Taken From : The Practice of

English Language Teaching

by Jeremy Harmer
Dealing with mixed ability classes has
become a serious issue of concern for
most teachers.

In response to this hardship, Jeremy

Harmer (2007) suggests to view the
teacher´s role with a group in terms of
differentiation.
Teachers need to develop the proper
skills to cope with totally different
students in the same classroom.

There is particular concern for the

needs not only of students at the
lower end of the scale, but also for
‘gifted’ children (Dinoccenti 1998).
 MANAGING
Working
MIXED ABILITY With
Different
Content
(Differentiation)

Different
What The
Student
Teacher
Actions
Does
 Provide students
with different
material according to
level and their
individual needs.

Allow students to
make choices about
what material they are
going to work with.
Give Students Different Tasks
Give Students Different Roles
Reward Early Finishers
Encourage Different Student Responses
Identify Student Strengths (linguistic or no-linguistic)
Responding differently to
Students

Being Inclusive

Flexible Groupings
At the end, only teachers
themselves can decide how and when
to put the differentiation approach
into practice considering their own
students´ profile and needs.
Although we recognise the
need for differentiation, to what
extent do you agree with it? Is it
realistic?

According to your experience, do

you have any other methods or
suggestions to deal with mixed
ability classes?