions (1999) and Kelly (1974).
discuss in small groups and to present it in easy, Tomlinson (1999) argues
teachers to create a manageable ways. This that differentiation is
with the teacher for example
relaxed, positive how an assignment went, contributes to needed in three areas
atmosphere in the what could have been making the students feel it is of teaching: the material the
improved and so more meaningful and process and the product
classroom on interesting
Get to know your students
process should
start before the course begins.
The following strategies will contribute towards a
better understanding
of our students :

● pre-course counselling;

● Questionnaires

● ice-breaking activities;

● record keeping

● . helping students to get to know themselves;

Know your learner
When eliciting information about the learner, it is not enough to
ask: What level are you? A lot of students would reply beginner
even if they studied the language for several years at school. A
better question is to ask for how many years the student has
studied the language
A few helpful hints about questionnaires:
Keep them short and simple –
Make it clear
Be discreet
Ice-breaking activities are activities whose
purpose is to help learners to: start to get to
know one another; ce-breaking activities
provide the opportunity to
start to assess many of the features of
mixed ability
One of our aims is to encourage learners to
be independent and to take charge of their
own learning. If we can begin to work
towards this right from the start of the
course, we are more likely to succeed in
meeting the various needs of all our
learners, because they will be involved in
decisions about what they should do.
It is useful to keep records on the
course members, for example a file
containing copies of the
questionnaires and additional
information about individuals as you
get to know it. In order to deal with the
mixed ability in a class, you can
assume that not everyone will do the
same work all the time
 Tips in assessment
❑ Give students more than one chance
to demonstrate learning.
❑ When correcting, pick a specific
aspect that needs improvement
❑ Be constructive
❑ Use L1 if necessary t
❑ Allow time to review material
before testing
❑ Plan your test to accommodate
different ability levels.
❑ Make sure that the passing grade
is attainable by everyone
❑ Vary the types of item
in your test.
❑ Vary the types of item
in your test
❑ . Vary the topics, text
types, and level of
difficulty
❑ Simplify texts or make
them more challenging as
needed.
❑ Vary: the length of the
text
 strategies
As students learn in different ways and have different
needs, it is important to build variety into what is taught.
Finally and most We should vary each of
importantly, the following:
though we can the media we use - video, audio, written material,
suggest to satellite TV; classroom organisation - plenary, pair
students learning and small group work, work undertaken individually;
strategies that
they might
employ, we cannot materials - coursebooks, handouts, pictures,
be prescriptive travel brochures, newspaper articles, etc;

activities - information gap, games, role-play,

gap filling, Cloze tests (for an example, see
p38), etc;
levels - easy work to build up the
confidence of the less able, tasks to
challenge the most able.
Students need to be given the opportunity to demonstrate what
they can do.
Assessment is about evaluating what they can do rather than what
they can’t. So make sure they have a good chance of succeeding.
Assessment can be divided into a) formative assessment, which
helps students progress and b) summative assessment, which
simply sums up their level at the end of a program in the form of a
grade, like Bagrut. We as teachers are mainly concerned with
formative.

Assessment in
mixed ability
classes
 Formative assessment
implies helping students
find out:
where they are in the
teaching/learning process;
where they need to go;
how to get there

03
 difficult text, follow it with a
Make sure you don’t get simple guessing activity; if
into a ‘rut’ of doing the you’ve spent a while
same kind of thing all the doing something very easy,
time; a make sure that you give
mixed-level class needs something more
variation! challenging

VARIATION VARY THE

DEMANDS.
TIPS for
designing
activities VARY THE CLASSROOM
ORGANIZATION and
VARY THE materials
TOPIC.
Actually, the textbook will probably do this for you, most of make sure you use different kinds of
our textbooks provide fairly varied topics. But you might find interaction during a lesson and over a set of
you need occasionally to introduce something different! lessons. use other kinds of materials too:
board-based activities, your own
worksheets, computer exercises, pictures,
games, teacher-talk ..
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