3086. No Anxiety in Our Classes Please


 
Second or foreign classes by nature are mixed-ability ones and have different communicative levels, maybe pretty different ones... It’s something I see every day. And the teacher shouldn’t confine his or her teaching to either high-achievers or low-achievers. Let’s think of it, because this is paramount.
What to do? Maybe teach at different levels, combining two kinds of levels… which isn’t simple but we could try it. So the point isn’t confining to teaching high-achievers or low-achievers.
Even something nice we could try is for high-achievers to monitor or to explain things in English to low-achievers – English is our target tongue. The point is that we teachers should not teach and expect a level they cannot give: we teachers should be sowers of peace and joy, and not sowers of anxiety.
Something else which is quite educative for high-achievers and also makes them invest a nice effort is for them, as I said, to explain things in English to low-achievers, what do you think? Sometimes low-achievers would understand other high-achiever classmates better than us teachers! And alike, so as to finish, I would add that we should gently praise low-achievers or disruptive students when they hit the target on the center, when they give a nice answer or response! / Photo from: madre e hija discreame blogspot com. The picture is just a nice illustration.

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