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Teaching EFL in a classroom full of students with different needs, strengths, language levels, and learning rates presents both opportunities and challenges. These differences require teachers to reflect carefully on how to design activities that foster engagement and participation from all learners at their own pace. The idea of addressing diversity within the classroom has highlighted the importance of adjusting content and setting goals that ensure that students are able to tackle the activities in a variety of ways confidently. That’s why I have decided to carry out some research into how differentiated instruction that promotes students’ self-esteem can be applied in a mixed-ability class.

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The subjects of my study are a group of 27 students from 2nd year at Escuela Secundaria Río Negro (ESRN) 16 in General Roca. Their ages range from 13 to 15 years old, and their level of English is Elementary. It is relevant to mention that most of their background English knowledge comes from primary school and first year, and only one of the students attends English lessons at a private institute. They have English lessons once a week: on Mondays from 10:30 to 12:30 p. m., with a break from 10:50 to 11:00 a.m. At first, their seating arrangement was more or less fixed; there were always three rows of students seated in pairs and trios. By the end of my teaching practice, students had a different seating arrangement.

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Throughout the observation period of my teaching practice, I noticed that the significant difference as regards the students’ level of English was clearly shown by the way they grouped together when working. Even though students were not asked to complete the activities in pairs or in groups, most of them changed seats from time to time in order to carry out the tasks with a classmate who had a higher level of English. In this way, only a few of them actually did the activities, and the rest would copy their classmates’ answers without even trying to understand what they were supposed to do. They continued doing this during most of the lessons I delivered, so after thoughtful consideration, I decided to make some changes in relation to their seating arrangement to see if all of them could work on their own at some point. In doing so, I realised that the students who had always relied on their classmates who worked at a higher rate because of their level, did not want to participate as much as the others.

This observed problem may arise from the fact that this particular group of students are so accustomed to working in pairs or groups (even in other subjects as well) that when they have to work alone they don’t feel confident enough to engage in the activities. It’s true that, given their different levels of English, it seems easier and practical to pair them up with someone who can help them, but it was possible to notice that this way of working in class eventually affected their performance as well as their self-esteem.

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To offer (a) possible solution(s) to the problem at hand by:

-considering differentiated instruction when designing meaningful activities that cater for all the students in a mixed-abililty class;

-providing these students with tools that help them to progress in their own terms;

-creating accessible and effective activities that develop and boost these students’ self-esteem;

-taking into account that even when collaborative learning will remain an important aspect of classroom interaction, opportunities for individual work can still be beneficial.

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In order to collect information for this study, I will try to combine different instruments over a particular period of time (1 month approximately ?). Firstly, I will keep a reflective journal after each lesson in which I will record students’ participation, whether they have attempted to complete the tasks independently or relied on peers, as well as their levels of engagement and confidence. Given the number of students (27), I will focus on different groups of students (8-10) with varying proficiency levels, rotating the groups across lessons so that data will eventually cover the whole class. Participation will be measured using a numeric scale for oral participation, task completion, and homework submission, while qualitative notes will provide examples illustrating students’ learning behaviours (related to working alone or relying on peers). https://www.canva.com/design/DAGyTPA3XRs/nG1LgZUUcLU2IVv3bFbM_w/edit?utm_content=DAGyTPA3XRs&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton (click on Notes)

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Secondly, I will ask a colleague to observe some of my lessons (during the period of time mentioned before) so as to collect classroom-based data about my teaching strategies and the students’ responses. The observation sheet will be divided into two sections: one focused on the teacher (clarity of instructions, promotion of independence and self-esteem, management of group and individual work), and one focused on the students (mode of work, reliance on peers, participation, signs of confidence and reluctance). https://www.canva.com/design/DAGyTO04f4I/OAU_s4dtY77-izlp2kfM3w/edit?utm_content=DAGyTO04f4I&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

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Finally, I will design a student questionnaire at the end of the intervention period to explore students’ perceptions of working in groups versus individually, their confidence when completing English activities, and the strategies they have employed when facing difficulties. Most questions use multiple-choice responses, which allows for quantitative analysis of patterns across the class. I will also include two short open-ended questions to gather qualitative insights. https://www.canva.com/design/DAGyTQjdjFI/9Td3HaS32JEjG4-V-MrkOg/edit?utm_content=DAGyTQjdjFI&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

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Considering I plan to combine quantitative and qualitative data, I’ve decided to use the participation scale from the reflective journal to assign numeric values to the aspects mentioned in the grid. This will involve calculating averages and identifying trends over time across the different student groups. In relation to the notes, these will also be coded thematically to capture patterns of confidence, independence, and reliance on peers during the whole month.

Then, the peer observation guide will be analysed qualitatively, focusing on different categories. This will provide an objective and external perspective of the significance of the problem identified, which will complement my own observations, offering insights I might miss while teaching.

Last but not least, responses from the student questionnaire will be analised by calculating frequencies for the closed questions, while the open-ended responses will be grouped into categories such as “activities that build confidence” and “obstacles/difficulties when working alone”. I will carry out the analysis on my own, but by combining data from the three sources, I might be able to cross-check findings.

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This research project will be based on ideas taken from current literature on teaching mixed-ability groups and differentiating instruction. Following Tice (1997), when talking about a mixed-ability class, this term is normally used to refer to a group in which individual differences are clearly marked in language level, which is the case in this study. According to this author, this type of class varies widely in:

-the students’ level of proficiency in the target language;

-the students’ background knowledge;

-the students’ levels of motivation

-the students’ learning styles, learning speeds, and aptitudes.

It’s possible to say that the subjects of my study have a mixture of these characteristics. So from what I have observed, I want to address my students’ differences when they approach tasks, both in groups and individually.

As I’ve mentioned before, I intend to continue using collaborative work at first, as it is an established practice in my classroom, and then, following Tomlinson (1999), I will gradually place more emphasis on activities that build students’ confidence and ability to work independently. This author offers a framework for differentiation and flexible approaches to tackle varied tasks.

Link to my NotebookLM: https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/1ed3cdb5-6e5b-4c0b-9c7a-501f6d0bea34

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Once I’ve analysed all the data, I will try different solutions to the problem:

-I will create tiered activities with different levels of difficulty;

-I will offer students choice boards for them to pick one task according to their interests;

-I will provide lower-level students with different ways of scaffolding (examples, text models, word banks, sentence starters, etc.)

-I will include extension tasks for higher-level students to stay challenged

-I will keep collaborative work, and at the same time, I would try to give students some minutes to solve the task alone before a group discussion for example;

-I will change their seating arrangement from time to time;

-I will help students to develop strategies for independent learning;

-I will encourage students to set personal goals for independence (for ex: a goal can be related to trying to solving a task by themselves before asking for help).

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To address the observed problem of students relying too heavily on more proficient classmates, during a period of eight lessons, more or less, I will try to implement tiered activities from time to time within the lesson, designed at different levels of support and complexity, so my students can work at an appropriate level of difficulty. The tiered activities will be based on the same skill for all the students, but they will be adjusted to suit each student’s linguistic abilities. There will be three groups of Ss according to their English level:

Group A: lower-level Ss

Group B: medium-level Ss

Group C: higher-level Ss

These groups don’t imply that the 27 students will be divided into these 3 categories since there are only a few of them who have a higher level of proficiency (5-6 Ss). This means that there will be more Ss in groups A and B. They won’t be told about this division as they may feel labelled as weak, medium or strong and therefore embarrassed and/or demotivated. Eventually, I will also guide students to try slightly more challenging tasks over time to build confidence so they may choose the level they feel most comfortable with.

In order to develop reading comprehension skills and practice vocabulary as well, I will ask all students to read the same  text divided into numbered paragraphs, but the different groups will do different tasks:

Group A: read and answer comprehension questions with multiple-choice options for each paragraph;

Group B: read, write T or F and underline info from each of the paragraphs text to support their answers;

Group C: read and answer comprehension questions (WH-questions and/or Yes/No questions related to info from each paragraph)

Another possibility can be that the different groups work with different paragraphs after T reads the text aloud (they would carry out the same activities but they would only focus on one paragraph).

In order to develop reading comprehension skills and practice vocabulary as well, I will ask all students to read the same  text divided into numbered paragraphs, but the different groups will do different tasks:

Group A: read and answer comprehension questions with multiple-choice options for each paragraph;

Group B: read, write T or F and underline info from each of the paragraphs text to support their answers;

Group C: read and answer comprehension questions (WH-questions and/or Yes/No questions related to info from each paragraph)

Another possibility can be that the different groups work with different paragraphs after I read the text aloud (they would carry out the same activities but they would only focus on one paragraph).

In order to develop listening comprehension skills and practice vocabulary as well, I will send my students the audio file and have them listen to it on their own (with their phones and headphones). Each group will work with the same audio but with different tasks:

Group A: these students will receive a handout with pictures and words for them to match while listening to the audio.

Group B: these students will receive a handout with sentences taken from the audioscript for them to put them in order while listening to the audio.

Group C: these students will receive a handout with a gapped version of the audioscript for them to fill in the blanks (if necessary, a voc box can be included)

After listening to the audio and completing the tasks, I can give them the audioscript for them to check.

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Through the different stages of this ARP, I have learned to look at my own teaching practice in a more reflective way. It’s true that there are many problems to tackle inside the classroom, and it can get difficult to choose from all of them. However, considering the observation guides provided by my teachers, I’ve decided to go with the one that caught my attention the most. By identifying the problem of students’ overreliance on stronger peers and planning an intervention using tiered activities, I have seen how research can help me design strategies that respond to my learners’ real needs. The idea of collecting data from multiple perspectives (the reflective journal, the colleague’s observation, and the student questionnaire) has taught me the value of having different sources of evidence rather than relying solely on my impressions. I’ve also realised the relevance of making gradual changes while keeping some familiar routines, such as collaborative work. I do believe it’s possible to provide this group of students with meaningful opportunities for them to work independently and build their confidence step by step.

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Bailey, K. 2014. “Classroom Research, Teacher Research, and Action Research in Language Teaching”. In Celce Murcia, M., D. Brinton and M. Snow (eds). Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. National Geographic Learning/Heinle Cengage. Ch 38.

Dudley, E. (2016). Working with mixed-ability groups. In  Modern English teacher, Vol. 25, No. 1, pages 59-61

Tice, J. (1997). The Mixed Ability Class. Richmond.

Tomlinson, C. (2001). How to differentiate instruction in mixed-ability classrooms 2nd Edition. ASDC.